Don’t you know how does a glue gun work? But it’s essential to know before choosing a glue gun to make your purchase worthwhile.
This article is designed to inform you what a glue gun is, its working procedure, who uses it, and why it is used. So without more words, let’s dive into the point.
A glue gun produces heat to melt the stick’s hard glue. Then, the melted glue will bead through its dispenser by pressing the trigger that pushes the unmelted glue stick towards the gun’s tip.
That’s the overall shortcut glue gun working procedure. But to use the device properly, you should learn more. However, before that, it’s better to know about glue guns. So let’s first learn it.
At first appearance, the hot glue gun looks like a kid’s toy pistol. It is hand-held equipment with heating elements inside to produce heat for melting solid glue. Once the adhesive is melted, it is ready to be applied to the surfaces and used as liquid glue through its trigger. This melted glue can bond everything where it falls and dries.
So, now you have a rough idea about glue gun and its working process. But, all the guns aren’t the same, and their working processes also aren’t the same. Here we’ll discuss glue gun working procedures according to their types.
You’ll find mainly three types of hot glue guns in the market. One is electrical or corded, another is battery-powered or cordless, and the third type of gun is cordless but not battery-powered. As the guns are three types, their working system is obviously different. We’ll tell you about their working processes one by one for your convenience.
Basically, a corded glue gun is also known as an electrical glue gun, and it comes with a long electric power cord. It works with electrical connections. Though most of its working myths will happen inside the gun, you can’t notice anything from outside except feeling its heat. But still, by knowing the process, you can understand the situation.
- When you connect its power cord to the power source and wait for a few minutes within this time, it produces heat. Depending on the gun’s model, the heat level may range 200°-250°F (93°-121°C) for a low temp and 375°-450°F(190°-232°C) for a high temp glue gun.
- The solid glue stick that you enter in its adhesive stick inlet starts to melt by getting contact with heat.
- Next, when you turn on the switch and press the trigger, the glue stick will come forward to the gun’s nozzle that dispenses liquid glue.
- Finally, you notice bead hot glue drops on the surface where you keep the gun.
- If you wait a few seconds, the liquid hot glue will cool down and again turn dry to make the bond where it falls.
That’s the simple process of how an electric glue gun works.
Most cordless glue guns are worked with rechargeable batteries. The lithium-ion batteries or nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries are set inside the gun to store charge and produce heat to melt the solid glue. The lithium-ion battery’s power is measured by milliampere per hour (mph). Here’s the detailed working process of a cordless glue gun.
- The cordless battery-powered glue gun comes with the battery and charger. You can charge the battery with the charger once the battery gets no or less charge to work.
- The gun has an on/off button on its handle. When you turn its switch on, it starts to generate heat, and within 2-3 minutes; it reaches the heat that can melt glue.
- After melting glue, when you press the trigger, the glue stick is forced to move forward towards its glue dispenser tip for glue dispensing.
- The dispensed hot glue will remain hot for a few seconds and start to dry. So that within this time, you have to keep attached the two parts of the materials without shaking that you want to bond.
- After completing your work, you have to turn the switch off to save the battery charge and avoid glue wastage.
This is how a cordless or battery-powered hot glue gun works. This glue gun is mainly used for industrial sites to bond heavy-duty constructional materials.
Since the cordless gun comes with a charger, it’s easy to charge its battery. You can charge the glue gun by connecting one end of the charger to the battery and the opposite end to the AC power socket. But in this case, you have to match the socket volt and the battery volt by checking the gun’s label because the voltage mismatch will reduce the battery’s lifespan.
You can consider this type of hot glue as a hybrid glue gun.
Sounds funny! Right?
Actually, this type of gun is designed by combining corded and cordless gun technology. This hybrid glue gun has a heating stand connected to the power supply instead of the main glue gun.
As a result, you can freely move it either and neither as per your needs. So that the entire gun isn’t cordless, but the main gun you need to move is cordless. And the rest of the working procedure is the same as a corded or cordless glue gun.
There has been no limit to using hot glue guns in recent years because of their versatility, fastest and easiest application. One statistic shows that the glue gun market will reach $715.13 million in the next 6 years by 2028 when in 2020, its market was $477.64 million. Here’s a short list of where a glue gun is used.
| For crafting projects | Making dollhouses, jewelry, and arts, handling paper, and school projects, designing new dresses, embossing cards, wrapping gifts, etc. |
| For household repairing projects | Repairing micro oven, fridge, coffee mug handles, flower vase, wooden chair, table, plastic, glass, ceramic-made kitchen utensils, etc. |
| For commercial projects | For furniture and woodworking projects, construction and building, carton sealing and packaging company, application of labels to the products, leather, footwear, bookbinding, etc. |
There is no specific group of people who use the glue gun because no specific hot glue gun is used from crafting to home improvement to commercial projects. So the hot glue gun is used by
- DIY crafters
- Art and craft merchants
- Printing press owners
- Plumbers
- Carpenters
- Electricians and so many professionals.
The glue gun has heating elements inside it. So when it is connected to the power source and turns the switch on, its heating elements start to produce heat.
Yes, hot glue guns turn off automatically if designed with an emergency automatic power shut-off feature and heat-resistant nozzle. But, if the gun won’t have this feature, it won’t automatically shut off. For that case, you have to turn its switch off manually to cut its power connection.
By using a screwdriver you can easily remove a glue stick from a glue gun. For this, first, you have to place the screwdriver’s drive end to the glue stick’s bottom point through the gun’s middle. Then gently push it beneath and pull the glue stick to remove. That’s all. You can check this video for visual appearance.
The time range depends on the model of the glue gun and its type. A low heat glue gun takes 3-5 minutes, whereas a high heat glue gun needs 2-3 minutes. So you should check your glue gun types to determine their heating time.
Yes and no, both answers are right depending on the stick’s condition. If the glue stick is intact, you can leave the stick in the glue gun because it won’t pass any melted glue into the applicator. But if the stick is melted and partly used, you shouldn’t leave it. Because by passing the melted glue into the glue applicator, it can be jammed or damaged. So that you have to face the hassle of cleaning the jammed dry glue from the gun’s nozzle at the time of your next use.
When the gun is connected to power for a longer time, the electricity will pass onto the gun and make it hotter and hotter. The more current it consumes, the more it loses its heat resistance. As a result, the gun will explode due to overconsumption of power.
There are some reasons why your hot glue gun may not work. For example
- If the gun’s nozzle is jammed with previously used dry glue, it stops dispensing glue.
- If the glue stick is jammed or won’t insert correctly to the inlet point, then it won’t work.
- If the power connection cord is defective that can’t pass enough power to the gun, it won’t work.
- If the battery-powered glue gun doesn’t have a charge in its battery, it wouldn’t work.
So now you know the answer to your inquiry; how does a glue gun work? That’s why you can easily make your purchasing decision that will be fruitful for your purposes.
If you find this article worthwhile, don’t forget to share it with your friends who love crafting.