"Ian" wrote in message
...

"ian field" wrote in message
...

"Jim Thompson" wrote in
message ...
I have an absolutely ancient Weller WTCPN soldering station that is
disintegrating... it's probably at least 33 years old.

I don't have any need for surface mount sophistication.

What are people's thoughts on a cheapy replacement such as...

Since Weller became Cooper Tools, the bean counters took over the
asylum - they cut corners on manufacturing and reliability went down the
gurgler.

When my last Weller fell to bits I bought an Antex 25W iron as a stop
gap, and have been using Antex ever since.

I did treat myself to a 50W Antex TC iron but TBH I don't see much
advantage over the standard X25.

Interesting - Antex used to be rubbish many years ago, Wellers were far
better.

Yes I remember when Weller irons were worth having (a very long time ago).

A company I worked for bought out a competitor and dumped all the stuff they
didn't want in a spare loading bay with a sign; "help yourself". - I grabbed
a large box of Weller irons that had been taken apart and not put back
together.

That collection lasted me many years, but as the spares got older and
scruffier it got harder to maintain a reliable iron - so I bought a brand
new one.

By this time Weller had become Cooper Tools and quality had gone down the
gurgler. In the new iron, the thermostat went S/C in less than 2 weeks -
Cooper Tools sent me a replacement FOC - which lasted almost a month before
going S/C and burning out the element.

After buying a new element, I decided not to let that happen again, so I
modified an old stat with an opto-interrupter to detect the position of the
curie-magnet pushrod. With suitable circuitry to control a triac in the base
unit I got a few more years out of it before the cheaper plating on the tip
caused a tip to burst with copper oxide inside the element tube - making it
impossible to remove without destroying the element.

The only problems I've had with Antex irons is the very fine element wire
can be susceptible if your local supply has bad spikes - but it wasn't just
irons suffering damage until I installed spike suppressors.
110V versions would probably be much more robust in this regard.

The other problem is they can snap if dropped, but the only time I've had
that happen, the lead was coiled up around the handle.