Antex tips

Maplin might be your best bet for small orders. Antex do sell direct - but their prices seem to be higher than from a retailer.

--
*How much deeper would the oceans be without sponges? *

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Geoffrey S. Mendelson Inscribed thus:

If you access to a lathe, grab an old worn out tip, turn the end flat, drill it and then insert a short piece of copper wire. Works great ! I made 1mm and .5mm tips that way.

--
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

Thanks, I don't have one, but I can ask a friend.

Geoff.

-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel snipped-for-privacy@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

Thanks. Maplin is out of stock for 28 days. :-(

Geoff.

-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel snipped-for-privacy@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

I think it actually goes :

McGoohan - "Waddya want !?" Number 2 - "We want ... information ..." McGoohan - "Well you won't geddit !"

They're remaking The Prisoner, with an American guy in the lead, and with it set somewhere in Africa. Another great classic bites the dust in the name of 'a remake'.

Back to Antex tips. We discussed this on here a few months back when I observed that they are no longer split-skirted, with a spring ring that slides up and down. They are now solid, with a very thin piece of springy metal inside the hole, which gives a nice stiff fit, but completely overcomes the old problem of the split-skirt ones sticking to the element shaft, if they weren't turned regularly. Also, they have now gone back to what looks like chrome plating on the tips, as they used to be years back. I don't know whether they have done this in an effort to resist the much more corrosive fluxes that we are encountering in the dreaded lead-free electric glue that they laughingly define now as 'solder' ...

On this score, I have to report that the first one of this new plating type that I fitted several months back, has lasted much longer than Antex tips have done in recent years, so I guess that's a good start. The new fixing method seems to work as well, with my tips showing no signs of sticking at all.

Farnell keep the whole range of replacement tips, and they can be purchased singly. You can buy off them by credit card without a trade account now. If you go to

you can select "Israel" from all the different countries that they have a presence in, so I guess you should be able to order from them ??

Arfa

It's been broadcast somewhere, or at least leaked to the Internet. The only thing good about it was Ian McKellen as #2. Otherwise, I can't really say, there were 5 or 6 parts and I only watched 2.

I'll try.

Thanks, Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@cable.mendelson.com:

yes,at least solid copper can be filed to whatever tip shape you want. I used to do that with old Antex unplated tips,for SMD work.

you might be able to chuck the old bit in a drill,flatten the end with a file and drill a hole yourself,with a drill bit in another drill.be careful.

for that matter,you could get someone to machine whole tips for you,(not plated,though) Or an adapter to use some other easily obtainable bit. maybe something that threads in.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

I went to their website. They have a "presence" in Israel, so I figured I could order from them. For some reason they quote prices in US dollars, but I have converter on my desktop, so I'm ok with that.

I figure out how to navigate the web site, open a userid, etc. I find the tips I want and they are less than $5, I order two, and while I am at it, I add some stands for the irons ($8), and 15 bulbs I need for my Drake SPR-4 and are not avalable here. ($12 total).

I also throw in some plugs I need, they had them from 47 cents to $12 each, I put in my basket 10 of them. I'm now up to $58, not a big order, but not a cheap one for me.

I go to the checkout, and here's the killer. I can only order it to be shipped UPS for $35. Now UPS has a deal with customs where they will charge me VAT and import duty on the order. They also can charge me a $35 customs clearing fee.

If it came in via the Post Office, an order of $58 would have been delivered tax free. :-(

Now to see what Antex has after they reopen next year.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

Geoffrey S. Mendelson Inscribed thus:

The good bit is that it is easy to make a new one when the old one wears out. :-)

--
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

Jim Yanik Inscribed thus:

I agree be be very careful ! Its very easy to break a 1mm drill.

Bad idea Jim. I tried that using some 8mm solid copper rod. I drilled it 5mm If I remember, slotted it and produced a good fitting bit with a smooth taper to 0.5mm. It worked great... Until I tried to remove it from the shaft. Its still on that iron to this day. I guess I didn't make the slot long enough.

--
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

Geoffrey S. Mendelson Inscribed thus:

Ouch ! :-(

--
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

Send me an email (observe spam trap) saying what size you need. If it's one of the common ones I'll have spares as I use Antex here. But I use the

50 watt temperature controlled type. The 15 watt ones use a bit with less temperature storage - although IIRC most will physically fit. The latest ones I've bought are solid skirt with an internal spring to give a good contact.

--
*You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive *

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Ah. That's a bit of a bummer then. Pity as they have all the stuff you needed ...

Arfa

So the post office can just circumvent all of the import duty and such then ? Seems a bit odd that your government would let that one by it ... Also, thinking about it, if your VAT regulations follow the norm throughout europe, then your order would not be subject to that tax, as it only applies to complete goods being imported, not component parts. I know this because I used to buy large quantities (over $300 at a time) of a particular component from the USA, and these came UPS through the correct import channels. Import duty was charged, but VAT was not.

Arfa

"Arfa Daily" wrote in news:ryG_m.5603$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe07.ams:

why should VAT be charged merely for shipping? I thought VAT was added after each reSALE of the product. After all,"import duty" is a tax,adding VAT would be double taxation.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

Here VAT is charged on (almost) everything. Due to there being all sorts of tax treaties, many items have luxury taxes on them too. Most tax treaties prohibit the charging of import duty, for example the ones with the US and the EU, but VAT and luxury taxes are ok.

There is an excemtption for packages sent via the post office (left over from the days it was part of the government) of $35 for books, $200 for everything else, but often the $200 limit is enforced as $50 or 50 UKP.

If something is taxable, the taxes due are charged on the total, the value of the items, the shipping, customs clearing and handling fees etc.

A business just passes on the taxes, etc to their customers, but they can get back VAT and other taxes if they file a VAT return. The whole system is slanted to make it difficult for a private individual to import anything.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. 
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

It seems quite random. I've bought a few bits and pieces from the US and sometimes get charged import duty, sometimes not. Nor does there appear to be a definitive cut off cost below which they don't bother.

--
*There's no place like www.home.com *

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.