3 ms·

I like my Metcal and wouldn't be without it. But by most accounts the '936 clones do fine with real Hakko tips. A lot of technicians seem to like to have temp

I like my Metcal and wouldn't be without it. But by most accounts the '936 clones do fine with real Hakko tips. A lot of technicians seem to like to have temperature knobs so they can dial the temperature around instead of swapping out for an appropriately sized tip: this works of course except when it doesn't.

squarefoot 4y ago
The problem with Hakko clones aren't just the tips but the handpiece whose thermal contact between the heater and the tip is often unreliable, and the low thermal mass makes it hard to solder bigger tabs without raising the temperature to absurd levels. I swapped 3 hand pieces and two heaters on mine before giving up, reverting for a while to my two 40 years old gun shaped irons (25W and 100W) then getting used Wellers, then finally the Pinecil, which I mostly bought because I wanted to support the Pinephone project, and then revealed itself as a really nice and functional solder iron.