Re: Soldering irons: made in America but designed in Russia?

Of course. People manufacture what customers want to buy. And taste is arbitrary.

We have all sorts of fancy outlets and switches here, including Decora, and some people buy them. Personally, I don't like the Decora switches.

Hardly "dominant", but common and comfortable. We have all sorts of furniture here, too. A lot of the Ikea stuff isn't comfortable.

This is a big country with a lot of variety. And there's nothing wrong with tradition.

John

I'm not much of a Decora fan either, but that's the only style they make GFCI outlets in. I sorta like everything in the room to match, so the Decora goes in the basement and garage. ;-)

IKEA certainly isn't dominant. In fact I've never seen it in anyone's house. Perhaps it's ubiquitous in left lefty land but not the rest of the country.

I prefer Ohio Amish built Mission style furniture, in Cherry.

...and it'll last longer than particle board with a picture of wood on it.

I have an Ikea stool in my office. It keeps people from lurking too long since it's very uncomfortable.

We did our offices mostly in Ikea. This "computer workstation" makes a very nice workbench, except that they have discontinued it.

ftp://jjlarkin.lmi.net/DSC01371.JPG

The cabinet to the left is Ikea too. I like their office furniture better than their home stuff, but it's all OK, and cheap.

We bought some Ikea stuff for the cabin in Truckee. We had to haul it from Sacramanto, because there's not a single Ikea in Nevada.

Their swedish meatballs are pretty good.

Wood? All the way through?

John

Looks pretty light. I'm used to 1-1/2" laminated maple tops.

Ikea meatballs taste like sawdust. ;-)

Cherry. All the way through. The Amish still build real furniture.

Here is our dining room:

We don't have the corner cupboard or the buffet, but have six chairs. The table has four leaves stored in the center section and opens to

I don't have any place for guests to sit. They don't stay long in my office either. ;-)

I've also got those shelves here. Ivar series or something? I am not such a fan of Ikea, had stuff fall apart and warp at times.

We used to have to haul stuff from the Bay Area since that was the only Ikea for a long time until the once in West Sac opened.

Oh yeah!

That is a whole 'nother level of quality and sturdiness. We have a similar bed set from Germany. It's now around 100 years old and not at all worn. Made it through two world wars (and my parents-in-law were bombed out of one apartment).

I bet the Amish wouldn't have it any other way.

If you also don't want too many people using your bathroom this could be installed:

A _real_ table (granite)...

...Jim Thompson

It would certainly discourage women from visiting.

All of the counters in our house (five in the kitchen, two in the great room, and three full bathrooms) with the exception of tha laundry are granite. I'd rather have wood for some of them but my wife doesn't like butcher block counters.

Granite is cold and so hard that anything bumped against it shatters.

Corian is fabulous stuff. I buy hunks on ebay and use it for electronics fixtures, like pogo probe assemblies and such. It's good for high temps, is a superb insulator, and machines better than delrin.

We made a couple of precision magnetic-field mapper systems (lots of stepper motor stages and such) on granite, because it's so stiff and stable. But it's a bear-and-a-half to machine.

John

It's great for baking though and it stays clean.

Corian is great stuff, just not for countertops. It's too soft and it will scorch. I like the "cultured" quartz. Too rich for my blood though. The granite came in the house or I surely wouldn't have used so much of it.

Granite is used for optical benches too. I've never seen one but I'm told that it's used for table/cabinet saws too. I'd think it too hard for that (chips), particularly for the "T" slot. Cast iron is good enough. ;-)

Wood (and even plastic) butcher blocks collect bacteria (and other wondrous things) in the "scratches"... and are hard to clean.

...Jim Thompson

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Not so much wood. Plastic, certainly. Wood has natural anti- bacterial properties that plastic doesn't have. The fact that the wood grain splits actually helps. Wood cutting boards are much preferred over plastic. Corean is the pits.

Granite optical benches are very stable and have a huge thermal mass, being huge solid chunks of ceramic. They work especially well for things like bridges, where e.g. you need to mount a laser pointing vertically down on the main table.

The bad part is that they don't have 1/4-20 holes on 1-inch centres.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

I've seen them that way, eons ago.

Around here, where granite kitchen counters abound, I would imagine most any counter-top installer could provide you with such holes.

...Jim Thompson

Are those the Home Depot (or Lowes?) Italian tiles? Heck, I laid them a couple years ago and can't even remember. They were a little over $3/sqft.

BTW, your taste of art is, ahm, ahem, weird ...