Soldering Iron Stand

It became apparent that I needed a better soldering iron stand. Rather than buying one for around $5.00 I decided to waste the better part of an hour and probably $5.00 in materials making one.

A small tapered mandrel held in the vise

Wrapping some 12 gauge brass wire around the mandrel. Felice uses this wire to make brass shawl pins so I stole some from our large supply.

The springy thingy.

I set up the mill with a piece of scrap aluminum.

Milling a pocket for the sponge.

Almost done.

A piece of sponge fitted.

Drilling the hole for the springy thingy.Testing.

Testing.

Drilling a hole in the end of the stand.

Tapping #10-32 threads.

Cleaning up all the surfaces. This could have been done first but I didn’t think I ‘d care about how it looked when the project began. Then I did.

The setscrew locks the springy thingy in place.

Now I can solder more easily and worry less about the iron rolling off of the bench. I might tweak the angle of the coil to the base, not sure yet.