That said, the dealer that made the real nice offer on the JBC sent me a folder on another station he just got in, a Thermaltronics tmt9000s-2, for, you guessed it, the same price.
Do think about tip costs as part of your consideration, as well as availability.
I know JBC is widely available in the EU, but I'm not so sure about Thermaltronics (they're a relatively new company, founded by a few ex-Metcal employees when the patent expired).
He's not a good salesman, making his customers' choice harder. But although the majority here seems to prefer the Metcal/Thermaltronics system, I'm not sure I'd like to get multiple identical tips, but for different temperatures. And the exchanging of tips is not at all as nicely handled as with the JBC.
He may think he's helping, or it may have to do with the margins.
As per the bolded part, I'm calling
.
Induction station users are just a particularly vocal group it seems.
They certainly work well, but they're not the end-all-be-all either. Their greatest feature is operators cannot change the temperatures, which is extremely useful in rework & production environments (i.e. process control). This is why you see stuff about lockout controls in the marketing literature on temperature controlled stations (i.e. physical keys or lockout codes).
Years ago when Metcal was first introduced to market, they did kick other brands offerings to the curb with a sore backside. But enough time has passed, the competition has created stations that not only keep up, but can actually outperform it (JBC in the latter case).
For a hobbyist/repair/prototyping bench however, a temperature controlled station is a better fit as less expensive to own as you don't have to duplicate tips just to change temps. Some temp controlled stations are even more flexible as well in regards to the number of tools/accessories you want/need (i.e. irons, tweezers, solder pot, preheater, ...).
Anyway, from your replies and what I could find on the forum, the JBC votes seem quite overwhelmingly victorious over Hakko. Which is what I wanted to learn, as I don't really hear any negative points from either brand and users of the FX951 say they don't notice any difference in soldering between it and the CD-2BE.
Actually, the JBC will outperform the FX-951 (the FX-951 is no slouch though). If you only stick to say 4 layers for example, you'd never notice it. It's when you hit the really demanding situations that you would (i.e. joints where the Hakko would fail without preheat). An 8+ layer board would probably be enough to prove it if you had both to test.
Here in the US, the Hakko can be had for ~ half the cost of a JBC Compact model however, which makes it an amazing value here. Unfortunately, this isn't the case in the rest of the world it seems.
Closest you can get to that price is an Ersa I-Con Nano or possibly the Hakko FX-950 (uses the same iron & cartridge tips as the FX-951, but has a knob for temp setting, and the stand isn't connected to the station).
@nanofrog, janelonline seems to be offline for the past few days.
It's working for me (just checked).
One more question then: the dealer offers both the CD-2BE and CD-2SE. I thought the difference was the iron that came with it (T245 vs T210) that made the difference. But from the catalog, it seems the microsolder station only supplies 40W, whereas the BE model has 130W.
I was planning on getting either the FX951 or the CD-2BE, and later add to the CD-2BE a T210 handle. It was this option that really made the JBC interesting for me. I thought that was possible from what I read but now I'm not sure. Won't the T210 deliver too much thermal energy to sensitive components, when attached to the 130W powersupply? Unfortunately, I sent a query on another issue to JBC over a month ago, without reply, so I'm unsure they would get me a reply to this question in time for the offer's expiry.
Get the model with the T245, as you'll use that iron far more frequently (T245 = general purpose, T210 = micro size & expected to be used with magnification). That said, the T245 cartridges have tips that will do very small SMD work, so you may not need a T210 at all.
As per the power differences, the stations deliver what the cartridges can use, which is why the versions with T210 irons are only rated at 40W. The T245 cartridges use more, and that 130W is peak, not nominal. It's the same transformer, and you can add a T210 at a later time if you find you need it.
BTW, the wobble issue was only a couple of users, and IIRC, they got their stations from the same vendor, Weidinger.de (i.e. pulled from the molds too quickly & shrank/deformed = bad batch).