So a co-worker and I tried a bake-off with a pair of the Metcal ultrafine and a WES51 with the finest tip I could find. Compared the two irons and rework effort on a few two terminal SMD parts with 65 and 24 year old hands and eyes also in the mix.
I worked with a stereo scope, my co-worker with bare eyes. You may draw your own conclusions on with of us is 65. I was able to use the Weller in one hand and the Metcal in the other to remove and replace a couple of 0402 parts. One iron touches each side of the part with a tweezer like action, melt both sides and lift. Clean up the pads, re-flux, grab the part with two irons and place it back on the pads. Not easy, but accomplished in not a lot more time than using two of the ultrafine. Significantly more challenge for me with the Weller... I'm much more steady using the ultrafine. As above, the Metcal is significantly easier for me to use where the main issue is shaking at the tip of the iron. The Metcal lets me have way less distance between my grip and the iron tip. That's the single major difference for me on this one quick test. The Weller did a great job in all other respects and seems a really good buy at the list price. I'd probably buy the Weller 40 years ago, for now, glad to have my existing Metcal and will buy a couple of the ultrafine wands. Greg - great suggestion of the WESD-51. It's a very capable iron with the very fine tips installed. B -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/5d9366de-3020-4ea9-ae22-e405d7ad6842%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
