The goal is to use a soldering iron tip that will maintain heat and help you to apply solder where it needs to be without damaging the rest of your project. That is, we don't want the hot soldering iron tip to transfer a lot of heat directly to the glass, just the foil or the lead joints. We also don't want to have to go over the joints several times to cover it with solder. So, the joints of leaded panels with 1/4" wide lead came are well managed with a 1/4" tip. Narrower lead came, as well as foiled panels with thinner solder joints, are better soldered with a 3/16" tip.
I always use the 1/4" for all my stained glass projects whether it be a suncatcher or a large panel.
Thank You Both!
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