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Bob
Novell's Nook on the World
Wide Web
I pulled
a Radio Shack Dual Output Soldering Iron Station from a dumpster. It
was missing the soldering iron tip. I stopped at a Radio Shack and was
told that I'd have to order them online.Replacement Tips for Radio Shack Soldering Iron Station 204/40 Watt Cat No. 64-2184 Page added to site: 09/15/2011 I went to the Radio Shack web site and found the Soldering Work Station with Dual-Powered Iron page. The soldering station is $24.90 and I figured I'd made a good find. Then I clicked the link on that page for replacement tips and went to the RadioShack® Light-Duty Tips page. The price for a set of 2 is $6.49. So, I'm thinking, well a bit high but still, this is a pretty good dumpster find. I added the tips to my shopping cart and went to check out. Then I found out the shipping would be $6.05 - the find did not look as good now. I decided that $12.54 was too much - after all, I have two good soldering irons. Well, I went to Gateway Electronics, one of the few electronics parts stores in St. Louis, for some other things. I found a dual power soldering iron station which looked like the Radio Shack I pulled out of the dumpster. Go to this page on the Gateway Electronics web site to see it. However, hang on before you go there - I use Firefox 3.6.17 and I could not get some of the things (most of them actually) on the home page to work with Firefox. For instance, when I clicked the dropdown list box which shows "Browse Categories" the dropdown list appears but it either closes as soon as I move the mouse or it takes me to https://secure1.make-a-store.com/cgi-bin/gatewaycatalog/myorder.cgi without my clicking on anything. SO - I had to use Internet Explorer (shudder - horrors) to view the site. I clicked the download list, clicked Soldering Supplies and went to http://www.gatewaycatalog.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=4700. Then I scrolled down and clicked on the unit and was taken to this page for the dual power soldering station. The only difference that I could see (remember, I found it at Gateways's store in St. Louis so I could look at the actual thing) was that instead of it saying RadioShack on the base and solder iron, it said Pro'sKit. As far as I could tell, it was the same unit. I asked someone and they said it was the same, just a different name. I asked about replacement tips - they carry two which will fit it.
So, for $10.90 I got three tips - not a super duper bargain but better than getting two tips from Radio Shack for $12.54. There was no way I was going to pay $6.05 for shipping. My wife runs a business which ships out a lot of packages and I know that you could ship those two tips for much less than $6.05. And there's just the principle of the thing - why couldn't I buy it at a Radio Shack store? I went to Google to see if I could find the Eclipse tips anywhere and the first hit (a "paid" hit) was for Sears. I didn't think they would carry it but I went to the page and found that they have the soldering station for $26.99 - $2.09 more than Gateway Electronics. Sears also lists a lot of soldering stations - some of them top of the line, on their website, I was surprised, I would not have expected it. However, I didn't see any replacement tips and you would probably have to order online and pay shipping if they did carry the tips. Well, you can look at the Google results yourself and see what you can find for replacement tips. One thing - I added a replacement tip from Gateway Electronics to the shopping cart and then did a shipping "estimate" request and found that it would cost $10.27 - that makes the cost of one tip from Gateway is more (total $13.22) than two tips ($12.54) from Radio Shack! And, the total for the three I bought at the Gateway Electronics store, in person, is lower than both Radio Shack and Gateway online. Had I found Gateway Electronics online - if they weren't here in St. Louis and I was able to go there and buy without messing with shipping - I would not have bought from them. Well, at least you now know that there are compatible tips out there. Good luck finding a better price online, with shipping. I just thought I put up this page to at least let people know that there are tips out there, other than those from Radio Shack. |
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