Hot glue gun for swappables? Low vs high heat important?

jollyred

Junior Member
Hello all,

I'm starting my first swappables build this weekend and was curious whether I could use a standard "high heat" hot glue gun or whether I should only use a guy with a "low heat" option. I've never built a foam board-based plane before but have read on other sites that "normal" hot glue guns can melt some kinds of foam...

The gun that Josh uses in the build videos looks like a normal heat glue gun, but I don't want to chance it without verifying.

Thanks,

jollyred
 

Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
Foamboard construction will work with high (sticks a bit better IMHO) or low temp glue. Bare foam sometimes will melt with High Temp though. Testing a scrap piece is the best way to go for unknown materials. All my guns are Dual Temp.

Thurmond
 

aiidanwings

Senior Member
I've been using high temp lately. Even though it does melt the foam, it hasn't caused any problems because the glue fills the melted void.
 

Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
I learned quickly that if I use low temp my planes self destruct in the blazing summer heat.

Thurmond
 

DDSFlyer

Senior Member
I picked up a high heat glue gun and a dual heat glue gun...which should I keep? the high heat runs around 380 degrees and the dual heat gun goes to 400 degrees (probably not a big diff right?) The high heat glue gun is 10 bux cheaper though so I think I might just return that one...
 

rperry2000x

Junior Member
I use a dual temp gun, but I only use it on high. I ruined a wing one time, cuz I didn't notice it was set on low and it got cold to quickly and wouldn't lay down enough glue for the large area.