In article ,
JW wrote:

I'm currently looking for an affordable hot air station for the bench. One
that came up often in my searches was this one:
http://www.atomicfireballs.com/stati...oyue/index.php

Can anyone recommend this one, or perhaps have a better alternative?

Thanks.

What are you using now? I don't do a lot of rework but one of my heat
guns (for shrink tubing) has some small nozzles, and it works well for
removing chips. I douse the offender liberally in liquid flux first.
Often there are other small components nearby so I'll make a little
cardboard heat shield with a window cut out of it.

I don't see the advantage of a fancy schmancy dedicated rework station.
As far as digital readouts and temperature control, I'm a bah-humbug
skeptic. You only have one choice anyway, and that's to get the thing
hot enough to melt the solder.