Wood Burning Iron Water Cooled Handle

thingiverse

DISCLAIMER: Don't print with low-temperature plastics, and don't run without water cooling. This goes without saying, but the iron tip gets hot and could easily melt the plastic grip, becoming a fire hazard. This is meant for printing in liquid resin or high-temperature plastics. I practice pyrography (burning images into wood) and my entry-level iron was uncomfortable to use. The grip was too far away from the tip and would get uncomfortably warm after about 45 minutes of use. The iron itself is a cheap generic 60-watt adjustable iron, you find on AliExpress or Amazon for around $10, but it does its job well. The plastic handle is made in two parts: * The grip slips over the metal and ceramic heating element at the front of the iron. This has a nice texture, a flare at the front to keep fingers from slipping off and hitting the heated burning tip, and an internal spiral in the water jacket (shown in photos) to keep water circulating evenly. If you're using an FDM printer, you might struggle with the thickness of the spirals - this can be edited in the Fusion 360 files. * The nut slips over the rear of the iron and screws onto the threaded portion of the grip, helping secure the handle against the body and main nut of the soldering iron. This has been designed with 0.2mm tolerances on the acme threads to help the fit if your resin shrinks after curing. * I've also included a holder that hangs on the drawer handle of my IKEA desk - this can be adjusted to fit your desk using Fusion 360 and the included source file. I use a small 12-volt DC brushless water pump to circulate water through a five-meter-long hose, keeping the grip cool. You can find many of them on Amazon. I use silicone tubing with an inner diameter of four millimeters and an outer diameter of six millimeters. The fit on the inlet and outlet pipes of the grip is very tight on purpose, to prevent leaks. It may be necessary to heat the ends of the water tubing and force it over a conical object to spread it out a bit.