Jim Williams

This:

Of course! That very model is sitting here on my desk right now :-) ...Jim Thompson

Do you control that 'digitally' or do you solder with your feet?

(Running opposite direction)

--Winston

Here's a tool that doesn't need a soldering iron. Maybe just some alligator leads.

-Bill

"Digitally" of course...

From Merriam-Webster On-line:

"of or relating to the fingers or toes" ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Back in the old days I bemoaned that universities didn't teach at least some elementary chunks of cost calculation and biz stuff. Now I bemoan that they don't teach much of real engineering anymore ;-)

That's not a soldering iron.

THIS is a soldering iron:

John

I've got one.

It has a boot up sequence, a sleep mode when idle and crashes occasionally. Perhaps I need to run a virus checker.

No, no, _this_ is a soldering iron for real men:

Some of them came off the handle and you "parked" them over a coal fire to re-heat, then grabbed one. I still have some from my grandpa and those have longer sticks so the whole thing stays together while heating.

(...)

Yeah, baby!

I use it's grandfather, the MX-500. It is a Very Nice tool.

--Winston

I wonder if Jim would be pleased that a notice of his demise has morphed into a comparison of soldering irons.

(...)

I can't speak for Jim, of course. I think he might've been pleased, though.

When I finally go, I hope that whatever brief mention of me *does* morph into the comforting babble of friends around a water cooler.

Jim was The Best Of Us and we will miss him for a very long time.

--Winston

Absolutely the best. Once you try one, everything else is just junk.

Also, the DS1 is the best desoldering tool ever. For compressed air, I got one of the $99 Husky compressors from HD.

tm

I recall engineering economics. Sunk cost, that kind of stuff. Not particularly exciting material.

I think Jim was using a metcal in one of his videos. He would also be happy people are speaking geek, especially of the circuitry kind. I always cringe a bit when they mention software companies as technology. I look at software as mostly change for the sake of change, a new language every year when the old language was just fine.

Metcal has it's fan base, almost as rabid as the Apple fanbois. I wouldn't mind the cost, but they don't seem to be very reliable irons.

Not everything in education is fun but it still is needed.

(...)

At the risk of appearing to be a Metcal Fanboi (1) The units are on a par with Weller WRT reliability. Tip changes are Real Fast, too.

The Talon claw is the Cat's Pajamas. You can quote me. :)

(1) I'd take that logo on a baseball cap any day!

--Winston

I took an EE Economics course as an elective. It was a pretty good course. Some may recognize the prof, Paul Hudson.

But I've seen piles of busted Metcals at swap meets and surplus shops. In the day when Foothill was at Foothill, friends would prowl to find parts to piece together one functional Metcal.

Eh, I bought a Hakko not to long ago. Just too easy to buy one new and it seems to work fine for me. Metcals are pricey. I would have had to resort to an ebay purchase, and I know someone that got a dud Metcal from ebay.