Upgrading from a $40 858D to the $4,000 Metcal HCT-1000 & PCT-1000 hot air rework system

[Elemenoh]

I upgraded from a no-name $40 858D hot air station to a $4,000 Metcal HCT-1000 station and PCT-1000 preheater. Fortunately I found them on eBay and got a great deal.

As expected, it’s extremely nice and ridiculously overkill for a hobbyist.

I couldn’t find any reviews or videos about these tools so I made one. Lmk if you have questions about things I didn’t cover or have suggestions for how to get the most out of these awesome tools.

 

[Kai Robinson]

Yikes! Overkill is the best kind of kill, I guess!

 

[Elemenoh]

I found some vacuum cups for it. I’m having so much fun booping chips!

 

[Drake]

This thing is amazing!
Let's see what the $200 equivalent from Aliexpress offers (kidding, Don't waste money folks)
I'm adamant on investing in quality equipment, this looks extremely useful for YEARS to come. congrats!

 

[JDW]

What is being blurred-out on your wrist in the video?

Interesting how 350°C works so well. I believe Bruce at one point told me he uses 430°C. I've been testing my cheap 858D at 430°C and it works well, but 350°C not so well. Maybe your expensive unit simply has more airflow. (I do use a regular soldering iron at 350°C though with success.)

@Kai Robinson, what temp do you most often use on your 858D?

 

[Drake]

My 858D runs at 375, narrow nozzle. Has always worked well for me.
I'm sure quality control on these units is... different so temperature readouts may differ from user to user.

 

[Elemenoh]

What is being blurred-out on your wrist in the video?

My watch had something on it I didn't want online. I wish I would have noticed and taken it off. It was such a pain to blur out on an otherwise off-the-cuff mediocre video. Maybe I'll make a nicer review once I spend some more time with it.

I also ran my 858D >400ºC and just figured it wasn't actually getting that hot ¯\(ツ)/¯

I'm going to make some external thermocouples for this station. I'll try blowing hot air directly onto one of them to see how close to the set temp they read.

 

[JDW]

My watch had something on it I didn't want online.

A watch face so provocative it can’t be shown on YouTube is a watch face I’ve got to see! ;-)

 

[Elemenoh]

In case someone happens to stumble on this thread and also has this setup, I found that the devices can be connected with a regular RJ11 telephone cable. Set the HCT-1000 to MRS mode and the preheater will function automatically based on the program settings of the hot air station. Just push the red button on the handpiece and they will both start running in sync with each other. Nice!