Glue gun

[ss]

Any issues with getting a cheap glue gun (£7 eBay with glue sticks) It will be rarely used. Never owned one before so have not a clue, but obviously dont want to purchase and then have to bin it.

[Roger Mills]

I bought a cheap one from Woolworths (so it must have been a long time ago!) and couldn't get it to work decently.

The one I've got now came from Lidl - and it's ok. I can't remember how much it was - under £20 I think. It takes quite a while to warm up before the glue will flow - but I guess they all do. You can't remove a glue stick once it's started to melt, so I have to try not to start a new one too near the end of a job - 'cos too much then sticks out of the back of the gun to get it into its carry case!

[Jonno]

ss scribbled

The glue sticks come in different diameters. There are also 'pretty' glue sticks with sparkles in them, which 'er indoors might find a use for. When you use the gun, put it on something solid which won't be affected by any dripping hot glue.

[Brian Reay]

They are fairly simple devices, just what you would gain by getting an 'up market' one is difficult to see. If the quality looks ok and safe, go for it.

Avoid letting it lay on its side when in use or cooling, the teachers in our DT dept were strict on this as it (apparently) causes blockages.

My wife bought a slightly smaller one for her craft work and some glue which melts at a lower temperature to use at her Brownie pack. The normal stuff can hurt, if you get it on your skin.

I find it very useful. It is all but 'instant fix' and will hold many things as good as permanently and others at least temporarily.

[hugh neary]

I bought two from Ebay, one for a few pounds and one for a little over a tenner. The expensive one had a switch and a lot of Watts. The switch is overkill but it does the job perfectly.

The cheapo was around 15-25W. It lasted milliseconds.

Being used to higher power devices, I pressed the trigger too soon, it went crunch.

Since then I have seen them on sale in discount stores, given plenty of time to warm up and handled with kid gloves they are probably o/k.

I also have an Aldi gun. Fine, no prob's

HN

[Thomas Prufer]

The cheapest have poor thermal regulation: they get too hot if left sitting around for much longer than it takes them to heat up to operating temp, and the glue then scorches, i.e. turns brown and bubbly. Other than that, a trigger mechanism that presses the glue stick in is nice, but not necessary.

Beware the hot glue: it sticks to skin, cooking it.

Thomas Prufer

[Stuart Noble]

I have a Bosch. The only complaint is that the trigger doesn't always grip the stick and I have to push it through, thus needing 2 hands to operate the thing reliably. Maybe I should have bought official Bosch sticks

[Syd Rumpo]

Just don't try sniffing the glue.

Cheers

[Jonno]

Stuart Noble scribbled

Wrong diameter sticks ?

[T i m]

I bought this one (after recommendation, probably from here):

And whilst it's not the cheapest around, I didn't think under 20 quid to be expensive either.

For me, any tool must be a asset and do what I expect / need it to do and do so without making the job more difficult than it might otherwise be.

I have used 'cheaper' glue-guns and as some here have mentioned that the trigger doesn't always grip the stick ... or that it takes an age to heat up, doesn't seem to heat fully (so the glue goes cold if you have to use it over a longer run) or runs out of oomph when using quite a lot of glue.

So, I try to look for a tool that would be good enough to do any job I might need that tool for in the knowledge (hope) that it will allow me to do a good job but without spending any more money than is needed for the sort of usage I have in mind.

I have already used it to fix / build stuff way above the value of the gun and because it's a 'good' one, should carry on doing so for a long time. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Mike Barnes]

My Bosch doesn't suffer from that problem. It does dribble a bit, so when it's hot I don't leave it on any sensitive surface.

[whisky-dave]

How about sticking the sticks someone other than the gun they are quite fle xible ;-)

I have 2 of these here and they work fine, even students know how to use th em, pity they forget to switch them off.

Two sizes of glue sticks but you can just cut them with scissors if they ar e too long.

[Theo]

I find a hot air pencil (as used for soldering) is a handy accessory for the glue gun. Can use it to preheat things, can use it to soften existing glue to move things around. I sometimes also use freezer spray, when you need to position something just so and don't want to go through the squishy stage where it can move out of place.

Theo

[ss]

Thanks all for the input, as it is I dont have an immediate use for one but thought it would handy to have one ready for when required. I sold a few items on ebay and have funds to spend :-)