Description

Soldering Iron Adapter Kit — Install Heat Inserts Cleanly and Straight

This adapter kit turns your existing soldering iron into a dedicated heat insert installation tool. The shaped tips centre the threaded insert and guide it straight into the plastic as the iron melts a pocket around it — producing clean, aligned, professional results that are impossible to achieve by pressing inserts in with a bare soldering iron tip.

If you’re designing functional 3D printed parts with threaded fasteners, heat inserts are the strongest and most reliable way to add metal threads to plastic. This kit makes installing them fast, repeatable, and frustration-free.

Why Use Adapter Tips Instead of a Bare Soldering Iron?

With Adapter Tips

The tip centres and cradles the insert, guiding it straight into the hole. The insert melts evenly into the surrounding plastic, creating a strong mechanical bond with the knurled brass surface. The result is a perfectly aligned, flush-seated insert every time.

Without Adapter Tips

A bare soldering iron tip pushes the insert off-centre, melts one side faster than the other, and often drives it in crooked. The insert ends up misaligned, seated at an angle, or pushed too deep — resulting in weak threads, crooked bolt holes, and parts that don’t assemble properly.

How to Install Heat Inserts

Attach the correct size adapter tip to your soldering iron. Set the iron to 200–230°C for PLA, or 250–270°C for PETG and ABS. Place the threaded insert onto the printed hole (design the hole slightly smaller than the insert’s outer diameter). Press the adapter tip onto the insert and let the heat melt the plastic — don’t push hard, let gravity and gentle pressure do the work. The insert sinks into the plastic as it melts a pocket around itself. Stop when the insert is flush with the surface. Remove the iron straight up.

Compatible Inserts

Works with standard knurled brass threaded heat inserts (also known as heat-set inserts or embedment inserts). We stock a range of threaded insert sizes — see our Threaded Inserts listing.

Compatible Soldering Irons

Fits most standard soldering irons with removable tips. Check the adapter shaft diameter matches your iron’s tip holder before ordering.

Ideal For

Functional 3D printed enclosures and housings with bolted lids
Jigs, fixtures, and tools with threaded fastening points
RC model frames and mounts
Drone builds with bolted components
Any 3D printed part that needs removable, reusable threaded connections