Anyone use a hot glue gun?

I have a small lightweight Stanley glue gun that is great for quick one-off projects, and also a larger professional glue gun which has adjustable temperature and an assortment of different sized nozzles including some very fine ones. I bought this gun for making high end wedding stationery - you can't risk big blobs of glue and glue strings on wedding invitations! If you can run to the higher price of a professional gun they are worth every penny, but I can also recommend the Stanley gun for general crafting. But whichever one you choose they all get very hot and can be dangerous, so handle with care.

I bought a glue gun from hobbycraft as I make cards. I found it ok but don't burn yourselves cos it hurts. Ouch !

Used a hot glue gun this weekend for the first time. Very efficient. Was not burnt. Made a square wreath out of twigs and have to say once it was Finished with the other bits and bobs, looks very professional. my first but not my last.

Have used a hot glue gun for years for all sorts of things and have found it indispensable. However have also discovered a cold silicon rubber 'glue' called Sugru. Every colour under the sun and it sticks pretty much anything to anything and is flexible when dry. It does take 24 hours to cure and is expensive, but there are some repairs that cannot be done with anything else, particularly around the car, bathroom and kitchen. Have a look on line.

I used to work as a florist and we used hot guns, mostly for fiddly things like headbands. They take a bit of getting used to and can give a nasty burn. I'm not sure what I would use one for now. I'm sure there are better things you can use at home. Grandchildren use pritt stick. I do sewing but wouldn't use a hot glue gun.

Friend ended up in A and E with a very nasty burn from a glue gun Experienced 'crafter'too.She was rushing to finish something Have been a bit wary of them ever since

I got mine from The Works- not expensive & it is great. They do use a heck of a lot of glue sticks though. I am told you can use the offcuts again but have yet to find a way of doing it.
I tend to push stamps into hot glue & then trim them off to make embellishments. Often sprinkle them with glitter first. I find they take a good few minutes to cool off.
Rubylady- If you push slightly into the glue & twist as you remove the gun it works OK. Think of piping icing balls without getting peaks round the bottom of a cake- that is the same action.

I use a hot glue gun for crafting. I use a wooden cocktail stick to hold things in place while the glue is setting and to wipe off any stringy bits - a bit like curling spaghetti round a fork.

There are a few steps to note when using a glue gun. (1) The point gets hot - hot enough to melt the glue. So don't touch it, any more than you would touch the tip of a hot soldering iron. (2) You need to give it time to heat up. (3) It is at the right heat when you squeeze the trigger and molten glue comes out freely. If you are squeezing and squeezing, and nothing comes out, it isn't hot enough. Go and make a cup of tea, leaving the glue gun "on" and somewhere safe like on a heatproof board (4) The brilliant thing about a glue gun is that the glue "goes off" ie hardens very quickly. so it is good for those jobs where you hold something in place, glue, and it sets. If you need longer setting time, for example mending a piece of furniture, you need a glue which "stays open" for longer. (5) As others have said, if you want to extend the "open" time, heat/warm up the surfaces to which you will be applying the glue. (6) Don't apply too much glue from the glue gun or it goes everywhere and is hard to clean up. (7) Make sure you know the exact positioning of the items you are gluing - you won't have time for second thoughts.(8) Very often what you want is to lay down a pattern of blobs rather than try to cover the whole surface as you might do with a white craft glue.
Does anyone know of a good glue gun with a safety light?

I got a Bosch to glue my gingerbread house walls/roof together as it had heavy 'rigging' and fiddly roof bits. It's hard to glue porous stuff, so be sure your seams/joins are smooth.

Had the same trouble, it cooled so quickly. Ended up using prit stick to set up the joins, then ran the glue down the seams on the inside. THAT worked. Of course, those seams were out of sight.

I agree, I wish there was a glue that did not go off so fast.

I am also a crafter and use a hot glue gun infrequently, but i have heard the very best one is the Bosch, as has already been recommended, but I dont use it frequently enough to justify buying another one!

Great idea to warm metal items before gluing: might make the difference, though raise risk of burns. Glue from large size guns takes much longer to cool and allows more time for placement.

Yes I have 2. A large one and a small one for fiddly craft. I have had some nasty burns and its not safe for little fingers. However it sticks anything to everything???????

I don't used my gun for paper or small jobs, it is a large gun. For my size gun, you can get several types of glue stick, it may be worth trying different types if they are available for your gun.

I am a crafter and own 3 glue guns, took a bit of practice before I found one which suited me - the Bosch glue PEN. Its amazing. Its rechargeable and you can just remove the stick of glue when you are not using it, so this stops most of the drips. If it does leave a little bit it just lifts off when the glue has cooled. Also I store upright in a jar or box and this stops the glue collecting around the nozzle. I buy a job lot of sticks & they last ages.

I too use a hot glue gun for paper crafts I m not as impressed as I expected to be I find it sets SO quickly that I have to be speedy to get the item to stick well and they can leave trails all over the place. Every crafter I know raved about them but it's Ok I certainly wouldn't rave

I use a hot glue gun for my craft work. It is a bit stringy though, I've found. I don't know how to get it not to do this? Anyone?

I use a hot melt glue gun regularly. The secret is to get the items you are gluing as hot as possible. If the glue hits a cold surface it will cool before adhesion has taken place. Metal items I would put in the oven and get very hot, wooden/plastic item warm.

My husband and he usually makes a dreadful mess.

Yes. I use a hot glue gun for flower arranging and it is fine. It does tend to make long threads of blue like spider webs which are difficult to manage.

I am a crafter making cards, books, boxes and mixed media items. I use a glue gun as sold in craft shops using sticks. I don't use it that often and have no problems with the sticks going off. Some of my peers have started using a DIY tool, maybe Bosch or some such. It is a rechargeable one and is more powerful and doesn't have a cord to get twisted. I may look at one of those.

A friend of mine used a hot glue gun to make a triangle shaped Christmas tree for a flower club display. She drizzled the glue over a wooden frame and then sprayed it white. It looked like lace and made an impressive backdrop for a flower display at the Christmas tree festival.

I went to a hot glue gun craft class a couple of months ago & one of the things we did was to put the melted glue onto a silicon stamp- let it dry & peeled off the image. Made lovely flowers, butterflies etc. Also made 'gems' by making dots with it & sprinkling it with glitter. I didn't have one until then but I have used it a lot since.

In that case I think I will get one sometime soon. We shop at Lidls and every now and then they sell them, so I will keep my eyes open for one. I use E6000 glue in jewellery making and I am always looking for different ways to use glue neatly.

I've just ordered one from Amazon, a rather better one than the cheap 'cool' hot glue gun I started out with. Cue burnt fingertips...