Does a heat proof soldering tip stand exist please?

[HobGoblyn]

I have a few Hakko tips (Hakko T18 series), it would be nice if there was a proper stand for them.

Obviously I could make something out of wood etc for storage when cold, but at the moment, if I'm changing tips, I'm leaving the previous tip on my silicon mat to cool down.

Does anything stand exist that would allow me to put back hot tips?  What do you guys/girls use?

Google, no matter how I word it, just returns various soldering iron stands.

Many thanks

[Ian.M]

It wouldn't be hard to drill an aluminum block to make a holder that could be attached to a soldering iron stand.

[RoGeorge]

Drill a can, and put some brass wire sponges on the bottom (from those made for cleaning the soldering tip), to protect against impact or wiggling.

[sn4k3]

My own design does that, not heat proof but the body that goes inside is cold and no damage is made to the plastic:
Also if you want you can use reflective tape to heat proof it easy

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183304798333

If you have a printer you can print yourself.
And i can customize spacing, rows, cols for you if you want



PS: If you wonder what back slots are for:

[HobGoblyn]

My own design does that, not heat proof but the body that goes inside is cold and no damage is made to the plastic:

Thanks.

Your tips look like  the long type, hence I presume the part you put in your stand is always cold.

My tips are the short type, about 4cm long, hence are very hot when I remove them.

Been seriously thinking about getting a 3D printer, trying to convince my lovely wife that I need one.  It didn't help when she asked me what I would print with it and the two answers I gave her were "stuff" and "upgrades to the printer"

The biggest problem is where to put it.  I could put it next to where I'm typing this, but it would have to be no bigger than about 55cm x 55cm.

[Elasia]

My own design does that, not heat proof but the body that goes inside is cold and no damage is made to the plastic:

Thanks.

Your tips look like  the long type, hence I presume the part you put in your stand is always cold.

My tips are the short type, about 4cm long, hence are very hot when I remove them.

Been seriously thinking about getting a 3D printer, trying to convince my lovely wife that I need one.  It didn't help when she asked me what I would print with it and the two answers I gave her were "stuff" and "upgrades to the printer"

The biggest problem is where to put it.  I could put it next to where I'm typing this, but it would have to be no bigger than about 55cm x 55cm.

Yeah you need either metal or do a silicon mold of the inverse.. a mold wouldnt draw heat out of them very fast either prolonging tip life vs a cold shock from a solid block of metal

Easy way to do the mold, take a block of wood, drill cavities, pour in a casting material.. once set, take apart then expand the holes or make a new one with bigger holes, fill in silicon molding compound, close the mold with the casted inverse.. let setup.. pull inverse off and there you go

Just need a cheap piece of wood or other material and the right size drill bits

I did that before ages ago for weller tips.. i've well moved on and use a pace ads200 now and its stand already has slots (and they are long tips) for the handful i use most often and the rest i just keep in their tubes

[Ian.M]

You are over-thinking this. If the holes in the block of metal are sufficiently over-size to guarantee the tips cant jam in them, as the bottom is a conical recess thermal contact will be fairly poor - at most a line up one side of the bit and usually two contact points at opposite sides of the top and bottom of the hole - so thermal shock should be negligible.   I would recommend drilling very undersize (e.g. D/3) right though the block then drilling the top section of each hole out to size so stray dross or other debris can drop through. 

[Elasia]

You are over-thinking this. If the holes in the block of metal are sufficiently over-size to guarantee the tips cant jam in them, as the bottom is a conical recess thermal contact will be fairly poor - at most a line up one side of the bit and usually two contact points at opposite sides of the top and bottom of the hole - so thermal shock should be negligible.   I would recommend drilling very undersize (e.g. D/3) right though the block then drilling the top section of each hole out to size so stray dross or other debris can drop through.

Thats fine as long as you are not doing any rohs solder, once the tips are micro cracked the tin just gets eaten away faster

If one doesnt care what your using and is just one off work here and there you could also look at screwdriver stands / jeweler working stands

[Ian.M]

If point contact caused enough thermal shock to micro-crack the iron plating, wadded brass turning tip cleaners would do so as well, as would touching the tip to a pad on a wide track or an existing solder joint!  If you are suffering from tip erosion with ROHS solder, odds are the tip's  been mechanically abused e.g. dropped or used with excessive pressure.  Also, using a high copper content solder alloy will vastly reduce tip erosion, and also has the benefit of protecting fine wires and narrow tracks from copper erosion that can cause them to be weakened by necking at the surface or edge of the solder joint.

[Shock]

To make a tip stand for T18 tips, block of wood and some brad head nails.

[sn4k3]

My own design does that, not heat proof but the body that goes inside is cold and no damage is made to the plastic:

Thanks.

Your tips look like  the long type, hence I presume the part you put in your stand is always cold.

My tips are the short type, about 4cm long, hence are very hot when I remove them.

Been seriously thinking about getting a 3D printer, trying to convince my lovely wife that I need one.  It didn't help when she asked me what I would print with it and the two answers I gave her were "stuff" and "upgrades to the printer"

The biggest problem is where to put it.  I could put it next to where I'm typing this, but it would have to be no bigger than about 55cm x 55cm.

Ah yes i was thinking about T12, well for those my ERSA stand work good for them or any other tip that's contact heater style (No cartridges), look at cooper bars, they hold tips on air
You just need cut 3mm cooper bars in length of the tip + a height of elevation and place then on stand



Look tip bottoms, almost every one is contactless with stand, heat will never reach the plastic to melt

[David Hess]

Some old Weller soldering stations had a small stainless steel cup for holding tips.

[coppercone2]

get an aluminum block and a drill. If you want the hole to be nice and not contaminate the tips, get a reamer (it will be very polished and clean on the inside).

If you are worried about themral transfer to aluminum, oversize the holes and fill it with high temperature epoxy and drill it again (you can probobly get away with like letting it pour out), its like molasses. It can take like 500F and it has very poor thermal conductivity. heat cure drill and ream it again. before gluing it would literarly recommend you soak it in acetone for a while then rinse it with a rinse bottle filled with acetone

I don't know about making a mold of that, sounds expensive/imprecise


lot of work to do it nice though, if the tips are thin you are in luck because its pretty easy so long you start with a fresh sharp drill bit, but big holes manually will have you cursing

[Ian.M]

If you are worried about themral transfer to aluminum, oversize the holes and fill it with high temperature epoxy and drill it again (you can probobly get away with like letting it pour out), its like molasses. It can take like 500F and it has very poor thermal conductivity. heat cure drill and ream it again. before gluing it would literarly recommend you soak it in acetone for a while then rinse it with a rinse bottle filled with acetone

Sounds like an expensive messy royal PITA.   If you need to insulate the holes, why not get uncoated fiberglass sleeving of a size to fit loosely over the bits, then size the holes so its a snug fit as a liner. If you need it bonded in place, use a dilute solution of waterglass and bake the assembly in a low oven to cure it.

lot of work to do it nice though, if the tips are thin you are in luck because its pretty easy so long you start with a fresh sharp drill bit, but big holes manually will have you cursing

Its not too bad on a drill press, in a machinist's vice, with a squirt bottle of kerosene (or a can of WD40) for cutting fluid, a stiff brush to clear chips, and peck drilling due to the high depth to diameter ratio.  I  certainly wouldn't want to try it with a hand-held drill-motor or worse a hand drill, so if all you've got is hand tools, it would probably be best to drill two thinnish aluminum sheets clamped together and assemble them with a third undrilled sheet for the back end of the tips to rest on using spacers at the ends to get enough height between the holed sheets and above the base sheet to hold the bits stably.

[KL27x]

Obviously I could make something out of wood etc for storage when cold

I drop the hot T18 tip right into a wood holder. I just took a really close look at the holes for my main tips. There's not a single burn mark.

There's some overlap, but burning wood takes a bit higher temps than does soldering, for the most part.

[Mechatrommer]

why you want to change tip while its hot? and do you need to keep changing them? buy another soldering iron! let them 2 on the desk much faster to work. experts only need one wife... until its broken

[HobGoblyn]

why you want to change tip while its hot? and do you need to keep changing them? buy another soldering iron! let them 2 on the desk much faster to work. experts only need one wife... until its broken

I don’t need to Keep changing them, have needed to a couple of times recently, that got me thinking about somewhere to put the previous tip.

And of course I’m in the middle of something when I need to change, hence am impatient. I turn iron off, unscrew the tip cover/holder using small pliers, then remove the tip in the same way. Haven’t got a clue how hot the tip is at this point, but I’d imagine it would melt plastic, hence I put it on my silicone mat

[coppercone2]

Obviously I could make something out of wood etc for storage when cold

I drop the hot T18 tip right into a wood holder. I just took a really close look at the holes for my main tips. There's not a single burn mark.

There's some overlap, but burning wood takes a bit higher temps than does soldering, for the most part.

it might abrade significantly after 1 trillion insertions, or possibly contaminate a solder joint with a wood fiber. So no nuclear reactors, satellites or home made cybernetics.

I don't know if thermal epoxy coating would be vetted in a 'hard core' facility either, because of possible chemical contamination.

there is this book called Fahrenheit 451.. what animal solders above 350? I just use a chisel for everything