Stop your glue gun leaking

by rick_harriss | October 17, 2013 | (8) Posted in Tips

A glue gun is a very useful tool. Fast, strong and waterproof. and more importantly for us they work very well with foam board.

 

BUT a big issue with glue guns for me is they leak. I have tried all sorts of solutions, hanging the glue gun upside down just lets glue dribble down the handle, using the built in stand results in a pile of set glue on the bench.

 

So I decided to make a glue gun stand to stopper the open end of the glue gun. I didn't expect to stop the leak totally but to at least slow it down and reduce the waste glue I usually get.

 

 

The stand is made from scrap foam board - of course. The plug is a short masonary nail although any suitably short nail that is too wide to fit into the glue gun will do - you just want the nose to rest on the nail to stop or reduce the flow.

 

 

The base and sloping stand are cut in 1 piece - the base is 100mm x 200mm the sloping part is 100mm x 150 mm.

 

 

The verticle part has a slot cut out to suite your glue gun,  60mm x 40mm for mine.  The nail is pressed through the upper layer of the end stop with the second layed glued on behind to keep it in place.

 

If you just hot glue the nail in, when the glue gun is on the stand the nail will get hot and melt the glue holding it in place.

Once you have the stand glued together - measure the distance for the end plate with the nail so that the glue gun tip just rests on the tip of the nail.

 

If you find the glue still leaks out excessivly you may need to file the nail tip round so it makes a better seal.

 

You can of course alter the dimentions to suit your needs.

 

 

 

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COMMENTS

BrownEyedFool on October 21, 2013
Use an empty egg carton. simple, doesn't conduct heat, disposable. Does the job.
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rockets4kids on October 18, 2013
I just use an empty soup can for this. Some extra weight in the bottom helps it from sliding across the table.

If you are going to go the foam core route, some form of additional weight will probably be even more important. You could also try the "nonslip hot glue trick" :

Squeeze a dollop of hot glue onto a piece of scrap foam and smear it across the surface. You want a thin, even coat. High temp glue helps here.

I use this trick on my planes with rubber band wing attachments. If you coat both the wing and the fuselage, it is *amazing* how little slippage there is!

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JustinTime on October 18, 2013
Good idea about the slippage stop. I'll try to remember it next time I need to stop slippage.
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pakelika1 on November 8, 2013
Great idea about the thin glue trick now that is worth the effort thanks buddy
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leo_p51d on October 26, 2013
I made my one with PVC sheet bonded with cyanoacrylate, it is better than depron, more rigid and heavier.
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fl_rider on October 18, 2013
I made a stand out of foam board too and I usually put a square of scrap foam under the nozzle to catch whatever does run out of its drizzly nose.

I like the nail idea though.

Thanks!!
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rick_harriss on October 18, 2013
A stand is OK but the amount of glue wasted is frightening! hence the stopper.
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rifted on October 18, 2013
Good Idea! and simple one!
Ed
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Kiowa Mech on October 19, 2013
Simple and smart...good one!
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pakelika1 on November 8, 2013
Glue sticks are like 4 bucks for 10 in. Fat sticks at wall mart for the little bit of glue lost hardly seems worth the effort we waste more scraping extra off our foamies to reduce weight we are talking a few grams mere pennies wasted read the gun directions glue is supposed to trickle out to keep flow good and ready to go whatever floats yer boat or in this case plane seems pointless to me the egg crate is what I use too. Getting a little to technical here spend more brain energy on outcome of final product this just seems ridiculous to me oh well its like trying to save extra thin packing tape to little waste to go out of my way to do this if it was meant to be the guns would come with this idea distilled in original product
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pintokitkat on November 14, 2013
Are you trying to save money on punctuation?
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rick_harriss on November 18, 2013
I guess glues guns differ - Both of mine and all the ones we used at school - (I am a teacher)- leaked, and worse they suck the glue stick i so after a fairly short while the entire glue stick is in a puddle on the bench (or egg box).

Oddly like many things Glue sticks are relatively expensive in the UK around $4 for 6 short ones in the DIY stores. Cheaper on line but the store is handy.

I just had to make a mess and to waste anything I don't have to waste when using up some of my scrap and an old nail could fix the problem.
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Stop your glue gun leaking