Fret Heater
Fret Heater
Weller makes this 80 watt soldering iron for stained glass work:
The literature claims that the tip gets to 950 degrees Fahrenheit, but that seems a bit optimistic to me.
I made a new tip from a piece of brass rod, and filed the end to a chisel point with a groove to help keep it from slipping off the frets when I'm heating them:
The original tip was some kind of cheap copper clad affair and the copper peeled off when I filed on it. The brass tip seems to heat as well, and is less prone to oxidation.
