Yep. Buy the METCAL if you can afford/justify it. Buy Weller if you can't.
I picked up a very lightly used METCAL MX500 with hand piece, hot tweezers, and about ten tips for $400 in the 2008/9 recession. I used to swear by my Weller TCP, which I bought in the late 1980s - and that still works! - but METCAL blows it out of the water. Having the heater in the tip is the key difference there.
The Weller WES51 would be my go-to for Weller. It'll handle surface mounted parts and smaller leaded stuff. If you need to get a lot of heat into a copper plane, you'll need something beefier. If you solder mostly leaded parts, the WTCP would probably be a good choice for you.
I use a Hakko preheater (FR-830). Their PCB holders (C1390C) are awesome as well. But I'm not sold on their soldering irons or hot air stations.
Tom
I picked up a very lightly used METCAL MX500 with hand piece, hot tweezers, and about ten tips for $400 in the 2008/9 recession. I used to swear by my Weller TCP, which I bought in the late 1980s - and that still works! - but METCAL blows it out of the water. Having the heater in the tip is the key difference there.
The Weller WES51 would be my go-to for Weller. It'll handle surface mounted parts and smaller leaded stuff. If you need to get a lot of heat into a copper plane, you'll need something beefier. If you solder mostly leaded parts, the WTCP would probably be a good choice for you.
I use a Hakko preheater (FR-830). Their PCB holders (C1390C) are awesome as well. But I'm not sold on their soldering irons or hot air stations.
Tom