Soldering irons: made in America but designed in Russia?

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 too sure what this is doing in alt.engineering.electrical.

I remember hiring a new one of these for a few weeks when it called the Ford LTD Crown Victoria. White walled tires, etc. It looked dated even when it was new.

The front seat was easily wide enough for 3 but too uncomfortable for even 2. There were four of us and the seating preference was to have a driver in the front but no one else on that awful bench seat.

The handling was too poor for words.

Most amazing of all, it had this great big rear-defogger switch in the middle of the dashboard like it was some emergency 911 button. It would be great to see a photo of that monstrosity of a button sticking out all on its own from the center of the dash.

It seemed that the design team never met.

Franklin

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.

That's not my call, thank you very much.

Cheers! Rich

He doesn't think. That's the problem. As long as he can get his booze, he doesn't care.

Gawd, you people sure do make up a lot of stuff. Prices are going up anyway, for any number of reasons; I have no control over that in any case. (Try buying food that used no fuel in the manufacturing.) All I was saying is that I don't buy gasoline.

Are you advocating lobbying for fuelless food delivery? Sorry, I'm not one of those activist fools.

Thanks, Rich

My dad had one, 150 W i think. It would solder 12 Ga. sheet metal. .

Sometimes I worry they even have too much rights and canaffect private property.

BUY ANY BRAND OF CAR AND ACCESSORIES FOR your CAR

Clik to go

"Frankl>

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Oh, but the Russians do have some interesting products

"its for people who like connecting electricity with own fingers"

"there are many curious people trying to get their fingers in plug, and this is an easy way to do it"

and at bottom under the power board "our perfectly designed network port will match group sessions"