And the item arrived ... !!

[Arfa Daily]

Yet more on parcels, and how it can all be good sometimes. The item that I ordered from China, was delivered to my door at 9 am today - That's less than 24 hours after it actually left the seller, collected from him by DHL. Spot on accurate tracking info all the way. How good is that ?

So, I'm now the proud owner of a shiny (well, black actually) new hot air rework station for surface mount soldering. It has the hot air bit, with continuously variable settings for temperature and airflow, and a temperature controlled standard iron as well. Comes with a selection of 5 hot air nozzles, 3 tips for the soldering iron, a stand for the hot air handpiece, a stand for the iron, a spare element for the hot air handpiece, and a spare element for the iron. Stout all metal case with carrying handle. Separate digital displays for both soldering tools' temperature settings. Automatic cool down cycling after switch off. Air pump is almost silent in operation, and feeds the air via a good quality heatproof rubber tube. Solder iron plugs in with a decent ring-lock DIN plug.

And how much for all this ? 55 quid ! I know that it's a good quality unit, as I have been using the almost identical slightly less sophisticated model, that is owned by a colleague, for the last few weeks, and it does exactly what it says on the can, and does it well. I know that China is an emerging economy, but even so, how can they do tools like this for the money, and what chance does the rest of the world stand ? Now if they can just get their English a bit better . Printed on the top of the unit --

" CAUTION The pump screw (M5x10,White) offuselage bottom must be take-offed before the use. Otherwise the serious problem can be caused, Must affirm the red screw to take-off the fuselage bottom ! Before the transportation must be good eith the fuselage pump screw (M5x10.White) of the bottom lock, otherwise can cause the serious problem "

All punctuation - or lack of it - and spellings etc, exactly as they appear ! :-)

Best of it is, there are no white or red screws ! I had to work out that the two gold screws in the centre of the four rubber bits that came through the base, were probably holding down the pump base against those bits of rubber, which were probably the antivibration mounts. And so it proved.

Arfa

[tony sayer]

I think you'll find the average Chinese will work for a lot less that what the average Brit will work for. I hear also that they don't have as much legislative and H&S bollokx that we have..

So I'm told by the manager of a factory where production has shut down and been moved to .. China.....

Well at least we can teach 'em a thing or two about the Queens English and how she is spoken eh;?...

[geoff]

In message , Arfa Daily writes

So more hot air than normal then ha ha

Can you email me details - CET so has to have one of those

[Nick]

Production costs are much lower, also China wants/needs the influx of Western currency. There is some tendency towards loss leading that gives the dollar, or pound, benefit to their economy.

May 2010 I purchased from a local supplier some German manufactured ball joints @ £55per. I have used the same local supplier for about 30 years. This month I repeated the order. Supplier says you'll be happy to know the price has gone down to £21per. Goods arrived and they were def substandard. Threads & taper correct but poorly done, body construction had been severely reduced, which would have dire effects on the strength and rigidity of the ball joint. Didn't accept the delivery and returned them to supplier. Turns out these ball joints are chinese copies or knockoffs. They are s*1t and could cause serious harm if put into use.

I hope your gadget works well for you and is long lasting.

Nick.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I bought one - hot air only, and no displays, from CPC a few years ago for about that price. It's given good service. A bit noisy, though.

[Donwill]

It sounds very interesting, so, apart from soldering surface mount devices, are there any other uses you have found that it can be used for,e.g, welding PVC or other plastics? What temperature does it go up to? can you feed it with an inert gas to prevent oxidation? It sounds like a must have :-) . Don

[Jón Fairbairn]

Which probably means that the average Brit wants too much and the average Chinese doesn't realise how poor they are.

Which is to say that while British workers have gone from being exploited to being well (perhaps over-) protected, Chinese workers may still be subject to Dickensian conditions.

[Arfa Daily]

Hi Don

Temperature goes to 480 deg C. I have used it for working with heatshrink tubing, but have not tried thermal welding of plastic, although at that temperature, I'm sure that it would. Five different size tubular section nozzles come with it, ranging from about 2.5mm up to 8mm or so, and of course you could use it without any nozzle, I suppose, if you wanted large area hot air. As to whether you could feed it with an inert gas, I guess you could, if you took the cover off to get access to the air pump intake pipe. I got this unit from a FleaBay trader called dragondirectmall. If you look it up on there by it's model which is KADA 852D+, you should find their site, if you follow the one with the £55 price tag. On their site is a video of one of the units being built from start to finish, so you can get an idea of its quality, I guess, but you also get to see the air pump module being fitted, so that might give you an idea as to whether you could connect its inlet to a gas supply, rather than just leaving it open to the air. I actually found them very helpful on questions - if you can cope with the Chinese English ok - so you could perhaps ask them ?

Arfa

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Jón Fairbairn saying something like:

Oh, I think they know, all right. It's relative to local cost of living. Many young Chinese leave their villages to work in the factories and send their wages back, enduring dormitory living, regimented workplace practices and some fairly awful conditions.

Definitely. This particular Great Leap Forward is built on the exploited blood and sweat of the millions of factory fodder in the Chinese cities.

[tony sayer]

Yes...

And Yes...