As the holiday’s approached we went through the usual here in the Itinifni house “what do you want…”. When the wife and kids were asking me I gave them the same old thing, “not much”. Let’s face it, I’m a semi-responsible 50 year old male, when I want something and feel we can afford it I buy it. Besides, I buy for myself better than anyone else does.
One day as my wife and daughter were heading out shopping I printed off a few things I could use for modding and said that’s it, nothing else. Among those items were 15w tips for my cheapo R/S soldering iron. I find they work well in the 15/30w iron, they’re very small and toggling between the 15/30w setting they heat fast and probably a higher temp than R/S intended for the iron. I’ve become adept at using it this way. The problem is they wear out fairly quickly, after building 5 lights (drivers with extra 7135s the LEDs and several early failed attempts) I’m on my second tip. I told my wife to get whatever the store had in stock which is usually two or three on the shelf.
Long story but this is what I got.
Small wire cutters and needle nose pliars (great because all my tools are way to large), tip tinning paste and two tip cleaners. Great but 10 15w tips? She cleaned out two stores! That’s getting close to a life time supply for me.
Anyway, nice thought.
Then I open another gift.
Fifty50 more tips! She said “your doing that flashlight thing and you said to clean out the store…”. The thought is great but at $3 each that’s $180 in tips for a $15 soldering iron. The soldering station I could have for that cash…
Think fast Matt, handle this tactfully, “I don’t need that many, we’ll return a few”.
We went to the mall tonight, while my wife and daughter exchanged a few gifts I went to R/S and explained the situation to the manager. After a good laugh he said “she doesn’t solder does she?” “No, but I do”.
Love the story! And love what happens when someone takes you literally.
I remember teaching a girlfriend to drive standard transmission… we were turning left against traffic, she kept stalling, so finally I said, “floor it and pop the clutch”. In my mind, that meant, “get it up to around 3000 and don’t worry too much about the clutch”. What I got was exactly what I asked for.
is that as bad as the diaper and formula stage? the way i look at it, by the time collage comes around you have a better idea how much these lil buggers actually cost. at least im hoping…
