Holder for Hot-air handle (Rework station)

Every now and then I have to work with SMD, like, plug the dead chip in SOIC package, install new one. And I often find myself need a third steady hand to hold the hot-air handle while my left hand moves the board around and right hand holds a pair of tweezers.

Just like top notch rig like this which would put a big dent on my wallet

Yeahhhhh, I don't need all this, but just a “steady hand” to hold hot-air handle.

I am cheap and a bit of lazy to come up with total new idea, so I took the idea using mic stand, for holding soldering iron to do the heat set insert like this

And make it work with my hot-air rework handle

All I need is a “mic stand” (got from ebay for AU$15) and a bracket/clamp to hold the handle.

My first design was like a ring clamp. It took sooooo long just to screw in undo the screw to release the clamp, hence the second design to make it super quick.

The shape of the handle is a bit “organic”, not like simple primitive circles and rectangles so that I have to knock the bracket out of the printer second time for it to work.

Work beautifully

Print in PETG or ABS as hot-air station can get a bit … hot!

By the way, my rework station is cheapo YiHua brand, about 8 years old, so the newer YiHua handle might not fit in.

Some extra note: unless you have to work with large board or into BGA stuffs you might need a pre-heat rig to heat the back side of the board so that you don't toast the chip you are working on. 

Include the fusion 360 archive file for you to play with