Now I know I am going to come out looking like some iconoclastic
slack-jaw on this one, and I do have several Weller guns and irons
(and they are stone reliable), but I actually prefer a Wen soldering
gun over the Weller.
I don't know the model number, but I spent years as a boy making
scratch-built slot cars. My father had a Wen soldering gun (seems
like a model 100), but it heated fasted, got hotter, was more compact,
the tips lasted longer and generally was more "ergonomically pleasing"
than the Wellers. I currently do not have a Wen (I have Wellers), and
my father will not part with his (40+ years old), but when we were
building our piano wire, brass rod and copper tubing frames, all of us
waited to use the Wen gun rather than the Wellers that were around.
The Wen gun honestly made you look more talented (soldering-wise) and
was much faster and easier to use (these were often eight hour days of
designing, building, redesigning, rebuilding, etc., frames).
I checked McMaster Carr, MSC and Grangers, and could not find a
listing for Wen soldering guns -- might be another case of Beta vs.
VHS...
Again, the Wellers are dependable, but for production use, that Wen
was much better.
doug
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