Soldering irons: made in America but designed in Russia?

I once had a neighbor who was a car guy; he once said, "There's nothin' doggier than a stock 'vette."

Cheers! Rich

I'm quite impressed at how ugly they've made that. It's the combination of the little back back window and that huge pillar which seals it. Lose the back seats, and glass, chop the roof back to the pillar, turn it into a ute and it'd be a lot less wrong.

Now, you ARE trolling.

See ya! Rich

The design is reminiscent of the Chrysler Airstream, which was a major flop

AFAIK the Airstream was not a major flop. The Airflow was, but mostly due to really bad manufacturing defects.

In message , Clive George writes

It actually looks as though someone got the basic idea for a pick up truck and then found out they were meant to be designing a passenger car.

I might have gotten the name wrong, as I was in a rush. Regardless, Chrysler produced a "streamlined" car that the public didn't warm to.

Reason I mentioned it was that the Airflow doesn't look similar to the PT Cruiser at all while the Airstream does (with the PT Cruiser being a whole lot smaller).

The weller irons were once the best money could buy - then they got took over by cooper tools, since then the bean counters reduced the thickness of the iron plating so the bit oxidises in the barrel, "freezing" in and impossible to remove without damaging the element.

Years ago I bought a new weller - the stat lasted nearly 2 weeks before welding closed, they sent me a replacement FOC which lasted nearly a month before also welding closed - unfortunately I was away from my bench at the time and it burned out the element, I've been using Antex irons ever since, they usually last at least 5 years as long as the bit is replaced at the proper interval and I can buy at least a 30 year supply of Antex irons for just the weller (not including transformer base) iron.

I'd only use weller again if it was free (and I was allowed to keep an Antex on standby for when the weller packs up).

Strange. I've suggested the Weller WES51 with the PES51 pencil to many clients and then they bought oodles of those. Never a problem, in years, and this stuff is cranking at least 10h/day. Ok, they don't light cigarettes anymore like people use to with the older Wellers because smoking is no longer allowed in US businesses.

Last year in December I bought a WES51 also here for the lab, to have a spare. But I started using it a lot because the tiny PES51 pencil lays much nicer in the hand than the fat LR-20 of the older stations. They also added a nice feature, not important to me but to companies and the fire marshall: If the iron isn't moved in an hour or so it automatically shuts down. Grand total of $92 plus tax, with pencil and one tip, not a bad deal at all.

I've got this one. Works perfectly - the only issue I've run into is having to know the melting point temps. Other than that I love it.

Maybe they learned from the mass exodus of customers and fixed the non existent reliability since the last time I had the misfortune to pay good money for one of their products, but once bitten twice shy, I'm not giving them any more of my money.

The Airflow was Ferdinand Porsche's inspiration for the Volkswagen. That's why most people's immediate reaction on seeing it is "Whoa--a huge Beetle!"

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Not really. AFAIK it was this one that inspired Porsche, he supposedly had technical discussions with Hans Ledwinka who designed the Tatra car:

Hard to say though because the Chrysler Airflow came to market at just about the same time. However, back in those days there was no fast mail, Internet or even air travel between the US and Europe so information exchanges would have been slow.

Unless it's a weld shop and the boss is a smoker. It is private property, after all. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

The same reason I'll never buy another NiMH battery or CFL light.

Cheers! Rich

It was the same for me, for a few years. Then I tried another batch of CFL because CostCo had them for less than a buck a piece. Philips Marathon, and they last and last and last. Of course I'd never buy a CFL at boutique pricing since that's just not worth it.

Regardless of brand I still find the light quality is not as advertised - a

Its difficult for me to make a life expectancy comparison as I had surge limiting NTC thermistors mounted in the switch plates, this prolonged the life of incandescent bulbs by an impressive margin - certainly much longer than some of the first electronic CFLs to hit the market.

At least in Europe, the filament lamp equivalance is completely misleading. (It's comparing against a softone bulb, which has a painted coating to give a lower colour temperature, and almost no one uses those, and they're much less efficient than the commonly used filament lamps.)

In the UK, just use a 4:1 ratio, so 100W replacement will be a

Generally, 18W CFLs here are marked as 100W equivalent, and it's very clear to anyone who's tried them that they don't come close. For those just trying CFLs for the first time, it gives a very poor first impression, which in many cases is also the last impression.

In the case of CFL reflector lamps, the ratio to use needs reducing to 3:1 or even 2:1 for small ones. (A CFL light source is particularly inappropriate for use in small reflector lamps.)

In countries with different mains voltage, the ratio may need adjusting, as filament lamp efficiency varies with the design voltage. (The most efficient voltage to design a 100W lamp is about 55V, given a reasonable life requirement, and as you move the design voltage away from 55V in either direction, the lamp efficiency drops.)