Ryobi has GOT to be joking with this soldering iron
Channel: Cathode Ray Dude [CRD]
Date: 2021-12-27

I have opened up a fair number of Objects before and almost never found another Whole Object inside like this. Ryobi! What are you doing!

The title of this video describes the primary punchline, but it's also just an overview of the whole tool's build quality, which I think is worth your time! Ryobi did some wild stuff here! If you just wanna see the Big Reveal it's at 29:17.

Since posting this to Patreon I've been informed that the iron body is made of PBT (don't see that too often in tools) and the part I thought was fiber reinforced nylon is actually something called "liquid crystal polymer," a high-spec engineering plastic that I think I recognize from some little SCSI connector bodies. I'm sure neither of these materials are THAT special, but in a consumer tool they seem pretty exotic.

Additionally, I thought it was interesting that the lamp chassis is PC+ABS+FR(40), so it contains flame retardant. It feels weird that the iron, which is meant to get very hot, does not have this, while the lamp, which produces no mentionable heat, does. One suggestion I've received is that lamps are regulated by law to require FR. It's also possible that they don't expect the iron to ever be used near tools like grinders or torches, so it's not about what the tool itself does, but the environment it'll be in.

I've also learned that Hakko irons have exposed ceramic elements, and it sure looks like they use PVC cords. To which I respond: that's why I bought a Weller.

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Chapters:
00:00 The problem
01:46 Existing solutions
05:57 Ryobi options
10:20 Station overview
21:21 The first issue
26:13 Taking it apart
29:17 The insides (The Big Reveal)
34:36 Other quality issues
39:33 Chassis quality
41:34 Conclusions
42:28 Second Ryobi product
46:05 Outro