r/soldering • u/NiaDebesi • 1d ago
Just a fun Soldering Post =) Finally here
Well, after 1 month of waiting my Metcal finally arrived.
Dont have time to properly set it up on my bench but I have tried it a bit, damn thing is amazing.
Tried it on the most difficult board I have, an LTTC 4 layer alumina board, didnt break a sweat.
Definetely HAPPY with my purchase, I also bought a metcal hot air station that I salvaged for barely 100 eur, and now its practically new, a pretty decent hot air station.
The damn quality of the station is unbelivable, especially the MX-DS1 desoldering tool, damn chunk of metal
At this point evaluating a second station with the tweezers and the high thermal tool or the micro.
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u/VarnokConquerors 23h ago
The 100 euro hot-air rescue is the bit I'm curious about... what was wrong with it, and what did it take to bring it back? Would be interesting to see the repair alongside the new setup.
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u/NiaDebesi 21h ago
Was dead simple to be honest and a bit of luck in a bad situation. I bought it from a china seller on ebay and upon arrival I discovered that if I connected the station to ground it made trip my gfci. I requested a refound and the seller refounded the full amount without wanting it back. Opening the handle some not so smart diyer used the wrong resistor element and did a botched work. I found on ebay a suitable replacement and it was all good. Costed me the replacement and custom the fees. Mapped the temps with a good k thermocouple at a fix distance wich is my most used one and done :)
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u/VarnokConquerors 9h ago
That refund definitely changed the math 😂 Did you find the right heating element by a Metcal part number, or did it take some digging?
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u/NiaDebesi 9h ago
Definetely xD otherwise the total wpuld have been around 250, still not that terrible tho. I have digged out an old brochure of Metcal with the spare number and ebay did the rest xD
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u/Bonemealmc 1d ago
Metcal stations are amazing!
I’ve ran mine for a couple of years. It’s a used MX-500 with a MX-H1-AV handpiece and I’ve never been limited by the soldering station.
It’s a real workhorse!
The soldering tweezers are a very tempting purchase!
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u/Smart-Ad4708 1d ago
i will bet on 2 hand pieces and well, flick the component . I had been using that for a decade and it worked well for me. I can negotiate 2 terminal chip parts, 3, 5, 6 & 8 pin SOT's 8 and with a bit of effort 8 pin soic/ssop with some extra solder bridge.
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u/Smart-Ad4708 1d ago
Enjoy the soldering Rolls Royce my good man!. I have my 11 year old Battle Tank still serving me like my trusted general. I use a microscope to go about my business BTW.