Glue Sticks

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
I noticed when I was rebuilding my Sea Duck that I was running low on glue sticks, so I did a search at Home Depot to see if they carried Gorilla Glue hot glue sticks.

Turns out they didn't, but what they DID have for $20 was a 5 lb. box of Arrow brand glue sticks, all full size, and the same length as the Adtech brand that I'd picked up at Walmart for $7 for a bag of 20 or so sticks.

Here's what I found:

Arrow sticks are 1/2" in diameter. I see many out there on Amazon and other places that say they're 7/16" diameter, and that it could potentially cause an issue with the gun. No, it's not that it won't let the glue stick pass through it, but rather the gun's trigger mechanism has slop in it and won't grab the stick properly to advance it if the gun itself is made to fit 1/2" sticks. That 1/16", at least with my cheapie Adtech gun that I bought from JO-ANN craft store, makes a BIG difference!!!

Also, these glue stick melt REALLY smoothly in my DeWalt gun, and it's just a solid feel with them vs the cheaper Adtech sticks. I know, some people will say, "Ehh, it's just glue," and that's ok...I just noticed a LOT better quality with the Arrows than I have with the absolute cheapest full size sticks I could purchase - and on top of that, if you're buying for volume, the Arrows actually work out CHEAPER than the Adtechs!!! :)

So, food for thought - if you have a Home Depot in the area, you might want to take a look in their tools section and see if you can't find it there. :)