My Portable USB-C Battery Powered Soldering Setup

Here’s an overview of my portable soldering setup. I have found many uses for it the past few years and it has been tailored to suit my needs pretty well, but use this as inspiration for your own kit.

The bag I use to hold it all, the Klein Tools model 5139, is a very durable canvas zippered pouch clocking in at 12.5 by 7 inches. These pouches cost around $10 for this particular model or the black 5139B, or you can get a 4 pack of colored ones for about $40 (Models 5140 or 5141) Not much else to say, these are very handy to have and I enjoy all of mine.

The case I use to store my iron and its tips was 3D printed by me and customized for my tip and accessory selection. The main case files can be found on Printables here and the top container that houses my heat-set insert kit and stand is here It prints as an outer shell and it accepts various inserts with different geometry for accessories like the USB cable, solder wick, sponge, brass wool, etc. The solder roll does not seem to work well for me so I do not use it. Assembly is pretty simple and only requires 4 M3x20mm bolts.

This iron is the absolute best bang for your buck USB-C powered soldering iron! From Pine64, the iron itself costs $25.99, but there are some accessories you will want to grab as well like their 1.5m silicone USB-C cable (one you wont accidentally melt!) for just $3.99. I also replaced the stock philips screw for retaining the tip with an M2x4mm thumbscrew from Aliexpress. The listing I ordered from is gone, but here is a similar replacement from Amazon

The tip selection inside my kit is nothing special. I have the stock pinecil short conical tip, The TS-BC3 tip, TS-C4 tip, and the TS-D24 tip. Each TS tip was bought from the official Pine64 Aliexpress store for about $5.40 each. If you order your Pinecil from pine64.com, you can also purchase short or normal length wide or narrow 4 piece tip sets at the same time.

I also have a heat-set insert tip kit from Aliexpress as well. This kit was inexpensive when I bought it (~$10) but it has increased to $17 now. It has M3 through M8 tips that screw on to the main body. All the tips fit inside the case with one stored on the tip itself. Pine64 now stocks a similar kit here for slightly less, which I would opt for if you are already ordering from their site.

This battery is one of Anker’s top of the line battery banks that can do USB-PD 3.1 at 20v with 140W of output power which is optimal for driving the Pinecil for maximum performance. I purchased mine on Amazon where it often goes on sale for sub $100. It is extremely beefy with 24Ah (24,000mAh) of capacity which can entirely charge phones many times over. Even laptops can take advantage of the high output for charging as well. This is a fantastic choice for more than just the Pinecil and I use it for many other purposes.

This is a generic “ESD” rated tweezer kit in a fold up velcro pouch for $12.99. It came with flush cutters which was the most important inclusion. I also included a generic disposable snap-blade knife in place of the spatula for wire stripping.

This little cheap helping hands works great for soldering connectors or joining small wires mid-air. I purchased it on Amazon for $8.90 and I removed the magnifier. I recommend gluing the alligator clips to the arms because they get loose and will fall off.

Finally, I store some generic solder wick from Amazon for about $7 inside the kit as well. Just in case I need to remove some excess solder or even clear a through hole from a desoldered component. As for solder, I currently respool some of my Kester 1lb roll from Amazon onto an old spool. Kester solder has always served me well.

These are my most used items which I keep in this kit. I have not really needed anything else aside from this kit to take on any small project that I don’t have at the bench. Overall, its a very versatile setup that can do moderate work when you are away from your main setup.