Had an emergency last night. Son accidently stabbed himself with a kitchen knife. I was down in my shop working on a board.

Long story short, I left my Hakko FR300 desoldering gun on all night by mistake and the heating element broke.

I took it all apart to discover that one of the leads just came unsoldered. Problem is that I cant solder it back on. Apparently my Weller iron does not get hot enough to liquify the existing solder. Im assuming it must be a higher temp solder or something.

A new heating element is $115, if Hakko even has stock. Not sure because this model is discontinued. New hakko desoldering gun is $300+

So if you were in my situation, what would you do?

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He's fine. Handfull of blood and a tough lesson on how to use knives properly.

Thanks. I agree. I'm very greatful for that. A friend built me a wooden stand to set my gun in during use and without that, things may have been much worse. Next purchase is a wall plug timer to auto shut off my irons.

Thanks! My friend is going to bring me this dremel torch. Think it will work?

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Called American Hakko today and it turns out they actually had a new heating element in stock for 57$ Sold!

Went ahead and got on Amazon and bought a 30 minute wall outlet timer. Next time the timer will time out and shut it off.

Lesson learned.