Repair JBC JT-2A or new quick - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Jontm
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 27, 2020, 09:03:59 pm
content: Hi!I got my hands on a broken JBC JT-2A hot air station from work for free (downsizing and throwing old broken equipment away...)It gives an error for incorrect heater installed. My guess is that the heating element is broken. By doing some searching around, it seems like a new heater element costs about 200-300 $/€. For that amount of money I could almost buy a brand new quick hot air station.Does it make sense to buy a new heater element for the JBC station (not knowing for sure if that will fix it) or just buy a new cheaper station ?Some context about my use case: I do not do any professional soldering work, this is just something to have in case I need it for personal hobby projects.I am a bit uncertain about what the best option would be and would love to get some opinions on this.NB: In case you may think to suggest just selling the broken JBC unit and use the money on a quick station or similar, this is not an option as I do not feel comfortable with selling items that I got for free for personal use. It is kind of an unwritten rule.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 29, 2020, 02:08:18 am
content: I can look past that. I got a whole bunch of parts given to me including 1500 15A rocker switches NIB. Traded them and some other parts for a Metcal MX-500 with Talon tweezers. Good trade all around. He was going to make a lot more off of the switches than he would have made off of the Metcal.

author: Shock
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2020, 02:23:16 am
content: You aren't profiting you are trading it into something you can use. Ex work gear doesn't really count they didn't sell it they gave it away for free. It's already been written off from a financial point of view, what you choose to do with it or value you add to it is now your concern not theirs.If it was a personal gift from someone yes it's rude to sell it for money, if they knew that you were going to do that, they probably wouldn't give the gift. So it's entirely different rules, but good to know your not a heartless monster.

author: Jontm
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 29, 2020, 10:47:15 am
content: Setting the ethics aside.Got any opinions on JBC hot air stations vs one of the popular quick stations ? Repaired JBC or new cheap quick, what would be your preference? Is the JBC much better than the quick? How useful is the built in vacuum pump and suction cups ?

author: KD0CAC John
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2020, 10:59:58 pm
content: I am looking at replacing my current hot-air , a Hakko , also had one of the Hakko clones .I have JBC soldering station , JBC desoldering station and Metcal soldering & Metcal desoldering gun that works with the soldering powersupply .All of this I got deals on , new & used .I have been in several trades for a living , the point being that quality has lots of value .Now whether you can take advantage of the quality seems to be your question .Part of that is ability ?I have found that it takes more skill / finesse , to get cheap tools to do a good job , its easier for a newbie to learn with quality tools .Another issue is production work , the high end tools pay for them selfs over time in heavy use .The Quick is good enough to do quality work , but would question the use in production / day-in-day-out .Louis , of the Louis Rossman group is using and has done reviews on both the Quick & JBC , and he was favoring the Quick at that time .