On Nov 1, 2012, at 11:04 AM, Al Kossow wrote:
  On 11/1/12 2:07 AM, Jochen Kunz wrote:
  I see Metcal. Are they really that much better
then anything
 else? 
  I imagine they're so expensive because the heater is actually
 in the tip? 
They use induction or RF heating.   The box is a high power RF
source operating near 13 MHz.
They are definitely not just a chunk of wire that gets hot.
Rob.