# Fixed Hot Glue Webbing, Ruined for Hot Glue!



## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

TLDR; New glue guns with anti-drool or no drip features may not work well for 'webcasting'. You can carefully drill out or disable the valve, but then the gun will 'leak' glue every time you lay it down during normal gluing!

The full story:

Years ago I had a cheapie hot glue gun that would make copious amounts of webbing. Heat it up, provide a gentle air blast and 'whoosh!' everything suddenly looked like Charlotte's living room! Of course, gearing up for the big day the hot glue gun suddenly went cold...dead heater, I suppose.

So I ran to the big box home improvement store and grabbed another gun. Back at the haunt, I can barely get any webs...big blobs of glue only, followed by a pause, then another blob. I mess with the temperature settings, grab the exact glue stick which was making webs in the old gun, but still no luck. Finally, as usually happens, I toss the thing on the shelf until next year. Maybe the air was just too cold? I was webbing on a warm afternoon before, not a cool night?

So the next year I bought a higher wattage gun thinking that would surely fix the 'cool' issue, but the problem persists... only blobs of glue, very little in the form of actual webs. Tried all sorts of techniques, but still no luck... on the shelf for another year.

So after another 365 days of pondering why the old gun worked so well and the new one fails so miserably, I am about to give up when I happen to notice some advertising on the box..."no drip - anti drool valve" (weird Chinese translation?) I don't know, but 'drooling' seems to be what I want for webbing - just a thin stream of glue, not a thick blob. So I do a little probing in the barrel of the hot glue gun.

Sure enough it seems there is some sort of blockage in there. So I found a drill bit just about the right size to fit back in the barrel and drill... chips...chips...chips, then suddenly it breaks through. So I clean up the mess and re-assemble the gun. I'm a little hesitant on the first plug-in...all my work may suddenly go 'boom' if I drilled any wires or heater. But all that seems to go normally and the glue gun heats up.

Once at full operating temp, I give it a shot and guess what WEBS!! WEBS everywhere! Thin, glistening webs! Now the only down side is that when I lay the gun down, a big puddle of glue slowly drools out!

So there is the moral and warning of the story - new glue guns with anti-drool or no drip features may not work well for 'webcasting'. Seems like the valve lets a 'blob' of glue through, but works to cut the thin stream you want for webcasting. You can carefully drill out or disable the valve, but then the gun will 'leak' glue every time you lay it down - which is sort of a pain for normal hot gluing activities!

Possibly two hot glue guns in my future?!!?


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Thanks for posting this PSA, corey. It’s a good heads-up for anyone who might be thinking of adding webs to a haunt.


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## Riff_JunkieSFR (Jul 11, 2011)

Thanks for the heads up on that corey.


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## Daphne (Oct 18, 2006)

Great tip. I just remembered a webmaster gun I got from Minion's Web a jillion years ago. Used it once or twice and stuck it back in the packaging. I should dig that thing out!


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