Heat stake insert tool collar

thingiverse

I rely heavily on heat set inserts at work, and we've consistently struggled to get them perpendicular when using a soldering iron and eyeballing the process. I discovered an affordable drill press stand online designed for use with rotary tools like Dremels. (I actually bought it for $18; if you search around, you can find similar stands for different prices but they all appear to be identical.) We also purchased a soldering iron from McMaster Carr and the necessary insert tools. If you click on this link, you'll see the heat set inserts we typically use (the tapered version). You can also view a link to the soldering iron we bought and the insert tools required for inserting various brass inserts into 3D printed parts. The entire setup will cost less than $175, making it well worth the investment if you frequently insert multiple inserts. This could be significantly cheaper if you only use a few sizes of inserts; the tools for different sizes are $15 each and made up most of our cost (we bought 8 at $15 each, totaling $120). If you use this setup, let me know how it works out and share your results!