Foam Gun Replacement

[Usenet Nutter]

I have an Elch Pro Foam Gun that I got from Screwfix a couple of years ago .It has been a bit temperamental recently so I stripped it down and found that a long pin ( a bit like a Biro refill) that projects out the nozzle at one end and screws in to another pin at the back end has stripped where it screws in to this pin. I've e-mailed Elch to ask if this pin can be replaced but if not does anyone recommend buying another gun at £20 ( I think Screwfix have one at this price) and there is also this one

getting the Toolstation one at a tenner and if it plays up just bin it .

[dom]

Oddly enough, I wrote a review of the pro foam gun on the screwfix website this afternoon - when I chucked it in the bin.

It loved to clog up, It loved to work erratically. Occasionally it liked to not stop.

All I found were disadvantages over disposable foam guns - which I'm now using in preference.

Perhaps the one thing it could do better (if it had a mind to) was deliver a lot of flow for filling up large spaces quickly.

I was using Ceresit, and it's possible that things are partly attributable to the brand of foam. But I was meticulous about keeping the gun clean and changing cylinders etc - and only got a single can to work well all the way through, if used all at once. Getting two cans to work well in succession never happened.

I notice screwfix also does a few cans, a can of cleaner and a pro gun in a bundle - looks a much better deal, if you must have ths sort of gun.

Me - I'm sticking with disposables.

[Usenet Nutter]

Bash On /Linlithgow seems to have same problems as me . I guess your review either hasn't been approved or they have binned it..lol

[TheOldFellow]

WARNING: When I bought the package deal the cans were very short dated. Three months left to run. This is serious as they do truly stop working a year or so after the use-by date. So if you are not going to use five cans in a year, don't buy that deal.

I think the problem is that the foam starts to cure in the valve, but I'm not brave enough to try investigating. New cans work in the gun, so it isn't the gun.

R.

[John Rumm]

I use the TS one with their siroflex foam. As long as you observe the golden rule - once started, leave the can on the gun, its fine. I can go to it several months after I last used it, chop off any set foam on the face of the dispensing orifice, squeeze the trigger and off she goes.

(when I first got it I used to tit about taking the cans off the gun and running foam cleaning solvent through it - but found the cans de pressurise just like the disposables - not to mention you waste lots of time. Once I realised the gun worked well at not setting internally it was much easier!)

[Phil L]

You've hit the nail on the head. Once the can goes on, it stays on - I've known guns to last several years without being solvent treated, simply scraping the nozzle prior to use is sufficient, and resuts in less half cans of foam being binned.

[dom]

I can honestly say I tried that with the screwfix gun/ceresit foam combination, and a couple of weeks later had to strip down the gun to clear out the semi-set foam.

I'm glad to see some people are getting better results than I had!

Perhaps the difference is simply the build quality of the gun, and how good a seal it makes.

[Phil L]

How much are the disposable guns? - I assume they come with a can attatched?

If you are only a 'light user', IE about half a dozen cans per year, then this will probably be the best option, obviously if it's used daily or say, a dozen times per month, then a decent quality build should be purchased, and these are probably best sourced from builders merchants

[The Medway Handyman]

Half a dozen cans a year is about three times what i use :-)

What do people do that uses foam a dozen times a month?

[Tim W]

The Medway Handyman wibbled on Saturday 19 December 2009 09:39

I found a bit of a problem with leaving the gun on. I swap between Screwfix NoNonsense ordinary foam and Siroflex PU Adhesive on an intermittent basis. I have a fairly pro gun (forget where I bought it).

Took an almost empty can of the Siroflex off the other day and the non return valve where the can screws on was stuck open. Ditto the valve on the can.

Luckily I was outside as both the can and the gun were spewing foam.

Gave the gun a good clean with cleaner. Seems to have been a tiny amount of PU Adhesive gone hard in the inlet valve.

Gun works for now, but I think a stripdown is in order to fix that valve properly.

It was standing for a *long* time (months) and perhaps the PU adhesive is less good at standing than normal foam.

I think I would recommend "wintering" a gun that hasn't been used for more than about 2 months. By all means leave it set up - but if you haven't used it for 2 months or so, it's worth a couple of quid of cleaner to clean it up.

[John Rumm]

My gun was about £10 IIRC. I have certainly left it a couple of months between uses and its been ok.

When I was insulating my workshop, I probably got through about 8 cans over the space of a few months (using foam to tack panels of PIR in place before lining and fixing, plus gap filling etc). Probably got through 16 cans on my loft prior to that.

[Usenet Nutter]

Looks like gun manfrs have a bit to go to perfect the guns .I know when I bought the Elch gun from SF I was also buying the Elch foam but they stopped doing it and moved on to other stuff like No-Nonsense so whether it helps to match manfrs with gun and foam I don't know.

[Stuart Noble]

Do you reckon it's this one?

[geraldthehamster]

I left my gun set up for a couple of months, with a part-used can, and found it blocked when I came to use it. I removed the can and squirted a lot of solvent cleaner through it, which seemed to work, after a fashion. Used some more of the can, and left the gun in the utility room. This morning my GF took me out there and showed me this:

it was the waterproof window and door foam, which doesn't expand as much as your bog-standard stuff ;-)

Cheers Richard

[Phil L]

Fixing door and window frames in, blocking holes where cables and pipes go through, sticking plasterboard to steel, sealing cavities in brickwork when 'knocking through', squirting into pipe boxes to cure vibrating pipes, fixing window boards onto blockwork, sealing around steel girders, the list is endless. On a refurb, it's used almost daily, sometimes more

[Usenet Nutter]

Tate Modern would show that...lol

When I was faffing around yesterday with my gun and the can that had been fitted to it ...when I removed the can the foam still came out a bit so I squirted it with cleaner but it took a couple of attempts to get to the stage where it stopped but I'd better go look and check it's OK.

[george [dicegeorge]]

put some holly and tinsel on it and call it a new age christmas treee.

[g]

[The Medway Handyman]

ROFLMAO!

[Andy Burns]

Fit double glazing for a living, or make canoes perhaps?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember geraldthehamster saying something like:

chase it away with a broom.