I've had a couple of the tips where one of the contact rings has decided to unclip itself that I've had to throw in the trash can. Do the genuine Hakko tips have the same issues or are they soldered rings on them?
Oh, the genuine Hakko T12 cartidges are a 10-year tool, easily. Much better quality than the cheap Chinesium ones for sure. One genuine cartridge costs as much as a dozen cheapies, but for sure it's worth splurging on genuine for the ones you use all the time. I expect for most folks, that's probably a long conical, a BC1 or BC2(1.1mm/2.1mm bevel-cut conical), and a 2-4mm chisel. An ILS if you use that all the time and a BCM2 (hollow bevel-cut conical) for drag-soldering and fixing bridges as I don't think I've seen the cheapos come in that style.
I had one where the entire plastic/contact end was sortof zig-zag out of alignment and even though I tried sanding the plastic to bring them all in line, I couldn't get a reliable connection. Aside from that one, all of them I've bought have been good. I haven't seen the "shedding contacts" failure mode yet (knock on wood). I'll keep my eyes peeled for such shenanigans as the contact sockets can be a bit hinky anyways; I had one out of 3 handles that just wouldn't make reliable contact on half my tips. i don't need them melting down in case of a short.
It is my understanding that the counterfeit Hakko tips seen all over fleaBay and Amazon in single packaging are considerably better quality than the 5/$10 ones I've bought; I can tell you that the Aoyue T13 cartridges (short version of the T12) I got ten years ago are all still usable except the J1 which was a hair-thin tip when it was new.
I had one bounce off my head once when I was a kid. Teaches you a lot of respect for the things.
Uhuh. I was about 15 when I spent my holidays working at a small engineering company specializing in the then nascent PLCs and related stuff. One of my tasks was to build a better 24VDC power supply for the test stand (like the usual, industrial DC, but smoother...)
The companies' office was in a converted flat in a nice housing area, so complete with stucco ceilings.
The power supply had 6 big capacitors, one of which got his polarity misplaced.
They had to live with the ugly brown stain at the ceiling until they moved out.
Whenever I entered the lab during my association with this company, which did last several years, someone would look up.
We do not speak of the Motorola Incident.
mnem
I am MOOP.