Hot glue gun blew up

[basslord1124]

This is a first for me. So, was working on gluing pieces for one of my planes, set the gun down to let the glue cool down. After about a minute, my house lights flicker, heard a loud pop, and saw a quick fireball shoot out from my hot glue gun. Immediately unplugged it. It has served me well, through many plane builds.

 

[Mad_Mechanic]

That is equal parts intriguing and disconcerting.

Are you ok? Is the house, wiring, electrical socket and circuit breakers alright?

 

[Brett_N]

Now you can switch to wood glue.

cheaper, stronger, no burnt fingers, but slower.

 

[basslord1124]

@Brett_N ...funny thing is, I have sort of made that change. But I still use little bits of hot glue to hold something in place. I built most of my FT Edge with Titebond wood glue.

 

[Mad_Mechanic]

Now you can switch to wood glue.

cheaper, stronger, no burnt fingers, but slower.

I've seen in a couple other places where people are using wood glue instead of hot glue.

My question is, why don't people use foam safe CA glue? Is it because it sets too fast and does not allow for adjustments while the glue sets?

 

[chris398mx]

Now you can switch to wood glue.

cheaper, stronger, no burnt fingers, but slower.

that sounds good, but how long to you have to wait between glue joints? i cant imagine waiting overnight between every joint vs 2 minutes with hot glue. plus the foam seems to fail before my glue joints anyway. I hear more and more of you guys talking about wood or white glue, but I must be missing something about the wait time.

 

[basslord1124]

@Mad_Mechanic ...as far as I know everything is fine. I'm fine. The gun was on a powerstrip and I haven't noticed any damage with it nor any tripped breakers. In fact, the wire and plug to the glue gun still look new. I'll give it a better look later just to make sure.

 

[SlingShot]

@Mad_Mechanic ...as far as I know everything is fine. I'm fine. The gun was on a powerstrip and I haven't noticed any damage with it nor any tripped breakers. In fact, the wire and plug to the glue gun still look new. I'll give it a better look later just to make sure.

Did the breaker on the power strip trip?

 

[Mad_Mechanic]

Hot glue guns are a very simple tool. My first thought is that overtime the insulation on the heating element may have failed and shorted. Obviously you will find out for certain when you take the glue gun apart and diagnose.

 

[basslord1124]

I've got the gun partially apart, it's proven to be quite the pain to take apart. And so far I'm seeing hot glue that has seeped out. I do remember my last stick got stuck on sort of crooked, and required a little more trigger pressure to get it to push through. Maybe that's what killed it.

 

[Bricks]

I've seen in a couple other places where people are using wood glue instead of hot glue.

My question is, why don't people use foam safe CA glue? Is it because it sets too fast and does not allow for adjustments while the glue sets?

Me I do not like using CA on foam as it is brittle and will not flex with the foam when the sudden interruptions in flight acurr.

 

[The Hangar]

I had a glue gun almost identical and once when I plugged it in, it blew the fuse. I unplugged several other things to make sure I wasn’t overloading the outlet circuit or what, and it did the same thing - made a little noise in the split second before the fuse blew and left a bad odor. I set it outside and bought a new one.

 

[basslord1124]

Pic of the inside:

Kinda looks like I had a stick sort of blow up on the inside or something. Underneath the hot glue mess where the black tube is, I noticed electrical burn/smell there. That last stick was sticking pretty bad.

 

[The Hangar]

Wow! Pretty amazing all that glue just poured out!