Inside the box of the BST-863 we have the station, a really nice and heavy stand for the tool piece, a total of 3 nozzles, a grounding strap and a power cord. The first thing I notice is the hose which pretty thick, certainly thicker than what I had on my old Gordak station but seems to be softer material. The way it’s designed with the tool standing vertically in the stand makes the air hose forms this loop which depending on your bench setup might or might not bother you but it’s something to consider. But I like the quality of the stand, it’s heavy and feels very sturdy, you get this accessory here which allows you to remove the nozzles while hot and the station has a sensor to detect when the handle is in the stand.
Adjustment of temperature and air level is made through this touch screen control. I’m a bit anti touch screen control on test gear so I would’ve preferred some switches on the front panel but don’t get me wrong, the touch screen works well on this unit, it has nice big touch keys and after setting up your presets you are likely not going to need to adjust the temperature you will just be using the presets like leaded, lead free and another one for heatshrink maybe.
Is this cheaper station a good alternative to the Quick 861DW? This video review should provide you with enough info to decide which one to buy.
Here are some high resolution images from the teardown:
Hi,
Thanks for your teardown and review, it’s much appreciated.
My Best BST-863 arrived today and I’ve scraped away the paint under the grounding connectors and one of the screw connections on the front PCB was very loose so I’ve tightened it up. There’s lots of flux mess on the front PCB and various caps are standing proud from the board by a lot.
I’m confused and slightly concerned however as my wiring is backwards compared to yours – my AC power socket has the live and neutral cables swapped, and on the connector block on the front PCB, I have blue wires where you have brown and vice versa.
As it looks like the live and neutral wires are wired up backwards I don’t want to plug it into AC power but wondered what you thought?
Thanks,
B
It’s not gonna blow up if you plug AC voltage backwards, it’s gonna be fine.