[SequoiaHope]

I’d never used Metcal or JBC until recently. I’ve managed 15 plus years of SMT work with Hakko style irons. I recently got a new job, and the guy who manages our lab and does our soldering previously did soldering for military satellites for 20 years. He said he has something like thirty satellites in orbit.

When I asked for a soldering station I could use in the lab, I saw a lot of JBC machines around. I said “could I get a JBC?”. He said “oh the JBC is a Ferrari. I don’t think you need a Ferrari. I’ll get you a Metcal. That’s the Toyota of soldering irons.”

I can’t comment on exactly what he means, but he seems very experienced and has good things to say about JBC.

[opwieurposiu]

The JBC has adjustable temperature, which lets you solder faster if you crank it up. The risk is that you will cook either the board or the component you are attaching to the board. This decreases the reliability of the finished assembly, and it is not always visually obvious when you have cooked something. So it is like the gas pedal on a Ferrari, dangerous if you overdo it.

The Metcal does not have adjustable temperature, the temperature is set by the tips you choose. So it only has one "speed" and this reduces the risk of cooking the board.

Both Metcal and JBC are good, ultimately it turns into a sort of Vim vs. Emacs sort of thing, aka personal preference.