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... only to regret it.

A few months ago, I bought a US-Made Aven Diopter lens and lamp for my workbench. Love it. The magnifying lens is sharp and clear with wide viewing angle, and precise optics. I never realized how easy it is working on soldering or PCB stuffing looking through a big magnifying glass (as big as your face).

It was also pretty expensive. But I like it very much.

While browsing eBay, I saw a *similar* looking lamp... and it costs 1/4 of what I paid for the Aven. Hmmm.... THAT's A GOOD DEAL! (I thought.) So I bought one as a spare. And just kept it packed in the box.

Unfortunately, yesterday, my Aven broke. Some metal rod/hook snapped and now the lamp wouldn't stay upright. I was pretty upset about this. It's only a few months old. But good news... It comes with a 5 YEAR warranty (from the US company based in Michigan)! I called the manufacturer, and she gave me an RMA and their UPS account # so it will be shipped on their tab. They'll either fix it or replace it. That's fine with me. Happy about the service too.

So now I'm out of a lens/lamp... I need to do some soldering so I hooked up my eBay find to my workbench. I was expecting it to be the same quality.

BOY, was I mistaken. IT WAS CRAP! The construction was bad, it doesn't move as smoothly as my Aven, I can see the washers in the thing are crooked and rippled... and the WORST THING OF ALL.... the LENS... the LENS is total CRAP, unusable. Mind you, the lens is as big as my Aven, but the focusing area is probably just as big as my fist (and only in the dead center)... and only if it's within maybe 3-4" away... beyond that, it's severely distorted, totally unusable, giving you a headache when you look through it.

NOW I KNOW WHY the Aven costs 4x as much. The diopter lens on the AVen could magnify things, with a wide field angle and deep depth of field. You could be working hours looking through it and not get a headache.

The eBay lens is kinda like... hmmm... do you know those toy magnifying glass made of plastic that's only good for burning matches via solar rays?... but doing any serious visual magnifying work on it is out of the question? That's the quality of the eBay lamp I bought.

You think I would learn my lesson now, huh?....

Well, let me tell you about this digital scale I bought on eBay. If you put your hand 1" over the weighing plate, the digital scale registers a scale reading!!!! I called the US distributor of this China crap.... and the girl said "Do you have anti-static spray? You should spray the weighing scale. It's static electricity that causes the numbers to move when you put your hand 1" over the top of the plate." And she said... while we include an AC Adapter, it's recommended you use the battery. Otherwise, the numbers jump up and down using the AC adapter." I said I want to return it for a refund.

She said "okay, remove the battery holder door, mail it to us and we'll give you a refund." I said "What about the unit? Don't you want it back?"

She said ..."No, just chuck it in the trash."

CRAP. Just plain crap.

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What model number is that Aven illuminated magnifier? If you had to buy a new one now, which one would you get?

This is the Digikey part# 243-1027-ND
If this thing broke and I had to buy a new one, I'll buy the same model.

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I checked it out, looked at some of the other offerings and bought that exact one. I see the replacement bulbs are $9 but you can get ones that will fit for like $3 at other places. Is there any certain color temperature that works better than others? I think the ones I got were 4100K.

Now I just need to get a solder dispenser. I keep forgetting that when I order something else. Any other interesting tools or gadgets that will help an old vacuum tube fart work on solid state stuff?

I just got the Aven magnifier in today. I got it for $120 from All-Spec. It's perfect. Now I just need to find a way to mount it down.

I was looking at the labels on the box and the light itself. It's made in China but it still seems to be a quality item like you said. You'd probably end up paying another $100-200 to get an equivalent light made in the US, Germany, Great Britain or Norway.

Guess I was wrong. I didn't know Aven was made in China. The lens quality is still better than my eBay find though. I don't get headaches from it even after working several hours.

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One thing about Chinese-manufactured gear...the manufacturer will make it EXACTLY as good as you tell/pay them to, not one whit better. You CAN get good gear out of them...you just have to be willing to pay for it.

I think that the big problem with stuff made there is that the people outsourcing it get greedy and go with minimum workable spec..."you can make it for HOW much? COOL!"

My $0.02 worth.

Scott