Never paid any attention to them before, but I recently got a cheap one just to try one out and it gives me lots of ideas.

Naturally with my background the first thing I thought was that it would be a terrific wire insulator, especially for bare spots or splices, and second it dawned on me that it could actually be used as "POTTING COMPOUND" to make custom electrical connectors.

There are a lot of craft oriented videos out there (many of which are almost copies of each other) but real workshop uses are what I'm interested in. Got any nifty ideas?

* I also just realized it might be a super cool way to group wire harnesses - especially with colored glue sticks. But NOT in a hot engine compartment. In fact, one sunny day I think I want to leave a stick inside a closed vehicle to see if it melts in there.

I have a feeling it might be a bad thing to use even in hot weather, but I'm not sure what the temperature limitations are...

 

First item on a quick search:

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/48494/is-hot-glue-a-good-insulator

There are many hot glue formulations out there for specific applications from simple hobbyist, paintless auto repair, electrical (typically silicone based) and numerous industrial applications.

 

That's what I thought there must be - since different materials call for different chemical properties.

It also seemed to me that there were different temperature guns for different adhesive compositions, some likely needing more heat to activate.

~These are the kinds of things I don't know yet.


One of the ideas spinning around in my clyde is to embed wires in a structure of some kind that was artistic in a way - and totally conceal the wiring that way.

If there are hot glues for furniture that match different shades of wood, a circular saw could be used to cut wire grooves that could be filled in with a glue that matches, so the wire slot would be invisible unless you knew where to look. It would be the BOMB for concealing nails in trim pieces.

I've already made a globe out of a balloon, with four LED's embedded in one end to make a globe-light... Pop the balloon after laying glue all around it and there you go - a Febrege' err, umm, "GLOB"


What I'd really like to figure out is a fast way to add a glue to ordinary sewing thread to make a stiff composite suitable for making ultra-light model airplanes. Instead of balsa wood stringers, there would be very thin but hard and light weight stringers closer to the actual scale of the models frame tubes in real size.

Imagine a scale model Taylorcraft or Piper Cub fuselage that had each and every frame tube the same relative size as a real one, all made out of stiffened string

But hot glue can obviously make solid structures, and if the wiring of a project is inlaid to a plastic stuff, it could resemble alien space ship construction according to Bob Lazar...

(Mister "LAZER" who got booted from Area 51, supposedly)


So far the one I've got acts like what it is, another fine product of 'Dollar General'. Pull it away after laying some glue, and a long fine hairlike, or cotton candy-like string trails behind in the air. It globs sometimes, and flows the next.

I learned real quick to release the pressure after a squirt, so that I didn't glue the gun to my desk when I wasn't looking...
Fun, fun, fun

I need a glue and gun that can be used in cars and trucks. That means the glue needs a very high temperature melt point.

 

Don't forget that the Ferrari Melt down was traced to the adhesive that attached heat shields to the body. They picked the wrong one !! All the fires were started when temperatures reached the self ignition temperatures of the adhesives That certainly explains why a fire sometimes started soon after the driver shut down the engine and walked away !
For you sailor types . Do you remember the study of the USS Maine ?? by H Rickover ? Seems that a group of ships had been built with powder magazines next to the coal bunker . Hot tropical area [Cuba ] , sensitive Black Powder , Spontanius combustion of the coal => BOOM !
My own demonstration to some hard headed types .
Wax patterns for investment castings, air temp 70 F, white car trunk , . The wax oozed into a blob
when it reached the MP of the wax - 150 F !!

 

coal even without pressure is highly combustible. In the power plants where we do maintenance outages the boilers are fed with finely ground coal... almost a powder.. usually in 10-18" ceramic lined (to cut down on wear in pipes) pipes. Occasionally the pipes will wear enough to leak (our work to replace them) and coal will fall to the floor. I've seen this happen and when it accumulates on a cold steel floor even an inch or two deep it will spontaniously combust... odd to see but not uncommon.. morale... don't power your truck with coal !!

 

Used it to seal the ends of a utility rope just now - trimmed the frayed ends, pumped them full of hot glue, then wrapped them with thread like a dry fly to work the glue in and flatten out the ends, then a last set of wraps with glue on top.

Took only a minute or so