Hi everyone!
This year, I will be finally moving all of my tools and stuff from the bedroom into a dedicated shop area, which means it's time to make some new custom workshop benches and stuff like that. Since I don't want to have everything built to be fixed to the walls but rather be able to move stuff around, I want to make custom, modular, moveable stations, and the first station I want to work on is the soldering station. To describe the idea closer, here is a list of requirements I would like to fulfill with this build:
- Fume extraction hood - This is a must. My idea is to have it enclosed on 3 sides and have some kind of a bigger fan that would get all of the fumes out and, using something like a kitchen hood hose, get that out of the workshop. This is something I really want to do good since I've had health issues from this kind of thing before. Since I won't have any industrial style filters, of course, the main goal is to get the air out of the shop.
- Digital microscope - While I've worked with both analog and digital microscopes, and an analog microscopes is superior in many things, for my setup, I still prefer using a digital one since it's smaller and I can pop it up on a monitor. I already have a small digital microscope, which has worked okay, but I also got a microscope lens for a Raspberry Pi HQ camera, so I am going to give that a shot! If that works nicely, my idea would be to attach two monitors to something like a Raspberry Pi 4/5, so I can use one of them for the scope view and the other one for schematics, datasheets, etc.
- Tools & Tool Storage - I want to have everything I usually use for soldering right on hand, from power tools such as the soldering iron (currently using the Pinecil V1, love it), hot air gun, and hot plate, to everything else such as tweezers, solder wick, solder, etc. I want everything to have its own dedicated space and also everything to be within arm's reach.
- General storage - Have something like an IKEA Alex drawer for common components, etc.
- Power management - Since I want this to be a unit on wheels that I can just move around the shop or to a different space, I don't want to have to tackle 10 cables every time, I want a single power cable for the whole unit with a master switch for it in the front.
- If a Raspberry is integrated, maybe some smart features like remote power control, smoke sensors?
The main reason I am writing this is because I would love to hear everyone's ideas on what I should integrate and what they would like to see for such a soldering station. I will be covering this build either through blogs or through a video here, so everyone will see how it turns out in the upcoming months!
Let me know your ideas and what are some things that are a must-have on your desk when it comes to soldering and working on PCBs. After this, I will be doing some 3D printer stations also!
Kind regards,
Milos
