How to Make a Soldering Station

An old stand with soldering supplies built in. Stand for soldering iron, hook for desoldering tool, a helping hand, ventilation fan, a pole for solder to spin on, place for damp cloth, and a tip tinner and cleaner. This is my first instructable, so please leave helpful comments. (Sorry for the bad backgrounds, my work bench is kind of crazy)

Step 1: Find a Stand

My Stand was an old Barcode scanner stand. I just cutoff some of the plastic on top. You could make your own stand out of a small piece of Plywood and a 2 by 3. Be creative.

Step 2: Drill Holes

Drill holes for the screws for the cloth, the Soldering iron stand, the desoldering tool, and the helping hand.
I drilled small holes for the cloth, the Soldering iron stand, and the desoldering tool. The helping hand needed a larger hole, about 1/4".
This would also be a good time to add the Tip tinner. I got mine at Radio Shack for about $8. It came with a stiky pad on the bottom, so i stuck it to my stand.

Step 3: Attach Helping Hand

I needed something to hold my circuit boards while a soldered, so I made a helping hand. I used an Alligator clip for the hand, it need a small rubber band around it to hold heavier boards.
The part of the stand I attached the helping hand to was hollow, so the Alligator clip would wiggle around. To solve this, I just drilled a hole perpendicular to the helping hand. I then pushed a bent paper clip through the hole and out the other side. It held the Alligator clip in place.
You might have similar problems with your stand.

Step 4: Add Soldering Iron Stand

Take Your soldering iron stand and skrew it into the holes you made erlier. My stand came will holes drilled, but you might have to drill your own.

Step 5: Add a Cloth

I put four small screws in the holes I made before. I Then laid the cloth between the screws and put a rubber band around the screws and on top of the cloth.

When I want to wet the cloth I just spray it with one of those water hair spray bottles.

Step 6: Add Desoldering Tool

I bent a paper clip in to a circle with the ends sticking out. I then squeezed it and pushed it into the hole I made before and put my tool into it.

Step 7: Add Solder Stand

I added a three inch screw to hold my spool of solder. You might find that the solder spins better if you cut the head of the screw off.

Step 8: Add Ventilation System

I didn't want solder fumes in my face, so a added a small fan. I used a computer fan a got from an old computer. I also needed a power supply and switch so I used a 5v RC car charger and a spare 120v wall switch. If you wanted, you could use a usb cable ad get your power from a nearby computer. The circuit was simple, positive from power supply to one end of the switch, other end of switch to positive end of fan, negative end of fan to negative end of power supply.

Step 9: Final

You are Done. Like I said at the beginning, be creative, use what you can.

Comments

[Athebest]

You spelled "switch", "swith". Other than that, very nice. I want to make a master soldering station out of a combination of everything on the site. Nice addition.

[threewheela]

thanks, great ible! i just finished a similar stand and might add a fan like u did

[E_MAN]

Thanks!
Try adding a filter infront of the fan. You could filter out all of those bad fumes. I think a activated carbon filter might work.

[poolshark162006]

i dont think that you should have 2.5 amps powering a little fan??? im not that good with that stuff, but seems like way too much

[E_MAN]

I know, but I couldn't find another adaptor that had a low enough voltage. I don't think the high amps will make a difference in the performance of the fan.

[smray]

It doesn't matter what the amps rating on the adaptor is. That is just the maximum current draw allowed before the voltage will begin to drop. The fan will only draw what it needs. Typically 0.25 of an amp at 12v.

[E_MAN]

Thank you smray. :-)