Make a Soldering Iron Stand

Although they are compact enough for handheld operation, a soldering iron can reach extremely high temperatures — up to nine hundred degrees Fahrenheit — which is why you should consider making a wire stand for your soldering iron that prevents the soldering iron tip from coming in contact with the work surface as well as other surfaces, objects, and even skin.

If your soldering iron did not come with a stand, you have lost the stand, or you simply do not like the stand you have, you can create your own conical, secure soldering iron stand made of wire with common household objects and craft supplies. In this example we will examine creating a stand using a coat hanger, craft plaque, epoxy, metal vice, power drill, ring mandrel, and tinner’s snips.

You will begin by cutting a metal coat hanger into a length of wire: remove the hanger’s hook top and the section of twisted wire beneath it using your tinner’s snips. The next step is to straighten the remaining wire by bending and pulling the hanger’s bent corners. Get the corners as straight as possible by pressing the bent sections in the metal vice, thus creating a single straight length of wire.

Then you’ll wrap the wire around the end of your ring mandrel. Start wrapping about two and a half inches from the mandrel’s end and begin in the middle of the hanger wire to ensure you have ample extra wire on both ends. When you are wrapping the wire, leave around a quarter inch between each coil. Continue wrapping until you reach the mandrel’s end, trim the remaining wire from the mandrel’s tip, and slide the wire cone from the mandrel’s thinner end.

Use the vice to bend the other end of the wire at a forty-five degree angle from the side of the cone. After it’s shaped, trim the protruding wire to roughly four inches in length — this section of wire will attach to the craft plaque forming the cone’s stand. Drill a hole in the center of your craft plaque. Don’t drill all the way through the wood; you need an area for the glue to pool within the hole. Fill the hole with quick-setting epoxy.

Now you will attach the wire cone to the plaque: insert the wire cone’s stem in the epoxy-filled hole immediately after you apply the glue because it will set quite quickly. Hold the wire cone in place as the epoxy sets and keep it stationary. The last step is to add more epoxy around the base of the connection between the wire cone and plaque for added strength. Give the epoxy ample time to cure before using your new soldering iron stand.