I ordered a cheap hot air rework station from AliExpress. It arrived yesterday and I haven’t tested it extensively, but it seems to work well. The item was damaged in transit, and a corner was cracked, but it still works ok. It heats up really fast and I’m generally quite happy with it.
I’ve used it to solder on various surface mount equipment, but I think I prefer the hot plate or soldering iron for normal soldering. It seems to work well when I want to remove a component, though I haven’t tested enough how much heat various components can take before being destroyed. I have to be careful not applying the heat too long, as the board itself also gets discoloured (but again, I haven’t played too much with the temperature).
