Soldering irons: made in America but designed in Russia?

[Allus Smith]

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy too
much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks downright,
well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too but
there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron in
the US with unregulated temperature still has great big mofo screws
holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a sleek
looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!


--
Russian in America
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/bc54d50403/svetlana-pilot-episode

 

[Rich Webb]

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:08:32 +0100, Allus Smith <allus_smith@com.com>
wrote:

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy too
much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks downright,
well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too but
there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron in
the US with unregulated temperature still has great big mofo screws
holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a sleek
looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

Same troll. Must be bored...

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

 

[John Larkin]

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:08:32 +0100, Allus Smith <allus_smith@com.com>
wrote:

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy too
much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks downright,
well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too but
there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron in
the US with unregulated temperature still has great big mofo screws
holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a sleek
looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

If you buy cheap, you get cheap.

Get a Metcal. No screw at all.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

Mini. Citroën. Vauxhall. Volvo. Rolls. Porsche. Fiat.

http://philip.greenspun.com/images/pcd3815/dublin-deux-chevaux-20.4.jpg


John

 

[Allus Smith]

On 20 Apr 21:36, Rich Webb wrote:

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:08:32 +0100, Allus Smith wrote:

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy
too much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks
downright, well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too but
there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron
in the US with unregulated temperature still has great big
mofo screws holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a
sleek looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly
expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

Same troll. Must be bored...

Hello Rich, I'm the OP. I'm sorry to hear you think I'm a troll.

I don't know what you mean by "same" becuase I have only posted
here recently and I hope there isn't another post which could be
misconstrued as a troll.

Perhaps you just don't like my point of view?

 

[Allus Smith]

On 20 Apr 22:23, John Larkin wrote:

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:08:32 +0100, Allus Smith
allus_smith@com.com> wrote:

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy
too much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks
downright, well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too but
there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron
in the US with unregulated temperature still has great big
mofo screws holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a
sleek looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly
expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

If you buy cheap, you get cheap.
Get a Metcal. No screw at all.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

Mini. Citroën. Vauxhall. Volvo. Rolls. Porsche. Fiat.
http://philip.greenspun.com/images/pcd3815/
dublin-deux-chevaux-20.4.jpg

John

Yup, you're right! Which is why I wrote: "you can see crap-looking
design in western Europe too ..... but there's a lot less of it
than in the US".

One distinctive feature of US car design is a look I call: "I've
just rammed a wall"

Mercifully, it is almost never found on west European cars and
hopefully never will be. It is illustrated below.

There are probably 200 US cars with this sort of styling:
http://www.swiftweblog.com/media/1/20050616-C2006_300_2.jpg
for every US car that looks like this:
http://www.carforums.net/reviews/makes/pictures/Chrysler11.jpg
and that one is still very angular.









--

inc car group

 

[Charles]

"John-Del" <ohger1s@aol.com> wrote in message
news:8a29c895-be77-43fb-bef6-c63e71fd8389@f19g2000yqo.googlegroups.com...

On Apr 20, 5:41 pm, Allus Smith <allus_sm...@com.com> wrote:
On 20 Apr 22:23, John Larkin wrote:


There are probably 200 US cars with this sort of styling:
http://www.swiftweblog.com/media/1/20050616-C2006_300_2.jpg


You are wrong. Despite the recession, Chrysler has sold considerably
more than 200 of that model.

That's the thing about being a troll ... no accountability ... they just
blather, and waste bandwidth and time. PLONK him!

 

[Joerg]

John Larkin wrote:

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:08:32 +0100, Allus Smith <allus_smith@com.com
wrote:

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy too
much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks downright,
well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too but
there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron in
the US with unregulated temperature still has great big mofo screws
holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a sleek
looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

If you buy cheap, you get cheap.

Get a Metcal. No screw at all.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

Mini. Citroën. Vauxhall. Volvo. Rolls. Porsche. Fiat.

http://philip.greenspun.com/images/pcd3815/dublin-deux-chevaux-20.4.jpg

Now, now, don't diss that car. I had one for years. IMHO one of the most
clever car designs ever. It boasted features that none of the other cars
even came close to, regardless of which part of the planet they came
from. The epiphany happened on a German autobahn. Hardcore traffic jam,
nothing moved and it didn't look good for the next couple hours or so.
Within less than 60 seconds I had both front seats and the rear bench
sitting on the tarmac, so we could hold a proper poker game. No help,
all by myself. The guy who later joined us for the card game stood there
with his mouth wide open.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

I don't know which brands you're referring to, but I've owned EDSYN
(Engineering Dedicated To Suit Your Needs!) irons for 20+ years, and they
don't look anything like that.

 

[Allus Smith]

On 21 Apr 00:01, John-Del wrote:

On Apr 20, 5:41 pm, Allus Smith <allus_sm...@com.com> wrote:
On 20 Apr 22:23, John Larkin wrote:


There are probably 200 US cars with this sort of styling:
http://www.swiftweblog.com/media/1/20050616-C2006_300_2.jpg

You are wrong. Despite the recession, Chrysler has sold
considerably more than 200 of that model.

I should hope so too! However I didn't say that. I said:

"There are probably 200 US cars with this sort of styling [Chrysler
300] for every US car that looks like this [Chrysler ME] and that
one is still very angular."

Of course that Chrysler ME 4-12 is a concept car and not for sale.

 

[Joerg]

William Sommerwerck wrote:

I don't know which brands you're referring to, but I've owned EDSYN
(Engineering Dedicated To Suit Your Needs!) irons for 20+ years, and they
don't look anything like that.


.... and wherever in the world I happened to be, there were always those

Weller stations. Antex? Never seen it, never heard of it. Strange, ain't it?

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Joerg]

Allus Smith wrote:

On 21 Apr 00:01, John-Del wrote:

On Apr 20, 5:41 pm, Allus Smith <allus_sm...@com.com> wrote:
On 20 Apr 22:23, John Larkin wrote:

There are probably 200 US cars with this sort of styling:
http://www.swiftweblog.com/media/1/20050616-C2006_300_2.jpg
You are wrong. Despite the recession, Chrysler has sold
considerably more than 200 of that model.


I should hope so too! However I didn't say that. I said:

"There are probably 200 US cars with this sort of styling [Chrysler
300] for every US car that looks like this [Chrysler ME] and that
one is still very angular."

Of course that Chrysler ME 4-12 is a concept car and not for sale.

This is not a concept car and you can actually buy one for a reasonable
price. I lately had the pleasure and that thing sure corners well. Best
of all, on the freeway it doesn't use more gas than a compact passenger car:

http://www.chevrolet.com/corvette/

Same here:

http://www.dodge.com/en/2008/viper/

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[Allus Smith]

On 20 Apr 21:08, Allus Smith wrote:

On 21 Apr 01:08, William Sommerwerck wrote:

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy
too much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks
downright, well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too
but there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron
in the US with unregulated temperature still has great big
mofo screws holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a
sleek looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly
expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!


I don't know which brands you're referring to, but I've owned
EDSYN (Engineering Dedicated To Suit Your Needs!) irons for
20+ years, and they don't look anything like that.

EDSYN are lovely irons but none of them list for under $100 and
I believe they all have temperature regulation.

Apologies if I wasn't clear but EDSYN wasn't what I had in mind
when I said "An ordinary soldering iron in the US with
unregulated temperature". I mean the cheaper end of the market
but not as cheap the rock-bottom $5 irons!

http://www.edsyn.com/index.php?Mode=SolderingStations

 

[Joerg]

Allus Smith wrote:

On 20 Apr 21:08, Allus Smith wrote:

On 21 Apr 01:08, William Sommerwerck wrote:
All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy
too much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks
downright, well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too
but there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron
in the US with unregulated temperature still has great big
mofo screws holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a
sleek looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly
expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

I don't know which brands you're referring to, but I've owned
EDSYN (Engineering Dedicated To Suit Your Needs!) irons for
20+ years, and they don't look anything like that.


EDSYN are lovely irons but none of them list for under $100 and
I believe they all have temperature regulation.

Ahm, what? See below.

Apologies if I wasn't clear but EDSYN wasn't what I had in mind
when I said "An ordinary soldering iron in the US with
unregulated temperature". I mean the cheaper end of the market
but not as cheap the rock-bottom $5 irons!

http://www.edsyn.com/index.php?Mode=SolderingStations

Tell me, where's that ugly side-screw on this one?

http://www.edsyn.com/index.php?Mode=piw&pn=CL1481

Regarding your comment above, last time I checked $54.86 was still less
than $100 ...

Oh, and no temperature regulation

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

 

[terryc]

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:08:32 +0100, Allus Smith wrote:

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron in the US
with unregulated temperature still has great big mofo screws holding the
tip.

Lol, idiot yank doesn't realise that "Made in the USA" really means
assembled in the USA by illegal immigrant workers.

Welcome to the third work, Yank.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

terryc wrote:

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:08:32 +0100, Allus Smith wrote:

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron in the US
with unregulated temperature still has great big mofo screws holding the
tip.

Lol, idiot yank doesn't realise that "Made in the USA" really means
assembled in the USA by illegal immigrant workers.

Didn't you hear? A lot of them are out of work and driving
overloaded old pieces of junk back to mexico, loaded down with
everything they can haul.

Welcome to the third work, Yank.

You should talk. You Aussies bred and raised Phil Allison.


--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!

 

[Mr. Haney]

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:56:34 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
<mike.terrell@earthlink.net> wrote:

You should talk. You Aussies INbred and MISraised Phil Allison.

IFYPFY, idiot.

 

[John-Del]

On Apr 20, 5:41 pm, Allus Smith <allus_sm...@com.com> wrote:

On 20 Apr 22:23, John Larkin wrote:


There are probably 200 US cars with this sort of styling:
http://www.swiftweblog.com/media/1/20050616-C2006_300_2.jpg

You are wrong. Despite the recession, Chrysler has sold considerably
more than 200 of that model.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Allus Smith wrote:

On 20 Apr 21:08, Allus Smith wrote:

On 21 Apr 01:08, William Sommerwerck wrote:

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy
too much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks
downright, well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too
but there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron
in the US with unregulated temperature still has great big
mofo screws holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a
sleek looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly
expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!


I don't know which brands you're referring to, but I've owned
EDSYN (Engineering Dedicated To Suit Your Needs!) irons for
20+ years, and they don't look anything like that.


EDSYN are lovely irons but none of them list for under $100 and
I believe they all have temperature regulation.

Apologies if I wasn't clear but EDSYN wasn't what I had in mind
when I said "An ordinary soldering iron in the US with
unregulated temperature". I mean the cheaper end of the market
but not as cheap the rock-bottom $5 irons!

How about the Weller irons like the SP23? I have owned one or more at
a time from the early '70s. The tip is threaded into the heating
element and it retails for under $20. I bought a new one last year
after the threads finally corroded out of the element after 35 years of
use. I only use the non regulated irons to make cables, or for antique
electronics. For modern ESD sensitive equipment I used the Edsyn Loner
series and had three irons on my bench, one with a .015" tip in a
reducing collet.

I also have the 175 watt version that does use a set screw to hold the
tip.

25 watt:
<http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/CF_Files/model_detail.cfm?upc=037103169228>
175 watt:
<http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/CF_Files/model_detail.cfm?upc=037103474674>

--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense!

 

[geoff]

Allus Smith wrote:

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

OK

geoff

 

[Allus Smith]

On 21 Apr 01:45, Joerg wrote:

Allus Smith wrote:
On 20 Apr 21:08, Allus Smith wrote:

On 21 Apr 01:08, William Sommerwerck wrote:
All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how
crummy too much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks
downright, well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too
but there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering
iron in the US with unregulated temperature still has great
big mofo screws holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a
sleek looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly
expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

I don't know which brands you're referring to, but I've
owned EDSYN (Engineering Dedicated To Suit Your Needs!)
irons for 20+ years, and they don't look anything like that.


EDSYN are lovely irons but none of them list for under $100
and I believe they all have temperature regulation.


Ahm, what? See below.


Apologies if I wasn't clear but EDSYN wasn't what I had in
mind when I said "An ordinary soldering iron in the US with
unregulated temperature". I mean the cheaper end of the
market but not as cheap the rock-bottom $5 irons!

http://www.edsyn.com/index.php?Mode=SolderingStations


Tell me, where's that ugly side-screw on this one?

http://www.edsyn.com/index.php?Mode=piw&pn=CL1481

Regarding your comment above, last time I checked $54.86 was
still less than $100 ...

Oh, and no temperature regulation

Good point Joerg. I missed that one in the online catalogue.

You may be misunderstanding me if you think I said ALL basic
American soldering irons look Russian. I meant to say there was a
lot more of this sort of poor design in the US than in western
Europe. A single item doesn't really prove or disprove it.

However. as you kindly drew my attention to EDSYN then I show
illustrate the Antexes I mentioned.

<http://www.antex.co.uk/prodtype.asp?CAT_ID=180
&strPageHistory=category>

Consumer goods are cheaper in the US, so the usual $1 = Ł1 is
probably a good indicator of the sort of price level these irons
are at. It's the sub $20 market (including tax).