Soldering irons: made in America but designed in Russia?

If you want to stuff a huge V8 with 200 tons of air conditioning and power-everything under the hood, you need a lot of hood.

But Cadillac and most things Chrysler are admittedly over the top. They corner the ugly-car-lover market.

John

Reply to
John Larkin
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Well, there are tons of them that look sleek and modern. Visit a good hardware store over here and see for yourself. Or any major Radio Shack.

Antex may be good but they seem to have the same problem as Ersa (I loved their irons while in Europe): International marketing may be lacking.

Well, check this one out, under $10, no side screw, the tip is threaded and that screws in as a whole from the front (IIRC):

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If I'd need a simple iron I'd got for a good name brand, like this one for $40:

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Reply to
Joerg

For good reason. In 1978, the congress critters passed the gas guzzlers tax:

The typical land yacht, with about 15mpg, pays about $4,000 in gas guzzlers tax.

The idea was to discourage big ugly oversized non-commercial vehicles. However, they exempted anything over 6000 lbs GVW. So, in accordance to the law of unintended consequences, the industry simply delivered monstrous vehicles that officially weighted 6001 lbs and save a bundle on the taxes.

Of course, the government derives substantial revenue from taxing what are now economy and mid size cars, so don't expect the situation to change in the foreseeable future.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

If the politicoes had any guts+sense, they'd just up the taxes on gasoline, and let the market take care of the rest.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

Ahhh - seppos in attendance!

Neither of the above match the fuel economy of my proper sized passenger car.

Reply to
Tim S Kemp

Well, i have seen what might be called a variant, where the tip screws into the heating section (from RatShop!).

Reply to
Robert Baer

To be fair, they did try to make it look like a Bentley!

Reply to
Ron

That last one looks more like a racing car than something for everyday use.

Reply to
Robert Baer

Is the Chrysler ME anything like Windows ME?

Reply to
keithw86

Jeep reliability and build quality is, however, a bad joke. I've had the opportunity to compare ten year old Jeeps (Cherokee and Grand Cherokee) with my ten year old Ford - the Jeeps have all been in poor condition at lower mileage. I've also found the Dodge/GMC trucks to be better built than Jeeps, which seems odd. I conly guess that the old AMC spirit of building rubbish that falls apart still prevails at Jeep.

Reply to
Steve Firth

What's wrong with the 300C? Put a mesh grille on it and most people think it's a Bentley. I don't mind kicking the septics for their dreadful taste in car design, but the 300C or Merc E-class as we call it here, is a relatively successful design. It's just a shame that the powertrain and suspension engineering isn't as good as the chassis.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Have you ever driven a Corvette? What was the gas mileage?

Reply to
Joerg

Joerg gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I've never driven one. Nobody this side of the pond feels they need to compensate quite that badly for such a tiny penis.

But, fortunately, we can refer to the official figures.

That'll be

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btw.

The extra-urban number for the 'vette is 31.4mpg. Quite impressive, I'll agree, given the type of vehicle.

But not exactly comparable with the official extra-urban figure for a "compact passenger car" - let's say a 1.6TDCi Focus. 74.3mpg.

If you look at the much more representative combined figure, the Focus achieves 62.8mpg vs 21.2 for the 'vette. That's the "economical" 6.2 'vette - the 7.0 Z06 and supercharged ZR1 are worse, of course.

As for the Viper... The official figures for the SRT10 roadster (only Viper we get through official channels, so the only official figures) are

21.4 extra-urban and 13.4 combined.
Reply to
Adrian

The Excursion is holding up spectacularly well. 125k mainly urban miles and nothing serious has fallen off or broken in close to seven years. Trim doesn't squeak or rattle (but is resolutely 'hard touch'), leather is as new, engine is still near-silent and incredibly smooth, gearbox is obscenely smooth shifting and responsive. I'm amazed how good it's been.

It's needed a couple of wheel bearings (understandable at 5 tons, up from 3 ton 'standard' weight), an alternator (again understandable with extra electrical loads) and the AC radiator changing (once again, extra load compared to factory spec).

Only things that have broken that you could reasonably blame Ford for are a coil pack went down at 110k miles (£27) and the fuel tank sender has packed in, but only to the gauge - the computer still knows how much fuel is in there.

Reply to
Pete M

If you expect something from a $10 hardware store soldering iron that's made in China, you shouldn't be in electronics. The only people who use those are kids starting out in tronics and people who don't know anything about electronics.

If you want a good iron, get a Metcal (now OK). Metcal has soldering irons for under $200 which work very well for SMT and thruhole. My only gripe about the cheap Metcals is the tip temperature only goes up to 750 deg F. Gotta use my 20+ year old Weller iron for melting isulation off of magnet wire.

If you really want to see a classic soldering iron, get your hands on an American Beauty! You'll drop your shorts when you get your hands on that one.

Reply to
qrk

Until we all storm Washington, DC with our pitchforks and torches. >:->

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Richard The Dreaded Libertarian

I could live with arbitrarily high gasonline taxes, since I only have a bike. ;-)

(admittedly, bus fares might go up a bit.)

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Richard The Dreaded Libertarian

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but mine was green.

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.

Reply to
Clive George

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

70+ years ago.
Reply to
William Sommerwerck

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

Reply to
Joerg

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