Soldering Station With Storage Compartment

I've always wanted to have all my soldering gear in one place and not scattered around. So I've constructed a simple wooden box for the job. The box also has one removable spring on its lid, to place the soldering iron thus allowing it to cool.

For this instructable I used :

• some scrap wood
• several iron nails 3 cm long
• a hammer
• handsaw
• measuring tape
• some wood screws
• Phillips screwdriver
• tin snips
• some scrap sheet metal
• wood glue
• a paint brush to apply the glue
• an awl to create pilot holes
• wood working clamps
• hand drill with 5mm drill bit
• a salvaged spring from a washing machine
• a hand sander
• two metallic hinges.

The initial dimensions of the scrap wood dictated the project's measurements.

After removing the embedded nails I ended with 4 planks of wood (40x12x1 cm approximately).

These planks would serve as bottom, front and back walls and top lid.

For the right and left caps I used some more of this wood.

All the pieces were hand sanded to improve their texture.

I had in my inventory a metallic chassis of a broken computer PSU.

I re-purposed it with my tin snips and created 2 metallic corners out of it.

I mimicked the shape of the two factory-made metallic corners I already had.

Using the hand drill I also created some holes to the metal.

I then begun assembling the box as shown in the pictures.

I used 4 metallic corners, 8 wood screws and the Phillips screwdriver.

Before screwing, I made some pilot holes using the awl at the corresponding places.

After that, I installed the top lid using the metallic hinges and 12 more screws.

Using the hammer and several nails I further secured the edges of the box.

I also nailed the right and left wooden caps, thus completing the box.

It wouldn't be a proper soldering station without a spring like thing to hold the soldering iron.

I tried to bend a welding rod to create a spiral but the metal was not long enough.

So I used a salvaged spring from a washing machine instead.

It had the perfect shape for the occasion.

I only hammered its one end to shrink the loop so the screw would fit snugly.

I wanted this spring mechanism to be detachable to save space when the soldering station was not in use.

For this purpose I created a wooden sleeve so that the spring would slide in and out with ease.

See the pictures for more info. All the glued pieces were clamped and left overnight for the glue to set.

As you can see in the pictures the box fits all the soldering gear (although a little bigger box wouldn't hurt anyone!).

The part that I like the most, is the removable spring that can be stored inside the box as well.