Take for example, my own rendition of this little ditty, the DIY, Cheapass Professional Soldering Station. I got most of the parts from Home Depot.
Lovely, no? It's made with a slide-style light dimmer and rigged with a power cable torn from a CRT monitor so I could wire up ground. The dimmer controls both outlets equally.
Yes, the cover panel WAS originally supposed to cover all three parts, but the spot for the dimmer was too small and in my attempt to enlarge its space, I broke the plastic completely.
The on/off switch isn't even necessary since the dimmer clicks to off when slid all the way to the bottom (does that count toward ghetto points?). One nice thing about the dimmer is that the indicator light dims when you turn it all the way up, brightens when you have it lowered, and doesn't turn on unless there is something plugged into the outlet.
It's ugly, but it works. It would work better if I had a 40w iron, though, since anything lower such as a 30 or 25w basically only has the settings of "hot enough to set paper on fire from three feet away" or "use this to keep any solder from melting, ever".
That's mine. Show me what you've got, the worse, the better. +1 if it looks terrible yet does something awesome, +2 if you injured yourself making it. +3 if you regularly injure yourself using it.
...Tony
