HF Smokes Again?

[Casper]

Has anyone else purchased and used the Harbor Freight heat gun?

I purchased one on sale and immediately upon use it starting spewing smoke from inside. I returned it and, after profuse apologies and a refund, bought the better unit. Using this gun, for less than 60 seconds, it too spews smoke. Is this common with heat guns or HF?

The only other electrical took I have from HF is an air compressor which works fine, no smoke. Since this is a glorified blow dryer, I would think it shouldn't smoke and am concerned about safety.

[G. Ross]

Have had mine for several years. Used intermittenntly but has never smoked.

[Electric Comet]

i have not got one from them

i would leave it on for a while on a concrete floor away from combustibles and see what happens

be ready to pull the plug

to cut costs they do the bare minimum

that would include removing any oil from parts so it is possible that they decided not to bother removing the oil and leave that to you

but if the smoke continues and the gun melts than my theory may be wrong

[John Grossbohlin]

This stuff runs on smoke. If the smoke leaks out it doesn't run...

[Larry Blanchard]

Same here.

[ads]

Mine is several years old and just works. (On the other hand, I may have just jinxed it ;-)

[Keith Nuttle]

I agree with the theory that the Smoke may be just the newness of the unit burning off. This is common on new heating units or heating units that have been stored for a long period. Each fall the first time we turn the heat in the house on we get this smell for 5 to 10 minutes.

When you say Smoke how much smoke. A barely discernible amount coming from the unit with a slight burning smell. (The newness burning off)

OR

Clouds of black smoke and the casing melting.

It makes a big difference.

[Electric Comet]

i think you are talking about the magic smoke that gets emitted from electronic devices once it could be that but it sounds like the heat gun continues to run maybe HF has cornered the magic smoke market so that it can be emitted more than once

[Electric Comet]

how can i use my heat gun in my woodwork

maybe delaminating something or weathering something

i cannot think of any other woodwork uses i got mine for shrink tube

[FrozenNorth]

One use is paint stripping, they work pretty well on a lot of paints along with the judicious use of a paint scrapper.

[krw]

Cosmoline? I think the whole store is dipped in it.

[Bob La Londe]

Never had an HF heat gun, but I bought one not that long ago for shrink tube from the same outfit I got my tube from and its done a lot of work without leaking out all the magic smoke. It wasn't all that expensive either.

[Bob La Londe]

Good thing. Smoking shortens its life. It should live a long time if it never smokes, eats right, and exercises.

[Bill]

No smoke from mine on a 90+ degree day. Now the "Dremel-Like" tool I got from HF--the first two of those smoked (which, I learned, meant imminent death). The first of those at least lasted several hours over

2 days, the second didn't last 10 minutes.

[Puckdropper]

Casper wrote in news: [e-mail]:

What's it smell like? How much smoke are you getting?

If it smells like burning oil, it probably is and there's nothing to worry about. It'll burn off after a few minutes. If it's got an "electrical" smell, then it could be a serious problem.

Puckdropper

[Martin Eastburn]

The issue is - no Asbestos coated wire allowed in them anymore. The best is Glass fiber material that coats the wire.

They likely just used a high temp plastic that melted and fumed out.

Mart> Has anyone else purchased and used the Harbor Freight heat gun? >

[Larry Blanchard]

Heating wood before applying hot hide glue and veneer.

Or after to fix bubbles.

Warming Tried and True finish so it'll flow easier.

Drying wood that was steamed to fit around a form.

I'm sure others can come up with other uses - most of us have even come up with uses for capital letters and punctuation :-).

[Dr. Deb]

The same results as G. Ross.

[Casper]

This is the model heat gun I purchased from HF...

I mainly bought it to strip paint off an antique dresser. The paint on it is coming off easily w/o heat but there are some stubborn areas.

The dresser is 100+ years old and solid mahogany, I want to go as easily on it as possible to remove the white paint some id10t covered it with years ago. I believe it is Federal style and, if the wood is in good shape, will look great when restored.

I have a much smaller torch tool that I use for heat shrink tubing. It is far more effective than such a large heat gun.

While I didn't expect a real long life for such a cheap heat gun, I did not expect multiples to smoke.

White smoke with a bad smell but not certain if electrical. Smoke continues for several minutes after you turn it off. No black smoke, melting or appearce of flames anywhere.

[krw]

They smoke after. ...or is that only the screwdrivers?