FWIW, I have had a small soldering iron for, oh I dunno, 35 years. Just bought a new one, with a nice little stand, variable heat transformer, all of which the old one did not have, and so made using it a bit of a trick, sometimes. So I was like Stan's father, kinda -- work around, make do. I find the older I get, the more I don't like that approach. Need a tool? Go buy it. Nothing quite like having the right tool for the right job. Not saying there isn't a certain pleasure from jurry-rigging something up to do a certain thing out of stuff just hanging around. [This latter approach seems to suit Ed a lot. No offense Ed.] Like the 2x4 disk brake pads I saw a pic of recently.