This is the third blog post in support of the RoadTest that does a comparison between the
METCAL GT120-HP-T6 Soldering Station
and
Weller WT1012N Soldering Station
The Weller soldering iron tip is changed by turning the plastic knurled nut located on the soldering pencil by hand. The tip can then be replaced.
The GT120-HP-T6 Soldering Station pencil tip change provides two options.
The Standard T6 Tip HP is a cartridge (shown to left of pencil) is sized to fit a collection of T6 family of Tips (one on display remainder shown in white packages). The user can select from a variety of tips (see catalogue). The second option is a cartridge (shown to right of pencil) that is designed with specific tip. The retainer (third item counted from left) that secures the components (tip or cartidge) to the end of the pencil are different depending on the cartridge options used. They are not interchangable. I'm thinking to myself, one of the retainer is going to get misplaced in my setup depending on what cartridge option is used the most.
I have attached catalogue of tip and cartridge available if the reader would like more information.
The Weller soldering pencil connects to a power controller. The controller plugs into AC mains. A rest station is provided to hold the pencil when not in use.
From left to right in the drawing. The GT120-HP-T6 Soldering Station hand-piece connects to the Soldering power station. The power station (back side) connects to AC through a power adapter, a unit similar to what you would find on a laptop computer.
The GT120-HP-T6 Soldering Station kit comes with a silicon pad (looks like a black square) made of similar material to a silicon oven mit, intended to enable tip/cartridge removal when the unit is hot. I didn't find the pad useful. It was difficult to remove the knurly knob using the pad. Using just your fingers put them extremely close to a very hot element. Maybe if I was desperate I would attempt to use the removal pad to make a tip/cartridge change or maybe I will just borrow my spouses silcon oven mit.