solder iron maintentance- proper holder

[jcoffin1981]

I just bought a bunch of premium accessories for my iron, but I neglected to get soldering iron holder.  I noticed 95% of them have a coiled mechanimism facing down where the iron rests into.  I have seen a few very cheap ones where the iron rests on a metal bar with a "V" shape to accomodate the iron. In this style the iron tip is raised.

Now if the tip is down the heat is rising away from the tip and it's cooling faster.  If it sits in that "V" the tip is raised and heat rises and the tip will cool slower.  Is one preferable to the other or does any of them have an effect on tip life?  I'm going to make my own from a dry cleaner hanger in the meantime.  I was just curious if this made any difference at all.  Maybe I am over thinking this.  I have never had one recommended over the other.

[Parak]

It's preferable to have a stand that does not touch the hot part of the iron for the simple reason so that the stand doesn't get hot and burn you. You're overthinking the tip cooling aspect, otherwise. The vast majority of proper iron holders have the tool pointed downwards in a pencil grip type of arrangement, supported around the part of the iron where one would grip it. This allows for better stability and ease of insertion and removal.

Unfortunately when buying a holder for an existing iron it's a bit of a tossup on whether or not it will fit well, so YMMV. Consider investing in a proper soldering station (Hakko, JBC, Pace, Metcal, etc) that comes with a matching set, at some point if you do enough soldering

[jcoffin1981]

Once I finish this project I don't plan on doing any other soldering (in the near future), which is why I wouldn't invest in a station.  But I found it's impossible to solder with low quality tips and bought a nice set of Hakko tips, and I hope they serve me well. 

Yes, every one I look at I wonder "will it fit?"