Hakko Wire Stripper Frustration

[IC]

I'm currently after a Hakko FT-801 electronic wire stripper. I have scoured the Hakko site only to discover that this product is available in every market except Oceania, namely Australia. Does anyone know as to why Hakko do not offer this product here in Australia.

I'm keen to hear advice from others on an equivalent product that is available here. I'm a little perplexed as to why so many things are not available here. I'm interested if the collective knowledge is aware of alternative sources that will allow me to access this product ...... very frustrating.

Thanks in advance for any advire or direction to an alternative that is actually purchasable in Australia.

[IanB]

I have seen that before. It struck me as a triumph of technology over design. Spending $300 to do a $10 job. Really?

I can imagine that in a production environment where someone needs to strip a wire once every second for 8 hours a day this device might come into its own. But then purchasing it would be no issue--a business would be buying several of them and could no doubt get them on special order.

But for an individual in the home workshop? Is it really useful?

[Bored@Work]

Does anyone know as to why Hakko do not offer this product here in Australia.

That could be a patent thing. Hakko doesn't sell some soldering iron tips in some markets because of patents. It might be the same with the wire stripper. Or it could just be that some MBA' Excel sheet says they won't make enough money in Australia.

BTW, there are studies that approximately 80% of business Excel sheets have serious errors.

[nanofrog]

Perhaps purchasing it from another country, and getting any other odds/ends needed to make it work (i.e. step-down transformer if sourced from the US, different plug if it has a 220V/50Hz transformer)?

[FreeThinker]

Yep Opinions are like arseholes... we all have one, but as to the wire strippers even if I had an unlimited budget I wouldn't buy one when a good pair of manual strippers work as well for a fraction of the cost.Maybe I'm just a tightwad . Enjoy your new found wealth but temper it with reason and you won't go to far wrong...lucky bugger!

[IC]

Thanks FreeThinker

Yes you are right, manual strippers are great, however on very fine wire it's hard not to nick the strands. Possibly this is just a folly rather than a prudent decision, however, if it solves a problem then the investment is vindicated.

Yes I thank my wife every day, life hasn't changed much, just a new house, new car (only one) ..... and best of all a new lab .... that part is beyond awesome. If you ever find yourself in the situation of buying a Rohde & Schwarz .... tread carefully ..... lots of menus, lots of options, lots to get lost in. I find myself working on a project then skipping it in preference to playing with the scope. The reality is that this is what all scopes should be. I'm luck to be in the position of owning one now, spoilt ... yes. Sometimes I sit in awe of this machine .... it seems to be the folly of men who have developed a machine beyond our needs or capabilities ..... it is beyond description .... some days it frightens me .....

Manual is ok and be the preferred option, however I'm keen to trial the Hakko, if it's good I'll do a post .... on the proviso that I can get one .... living in hope that I can get one or something similar .... regards

[IC]

Hey .... FreeThinker ..... my wife's a millionaire, I'm not, though I'm lucky I married her.

Thanks for the suggestion ..... Life certainly is different, retired asap, teaching 'reading recovery' at the local school, now volunteer bus driver for pick up and drop off at a school for the disabled .... plus time to give to electronics in a serious way.

Sadly Hakko only talk to Billionaires or people who own small countries with lots of oil ..... bugger.

As Einstein said ... "It's all relative" ...... like the golden rule of arts and sciences .... "Those who have the gold make the rules" ... ceteris paribus

[nukie]

I ain't no hero but I know my way around the Aus goods and their extravagant prices LOL! Actually prices has gone down a little buy still hell a lot cheaper in the states and Asia.

Contact Mektronics in Melbourne. Make sure you talk to the oldest wise man there, because he's the owner and the person who worked very hard in the 80s to introduce Hakko to Aus market. He might be able to help you if you insist on buying local.

I am curious why Hakko stripper? There are other brands.

[Monkeh]

I'm sure if you can find a reputable seller in a 240V equipped country, there'll be a member here willing to organise getting one to you.

[IC]

Nukie, why HAKKO you ask, the reason was that when we moved house and lab I decided to update all my equipment. In doing this I agonised  about lots of brands, their pros and cons. In the end Hakko were available locally, lots of people use their gear and seemed a better option than Metcal, Pace, Thermaltronics .... lots of cutting edge technology in the latter but when things go wrong frustration sets in.

Japanese usually means well made, longevity and good support through a well backed dealer infrastructure.

Borrowed an ex work colleagues Metcal .... the Curie principal was great for a few days, then an intermittent problem, then random shutdowns. Less than confidence inspiring. I have used Hakko in the past, good performance and never missed a beat. Now using an FM206, all in one box, works every time.

Other brands suffer the same shortcomings, yes I'm aware of them .... but. I'll give Mektronics a go ... thanks for the information.

[IanB]

To IanB's response .... YES .....  ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Wow...chip on your shoulder much?

I didn't call you a fool or tell you not to get one, I merely questioned the utility of such a wildly over-engineered mouse trap to the average person.

Forums like these are places for lively discussion about interesting topics. If you are not able to tolerate the cut and thrust of lively debate, maybe the internet is not the place for you?

In case you are interested, yes I can afford one, yes it would make a cute toy, and no I don't intend to buy one.

[vk6zgo]

Nukie, why HAKKO you ask, the reason was that when we moved house and lab I decided to update all my equipment. In doing this I agonised  about lots of brands, their pros and cons. In the end Hakko were available locally, lots of people use their gear and seemed a better option than Metcal, Pace, Thermaltronics .... lots of cutting edge technology in the latter but when things go wrong frustration sets in.

Japanese usually means well made, longevity and good support through a well backed dealer infrastructure.

Borrowed an ex work colleagues Metcal .... the Curie principal was great for a few days, then an intermittent problem, then random shutdowns. Less than confidence inspiring. I have used Hakko in the past, good performance and never missed a beat. Now using an FM206, all in one box, works every time.

Other brands suffer the same shortcomings, yes I'm aware of them .... but. I'll give Mektronics a go ... thanks for the information.

The thermal strippers have been around for a long time,since the 1970s.
When I was first introduced to High Reliability Hand Soldering,they had several set up for the course.
Telecom Aust used to do a lot of in-house Phone refurbishment then,possibly that was why they recommended it in the course.
If I remember correctly,the ones they had were from Pace,or Royel (Aust. company),so there may be a number of companies that make them.
With the Hakko one,possibly you could take your wife to the UK,or Germany on a "Second Honeymoon",& pick up a 240V one there!

 

[cybergibbons]

They aren't always a gimmick. For soldering cable assemblies with thin multicore cables with PTFE insulation, there is no other way to strip the wires without either nicking or causing the cross section of the core to reduce. All cable assemblies in aircraft and spacecraft, and a lot of the higher end telecoms gear will be prepared using these. Imagine connecting up a 100-way cable and slicing through one strand toward the end!

[Simon]

Well said - it's something I would suggest Dave address if he would like this forum to succeed and not become an embarrassment to the eevblog brand.  My 2 cents.

The solution would be to ban a good portion of the membership. it is blatantly obvious that the "status" shown on ones username merely reflects the amount of posts made by the member. To assume anything else is silly and the karma thing was abandoned long ago because people were found to be not mature enough to handle it. There is a tendency however for people to feel that after being on the board for so long and and made so many posts they can do and say as they please. One such member has already been banned and others can happily follow. but on the plus side you can ignore threads you do not like the tone of and the thread will soon die out. feeding it and moaning about it is a contradiction.

There is one thing that cannot be controlled and that is peoples attitude.

[Simon]

There is one thing that cannot be controlled and that is peoples attitude.

Actually, that's exactly what a moderator's job is.

I can't change people. I can only delete inappropriate posts and ban people, if someone is a jerk I can't change that. my attitude is not like it or leave but be realistic. Ignore the shit stirring and if your part of the politically correct brigade then I can help you taking offence at 80% of what people say.

In the case of this thread i think an equal amount of mud has been thrown from both sides so I think it would be unfair to "moderate" either, both can stand proudly making fools of themselves !

[Simon]

I left the electro-tech forum because it was full of nastiness, it was not a nice place at all with quite few moderators who did most of the mud throwing. I don't set the tone of the forum it sets itself. It used to be a much nicer place but then there were a fraction of the members. The original intention of this forum was for freedom of speech. Unfortunately people are not mature enough for that. So what do you expect me to do about it. moderating is not as simple as deleting one post, in this case I'd just delete the whole thread. what would you do if you were trying to moderate this thread ?

[Simon]

BoredAtWork is frequently unnecessarily rude to people.

yep I know and I have had to delete a number of posts he made lately and so has Dave,

[IC]

The problem with blogs, irrespective of their construct and audience is that you will always get people who are inappropriate and enjoy the moral high ground of anonymity.

On the whole I enjoy this blog and the good camaraderie shown by its members. I believe that people truly wish to help and support one another. Sadly and possibly naively I though that sharing some personal information would be handled with a lot more maturity, obviously not. One shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water, so I will persue my membership of such. However, I call upon the moderators to curb the inane immaturity of some. My initial post was about a wire stripper, I had expected some lively debate on wire strippers. Sadly the posts became a slip into the mire, a waste of most peoples time.

Some responses did make me smile and some were genuine in nature. Although my circumstances have changed I'm even busier in retirement, giving back to the community. Yes the trip to Europe sounds good, however, commitments, like everyone preclude me from this option.

Thank you to all who have offered the genuine advice, greatly appreciated.

What has and is happening is a debate on appropriateness and respect for others who may or may not find themselves in a better position.

I thought that the crux of the whole thing was Electronics and its various incarnations .... well that's what I look for when I log on.

Thank you to Simon, CyberGibbons, George Graves, vk6zgo, sound like some of you are equally miffed by the inappropriateness of others. Please do not expose yourself through the blog, it may be at the cost of others derision.

Now, was someone talking about a HAKKO FT-801 wire stripper, or is there better alternatives. Yes I'm working with some PTFE wire and a wire I have never seen before (brought in by a friend from America, a present of sorts) it has PEEK shielding, some fancy plastic that meets medical standards .... never look a gift horse in the mouth ....

[cybergibbons]

The ones used in a production facility I worked in were Meisei Hotweezers I think:
http://www.series4.co.uk/prodeqpt/section01/ds5.htm

Seriously expensive!

[amyk]

If/when you get one, please do a review!

[T4P]

Somebody talked about this and it's time i harped about it
http://patcoinc.net/PTS-10.html
Well it's a wire stripper , it's expensive because it's demand is low .
Yes , the base looks like everything a analog soldering station does , the wire stripper ? Nothing much better then a glorified soldering iron with a melted insulation puller . Too bad if silicone is untouchable you still have to fall back to your wire strippers .
Sadly the Patco is a 120V item , expensive for something so small , and it's only 200C , some wires won't even budge .

[PetrosA]

Personally, I don't understand being negative about people owning or wanting to buy better tools. Tools are probably the most personal thing there is when it comes to how we work (especially at the hobbyist level) and they're like opinions - no right or wrong ones exist. The only exception to this rule would be when working to some spec - then your tools rightly come under scrutiny

[robrenz]

Not disputing the nicety of the thermal strippers at all, l but I have these Knipex for the teflon, fep, silicone, etc insulation.
Yes they are crazy expensive but the build quality and function of these warrants the price (and I can afford it ).
http://chadstoolbox.com/121202knipex78inchtefloninsulationstrippers.aspx
I also have these Knipex which are very handy for all other stripping. Super quick and no adjustment for wire size. http://chadstoolbox.com/1242195knipex775inchuniversalinsulationstripper-awg7-32.aspx

For more detail on these the PDF of the Knipex catalog is here http://chadsdownloads.com/pdf/KNIPEX-Catalogue_en.pdf

[T4P]

And the biggest problem is , there isn't anything remotely resembling a thermal stripper here in my town !




Nobody's actually too interested in electronics to have a electronics lab at home ! ( Well , if i were to say nobody , don't throw me into the equation )
And i'm not english or american or australian . Just a SG Chinese . Yes that .
And i don't know how to speak chinese so expect to sound more like a Irish man with a smoker's voice .

[MarkS]

Personally, I don't understand being negative about people owning or wanting to buy better tools.

I don't think anyone here has a problem with someone wanting better tools. The issue is that until cybergibbons posted a good reason for their existence, this tool looked like a sledge hammer being marketed for killing ants. Even with cybergibbons' post, I still cannot justify the purchase, even if I had the money. Not when there are perfectly good strippers on the market for a fraction of the cost.

Ultimately, I think this whole thread is about showing off what someone has and/or can buy, rather than a constructive post about better tools. It is like if I (an electronics hobbyist) were to buy a 4GHz scope. The only reason I would have in doing so is bragging rights. In other words, it's ego. Hence the "animated" discussion.