3 in 1 Soldering Iron/ Pyrography Stand

Safety, convenience, stability, choice. I like having it all when I'm soldering, and this project, made from a scrapped switching power supply housing and microwave oven brass screening delivers on my wish. The typical “V” cradle design is simple enough, but lacks the tip guarding feature that a coil encasement stand provides, so a length of perforated channel becomes a roof over that section, keeping inattentive hands off the hot stuff. Iron tip hygiene usually comes down to a choice: sponge or wool, I say gimme both in the same design; sponge for fine cleaning, wool for scraping schmutz off. And finally, I want one size fits all- my 250 watter for example as well as a circuit board type.

Step 1: Gather Some Wool, Nuke a Sponge

I have quite a collection of brass mesh screen taken from old microwave ovens that I strip. For use in this project, I expand the tube, cut down the middle and form a zig- zag fold, and secure it to the stand with a copper wire staple. When no longer useable, repeat the process. I suspect regular brass wool is in my distant future, but not if the microwaves keep coming by. The sponges are castoffs from the kitchen when the wife says it's time for them to go. A damping and quick cook for several seconds in the microwave kills smelly bacteria, they are now ready to give a second service. The sponge tray came from... somewhere, I forget where now, but it fit the need perfectly.

Step 2: Parting Thoughts

The tip roof has a stop in the rear, my earlier build lacked one and during the heat of battle I overshot the rest and singed my benchtop. It's just a simple downward bend of about 1” [25mm] in the channel section at the back, it works well for this function.