I always thought the idea of fixed temperature metcal stations strange but they are excellent. Not crazy about the new orange colour scheme . Great video as always thanks Regards Chris.
One seemingly mundane thing that can make a big difference to long sessions of delicate soldering is to get the handpiece cord set up comfortably. I like to set up an arrangement where the cord drapes down to the handpiece from above, for example from a support attached to an upper shelf above the bench. No dragging on the bench, no dropping down off the edge of the bench, and so on.
I recently did a review of the Atten ST-1509 station and for less than half the price it appears a better station with up to 150 Watt power. The Chinese are finally coming up with professional equipment to compete with Metcal, JBC and Weller.
I thing about swiching from hakko to metcal or jbc . But your video showed me again that metcal is just a little bit better then jbc. Which one do you thing is better metcal or jbc .
Wow. That contrast on firmware upgrade paints a wery poor picture of their QC. And that factory-reset didn't turn it back to reasonable defaults, unbelievable!
It's a little bit puzzling, since that's the only parameter that doesn't get reset to something sensible. Temperature, sleep timers etc all go to normal values.
Im spoiled by big ass T12s that you can grab with your base hands even after extensive use, i would be quite scared of tiny piece of meal as hot as 400c flinging into my monitor or something
The Metcal MX/CV cartridge system is probably the easiest out of the lot to swap out, but you do need the silicone tab. JBC's system is OK, but I prefer to grab the Metcal silicone tab to remove those too.
@@vmiguel1988 How long do jbc tips last? In videos I always hear that they turn dark quickly, but rarely did a person that uses jbc a LOT tell, how many hours/years a tip has until you need to replace it.
@@HannesMrg The dark color is just oxidation from operating at high temperatures for too long. It happens to all irons overtime, especially smaller tips with less thermal mass. JBC cartridges are smaller with less metal to dissipate excess heat. Metcal tips don't oxidize as rapidly because they operate at a fixed temperature, which is below the oxidation temperature. Oxidation, contrary to what you read, isn't as catastrophic as it is made out to be. It can often be cleaned off with a tip rejuvenator with boric acid mixed with flux. Occasionally, you will have tips where the external plating has oxidized away. This can be repaired a few minutes by soaking a gauge pad in a nickel or copper plating solution and connecting a 5v anode to the tip and the cathode to the pad.
Still, only MX and CV is good from Metcal. I just got my Hantek Powersupply with 3 channels for testing now. Waiting for your review, but this time i got mine before you. :-)
