Adam Savage Explains How to Build a Portable Soldering Station

A soldering iron is probably the most important tool on any maker’s workbench, and we all have our preferences on styles and tip types. Going even further, you probably have a few complementary tools that almost always use with your soldering iron, such as a third hand or tip cleaner. That’s fine when you’re working at your bench all of the time, but can be headache as soon as you need to solder in another room, in your driveway, or at your friend’s house. That’s why Adam Savage built a portable soldering station, and he explained how he did it on a recent episode of Tested.

Savage's goals for his portable soldering station were the same as yours probably would be. He wanted it to be powered by a rechargeable battery, and for it to contain everything he commonly uses while soldering. So, in addition to the soldering iron itself, it also needed to have a place for electrical tape, solder, etc. Since he knew that a rechargeable battery was an absolute necessity, he decided to use the battery packs that he already has for the rest of his tools. Those are Dewalt, but you’d obviously want to stick to the brand you already use.

He also knew what kind of soldering iron he wanted to use: a TS100 (sold under many different brand names) programmable model with a built-in STM32 microcontroller. That is a very popular choice that people love for its small size and respectable performance. It requires 12-24V DC power, and there happen to be aftermarket attachments for Dewalt batteries that can supply that. If you use a popular brand of cordless tools, then you can almost certainly find something similar. With those factors decided, the majority of the video is devoted to constructing a sort of soldering caddy. You even get a bonus lesson on plywood, and how face grading can be misleading. The finished soldering station is the kind of thing we’d like to have when we’re away from our work benches.