Eric wrote:
We could all argue over this until the cows come home, and then still some
more argue.

If anyone else out there would like to try this idea, and give us a full
report back afterwards, we will be all very grateful.

Just one point -- because aluminum is so common, and known to have such good
heat transfer, the notion of its use in a soldering tip is not even
remotely "non obvious," to borrow a Patent Office term.

That (to the best of my knowledge) none of the world's soldering iron
manufacturers offers such a tip is a pretty good indicator of its
non-practicability.

--
John Miller
Email address: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm

This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible
with raisins in it.
-Dorothy Parker