Helping Hands Soldering Station

I've needed a helping hands tool for years! I've seen designs made out of metal bases, wood bases and even just attaching the hoses together! I wasn't capable of making any of those, so I fired up SketchUp and made my own!

The design is 150x150x18 mm. The indents are for holding parts and measure ~70x42x7 mm. The hoses are 3/8" BPST (~16mm), and the clips are 50mm alligator clips with a little heat shrink to dull the teeth (keeps the clips from cutting into your parts). You need to modify the clips a little to fit into the nozzles, as the clips are about a mm to big to fit out of the box. The clips I bought have a rectangular side and a round side. I plan to use one of the back hoses for holding my solder and wire spools.

The hose threads are a snug fit, but should friction fit without needing to modify either the base or connector. You can glue them in with some epoxy or CA glue, but they should be secure enough.