Glue Gun - The Premium Tool For The True American Homeowner

Glue guns come hot, glue guns come cold. They even may come both, or without a cord. Whatever it might be, a running sneaker falling apart just before your son's big competition, or the dining room chair, scratched badly by the cat just as the guests are pulling up in the drive-way, the answer is one and only one - A GLUE GUN. Even if you're not an avid craftsman, or you don't feel comfortable around all these nowadays gadgets, a glue gun is super-simple to use, and once you take a glue gun in your hands and glue something (that was meant to be glued), you won't settle for anything less in the future, like utilizing the plain old glue tube.

First of all, when you use a glue gun, chances are that you'll make a much smaller mess, if any. A glue gun dispenses glue right where you want it to. Moreover, a glue gun does that in controlled quantities. No need to worry about glue not coming out and giving it a squeeze too-hard, which results in glue all over your fingers and floor. Another nice thing about glue guns is that they come in various types, like professional-grade glue guns, or crafter glue guns, so you'll always know which one to use. For instance, if just the momma's china is starting to crack, you won't fire up the glue gun you employed when building the gazebo over the hot tub.

Wait. Glue guns? I don't need glue GUNS, I don't even know if I want to have one of 'em.

Good point. But since the glue guns are pretty inexpensive, even the professional ones, you can easily get a few of them and be sure their quality is absolutely the best. Sure, inexpensive doesn't mean you should go out and get yourself a glue gun for $2.99, but for about twenty bucks, a reliable high-end model will certainly be available at your local tool store.

Secondly, when owning a household, a lot of different problems come with that. One day it's the leakage in the kitchen, then it's the kids with their school projects. The car. The roof. Anything may need some glue to fix it. More glue, less glue. Whatever. You can't do all that with just ONE glue gun. Get two glue guns. You won't regret it. Get one for yourself, and get one for the kids and wife.

After you get yourself a glue gun, you'll come to realize what endless opportunities arise to utilize it. We cannot stress enough how easy it is to use one, so there'll be no more "Maybe I should do it tomorrow" or "Ah, not gluing my fingers again". You'll witness yourself transform from being inept around tools to becoming totally-glue-gun-crazy.

Kathy Cano-Murillo, also known as the Crafty Chica, nurses a glue-gun burn even as she speaks.

"I watch TV while I'm crafting, (and) something happened that made me gasp," says Cano-Murillo, the author of "La Casa Loca: 45 Funky Craft Projects for Decorating and Entertaining." "I lost control and a dollop of hot glue fell on my wrist. Oh man, it hurt so bad," says Cano-Murillo, who also writes a crafting column for The Arizona Republic.

Cano-Murillo, and millions of crafting compatriots, regard the electric glue gun as an essential tool for making vases, ornaments, textile collages, miniature shrines, decorative planters, costumes, embellished lamp shades and picture frames, and 10 zillion other creations.

Avid glue gunners consider nasty burns (glue temperatures can rise to 400 degrees) an initiation rite. "Everyone has to go through it," says Christine Stickler, co-author of "Wild With a Glue Gun: Getting Together With Crafty Friends." It's a "burn that goes through your whole body and just sizzles."

Twenty years ago, glue-gun choices were few. As the crafting craze has mushroomed, though, so have hot-melt variations. Once a nondescript contraption that performed the basic task of heating and dispensing glue sticks, the typical glue gun is now a sleekly curvaceous, cordless wonder, available in a range of tasteful colors.

There are high-temp glue guns, low-temp glue guns, cool glue guns and multitemp glue guns as well as multibarrel glue guns, mini glue guns and industrial-strength glue guns.

Glue-gun accessories abound as well: all kinds of nozzles, glue dipping pots, glue-gun stands and work surfaces.

Most glue guns are designed to appeal to women, the main consumers of craft supplies, and are available in stores such as Michaels and Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts.

Adhesive Technologies, a New Hampshire company, designs glue guns with crafting circles in mind. They're smaller, so women may "plop them in their purses or in their craft kits and on a table with three or four or five women," Peter Melendy, the company's president, says.

Stickler, though, doesn't go in for dainty glue guns. "I like the industrial blue with the orange cord," she says. Predictably, these heavy-duty, glue-gob dispensing models are found at Home Depot and other building-supply stores that men tend to frequent more often than craft stores.

But men aren't always willing to own up to their glue-gun dependency. In consumer surveys, Melendy has noted a curious pattern. Male respondents will say, "I don't own a glue gun. My wife owns a glue gun." When asked if they ever borrow the glue gun, the men say, "Oh, yeah, I use it all the time."

Still, glue guns are a tough sell among men. They prefer a staple gun, says Laura Scaccia, product manager for Adhesive Technologies. They "can't relate to a glue gun. It doesn't make any noise."

It's easy to hold Martha Stewart responsible for the glue gun's rise and stunning makeover. In truth, this tool's versatility is its best selling point. The "not-Marthas" are as enchanted with this gadget as those who follow the decor diva's pronouncements to the letter.

"You can't separate the glue gun from the 'wild,' because they go together," says Stickler, who wrote "Wild With a Glue Gun" with Kitty Harmon.

Both women belong to crafting groups where glue guns are highly valued implements. "We joke a lot about the number of glue guns we each have. Some have three, some have more," Stickler says from Seattle, where she lives. And the glue gun offers "the most permanent of bondings," Stickler says.

Adhesive Technologies' hot-melt tools range from those used by "the smallest neophyte crafter all the way up to a line of industrial tools used in airports," Melendy says. In recent decades, the market for glue guns has grown from about half a million units a year to "close to 10 million," he says. Glue guns usually cost $20 or less, although fancier ones may sell for more.

The glue gun caught on because, unlike other adhesives, "it provided instant bonding" as well as "flexibility in terms of what it could glue," Melendy says.

Florists were the first to use glue guns extensively in silk flower arrangements, he says. Then the tools were discovered by home-based crafters. "Everyone became a pine-cone-wreath glue gunner, if you will."

Since then, Melendy has heard of any number of novel glue-gun applications. They're even used in salons to attach hair extensions, he says.

For Valerie Perez-Schere, co-founder of Baltimore's Fluid Movement theater company, the glue gun is an invaluable tool for creating "the strange and the fabulous."

When constructing props and costumes, "I use it whenever I can," she says. "I don't know how people got along without it.

"I've gotten to the point where now I'm choosing what kind of glue gun I'm going to use. It's kind of sick. I have a fine-work glue gun with a special trigger, and I have the blazing, flaming hot glue gun, when I really need to fuse stuff."

Through repeated glue-gun use, Perez-Schere has acquired a certain amount of finesse in judging glue hardening times, what temperatures work best on what materials and other skills. You also "get better at not burning your fingers off," she says.

Cano-Murillo, who always has several craft projects in progress simultaneously, owns "eight or nine different glue guns. My favorite is the basic mini glue gun."

Like other ardent crafters, she sees glue gunning as a revolutionary shortcut that can eliminate sewing and other methods of attachment. But because hot-melt adhesives don't require a lot of expertise, "Some people think it's cheating. There are a lot of purists out there," Cano-Murillo says.

For her, glue guns are a practical means to an imaginative end. "I think it's all about balance. You wear your glue-gun burns with honor," Cano-Murillo says. "You're creating when it happens. You're trying to express yourself and to do something different."

"It's all about glue guns nowadays. Let me repeat it, it's ALL about glue guns. Ain't nobody who can deny it. What could be more exciting than the precision of the glue gun. The sheer genius of its simplicity. The ergonomics that make you feel like the glue gun is an extension of your own body. Oh yeah. Pull the trigger. See the glue come out and bond anything you need in SECONDS" - Paul Fryer, Managing Director, Glue Guns of Rocky Mountain States Association.

"Lemme tell ya, I won't forget the day I bought my NEC 7000 glue gun. I remember the awkward feeling I got when I first held in my hands, weighting the thing; thinking to myself "right, now what?" When I got home and read the manual, I took it to my garage to fix that darn set of backyard chairs that have been bugging me for a long time. I loaded the gun with some of that premium grade glue. I glued those chairs back up to shape in no time. Let me tell you, honestly - I don't know if I could've done any of the activities above without my NEC 7000" - George W. Smith, Palm Springs, CA.

"Being a modern woman, you need to become acquainted with a lot of tools you may need to use in your household. My husband often goes on business trips, leaving no man in the house to take care of small problems like fixing the momma's china that accidentally fell on the ground and, yes - you've guessed it - broke. In moments like this, my Coldheat DD28 cordless glue gun comes to the rescue. I may not know a lot about glue or technical stuff, but it sure is super-easy to take care of everything with a glue gun in your hands. Thanks a bunch Coldheat!" - Stephanie J., Nevada.

"It makes me feel like a real man, like I can accomplish things at last, like you know, it makes me feel that I'm alive and I'm here, and my glue gun is here too. Way to go, GlueGuns.Net" - George, Texas.

"Working with my XT664C cold glue gun reminds me of those good old days when the world was not yet in such a big damn hurry, when you could just be fixin' your fence all day in the sunshine. Or building a new one. And today... Eeh, all those automatons and computers and all the other heck. I like working with my hands. I like working with my own personal glue gun. Thank you, Glueguns.net for bringing back the real spirit of true work. I'll never forget that." - Henry, Oregon.