Introduction: How to Make a Simple Stand for Your Soldering Iron.

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If your soldering iron was as cheap as mine, it's not really worth splashing out on expensive extras.

This is a simple way to provide a safe place to stand your iron close at hand.

Step 1: You Will Need ...

  • A wire coathanger.
  • Something to cut the coathanger, such as strong snips.
  • A forming mandrel (otherwise known as a suitably-sized lump of wood, furtherly otherwise known as a piece of pipe or a broom handle).
  • Pliers, to aid bending.
  • 2 wood screws.
  • Screwdriver.

I will be mounting the stand directly into the wall of my shed, but you may want your stand to be more portable, in which case you need to find a lump of wood.

Step 2: Make the Stand.

Cut the hook off the coathanger, leave a few centimetres of the wire, and then start winding the rest around the mandrel to form a spiral (technically, it's a helix, but since when has the correct nomenclature ever gotten in the way of a good project?).

Stop winding when the spiral is as long as you need, making sure you leave another few centimetres wire at the other end of the spiral.

Twist a small loop at each end of the wire, about 5cm (2 inches) from the spiral, and bend them over so that they lay flat against the surface you are going to mount the stand against.

Trim the wire to length.

Step 3: Mount the Stand.

My stand is going into the shed wall immediately above my work bench.

Hold the stand against the surface where you plan to mount it. Make sure it is at an angle of 30o - 40o from the vertical to prevent the iron's flex hanging against the hot tip.

Screw your woodscrews through the two small loops you made, nice and tight against the wood.

Step 4: If...

If you are making a portable version, you will need to leave more straight wire before and after the coiled section, so that the ends can be bent down to meet the top of your lump of wood.

If you are mounting the stand into a brick wall, use the smallest wall-plugs (sometimes known in the UK as Rawlplugs) you can find, and a masonary bit to match, then screw the woodscrews into the plugs.

Finally, if you do this at all, make sure that the coil of wire is at enough of an angle from the vertical to make sure the iron's flex doesn't touch the hot tip, and make sure that permanently-fixed stands are angled in the right direction (top towards the power-point that you will be using to plug the iron into).

Happy soldering