Dewalt corded heat gun: amzn.to/3BC9sD5 Dewalt cordless heat gun: amzn.to/3BAjdSq Milwaukee cordless heat gun: amzn.to/3brjKvp Conair Yellow Bird Blow Dryer: amzn.to/4egOObN Conair InfinitiPro Hair Dryer: amzn.to/3MCZiGD Mini Heat Gun: amzn.to/4dW2BEO Disclaimer: Tested may earn an affiliate commission when you buy through the links here. Mask gift made by www.tiktok.com/@callsign_ragnar
The best heat gun for me is a hot air desoldering gun. Allows me to set temp and air flow. I've used it to start charcoal, strip paint, cook food, vaping, and a whole list of other uses. Thawing pipes without worrying about starting a fire.
For weak heat a hairdryer is safest, while still strong enough to deform many kinds of plastic. I mainly do heatstretching of PVC inflatables (for making superheroes more muscular etc.) and wrote much about in the Doll Forum. With skill and proper tool you can do detail work like a glassblower. Important is an adjustable hairdryer with (pistol trigger style) cold button and multiple heat and speed settings. When using a nozzle at high heat, the cold button also needs to be held for 20 seconds before turning off to prevent overheating (else bimetallic fuse engages and and risk of motor damage). Hairdryers are likely also sufficient to attach car wrapping foil. I used it to stretch PVC adhesive foil wrinkle-free over curved surfaces and reduce its tension (else it kept coming off after few days). For detail work at higher temperatures and low airflow use an SMD soldering gun. It can locally output enough heat to melt solder or ignite something, but unlike the home improvement store device its airflow can be set low enough not to blow things away, and also the heat can be turned down to 100°C (be careful, after power-on my ATTEN model always starts at 200°C). There are tiny metal nozzles for it for local application, which may be useful e.g. to bend parts of small plastic objects without deforming the rest.
Electrical Tech here, I absolutely love the stick heat gun! If you love your self and other people, you will label your wiring. That gun works all day shrinking labels!
I'm looking for a good cordless heat gun for doing work aboard boats where I'm not always near 120vac. Have you had any luck with the butane stick torches?
Yeah, I have one just like that (even same blue and white haha) in the lab that I use for heat-shrink. Does a great job, doesn't blow crap around (like Adam mentions), etc etc
@@chiphill4856 I have a battery powered heat gun (einhell) Like Adam says, it is underpowered, but that can be good. I used it mainly for heating black alkathene water pipe (irrigation) to slide onto push fittings. Not heavy duty, only a few fittings though! It works fine for that, especially on the small tubes. A normal blowtorch is easy to overheat pipes with. I can make it work, but I can also screw up and burn the pipe. You need to be extra careful. A pencil/micro torch is a pain to work with, I haven't found a good torch for providing only a small very hot flame. I have a pencil torch, it works for what I need it for (not for plastic piping), but I have to manually light it every time, it's fiddly, it is just "ok" to use. But it was cheap and I rarely use it, so that is fine! On full power, with a 4A.h battery, the heat gun lasts something like 20 mins of continuous use. It just chews through the batteries. Of course, if you are just heating tubes (or heat-shrinking, I guess,) you don't have it running continuously. So it has a more useful run-time, especially if you are using the lower heat setting. I understand there are battery powered soldering irons too. I don't know how good they are or how quickly they go through batteries though, but if you are just doing small electrical repairs away from mains power, it could be a viable option to have a couple of batteries and a heat gun and soldering iron.
An SMD soldering gun is even smaller and can be very precisely adjusted for very low airflow and temperature between 100°C and about 450°C. There are even many different small nozzles for local heat application.
I have my late grandfather's Chicago Electric heat gun from Harbor Freight which he had since the 1980s. It still works like a champ and stays holstered next to my workbench ready to use. It has a low and high setting and is pretty much perfect for anything I've ever needed it for.
Those really do work great. Mine died off a couple of years ago, and replaced it with a Porter-Cable. Which I learned is basically the exact same thing, just with a fancier name on it.
My favorite heat gun is one many people never think about - a hot air de\soldering iron. Gets hot enough to melt solder but is small and directed enough to not completely trash everything around it. Plus, the temperature control is measured in degrees C, and not just a +/- dial. Pretty much the only way to reflow IC's without scrapping the PCB if you do that kind of thing, can make some fun patterns in Kydex, and in a pinch can be used to touch up a 3D print (although I wouldn't really recommend this for a novice).
@@chiphill4856 It totally would, but you have to be really careful because it would also be able to melt the cables so lowest heat settings and distance to not melt things would be required.
Oh yeah. A hot air desoldering station is amazing. Mine came with a wide variety of tips, allowing for precision heating to a wide angle nozzle. But you are entirely correct, they get much hotter than a standard heat gun. You may need to use the correct nozzle, and then vary distance as required to not overheat the surrounding materials. I have actually used stick matches or a lighter for heat shrink, it doesn't require all that much heat to shrink. I have also just used the soldering iron itself, as the side of the tip will shrink heat shrink just fine. Just have to keep moving it around.
I was going to post a comment to that effect, you beat me to it. +1 to everything: great temperature and air flow control, interchangeable nozzles. The range of applications goes way beyond melting solder paste. I use mine to shrink tubes, melt hot glue, loosen glue to open devices, and many more.
@@BertrandLeRoy You could probably make a grilled cheese with one. I actually made grilled cheese on a steam iron, back in the day. Could not have a cooking surface in the dorms, but you could have an iron. On wool setting, it was enough to toast bread. And if you can toast bread, you can make a grilled cheese. Ruined the iron, but it's sacrifice was tasty cheesy goodness.
Heat gun story! I am a cosplayer and work with eva foam, as one does, and it took your previous heat gun video about the crappy factory "heat gun" to realise that this whole time i hadnt been sealing the foam well enough because the heat gun I was using at the time was really under powered! Glad to say now I have a heat gun with the tempreture dial and my props now have infinite better finishes now that they're being sealed properly! Thanks for that!
A neighbor in the building gave me a hot-air pop-corn popper she didn't like in the early '80s. I didn't like it either, but I stripped it down and used it for a heat gun. I've used other much finer ones in shops where I've worked, but at my home shop, I still used the core of that pop-corn popper - it really puts out the heat!
I have actully been thinking in the other direction - I have a heat gun but not a popcorn popper, and am thinking that some appropriately fine wire mesh could be formed into a small open-top basket for the kernels, angled at a collection bowl....
So when I was an electrician, we had those big, long PVC pipe heater boxes for melting the pipe into big, long sweeps so it was easier to pull the wire through. Well if we didn't have access to one of those and we only had a few to do, then we would pack the pipe full of sand/dirt and use a heat gun. The sand inside the pipe would make it much less likely to collapse the pipe as we would gradually bend it into whatever shape we needed.
So happy to see the Cordless and Tube corded heat guns! The tube Corded heat "gun" lives on my electronics workbench, it's my go-to for heat shrink because it's not hot enough to scorch but good enough to get the job done. As a fire alarm technician, I have the Ryobi Cordless heat gun and it's "Crapiness" is the secret to being gentle enough to activate heat detectors for testing WITHOUT melting the plastic casing!
I bought a Drill Master heat gun at Harbor Freight for $9 about 10 years ago, and it still works great. It has high and low, no adjustable heat settings. If I want less heat, then I move it back further. It was only meant to only be temporary, but it just keeps going.
But wait! There's one other you may want to consider---a Hot-Air Rework Station. It's great because you can adjust the heat and the air intensity, along with the nozzle size. Not only can you change the volume and the temperature of air but how fine a stream you would like. It can handle heat-shrink to solder, that should do you just fine for most hot-air applications. You can pick a good one up for $40-$100, and you can find portable or benchtop versions. Thanks for what you do. -B.Nebula
I've got one of those small ones, a hair dryer and a true heat gun. I have a model train layout and work on the trains converting them to DCC, so I use whichever one is closest for the heat shrink when I'm soldering wires. The small one is also great to get paint to dry much faster.
My Steinel Heat gun was purchased about 20 years ago. It was expensive, but its wide range of heat and air settings makes it an excellent tool. The Steinel Heat gun does everything a complete collection of heat guns does, plus it has an unmatched set of accessory nozzles. I also bought the DeWalt cordless model after watching Adam's previous video. I like its portability. I use the Dewalt with a 9-amp FlexVolt battery so it will not tip over. The DeWalt is great for warming your boots on a cold winter day, thawing frozen locks and a host of other things. However, it will not melt roofing tar for practical purposes, unless you are on the sunny side of the roof in August.
I bought a Wagner heat gun several years ago because I could not find my makita. It is by far the best heat gun I have used. It has a digital display and both the fan and heat are changed incrementally. It was cheap and also came with some useful nozzles and a scraper. The heat rating goes to 11.
That corded Dewalt heat gun (looks like a space laser) controls the temperature by actually varying the power into the heat element, thus the air flow is constant. Many other heat guns control the heat by restricting the airflow, less airflow equals hotter air. Burns out quick if the intake becomes clogged.
I really like a battery powered heat guns for a quick heat shrink job. I often use a corded heat gun with a digital dial for higher heat or precision heat like when desoldering flat pack microchips especially land grid arrays. The last heat gun that goes missed that I keep around is a Propane Torch, great for instant heat for a large number of things from cooking to torching away stringing on 3D prints plus a propane torch keeps working during a power outage.
I'm surprised by the lack of mention of a hot air solder rework station. I've found the small tips very handy for when you want localized heating, and of course, the adjustable temperature is a bonus.
For precision heat gun-ing, Adam needs to look into a Hot Air Rework station used for circuit boards. They usually have a similar form factor as the last mini heat gun shown. They have interchangeable nozzle tips and connected with a hose to a base station where you can control both air speed and temperature, often with the ability to save a few different presets.
My old HarborFreight heat gun died several years ago after over 10 years of solid use. I got the new Bauer one from HF for $35. It stands on its back, has several heat and fan settings, and a cool down cycle when you are done. Ive used it for a couple years now, and it has been really solid.
I picked up one of those small stick heat guns the last time Adam showed them and it's so much more useful than I thought it would be. It's just the right size to keep in a tucked away but easy to grab place unlike a full size heat gun that always feels like it's in the way. I do agree that the cord it way too short and I keep meaning to replace/extend it but never get around to it.
I'm actually in the market for a heat gun, mainly for heating guitar binding prior to bending. I've been using a blow torch for every application that needs a heat gun so i have melted and set fire to my fair share of things that I didn't need to set fire to! The cordless could be the one I think
The ultimate heat gun that I have is part of a Surface Mount rework station that has a 3-in-1: #1 soldering iron, #2 solder sucker (desolderer) and #3 a hot air wand... it allows me control over air-flow and temperature in fine step increments and has a bunch of specialty nozzles to allow me to focus that hot air exactly where I want it to go. If you're interested in knowing about that, It is a Xytronic model LF-853D... there are a bunch of other models and you will likely find a rabbit hole to go down... don't blame me for that LOL. But for everyday heat gun use, I bought a "Yellow" heat gun off of Amazon... Yellow being the defining feature LOL. It has a speed control and an adjustable temp control knobby thing on the back just like that DeWalt. Hmmm... now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it's the same manufacturer in China that makes them? Oh well, whatever, it "works"
You are right about the localisation of heat with the Milwaukee heat gun. I have had one for about three years now and use it with a heavy 5.0 Ah M18 battery. While i have used it for 'traditional' jobs like activating heat shrink, de-icing an old freezer compartment, melting adhesive backing, melting solder, melting wax for splash proofing fabrics, reinvigorating sunbaked plastics... The most hours I've spent using it is localised weeding in the garden. Sure i have to bend down/ hands-knees the word, but as i have cats, i cant use harsh chemicals. Its one of my favourite tools.
For me up has always been on as almost every place you go a light switch goes up to go on so therefore up should be high the down should be low at least that's what is intuitive for me. Thanks for another great video. PS. I like the shorter ones as I try to limit myself to two hours a day of videos
I fix hot tubs as my main business and use a heat gun to warm up hoses so I can glue them back in place. I have on at least two occasions accidentally caught PVC glue on fire due to the flammable nature of the glue itself and the amount of heat that the gun itself is putting out.
I have a Music Medic Vortex "air torch". It's head-and-shoulders above every other heat gun I've ever used. The wand is light and comfortable, and it's precise in temperature and airspeed while also including tips to essentially give different sizes of airstream, which is all very important when you don't want to burn one thing nearby while working another or burn finishes on parts you want to heat. I use it mainly for its intended purpose of working on musical instruments for which it is a colossal time- and effort-saver (many if not most repairers are still using open-flame alcohol lamps, there is no in-between), but it does get tasked with anything in my shop a normal heat gun would do and it excels at those as well.
For detail work at higher temperatures and low airflow I use an SMD soldering gun. It can locally output enough heat to melt solder or ignite something, but unlike the home improvement store device its airflow can be set low enough not to blow things away, and also the heat can be turned down to 100°C (be careful, after power-on my ATTEN model always starts at 200°C). There are tiny metal nozzles for it for local application, which may be useful e.g. to bend parts of small plastic objects without deforming the rest.
Sometimes I use a plumbers torch as a heat gun. Even for delicate jobs it can work if you have a steady hand. I reflowed the solder on an old MacBook gpu with it. It feels wrong taking a torch to an circuit board but it worked a treat. lol
Are you working in a slum in Nigeria!? I saw TV docus of people in Africa or Russia doing fine repairs with what looks like the most unappropriate tools. (Soldering electronics with metal rod reheated in fire etc.)
I bought a Wagner Furno 750 which is just a great heat gun all around. Took it up to my friend's lake house for my bachelor party along with some PVC and bowstring and we made bows and shot arrows that weekend. They were terrible, we had no idea what we were doing, but that heat gun ran pretty much continuously for a couple hours. Lots of fun. Once I get my shop setup one thing I'd like to do is build some jigs to make good PVC bows for friends and family.
Heat gun story that was more of a happy accident... My little girl and I were painting a little wooden boat. Impatient to paint after priming, I told her to get a hair dryer but she got a heat gun off the wall. I thought let's just give it a try. What it made was a beautiful crackle pattern. I thought surely we'd have to sand and redo the entire thing but we both loved it :)
I bought a Wagner heat gun that has a wide range of heat settings. I love having all of the settings. Depending on what I'm doing with it from peeling stickers to keeping tubes of silicone warm in the winter, the flexibility has been everything and it's so much cheaper than the name brand tool companies.
Whatever the beige conair equivalent of the yellow bird was, was the hairdryer that my house used growing up for the entirety of me growing up. The power switch was a multi-function switch. Dead center was off. Down was speed 2 and up was speed 1. Had the same exact mold as the yellow bird, but in beige and that was the best hairdryer ever until it died.
gotta add, hot air rework stations are amazing tooo, you can really truly concentrate the heat and dial in a specific temperature, they aren't cheap but sometimes they are the exact thing you want/need.
I have a wagner heat gun that I got from home depot...it is the fancy one with the digital lcd that goes from 125F to 1300F and so far (not used it a ton) every time it has done exactly what I needed....it also has a built in stand with it so you can set it down without setting things on fire if you were using the super hot settings.
I picked up the tubular mini heat gun (what I refer to as my heat dildo) a few years ago and it's just lives on the wall at my work bench. It stays plugged in. It's so convenient and controllable that I rarely get my industrial heat gun out any more even if sometimes it takes a bit longer to get a job done. perfect for heat shrink and flashing paint
I got one of those little tube heat guns on Adam's recommendation from one of his other videos. My main making is doing miniatures for wargaming and I love it. I use it mostly for drying paint and glue but I also have found I can use it to heat of plastic or resin pieces to make them soft enough to bend for custom positioning.
I have two heat guns. One is the same small micro 300W heat gun that I use only for heat shrink tubing. The other is a Milwaukee variable temp heat gun with a display that I got about 20 years ago and still works great. You set the temp with a slider and get instant feedback on the current air temp. (It's an older model that the current offering Milwaukee has.)
I use another type of heat gun at work pretty consistently, although we call it an air torch. It has controls for heat and airspeed, and gets hot enough to melt soft solder if you want to, although I've never used it for that. I think it also gets called a "hot air rework station" or "solder rework station". It's versatile enough to be the main source of heat at my bench.
I was at a game and comic books store while it was raining. And the guy behind the counter was using shrink wrap on some boxes. Some girl comes in and sees he's got a blow dryer and asks if she could borrow it. He hands it over, she looks at it and apparently thinking it is a hair dryer and not a heat gun, flips all the switches to high and blasts her hair. Everyone shouts "NO!" but too late because she singes her hair pretty badly.
My go to heat guns are definitely a corded one from a manufacturer I don't even know, because the one in the shop is so old and used it doesn't have any markings left. The only defining visual it has is the dark green color. The other I use on small spots and heat shrinks is that pen shaped, I guess it's some sort of torch, that doesn't produce open flame. It's great for really pin pointing heat towards something, but it will get pretty hot and will burn stuff if not careful.
I have a couple of heat guns - one is similar to your corded dewalt and it is just too much for heat shrink and model making, and then I saw the video where you showed off the little white and blue one. Yeah, bought one straight away and it is simply superb (but mine is black and red). Once again Adam thank you for such a good recommendation
I was just thinking about this subject. I do a lot of soldering of rc cars and air brushing of RC bodies and found a heatgun to be very useful. The heatgun I got is super cheap and honestly my hairdryer works better. I run a lot of Dewalt stuff so the cordless looks nice. :D
I have the Hercules heat gun from Harbor freight. Best feature is digital temperature adjustment from 120° F to 1200° F in 10° increments so you have better control if too much heat will cause a mission ending failure.
I was gifted an old red Master-Mite heat-gun. It looks like a 1970's science fiction object but works great. There is a photo floating around from the Cray Supercomputer company manufacturing floor, where they were using the same heat guns.
I got one that looks like the last one, but in black, from Radio Shack back when that was barely hanging on as a company. It came with heads for focusing it or for heat shrinking wires, but it worked great for spot work. Mostly I used the big one for shaping EVA foam, though.
I had the black and decker for years, recently upgraded to a Metabo and wow!!! of course the B&D well, it heats jejeje, but the Metabo has 9 temp settings and 3 fans settings, not a shill just a Metabo fanboy, I wish I can one day get all the drills and wireless tools. Grabbing one of those cordless drills feels like grabbing a gun!!
I have a heater.. I wish it had a retractable stand for the cool down phase- or for moments when I need to use one or two hand(s) for holding pieces together.. then it can stand alone while under supervision. Great video
I had an orange Harbor Freight heat gun for about 25 years. It finally died on me last year. I bought one of those small tubular heat guns, mostly for shrink tubing and warming epoxy. I need to get another large one. I built guitars and basses and make pickups. :)
I don’t know how I made it till I was 50+ years old without a heat gun, but I finally decided I wanted to pick one up. I was going that night after work to get one from our local hardware store and while I was driving around for my job that day, I turned a corner in town and there was a heat gun with a cord coiled up around it laying in the middle of the road. Not a vehicle in sight to see where it came from. So I got a heat gun!!
My Wagner corded heat gun has a "stand", but it also has the stiffest cord ever attached to anything. Unless you think ahead and arrange your workspace so the cord is trailing perfectly straight behind where you are using the gun, then it will fall right over every time you try to use the "stand". Whenever possible I just use my little butane torch instead of the heat gun 🙂
ages ago my family bought a super cheapo hairdryer from i cant even remember where, but it was under ten bucks on sale and for some reason it gets RIDICULOUSLY hot. it has heat settings/a cooling button and power settings and everything but you can't put it on the hottest setting for actual hair drying (honestly even medium is a bit much) without burning yourself, which is probably why it was so cheap. I use it for cosplay a ton and it will start bubbling worbla in like under a minute. could i use a real heat gun for that? yeah, but the novelty of a bad hairdryer being a decent heat gun is amusing.
I just commented in my comment on that. Some of them are doing a "first!" bit now, pretty funny because some of the actual people who call first might argue w them lol :D
So interesting, actually I may buy one of the underpowered ones. It happened to me so many times that I'm full focus drying or heating something, and when I get my head up, I see the zone of destruction that I made with the head gun all around what I was doing.
Look at the benzomatix butane soldering iron, you can screw the soldering iron tip off and there’s a flame converter, so you only get a pinky sized hot spot with no flame… a little mod to allow the adjustment valve to close more and it’s very adjustable
$2/year isn't bad if you use the blow dryer enough. After splurging on Knipex cobra pliers, I can say high quality tools are worth it if you grab them often enough.
I have several of thesmall lighter fluid heat pens, these also do a small flame or soldering function, but they are perfect (with the diffuser grill) for heating up heat shrink tubing. and small brass and copper soldering work.
I have that same Dewalt wired heat gun, I can confirm it is indeed good. I used it to crack a bolt free when working on my car (Dewalt impact 1/2" alone couldnt even shift it - In Scotland our cars get very rusty) - It worked surprisingly well. That being said, we have manly 240v in the UK, so our wired tools work a LOT better allowing us to be more productive/accomplish more, keep up America 😛 Yep, I am subtly needling in that last line but 99% of my statement is true.
For low power heat guns the Ungar/Weller 6966C is perfection. It has a price that reflects that perfection though. Nothing else is good enough for heat shrinking tubing in tight places where you can overheat stuff nearby. If you find one with the Ungar name on it instead of Weller it dates from the 90's. The one I own is between 30 & 40 years old, is identical to the ones being made now and it has never failed me. I'm all for using a cheaper tool when it does what I need to do for less money, but I consider this heat gun worth the 10x or more price premium over the standard imported mini heat gun.
I actually found out about and acquired one of those mini heat guns a few years ago when Beverly Downen ran that Grogu pram workshop, it was included with the kit! Absolutely love that thing!
I am a Milwaukee guy. I love their 12v battery soldering iron for soldering wires inside of a car. I really really really wish that they made a small 12v heat gun for the specific purpose of applying heat shrink sleeves on wires. I don't need or want their large 18v heat gun to heat shrink a couple of wires under the dash of a car.
I've had an 80s Black and Decker corded heat gun for ages, two heat settings on a rocker switch and i've always hated how top heavy it is. the tip gets so hot I have to place it on my basement floor right after I use it!
When i was a rookie when it came to tools i remember i wanted to try and fix the gun from a model figure i bought. Thing is though he had one of those floorlayer heat guns that goes up to like 900 degrees Celsius. Huge surprise it melted the whole gun i wanted to fix. Had to buy a replacement online, and also a heatgun of my own that was less overkill.
Use an adjustable SMD soldering gun with tiny nozzle. They can be set to very low airflow and heat between 450°C (too hot for plastic) down to 100°C. Only watch out that some (at least my Atten version) always first heat up to 200°C before going to a lower setting.
My favorite non-DeWalt DeWalt battery powered device is a Dyson vacuum conversion I bought when the original pack died. I'd love it if that was a factory option.
I do action figure customization and I only have a hair dryer so that little stixk heat gun might be a good choice for me where too much heat can ruin a figure.
An SMD soldering gun is even smaller and can be very precisely adjusted for very low airflow and temperature between 100°C and about 450°C. There are even many different small nozzles for local heat application. Only be careful that after powering on, some models (e.g. my Atten) first heat up to 200°C before lowering temperature.
I used a heatgun to "fix" a ue22 error in the digital signal processor of an pioneer receiver. The dsp had a known issue that would brick it and it can be (temporarily) remedied by heating the chip
i'm not saying they should get ODB, but an One Day Build video of Adam upgrading the Heatgun with the weird buttons & the one with the short cord would be something i would watch
I want a heat gun like the first one - with adjustable temperature, hopefully with a good range of temps - and adjustable air flow in the trigger, just how you can adjust drill speed. That would be the ultimate heat gun for me. Of course with no mushy buttons or a LED display just to make it more expensive and fancy... gimmie a good dial with temps embedded on it so I won't have to struggle to figure out things when the display gets caked etc.
An SMD soldering gun is even smaller and can be very precisely adjusted for very low airflow and temperature between 100°C and about 450°C. There are even many different small nozzles for local heat application.
I made my 1st foam armor pieces using a bic blow torch to shape it. Took a good minute to figure out how far to hold it from the foam to not burn it. lol
I bought my Steinel hl 2010 (now 2020) because it was a great deal, not for being cheap. It certainly was overkill to expected use (stripping paint). However because there is so much control I use it all the time for many different things. I don't think I have another tool that is so much more used than intended purpose. Quite expensive in the USA though.
In the UK we have 'relatively' recently had a new brand enter the market competing with Milwaukee and DeWalt called Einhell. Einhell's tools are generally red and combined with a Milwaukee M18 battery adapter I have a cordless Einhell glue gun which Milwaukee tends not to do. Eyeing up Einhell's paint sprayer and outdoor low pressure sprayer.
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I'd be interested in knowing what pressure washer Fitz (and Adam) got, lol.
The best heat gun for me is a hot air desoldering gun. Allows me to set temp and air flow. I've used it to start charcoal, strip paint, cook food, vaping, and a whole list of other uses. Thawing pipes without worrying about starting a fire.
For weak heat a hairdryer is safest, while still strong enough to deform many kinds of plastic. I mainly do heatstretching of PVC inflatables (for making superheroes more muscular etc.) and wrote much about in the Doll Forum. With skill and proper tool you can do detail work like a glassblower. Important is an adjustable hairdryer with (pistol trigger style) cold button and multiple heat and speed settings. When using a nozzle at high heat, the cold button also needs to be held for 20 seconds before turning off to prevent overheating (else bimetallic fuse engages and and risk of motor damage). Hairdryers are likely also sufficient to attach car wrapping foil. I used it to stretch PVC adhesive foil wrinkle-free over curved surfaces and reduce its tension (else it kept coming off after few days).
For detail work at higher temperatures and low airflow use an SMD soldering gun. It can locally output enough heat to melt solder or ignite something, but unlike the home improvement store device its airflow can be set low enough not to blow things away, and also the heat can be turned down to 100°C (be careful, after power-on my ATTEN model always starts at 200°C). There are tiny metal nozzles for it for local application, which may be useful e.g. to bend parts of small plastic objects without deforming the rest.
Between the Dewalt tools, the Conair hair dryer, and the Papermate pencils, it seems like Adam has a real preference for yellow tools lol.
"Its crappiness turns out to be its defining feature." -- Adam Savage's review of a Dewalt product.
Lol ,,, id certainly prefer the original white-ish/beige seriously OG Conair to the bright yellow they turned it to so many years back
Add to this his fluke multimeters
@@ed_halley Haha! I don't think they'll include that in their marketing. :)
And his powermatic table saw
Electrical Tech here, I absolutely love the stick heat gun! If you love your self and other people, you will label your wiring. That gun works all day shrinking labels!
I'm looking for a good cordless heat gun for doing work aboard boats where I'm not always near 120vac. Have you had any luck with the butane stick torches?
Yeah, I have one just like that (even same blue and white haha) in the lab that I use for heat-shrink. Does a great job, doesn't blow crap around (like Adam mentions), etc etc
@@chiphill4856 I have a battery powered heat gun (einhell)
Like Adam says, it is underpowered, but that can be good. I used it mainly for heating black alkathene water pipe (irrigation) to slide onto push fittings. Not heavy duty, only a few fittings though! It works fine for that, especially on the small tubes.
A normal blowtorch is easy to overheat pipes with. I can make it work, but I can also screw up and burn the pipe. You need to be extra careful.
A pencil/micro torch is a pain to work with, I haven't found a good torch for providing only a small very hot flame. I have a pencil torch, it works for what I need it for (not for plastic piping), but I have to manually light it every time, it's fiddly, it is just "ok" to use. But it was cheap and I rarely use it, so that is fine!
On full power, with a 4A.h battery, the heat gun lasts something like 20 mins of continuous use. It just chews through the batteries. Of course, if you are just heating tubes (or heat-shrinking, I guess,) you don't have it running continuously. So it has a more useful run-time, especially if you are using the lower heat setting.
I understand there are battery powered soldering irons too. I don't know how good they are or how quickly they go through batteries though, but if you are just doing small electrical repairs away from mains power, it could be a viable option to have a couple of batteries and a heat gun and soldering iron.
An SMD soldering gun is even smaller and can be very precisely adjusted for very low airflow and temperature between 100°C and about 450°C. There are even many different small nozzles for local heat application.
I have my late grandfather's Chicago Electric heat gun from Harbor Freight which he had since the 1980s. It still works like a champ and stays holstered next to my workbench ready to use. It has a low and high setting and is pretty much perfect for anything I've ever needed it for.
Those really do work great. Mine died off a couple of years ago, and replaced it with a Porter-Cable. Which I learned is basically the exact same thing, just with a fancier name on it.
My favorite heat gun is one many people never think about - a hot air de\soldering iron. Gets hot enough to melt solder but is small and directed enough to not completely trash everything around it. Plus, the temperature control is measured in degrees C, and not just a +/- dial. Pretty much the only way to reflow IC's without scrapping the PCB if you do that kind of thing, can make some fun patterns in Kydex, and in a pinch can be used to touch up a 3D print (although I wouldn't really recommend this for a novice).
Damn that sounds cool. Do you think that would work for heat shrink tubing on wires?
@@chiphill4856 It totally would, but you have to be really careful because it would also be able to melt the cables so lowest heat settings and distance to not melt things would be required.
Oh yeah. A hot air desoldering station is amazing. Mine came with a wide variety of tips, allowing for precision heating to a wide angle nozzle. But you are entirely correct, they get much hotter than a standard heat gun. You may need to use the correct nozzle, and then vary distance as required to not overheat the surrounding materials.
I have actually used stick matches or a lighter for heat shrink, it doesn't require all that much heat to shrink. I have also just used the soldering iron itself, as the side of the tip will shrink heat shrink just fine. Just have to keep moving it around.
I was going to post a comment to that effect, you beat me to it. +1 to everything: great temperature and air flow control, interchangeable nozzles. The range of applications goes way beyond melting solder paste. I use mine to shrink tubes, melt hot glue, loosen glue to open devices, and many more.
@@BertrandLeRoy You could probably make a grilled cheese with one. I actually made grilled cheese on a steam iron, back in the day. Could not have a cooking surface in the dorms, but you could have an iron.
On wool setting, it was enough to toast bread. And if you can toast bread, you can make a grilled cheese. Ruined the iron, but it's sacrifice was tasty cheesy goodness.
Heat gun story! I am a cosplayer and work with eva foam, as one does, and it took your previous heat gun video about the crappy factory "heat gun" to realise that this whole time i hadnt been sealing the foam well enough because the heat gun I was using at the time was really under powered!
Glad to say now I have a heat gun with the tempreture dial and my props now have infinite better finishes now that they're being sealed properly! Thanks for that!
Velociraptor in the background, you little tease
Yes! Stay tuned.
A neighbor in the building gave me a hot-air pop-corn popper she didn't like in the early '80s. I didn't like it either, but I stripped it down and used it for a heat gun. I've used other much finer ones in shops where I've worked, but at my home shop, I still used the core of that pop-corn popper - it really puts out the heat!
I have actully been thinking in the other direction - I have a heat gun but not a popcorn popper, and am thinking that some appropriately fine wire mesh could be formed into a small open-top basket for the kernels, angled at a collection bowl....
@@barbafantfant2597 Good luck with that! Why not? You've got to try it.
So when I was an electrician, we had those big, long PVC pipe heater boxes for melting the pipe into big, long sweeps so it was easier to pull the wire through. Well if we didn't have access to one of those and we only had a few to do, then we would pack the pipe full of sand/dirt and use a heat gun. The sand inside the pipe would make it much less likely to collapse the pipe as we would gradually bend it into whatever shape we needed.
So happy to see the Cordless and Tube corded heat guns! The tube Corded heat "gun" lives on my electronics workbench, it's my go-to for heat shrink because it's not hot enough to scorch but good enough to get the job done. As a fire alarm technician, I have the Ryobi Cordless heat gun and it's "Crapiness" is the secret to being gentle enough to activate heat detectors for testing WITHOUT melting the plastic casing!
I bought a Drill Master heat gun at Harbor Freight for $9 about 10 years ago, and it still works great. It has high and low, no adjustable heat settings. If I want less heat, then I move it back further. It was only meant to only be temporary, but it just keeps going.
But wait!
There's one other you may want to consider---a Hot-Air Rework Station. It's great because you can adjust the heat and the air intensity, along with the nozzle size. Not only can you change the volume and the temperature of air but how fine a stream you would like. It can handle heat-shrink to solder, that should do you just fine for most hot-air applications. You can pick a good one up for $40-$100, and you can find portable or benchtop versions.
Thanks for what you do.
-B.Nebula
I've got one of those small ones, a hair dryer and a true heat gun. I have a model train layout and work on the trains converting them to DCC, so I use whichever one is closest for the heat shrink when I'm soldering wires. The small one is also great to get paint to dry much faster.
My Steinel Heat gun was purchased about 20 years ago. It was expensive, but its wide range of heat and air settings makes it an excellent tool. The Steinel Heat gun does everything a complete collection of heat guns does, plus it has an unmatched set of accessory nozzles.
I also bought the DeWalt cordless model after watching Adam's previous video. I like its portability. I use the Dewalt with a 9-amp FlexVolt battery so it will not tip over. The DeWalt is great for warming your boots on a cold winter day, thawing frozen locks and a host of other things. However, it will not melt roofing tar for practical purposes, unless you are on the sunny side of the roof in August.
I bought a Wagner heat gun several years ago because I could not find my makita. It is by far the best heat gun I have used. It has a digital display and both the fan and heat are changed incrementally. It was cheap and also came with some useful nozzles and a scraper. The heat rating goes to 11.
That corded Dewalt heat gun (looks like a space laser) controls the temperature by actually varying the power into the heat element, thus the air flow is constant. Many other heat guns control the heat by restricting the airflow, less airflow equals hotter air. Burns out quick if the intake becomes clogged.
I really like a battery powered heat guns for a quick heat shrink job. I often use a corded heat gun with a digital dial for higher heat or precision heat like when desoldering flat pack microchips especially land grid arrays. The last heat gun that goes missed that I keep around is a Propane Torch, great for instant heat for a large number of things from cooking to torching away stringing on 3D prints plus a propane torch keeps working during a power outage.
I'm surprised by the lack of mention of a hot air solder rework station. I've found the small tips very handy for when you want localized heating, and of course, the adjustable temperature is a bonus.
For precision heat gun-ing, Adam needs to look into a Hot Air Rework station used for circuit boards. They usually have a similar form factor as the last mini heat gun shown. They have interchangeable nozzle tips and connected with a hose to a base station where you can control both air speed and temperature, often with the ability to save a few different presets.
My old HarborFreight heat gun died several years ago after over 10 years of solid use. I got the new Bauer one from HF for $35. It stands on its back, has several heat and fan settings, and a cool down cycle when you are done. Ive used it for a couple years now, and it has been really solid.
I picked up one of those small stick heat guns the last time Adam showed them and it's so much more useful than I thought it would be. It's just the right size to keep in a tucked away but easy to grab place unlike a full size heat gun that always feels like it's in the way. I do agree that the cord it way too short and I keep meaning to replace/extend it but never get around to it.
They’re excellent for heat shrinking
I'm actually in the market for a heat gun, mainly for heating guitar binding prior to bending. I've been using a blow torch for every application that needs a heat gun so i have melted and set fire to my fair share of things that I didn't need to set fire to! The cordless could be the one I think
The ultimate heat gun that I have is part of a Surface Mount rework station that has a 3-in-1: #1 soldering iron, #2 solder sucker (desolderer) and #3 a hot air wand... it allows me control over air-flow and temperature in fine step increments and has a bunch of specialty nozzles to allow me to focus that hot air exactly where I want it to go. If you're interested in knowing about that, It is a Xytronic model LF-853D... there are a bunch of other models and you will likely find a rabbit hole to go down... don't blame me for that LOL.
But for everyday heat gun use, I bought a "Yellow" heat gun off of Amazon... Yellow being the defining feature LOL. It has a speed control and an adjustable temp control knobby thing on the back just like that DeWalt. Hmmm... now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it's the same manufacturer in China that makes them? Oh well, whatever, it "works"
You are right about the localisation of heat with the Milwaukee heat gun. I have had one for about three years now and use it with a heavy 5.0 Ah M18 battery. While i have used it for 'traditional' jobs like activating heat shrink, de-icing an old freezer compartment, melting adhesive backing, melting solder, melting wax for splash proofing fabrics, reinvigorating sunbaked plastics... The most hours I've spent using it is localised weeding in the garden. Sure i have to bend down/ hands-knees the word, but as i have cats, i cant use harsh chemicals.
Its one of my favourite tools.
For me up has always been on as almost every place you go a light switch goes up to go on so therefore up should be high the down should be low at least that's what is intuitive for me. Thanks for another great video. PS. I like the shorter ones as I try to limit myself to two hours a day of videos
I fix hot tubs as my main business and use a heat gun to warm up hoses so I can glue them back in place. I have on at least two occasions accidentally caught PVC glue on fire due to the flammable nature of the glue itself and the amount of heat that the gun itself is putting out.
For remelting hotglue, a hairdryer is sufficient.
I have a Music Medic Vortex "air torch". It's head-and-shoulders above every other heat gun I've ever used.
The wand is light and comfortable, and it's precise in temperature and airspeed while also including tips to essentially give different sizes of airstream, which is all very important when you don't want to burn one thing nearby while working another or burn finishes on parts you want to heat. I use it mainly for its intended purpose of working on musical instruments for which it is a colossal time- and effort-saver (many if not most repairers are still using open-flame alcohol lamps, there is no in-between), but it does get tasked with anything in my shop a normal heat gun would do and it excels at those as well.
For detail work at higher temperatures and low airflow I use an SMD soldering gun. It can locally output enough heat to melt solder or ignite something, but unlike the home improvement store device its airflow can be set low enough not to blow things away, and also the heat can be turned down to 100°C (be careful, after power-on my ATTEN model always starts at 200°C). There are tiny metal nozzles for it for local application, which may be useful e.g. to bend parts of small plastic objects without deforming the rest.
"Ghost Buster!" LOL! Took me a second, then i got it. Good one! ^-^
For me the best heat gun has been a hot air rework station, I use Atten ST-862D
I think this is Adam's third heat gun video. I still watched the entire thing :)
My wife got me one of the low power craft heat guns. it has saved so many projects from being "over cooked"
The cordless heat guns are important for when I am heat shrinking wire in the field and don't have an outlet
Sometimes I use a plumbers torch as a heat gun. Even for delicate jobs it can work if you have a steady hand. I reflowed the solder on an old MacBook gpu with it. It feels wrong taking a torch to an circuit board but it worked a treat. lol
Are you working in a slum in Nigeria!? I saw TV docus of people in Africa or Russia doing fine repairs with what looks like the most unappropriate tools. (Soldering electronics with metal rod reheated in fire etc.)
@@AerialTheShamen USA bro.
I bought a Wagner Furno 750 which is just a great heat gun all around. Took it up to my friend's lake house for my bachelor party along with some PVC and bowstring and we made bows and shot arrows that weekend. They were terrible, we had no idea what we were doing, but that heat gun ran pretty much continuously for a couple hours. Lots of fun. Once I get my shop setup one thing I'd like to do is build some jigs to make good PVC bows for friends and family.
The stick is great for sticker removal too
My mom had a white one of those sunbird hair driers. The flip switches were fun to play with as a kid.
Heat gun story that was more of a happy accident... My little girl and I were painting a little wooden boat. Impatient to paint after priming, I told her to get a hair dryer but she got a heat gun off the wall. I thought let's just give it a try. What it made was a beautiful crackle pattern. I thought surely we'd have to sand and redo the entire thing but we both loved it :)
I bought a Wagner heat gun that has a wide range of heat settings. I love having all of the settings. Depending on what I'm doing with it from peeling stickers to keeping tubes of silicone warm in the winter, the flexibility has been everything and it's so much cheaper than the name brand tool companies.
Whatever the beige conair equivalent of the yellow bird was, was the hairdryer that my house used growing up for the entirety of me growing up. The power switch was a multi-function switch. Dead center was off. Down was speed 2 and up was speed 1.
Had the same exact mold as the yellow bird, but in beige and that was the best hairdryer ever until it died.
gotta add, hot air rework stations are amazing tooo, you can really truly concentrate the heat and dial in a specific temperature, they aren't cheap but sometimes they are the exact thing you want/need.
I have the cordless dewalt and love it. It's been perfect for heat shrink and bending acrylic.
I have a wagner heat gun that I got from home depot...it is the fancy one with the digital lcd that goes from 125F to 1300F and so far (not used it a ton) every time it has done exactly what I needed....it also has a built in stand with it so you can set it down without setting things on fire if you were using the super hot settings.
I picked up the tubular mini heat gun (what I refer to as my heat dildo) a few years ago and it's just lives on the wall at my work bench. It stays plugged in. It's so convenient and controllable that I rarely get my industrial heat gun out any more even if sometimes it takes a bit longer to get a job done. perfect for heat shrink and flashing paint
I got one of those little tube heat guns on Adam's recommendation from one of his other videos. My main making is doing miniatures for wargaming and I love it. I use it mostly for drying paint and glue but I also have found I can use it to heat of plastic or resin pieces to make them soft enough to bend for custom positioning.
Adam, for another source of hot air with very fine control, have a look at surface-mount hot air rework stations. Not cheap, however.
LOL 😅 I can just hear Adam's production staff rolling their eyes every time he utters the words " I'll include the link in the description" 😂
I have two heat guns. One is the same small micro 300W heat gun that I use only for heat shrink tubing. The other is a Milwaukee variable temp heat gun with a display that I got about 20 years ago and still works great. You set the temp with a slider and get instant feedback on the current air temp. (It's an older model that the current offering Milwaukee has.)
I have that same yellow bird hair dryer from when i was a little kid still works great
I use another type of heat gun at work pretty consistently, although we call it an air torch. It has controls for heat and airspeed, and gets hot enough to melt soft solder if you want to, although I've never used it for that. I think it also gets called a "hot air rework station" or "solder rework station". It's versatile enough to be the main source of heat at my bench.
I was at a game and comic books store while it was raining. And the guy behind the counter was using shrink wrap on some boxes. Some girl comes in and sees he's got a blow dryer and asks if she could borrow it. He hands it over, she looks at it and apparently thinking it is a hair dryer and not a heat gun, flips all the switches to high and blasts her hair. Everyone shouts "NO!" but too late because she singes her hair pretty badly.
My go to heat guns are definitely a corded one from a manufacturer I don't even know, because the one in the shop is so old and used it doesn't have any markings left. The only defining visual it has is the dark green color.
The other I use on small spots and heat shrinks is that pen shaped, I guess it's some sort of torch, that doesn't produce open flame. It's great for really pin pointing heat towards something, but it will get pretty hot and will burn stuff if not careful.
I have a couple of heat guns - one is similar to your corded dewalt and it is just too much for heat shrink and model making, and then I saw the video where you showed off the little white and blue one. Yeah, bought one straight away and it is simply superb (but mine is black and red). Once again Adam thank you for such a good recommendation
I was just thinking about this subject. I do a lot of soldering of rc cars and air brushing of RC bodies and found a heatgun to be very useful. The heatgun I got is super cheap and honestly my hairdryer works better. I run a lot of Dewalt stuff so the cordless looks nice. :D
The bots are getting creative, several are proclaiming they are "first!" today :D
That and the porn bots. We can’t ban them fast enough.
@@tested It keeps us all on our toes doesnt it :D At least they entertain as they become our bane.
I have the Hercules heat gun from Harbor freight. Best feature is digital temperature adjustment from 120° F to 1200° F in 10° increments so you have better control if too much heat will cause a mission ending failure.
I was gifted an old red Master-Mite heat-gun. It looks like a 1970's science fiction object but works great. There is a photo floating around from the Cray Supercomputer company manufacturing floor, where they were using the same heat guns.
I've had my Harbor Freight one for years and it's been pretty solid.
I got one that looks like the last one, but in black, from Radio Shack back when that was barely hanging on as a company. It came with heads for focusing it or for heat shrinking wires, but it worked great for spot work.
Mostly I used the big one for shaping EVA foam, though.
I had the black and decker for years, recently upgraded to a Metabo and wow!!!
of course the B&D well, it heats jejeje, but the Metabo has 9 temp settings and 3 fans settings, not a shill just a Metabo fanboy, I wish I can one day get all the drills and wireless tools. Grabbing one of those cordless drills feels like grabbing a gun!!
I have a heater.. I wish it had a retractable stand for the cool down phase- or for moments when I need to use one or two hand(s) for holding pieces together.. then it can stand alone while under supervision. Great video
I had an orange Harbor Freight heat gun for about 25 years. It finally died on me last year. I bought one of those small tubular heat guns, mostly for shrink tubing and warming epoxy. I need to get another large one. I built guitars and basses and make pickups. :)
I don’t know how I made it till I was 50+ years old without a heat gun, but I finally decided I wanted to pick one up. I was going that night after work to get one from our local hardware store and while I was driving around for my job that day, I turned a corner in town and there was a heat gun with a cord coiled up around it laying in the middle of the road. Not a vehicle in sight to see where it came from. So I got a heat gun!!
My Wagner corded heat gun has a "stand", but it also has the stiffest cord ever attached to anything. Unless you think ahead and arrange your workspace so the cord is trailing perfectly straight behind where you are using the gun, then it will fall right over every time you try to use the "stand". Whenever possible I just use my little butane torch instead of the heat gun 🙂
I also cannot stand a stiff cord that gets in the way and won't just lay down!
ages ago my family bought a super cheapo hairdryer from i cant even remember where, but it was under ten bucks on sale and for some reason it gets RIDICULOUSLY hot. it has heat settings/a cooling button and power settings and everything but you can't put it on the hottest setting for actual hair drying (honestly even medium is a bit much) without burning yourself, which is probably why it was so cheap. I use it for cosplay a ton and it will start bubbling worbla in like under a minute. could i use a real heat gun for that? yeah, but the novelty of a bad hairdryer being a decent heat gun is amusing.
The bots are out of control, I reported all that I could, but I'm sure they'll keep coming for hours.
It's wild how obvious they are.
I just commented in my comment on that. Some of them are doing a "first!" bit now, pretty funny because some of the actual people who call first might argue w them lol :D
What do you report them for? I usually go with spam or misleading.
We ban them but we can’t do it fast enough, and then it seems even more show up. It’s crazy.
@@realfoggy Thats what I use.
So interesting, actually I may buy one of the underpowered ones. It happened to me so many times that I'm full focus drying or heating something, and when I get my head up, I see the zone of destruction that I made with the head gun all around what I was doing.
Look at the benzomatix butane soldering iron, you can screw the soldering iron tip off and there’s a flame converter, so you only get a pinky sized hot spot with no flame… a little mod to allow the adjustment valve to close more and it’s very adjustable
$2/year isn't bad if you use the blow dryer enough. After splurging on Knipex cobra pliers, I can say high quality tools are worth it if you grab them often enough.
I have several of thesmall lighter fluid heat pens, these also do a small flame or soldering function, but they are perfect (with the diffuser grill) for heating up heat shrink tubing. and small brass and copper soldering work.
I have that same Dewalt wired heat gun, I can confirm it is indeed good. I used it to crack a bolt free when working on my car (Dewalt impact 1/2" alone couldnt even shift it - In Scotland our cars get very rusty) - It worked surprisingly well. That being said, we have manly 240v in the UK, so our wired tools work a LOT better allowing us to be more productive/accomplish more, keep up America 😛 Yep, I am subtly needling in that last line but 99% of my statement is true.
I have one of those small underpowered heat guns and it's fabulous for heat shrink and getting stringing off of 3D prints.
Thanks I forgot I had the mini heat gun. It went into a drawer to die.😊 I need it for the last push when vacuum-forming.
For low power heat guns the Ungar/Weller 6966C is perfection. It has a price that reflects that perfection though. Nothing else is good enough for heat shrinking tubing in tight places where you can overheat stuff nearby. If you find one with the Ungar name on it instead of Weller it dates from the 90's. The one I own is between 30 & 40 years old, is identical to the ones being made now and it has never failed me.
I'm all for using a cheaper tool when it does what I need to do for less money, but I consider this heat gun worth the 10x or more price premium over the standard imported mini heat gun.
I actually found out about and acquired one of those mini heat guns a few years ago when Beverly Downen ran that Grogu pram workshop, it was included with the kit! Absolutely love that thing!
I am a Milwaukee guy. I love their 12v battery soldering iron for soldering wires inside of a car. I really really really wish that they made a small 12v heat gun for the specific purpose of applying heat shrink sleeves on wires. I don't need or want their large 18v heat gun to heat shrink a couple of wires under the dash of a car.
Buster was my favorite mascot
Steinel HL2020El - The Rolls Royce of heat guns, amazing temperature control even at low temps
That last wand heat gun, I have a hook attachment for mine that makes it GREAT for heatshrink. Puts the heat right there where I want it.
My grandfather has a very old con air hairdryer I believe he’s had it for 20 years I think
First! love the content Adam thank you for all that you do.
I'm partial to the Master brand heatgun. you can adjust the airflow to adjust the heat.
+1 to the others with Steinel. Got the battery powered one, though it does require a Metabo CAS battery (it refuses to operate on battery adapters).
I've had an 80s Black and Decker corded heat gun for ages, two heat settings on a rocker switch and i've always hated how top heavy it is. the tip gets so hot I have to place it on my basement floor right after I use it!
Definitely want the low power option when using the shrink wrap for magazines and catalogs.
When i was a rookie when it came to tools i remember i wanted to try and fix the gun from a model figure i bought. Thing is though he had one of those floorlayer heat guns that goes up to like 900 degrees Celsius.
Huge surprise it melted the whole gun i wanted to fix. Had to buy a replacement online, and also a heatgun of my own that was less overkill.
Use an adjustable SMD soldering gun with tiny nozzle. They can be set to very low airflow and heat between 450°C (too hot for plastic) down to 100°C. Only watch out that some (at least my Atten version) always first heat up to 200°C before going to a lower setting.
Fun fact: best way to reheat a pizza fast to like-new, if not better, is in a skillet being blasted all over with a heat gun. You’re welcome.
Isn't that just basically simulating an induction oven/air fryer
@@gamingastronaut517 Induction oven is totally different and only heats metal vessels. Air fryer is pretty much like a heat gun.
@@AerialTheShamen my bad, I meant convection oven
Bauer at HF makes one similar to the DeWalt and yeah it gets insanely hot, good temp control.
My favorite non-DeWalt DeWalt battery powered device is a Dyson vacuum conversion I bought when the original pack died. I'd love it if that was a factory option.
Harbor Freight makes a DeWalt plug-in knock off. It works really well. I have a Uniden classic style. It's 20 years old.
I do action figure customization and I only have a hair dryer so that little stixk heat gun might be a good choice for me where too much heat can ruin a figure.
An SMD soldering gun is even smaller and can be very precisely adjusted for very low airflow and temperature between 100°C and about 450°C. There are even many different small nozzles for local heat application. Only be careful that after powering on, some models (e.g. my Atten) first heat up to 200°C before lowering temperature.
I used a heatgun to "fix" a ue22 error in the digital signal processor of an pioneer receiver. The dsp had a known issue that would brick it and it can be (temporarily) remedied by heating the chip
Heat gun is great for removing the covering film on acrylic sheets
I was in Chicago and met you Adam, with my brother
i'm not saying they should get ODB, but an One Day Build video of Adam upgrading the Heatgun with the weird buttons & the one with the short cord would be something i would watch
I want a heat gun like the first one - with adjustable temperature, hopefully with a good range of temps - and adjustable air flow in the trigger, just how you can adjust drill speed. That would be the ultimate heat gun for me. Of course with no mushy buttons or a LED display just to make it more expensive and fancy... gimmie a good dial with temps embedded on it so I won't have to struggle to figure out things when the display gets caked etc.
An SMD soldering gun is even smaller and can be very precisely adjusted for very low airflow and temperature between 100°C and about 450°C. There are even many different small nozzles for local heat application.
I made my 1st foam armor pieces using a bic blow torch to shape it. Took a good minute to figure out how far to hold it from the foam to not burn it. lol
Gotta love when they shoot smoke and sparks making you momentarily feel like you're holding an IED...
My mother used to have a hair dryer like the yellow bird but it was white. It lasted forever
I bought my Steinel hl 2010 (now 2020) because it was a great deal, not for being cheap. It certainly was overkill to expected use (stripping paint). However because there is so much control I use it all the time for many different things. I don't think I have another tool that is so much more used than intended purpose. Quite expensive in the USA though.
In the UK we have 'relatively' recently had a new brand enter the market competing with Milwaukee and DeWalt called Einhell. Einhell's tools are generally red and combined with a Milwaukee M18 battery adapter I have a cordless Einhell glue gun which Milwaukee tends not to do. Eyeing up Einhell's paint sprayer and outdoor low pressure sprayer.
Should have added that Einhell's like for like cordless 18V tools are about 2/3rd the price of Milwaukee. The heat gun is about half the price.
I have the dewalt for big tasks and that final item, i have some clone of it and its great for heatshrink.