Can I use a clothes iron in place of "seam iron" on carpet?

Without a doubt on this one.

The better question is "will it work." You can get an iron at Walmart for $6.00. Use it and toss it.

I'd get one at a thrift skop or garage sale, or ask on freeecycle.

Lot's of people throw them away after burning something onto them.

How about Hot Glue?

All very good ideas which gave me a couple of ones that worked... Two in particular:

1. I ended up using my HEAT GUN to melt the tape. Since I didn't want to burn my house down or melt the carpet I was very careful to (mostly) use the low setting and to keep the tip very close to the tape. As a precaution, I also wet the underlying wood floor and the top of the carpet. I melted about 6-12" of tape at a time, keeping the carpet clear of the tape and the heat gun. I then use my fingers to align the seam edges together and a scrap of 2x4 wood to apply pressure. All in all, this worked quite well.
2. For touch up spots, I used my Radio Shack AA-battery powered "throwaway" SOLDERING IRON. Its fine tip was just perfect for fitting in to small cracks to melt the glue in some inaccessible spots.

Now if I had a long run to do or if I were working on expensive carpet, I would call in a pro or at least rent a steaming iron. But for the short run of cheap carpet that we have in our closet hallway, this way worked just fine -- and all it cost me was the $6 for a roll of seaming tape.

Thank You for the report!

Lou

Years ago I watched my sister in law do it. The carpet stuck well but and she used my mothers iron which was still fine when she got through. She also had a lot of experience installing carpet. I would think that anything that would ruin a regular iron would also ruin a seaming iron so you would want to be careful and not get glue on anything. I think I remember her using some kinf of paper between the iron and the carpet, maybe waxed paper or something like that.

Jimmie

go to youtube. i could explain but there are plenty of vidieos out there that will walk you through it. its not hard to do at all.

To use on glue tape

It works but it is tough on the iron. Be sure it is one your wife doesn't want. It also does not work in the gap like a real carpet iron. You need to iron the back.

I had an old iron in my shop, I turned it up as high as it would go and let it sit for a while to let it cook, be sure you move it around every once in a while because some will time out. I laid down the carpet I wanted to seam face down, put the tape on it and ironed it in. It worked OK. I still had a few smaller pieces and I made a rug for my golf cart with one seam and it has been beat to death without coming apart. Bear in mind, carpet has a grain so when you seam it, be sure you line it up right.

replying to blueman, Msmith wrote: Do i use a wet towel.while using. The iron

Will it work. Do you need to put wet towel done while doing it

Be sure it is one your wife doesn't want lol The OP maybe a guy and probably straight and married but perhaps he does the ironing!

I looked this up on the internet, and hunker.com suggests using an old wet towel between a hot (ie 800w) iron and the tape. You have to have the carpet upside-down though- it's hard to beat a seaming iron in terms of staying in situ on the floor I think (and therefore monitor what you are doing to some degree) For this reason I'll probably splash out on the real thing for my particular job, then resell it.

But maybe for a smaller job with an 'unfussy' carpet, a cheap iron could be the way to go. Just check it goes up to 800w or so,