Homebrew PCBs

--- Leon Heller <leon_heller@...> wrote:

> Metcal equipment is much better, IMHO. It's very
> expensive new, but often
> available at reasonable prices on eBay.

Hello Leon!

I've had poor experiences with metcal equipment. When
it works, it works well, but it does not hold up as
well as pace. The metcal stuff has very modern
ergonomics. In fact, the ergonomics are better than
than any other equipment available. However, it's not
as well made as pace and cannot hold up in an
industrial environment (Which is why you rarely see it
in production centers that really turn out a lot of
work...).

As far as a feature for feature comparision, metcal
offers everything that pace does (And visa versa), but
the quality is just not there with the metcal gear and
when it fails, your done for the day (Which we cannot
afford). FWIW, we have 5 pace stations and we have
never had a station fail. Now, thats not to say we
have not had minor failures like a solder pin breaking
after 5 to 7 years of being on for 12 hours a day, but
nothing major: Nothing expensive or anything that
would shut us down for a day. I cannot say the same
for the metcal units we have used (And subsequently
gotten rid of).

Now, pace has been selling rework stations for 30
years. They have a HUGE install base. Metcal has been
in business for 10 to 15 years (I think...). Even so,
for every 30 metcal units you see on ebay, your lucky
if you see one pace unit. Everybody that owns a pace
keeps it forever or until it dies from old age. The
same thing can be said gear made by ERSA (Out of
Germany. They invented and patented the first
soldering iron in the 1920's). Everybody that owns an
ERSA keeps it forever.

My two cents.

Best 

Marvin 

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