Finds: A Cordless, Butane-Powered Hot Glue Gun
By Chuck Cage
This is probably the ultimate craft accessory: a cordless, re-fuelable hot glue gun. The next time you’re stuck (get it, stuck — hey, it’s late, OK?) in the middle of nowhere gluing 4,000 tiny beads on something, this is your tool.
Seriously, though, hot glue has all kinds of industrial and practical applications far beyond crafts — including positioning wires and making relatively strong, but breakable connections. For example, we used hot glue to attach trim on a dart board surround we recently built. It holds the trim on well, but not so well that you can’t break it off to repair the felt underneath if need be. (And if you’ve seen us play darts, you know the need indeed be.)
A number of companies make butane-powered glue guns, but this one looked more together than most of the other ones we’ve seen. It’s made by Master Appliance, operates up to 392 degrees F, and purportedly reaches working temperature in 3-4 minutes. Master Appliance claims it’ll deliver up to 1.9 pounds of glue per hour. That’s a lot of beads.
Like most companies, they also claim that it’s got a “dripless” tip, which we’ll believe only when we see it.
The kit comes with some spare tips, some glue sticks, and a nice standard plastic case, and streets for around $50. We haven’t seen this in stores, but you can find it all over the ‘net.
PortaPro Glue Gun, GG-100 [Master Appliance]
Street Pricing [Froogle]
September 27th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I predict every store in southern califonia that carries this will run out the week before burning man next year….
September 27th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
…Gonna do some serious scrapbookin’! Watch your back Sandi!
(yes…I’m embarassed that I know the host of DIY’s Scrapbooking! But a guy will admit almost anything for the potential of a tool prize!)
September 28th, 2006 at 7:55 am
Ever bought one of those refillable butane lighters? Well, it seems they are running out faster than you can fill them. The cheaper non-fillable last longer than the refills?
Anyway, hope this tool comes with an electronic ignition too. Otherwise I need one of those refillable lighters as well in a combo pack
Looking at the website, it looks like it has the piezzo ignition. Start your egines, go or should I say melt down.
September 29th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
[...] Finds: A Cordless, Butane-Powered Hot Glue Gun Whether you’re using a glue gun for crafts, appliance repair, or any of the other (many) tasks they’re good for, there eventually comes a time when you wish you had a cordless. Sure, there are some electric ones out there, but it’s been our experience — with soldering irons, anyway — that butane almost always beats out electric for cordless heat sources. So here you go: a butane hot glue gun. It’s a little pricey (for a glue gun), but definitely not out of the range of the serious hobbyist. [...]