Unpredictable behavior heating element The Chinese glue gun has become the talk of the town. The service life, according to information from Internet users, varies from a few seconds after switching on to five years of proper operation. About the power of the heating element, we came across statements ranging from “virtually does not heat at all” to “heats quite satisfactorily.” This was the reason for the curiosity that arose, which prompted me to buy an inexpensive Chinese one to begin with. glue gun on the subject “unscrew - look”. That is, thoroughly familiarize yourself with the design of the device, and that’s all. I didn’t take any glue sticks; I probably won’t need them.
Glue gun diagram
And now the melting chamber with a heating element installed on it appeared to the eye. Looks like a small jet turbine.
The clamp and thrust pad have been removed. Here is the heating element itself. I note that at the installation site it lay flat, in the center and was in direct contact with the body of the melting chamber with only one of its planes.
I unwrap the rather careless packaging - an insulator. Inside there is simply a miniature ceramic heating element and two contacts for supplying 220 volts to it.
I took a closer look at the heater and rang the two sides with a multimeter. They call, but not everywhere. The darkening visible in the photo at the bottom is present on all sides and completely covers the adjacent end side. It doesn't ring. This is a ceramic coating on top of the heating element. Designed for direct contact with the body of the heating chamber and transfer of heat generated by the heater, without placing a dielectric spacer between them. This spraying is the dielectric gasket. It became clear that the heater was installed incorrectly by the manufacturer. He was lying on his side, and was also wrapped three times in insulating material. By existing sizes There will be room for 4 heaters on the installation site.
Guided by common sense(as God willing) began to correct the manufacturer’s “jambs”. The dimensions of the contacts were brought into line with the dimensions of the ceramic heater. Exactly in length, and 1 mm less in height.
I made a millimeter-long bend at a right angle to prevent the contact from sliding down onto the body of the heating chamber.
This is how the contacts assembled with the heater began to look (top view).
The assembly resistance (located inside the clothespin) turned out to be 6 kilo-ohms. It immediately became clear that the 20W declared by the manufacturer would not be even close to being confirmed.
Exactly according to the dimensions of the ceramic heater, I cut out two copper plates 2 mm thick. It is necessary to somehow fill the void at the installation site and take heat from the sides of the heater.
The cut was made to allow the sides to be compressed. This will add reliability in holding the heater in place and is intended to improve heat transfer.
Sectional installation diagram. In the picture there are gaps between the individual components; in a real assembly there should not be any.
Assembly completed. The heater without a gasket stands on a plane (end) intended for this purpose, covered with dielectric coating, with current-carrying contacts on the sides, then with three sides four layers of mica (taken from an old burnt soldering iron), with copper plates on the sides. The seal is the insulator on the right made of asbestos. I had a piece on hand and it seemed that it would be more reliable.
Here you can see that the sides are already pressed against the copper plates and hold the entire assembly, the ceramic heater is directly in contact with the wall of the heating chamber, and the electric. contacts are far from her.
The last thing to put in place is the clamp. The junction of the wires with the contacts must be insulated with ceramic insulators or something that fully replaces them.
After assembly, the first thing I did was measure the current consumption. When turned on, within a few seconds, there is a gradual current jump of 80 - 120 - 210 mA, then a sharp jump down - 20 mA. Mains voltage 225 - 230 volts x 0.02 A = maximum 4.6 W. And on the front panel of the gun, in plain sight, there is a nameplate indicating a power of 20 W. The glue gun will actually have the stated power if you install 4 heating elements. However, let’s not dream, but rather look at the video of the heating dynamics of a correctly assembled and installed (in my opinion) heating element.
Video
The gluing temperature indicated by the manufacturer is 120 degrees, it was achieved in 2 minutes. Yes, it still needs to be heated and glue stick, but the remaining 3 minutes (the control heating time before starting work is 5 minutes) I think is quite enough for this. Especially for "" - Babay iz Barnaula.
Having recently appeared on the shelves of construction stores, hot-melt glue quickly gained popularity among needlewomen and home craftsmen. Thanks to the speed of gluing and the breadth of application, the glue and heat gun are unrivaled in convenience and accessibility. Of course, the strength of connections in this way is not the highest and the scope of application is limited by temperature limits. But with everyday production tasks various crafts With your own hands, hot melt glue copes with ease and speed, satisfying most requests.
Safety precautions
To begin with, it is worth mentioning the safety precautions when working with hot-melt adhesive. Many housewives have experienced with their own hands the danger of high temperatures in the kitchen and at home, so you need to remember about safety.
Glue, sticking to the skin, releases a significant amount of heat not only when cooling, but also when hardening. Therefore, it can cause much deeper burns than a hot frying pan or tile, from which you can pull your hand away in time, receiving minimal damage. Additionally, you should carefully read the instructions for the device and follow the recommendations specified by the manufacturer.
Wax instead of glue
It's time to try the device in action. Of course, you can glue it with it, but it’s much more interesting to find it original application. The principle of the gun is to heat the material and melt it into a liquid state. This means that any material with a suitable melting point can be used in the gun. So, when heated in this way, they become not just a gel-like mass, like glue tubes, but a liquid, like drinking yogurt.
Using different colors and imagination, you can get colorful drops on cardboard or thick paper, and if you drip from a height of half a meter, you will get blots. The gun, of course, can get dirty, and to clean it after artistic practice, you should run a certain amount of factory glue, which will wash away the wax from the inside. Let us remind you that wax is a rather greasy material, and not all surfaces will be able to hold it. for a long time. The porous structure of wood or cardboard can provide sufficient adhesion.
Vintage wax seals
In the same way, you can heat wax to make seals and impressions, for example, to seal a letter of congratulations or a personal message. Using coins or other embossed metal objects, you can even achieve similarities with those that have gone out of use
A letter with such a stamp will not only delight the addressee with its originality, but will also introduce some intimacy and mystery into the correspondence. Oh yes, wax is quite fragile, unlike sealing wax, so do not trust these letters to the mail, present them in person.
Decoration with glue
Transparent or colored hot melt adhesive with your own hands can be turned not only into a fastening composition, but also into a decoration element. Simple and inconspicuous glass vases, treated on the outside with a hot-melt adhesive pattern, will sparkle with new colors and will impress your guests as an original work of your own.
In the same way, you can draw three-dimensional figures and entire pictures on any household containers, boxes, or simply on cardboard for a frame on the wall. Not any paint is suitable for coloring colorless glue - watercolor or gouache will quickly be erased from the surface. It is best to use acrylic-based paints or, in extreme cases, nail polish.
DIY hot glue crafts are a great way to spend time with children, teaching them accuracy, responsibility and artistic flair. The main thing is not to leave children alone with the device turned on or just warmed up.
Glue color classification
Let's take a look at these colored sticks. It can't be that manufacturers are just adding colorings at random. Indeed, there is a recommended international marking and here are the main types of cores for a heat gun:
Simple translucent cylindrical sticks are the most popular type of glue. Universal, suitable for most various surfaces and materials, suitable for almost any hidden and open fastenings.
Colored opaque rods differ from universal ones only in color. It makes sense to buy them for those who do crafts, children and florists. They allow you to disguise the gluing area under overall color products without the use of additional coloring.
Black and gray stickers are intended for waterproofing areas, and are also used as electrical insulation. The non-shrinking and adhesive properties of the material are used in sealing window frames and in the insulation of current-carrying parts of electrical appliances.
White opaque rods are used specifically for gluing metal and glass, except, of course, universal adhesives, painted in white, pay attention to the packaging.
Yellow or candle-colored, wood-colored translucent sticks have better adhesion to the porous structure of wood or cardboard.
In any case, not all manufacturers have yet come to common standards and it is necessary to check technical properties glue, checking the packaging. There you can also find out the melting point of the material and the approximate temperature range of its use.
Electrical appliances often require materials that can withstand prolonged heating; in other cases, non-rigid plastic fixation, such as silicone, may be required, for example, in manufacturing hand tools. You also need to take into account the capabilities of your device for working with glue, so that the heat gun has enough power to melt the material during operation.
DIY pistol
The market is now flooded with instruments that are not the most best quality, and heat guns are no exception. They usually break at the most inopportune moment, and you may need a reliable device to use the remaining hot melt adhesive.
You can quickly build a heater for work from an old iron or use a soldering iron, but here you may encounter the problem of overheating the material. For permanent job Craftsmen are more likely to be inspired by the idea of making a hot-melt glue gun with their own hands.
Current power regulator will help control the temperature
First of all, we need to make a current power regulator, whatever heating device we didn't use it. Overheating of the adhesive material will inevitably lead to its severe liquefaction (as a result, spontaneous leakage from the gun) or even burnout.
The regulator is made by sequentially connecting a dimmer to an open circuit, like a switch, where it will perform the above functions and regulate the power of the supplied current. It will be convenient to make separate socket with regulator on piece wooden board, it is likely that current power control will be needed for other devices.
based on boiler
Now we can be sure that the boiler will not burn without water, but will only heat up to the required temperature. The next step will be to make a comfortable handle so that you don’t get burned on the heated device. Most available material for the handle - wood, but it is also afraid of high temperatures and to protect it you can use Teflon tape, used in cooking.
As a working container, you need to make a tube and a funnel from a tin can, connecting them together so that the edges of the funnel cover the tube. The diameter of the working crucible should be such that the funnel is tightly clamped by the coils of the boiler. We additionally strengthen the structure with copper wire and test the device on a suitable piece of glue stick. This design compensates for the absence of a feed lever with incredible “omnivorousness”, that is, the tool is suitable for any type of hot-melt adhesive, regardless of its melting point.
If you run out of glue
Let's consider the situation the other way around: there is a useless hot-melt gun without suitable stickers, and you need to stick something “here and now.” We put aside the orphaned tool until we buy suitable ones for it. consumables and turn our attention to another, no less versatile heating device - a hair dryer.
Of course, hair models would be inappropriate here, meaning a professional one that produces high air temperatures. Here you can heat the glue right at the joint. By the way, the glue itself is literally lying under your feet.
We offer the 2 most common options for making hot-melt adhesive with your own hands:
Foamed polypropylene or polyethylene can occasionally be found as packaging material, but most often it is found in construction and finishing works as heat and sound insulation. The connection is not so strong as it is flexible, and is not afraid of shocks and vibrations.
Everyone knows plastic bottles, which have filled landfills all over the Earth, are also suitable as an adhesive material. It takes quite a long time to heat the entire bottle with a hairdryer, so it’s better to cut off the plate the right size at the gluing site.
Both options are unstable when high temperatures, but are suitable for most jobs where the use of conventional hot-melt adhesive is sufficient. This way, you recycle waste and have a virtually inexhaustible supply of glue.
Name Confusion: Circuit Adhesive
For people involved in circuit design, the words have the same meaning as “hot-melt adhesive for radiators.” It is very difficult to make such material with your own hands, since it uses chemical reactions, and not a change in the state of aggregation of a substance under the influence of temperature.
It is impossible to compare hot-melt adhesive for a gun and hot-melt adhesive for LEDs, which are different in composition and purpose. You can make the so-called glycerin cement with your own hands from lead litharge and glycerin as a heat-conducting layer and an adhesive at the same time.
There are also proven industrial options for heat-resistant materials for gluing, which, of course, are better to have in stock than to prepare hot-melt glue yourself. "Alsil-5" and "Radial" are the most well-known brands among specialists. In addition, several types of heat-conducting rubber are produced. You should read the instructions about how exactly heat-resistant adhesive is used.
Useful tips
Regular glue gun with hot glue can be used not only for gluing various parts, but also for creating various patterns and crafts.
When working with hot glue, be careful and give special attention child safety, because the glue gun heats up and the glue comes out very hot.
Here are some very interesting and extraordinary ideas on how else you can use a glue gun and hot glue:
Crafts made from glue. We use wax crayons.
You will need:
Glue gun
Wax crayons
* It is possible that after using wax crayons, your glue gun will deteriorate, so it is advisable to use an old or inexpensive gun.
*If children are working on the project, be careful when working with a hot glue gun and hot melted crayons.
1. Remove the labels (papers) from the crayons.
2. Cover your work area with an old towel.
3. Heat up the glue gun.
4. Carefully insert the chalk into the glue gun and gradually push it through. The glue gun trigger won't be able to push them through, so you'll have to do it by hand.
5. The wax will begin to melt and you will be able to use colored wax drops to create colorful blots.
Wax stamping is another way to use wax crayons and a glue gun to create vibrant images.
DIY glue crafts. Decorate a vase or candlestick with hot glue.
You will need:
Inexpensive, round vase or candlestick
Heat the glue and begin to carefully apply it to the vase, layer by layer, so that you end up with transparent lines on the walls of the vase.
If you want to make straighter lines, ask someone to help you - let them twist the vase for you while you apply the glue.
Unusual crafts. Hot glue corals.
You will need:
Thin wire
Hot glue gun
Acrylic paint
Brush
Piece of plywood
Nails and hammer.
Making red coral
1. Cut the wire into several pieces of different lengths. In this example, their length varies from 10 to 40 cm. Bend each piece in half.
2. Heat the glue and carefully cover all the pieces of wire with it.
3. Select the color you want to paint the coral, in this case red. Use acrylic paint to paint the glue on the wires.
4. When the paint is dry, you can assemble all the parts into one coral. Take 2-3 pieces of wire with glue and connect them together using another thin, clean wire (not covered with glue).
Add 2 more parts to the structure and connect them again with clean wire.
So that the coral stands on flat surface, all ends of the clean wires must be twisted and bent into the shape of a stand (see image).
Making white coral
1. Cut 3 pieces of wire, each between 30 and 35 cm long, and twist their ends together.
2. Bend all the wires the way you like and place them on a flat surface to which hot glue will not stick - glass, for example.
3. Cover all the wires with glue. After this, you can add additional branches of glue to your design.
4. Once you have the coral in the shape you want, let the glue dry and paint it white acrylic paint.
5. To make the base for the craft, prepare a piece of plywood and attach the ends of the wires to it with nails.
6. Cover the ends with glue and paint with acrylic paint.
Unusual DIY crafts. Snowflakes made from hot glue.
You will need:
Hot glue gun
Nail polish or acrylic paint
Parchment paper (NOT waxed (wax) paper)
A drawn snowflake shape (if desired).
1. Print or draw a snowflake on a regular sheet of paper and place the design under parchment paper.
2. Using a glue gun and hot glue, trace the snowflake design. Wait a minute for the glue to dry.
If necessary, after the glue has dried, you can straighten the shape a little using a hairdryer.
3. Carefully remove the snowflake from the paper. The paper can be further used to create several more snowflakes.
4. Both sides of the glue snowflake can be painted with nail polish or acrylic paint.
Original DIY crafts . Rolling pin with a pattern.
You will need:
Any rolling pin
Felt pen
1. Draw any pattern on the rolling pin. It is advisable not to draw too many lines.
2. Heat the glue and start applying it to the lines drawn on the rolling pin. It is advisable to carry out the entire process on a flat surface covered with newspaper or cardboard.
3. Once the glue is dry, you can use a rolling pin to create a design on the clay by rolling it out.
The glue can be removed and a different pattern applied.
Original crafts. Glass holder for candle.
You will need:
Small glass vase or glass
Hot glue gun
Aerosol or acrylic paint
Spray oil or simple vegetable oil.
It is advisable to choose a wide vase so that the heat from the candle inside does not heat the glue, which may leak.
1. Wash and dry the vase, then wipe it with vegetable oil and a paper napkin.
2. Start applying hot glue to reverse side the bottom of the vase, drawing patterns with it. The main thing is that all the lines intertwine well so that it is easier to remove the glue from the vase.
Continue drawing patterns with glue on the sides of the vase.
It is advisable to wear glasses to protect your eyes, as the glue will heat the glass.
3. Once the glue has dried, carefully begin to separate the design from the vase. You may need to use a screwdriver, knife, or other tool to make it easier to separate the design from the glass vase.
4. Clean the vase from any remaining glue. Use dishwashing detergent.
5. Paint the glue design. If you are using spray paint, read the instructions carefully and act according to them.
Now you can insert a glass or vase into the candle holder and you will get an excellent interior decoration.
Interesting crafts for children. Multi-colored dots for various crafts.
You will need:
Hot glue gun
Acrylic paint or nail polish
Brush.
It will take a little practice to get these straight pieces, but eventually you will get it, and all these pieces can be used to make various crafts and cards.
Each dot can be painted with acrylic paint or nail polish.
Crafts for children: do-it-yourself printing (video)
* First, cover the surface of the table with a special silicone board or silicone oilcloth.
Crafts for the home: making a vase from glue (video)
Interesting DIY crafts. Makeup brush cleaning board
No matter how naively the reader may be greeted with the topic of a glue gun, there is a repeated description of recommendations for its purchase and its use. further exploitation, I’ll still share my improvement of this tool.
Glue gun has become popular recently due to its wide capabilities, but for some reason some characteristics of many models wish to be better.
A set of glue sticks with diameters from 3.4mm to 43mm with different compositions and different temperatures melting is good. Convenient charging of the rod into the heat chamber, convenient supply of glue to the surface to be glued, light weight of the tool, the presence of an additional switch, power indicator and a removable power cord. Everything is fine!. But there is one significant detail indicated in the passport data of a glue gun used in everyday life - the value of the supplied voltage and electrical power heater.
As a rule, in each model of a hot-melt glue gun, a semiconductor is used as a heating element, or more precisely, a semiconductor resistor. It is also a posistor (semiconductor ceramic).
Again, what is there to look for and discuss here? Simple, convenient! But it's not reliable. Why? I'll tell you in more detail.
Hot glue guns are very popular among designers, fashion designers, decorators, in television and radio workshops, and even in funeral service workshops. They use hot melt adhesive for spot gluing or gluing small parts together. In everyday life, a glue gun is not often used. That's true. It's not every day that we glue something. But in some cases, the use of hot-melt adhesive remains the only option, which is not feasible due to the failure of the heating element, which bursts from overheating and sometimes even breaks a little.
In my practice, over the course of a couple of months, several glue guns were purchased, and different models. The technical passport of each indicated the supplied (connected) voltage and electrical (thermal) power, which in no way corresponded to the actual one. At the specified 40wt, the pistol could not cross the 8wt threshold. At 65wt the heater did not consume even 20wt. Yes. The glue melted, but only on the basis of ethylene vinyl acetate.
Some people were happy with this, but I wasn’t. It was necessary to glue long products (plinths, baguettes, corners), which were covered with hot glue in 7-12 minutes. The glue on one end had already hardened when, for example, hot glue was just applied to the opposite end of the baguette. Moreover, several samples of glue guns ‘showed fireworks in my hands’ due to the heater burning out just at those moments when I was gluing ceiling tiles, because professional and classic glue guns heat up to a maximum temperature of 220°C. The melting point of polystyrene foam and polystyrene is 240°C, vinyl plastic is 230°C-250°C. failed to fulfill its purpose.
Converting a glue gun from 220 volts to 12 volts.
What has changed in the design of the glue gun?
Determined the length of the blank piece of nichrome wire. The diameter of the wire was not important. The calculation was carried out using standard formulas (Ohm's Laws for a section of a circuit).
- The starting point was the desired electrical power of the glue gun. I settled on (≈)34-36Wt. It follows from this: 36(wt) : 12(v) ≈ 3.3(a). The average current consumption was determined.
- Now from I=U/R we determine the resistance of the conductor, that is, the resistance of a piece of nichrome wire: R=U/I. 12(v) : 3.3(a) ≈ 3.6(Ω).
- Using an ohmmeter (tester, multimeter) I determined the piece of wire. I placed the probes of the device far from each other on the wire so that the device (ohmmeter, multimeter, tester) would show on the scale a resistance close to the calculated one - 3.6Ω.
Then everything was simpler and the time I spent on reconstructing the glue gun did not take more than 35 minutes.
- I removed the old heating element from the camera and the power cord.
- I ground the body of the heating chamber in a circle.
- I wound several turns of nichrome wire through a layer of asbestos paper.
- A switch was installed in the circuit of the new heater, which was mounted on the handle of the gun.
- The voltage at the battery terminals is 10.5v;
- heating element resistance - 3.6 Ω;
- The current consumption of the glue gun heater is about 3A.
- The temperature in the rod melting chamber is 172°C after 1 minute;
- - 197°C after 2 minutes;
- - 222°C after 4 minutes;
- - 262°C after 7 minutes;
- - 268°C after 8 minutes;
- - 280°C after 9 minutes.
This is it for me! Why wait 7 minutes for a regular glue gun to heat up when this one melts in a few seconds? You can glue in a field, in a basement, in a boat, in a car. The glue consumption is not 20ml per minute (never exceeded the consumption of 12ml-16ml), but 40ml-50ml.
Adjusting the temperature of the glue gun heater.
The electrical circuit of the device is simple. At that time there was no thermostat installed. The melting temperature of the glue was regulated by turning the heater on and off via a switch. We experimented with connecting in series to the circuit of a car potentiometer (dashboard backlight brightness control), adjustable charger For car batteries. Convenient too. We tried connecting the glue gun to a 6v battery. The glue did not melt as vigorously, but still the heater brought the tool into operating mode in a couple of minutes. The polystyrene ceiling tiles were installed step by step without any delays.
Subsequently, a homemade customizable glue gun temperature regulator, switching off the chamber heater when it reaches set temperature. That is, when the switch was on, the element heated the melting chamber for hot-melt glue freely to the maximum temperature; when the switch was off, the gun worked with low-temperature material (within 175°C-190°C), depending on the setting of the regulator mode.
It operates from a 5 volt power source and can be connected to a power bank or power supply using a USB connector. During operation, the glue gun consumes from 1.2A to 2A. During operation, the average value was 1.4A. To reduce power consumption, you can change the length of the nichrome wire or select a smaller wire cross-section.
What we need:
1. Aluminum can (0.5l or 0.33l)
2. 2.5ml medical syringe
3.USB cable
4. Wooden handle(also from an old soldering iron)
5. Button or switch (the button is more convenient, because the switch quickly broke down for me)
6. Nichrome thread 14cm (I took it from an old soldering iron)
7. A pair of heat sink pipes (from the same old soldering iron)
8. Copper wiring (I took a twisted cable)
9. Heat shrink 5mm
10. Power supply 5V 2A
11. Electrical tape and super glue
From the tools:
1. Scissors
2. Stationery knife
3. Soldering iron
Step 1.
We take the handle from an old soldering iron and cut it in half (I was lucky, the handle can be unscrewed). We need the bottom part. There, the glue stick (7mm) fits perfectly (if you don’t have one, you can modify it with a file). We make a slot as in the photo to accommodate the heat dissipation tubes (I took them from an old soldering iron).
Step 2.
We take 2 copper wires (taken from a twisted pair cable) 10 cm each. We clean them so that the heat sink tubes fit, as shown in the photo.
Step 3.
Cut from aluminum can for drinks, a rectangle 8cm x 12cm (I took it with a reserve, then it’s easier to cut off the excess). Take a 7mm glue stick and place it on the cut out rectangle, carefully roll it up so that at the end you get a spout with a narrow outlet for heated glue and insert the resulting tube into the hole in the handle.
We use scissors to make slits in the area of the spout and bend them over one another.
Next we wind nichrome wire 14cm for these slots.
Example of slots and winding (the spout example here is not correct). The finished product, with a narrow spout, will be in the next photo.
We glue the heat sink tubes (they turned out to be fragile) into the slots on the handle and screw the wires to the nichrome wire.
It should look like in the photo.
Step 4.
We cut the syringe (2.5 ml) as in the photo.
And insert it into top part handles (lucky again, fit perfectly).
Step 5.
Wrapping bottom part handles with wires with electrical tape, glue the power button with super glue and solder the wires to it. We glue the rubber band from the syringe onto the power button for easy pressing and operation with one hand.
Step 6.
Finally, we connect the wires with a USB cable (polarity does not matter), insulate them from each other with electrical tape and heat shrink on top. We tape the junction of the wires to the syringe with tape. Ready!
Let's start checking the functionality.
The glue flows evenly, the intensity can be adjusted with the second hand.
I reworked it several times during assembly, adjusting the parts by trial and error. It heats up in 25 - 30 seconds and you can work. The glue squeezes out quite easily. The gun operates by pressing a button, which saves battery power and the glue does not flow out spontaneously.
Detailed assembly for review in the video.
