Hot [glue] gun in my hand! What else should I fix?

Okay folks, keep down, I have a hot glue gun in my hand and my finger is on the trigger.

I fixed a few things. But the gun is hot and I should fix more things.

Can I fix holes in old leather work gloves? I'm not sure that would work. And work boots need a lot more grippy goo than hot glue. Holes in socks need not apply.

PS, No politics please.

Quick, help me before my gun cools off!

Reseal some plumbing!

Fill window frame air leaks!

Make ridges on your glasses to keep water from running down them

Do artwork on your work jeans

:D

Pearl Sutton wrote:Do artwork on your work jeans

Whoa, I could recycle some of the glitter in the trap of my washing machine. Brilliant!

Make little circles of glue - use them as cushioned washers.

Add a few dots to the bottoms of lamps, vases, etc, to preserve table tops.

Fill small holes in screens.

Carla Burke wrote:

Fill small holes in screens.

But... that's what a screen is.  A bunch of small holes.  
(Sorry, couldn't resist!)  

Lately I'm learning that hot glue can enhance "grippiness" of things that need to be screwed in or out frequently. It's easy to remove, which is a detriment in this application, but if you go all the way around it becomes one piece which helps.

We have a problem with plumbing freezing under the bathroom. One of the easiest solutions is to leave things dripping. We have separate hot and cold knobs in the shower and at the sink. It can be tough to be sure both hot and cold are running without running a loud, splashy, wasteful amount of water. So I figured out we can remove the hand-held shower head from the hose, (I added grippiness.) screw in a brass hose bibb, (added grippiness) open the hot and cold handles wide open and reduce hose bibb to a drip. It's worked really well for us, outside of the human discipline issue. We didn't do any of that this go-round, now the hot water is frozen. So is the toilet fill line, which has no such super obvious preventative measure.

Silver lining: I have the previous shower hose as well. I think I'll extend it to drip into the toilet tank. Screw carrying buckets. I may provide pics later. Right now I gotta go make the problem the solution.

Is the glue still warm?.... Like the mighty eagle, catch the next thermal on that Alberta clipper and take a light breezy -20 degree F ride down to Fargo---I've got a basement project for you.  Old farmhouse floor skirt....the part where it meets the cracked cinder block foundation.  I need you to glue all of the cracks while glue is still hot.....you won't need to *see* the cracks, cuz you will be able to *feel* the cold air hitting you in the face as you work.  If you feel like you are going to pass out from a combination of hypothermia and glue fumes, be sure to yell up from the basement so we can put the kettle on and prepare a gurney or travois to bring you up.....  ;-)

I came to the conclusion 30 years ago that hot-glue sucks. Basically, a PVA like Weldbond was universally superior for the things that I was doing. But it's always nagged at me that I might be misunderstanding the tool's assets. I love all the 'add texture' or 'add padding' suggestions.

Floor Lamp

We have a family member with reduced grip and dexterity. We have an old lamp that was not particularly easy for her to operate. The glue gun and I changed all that.

Grippy Knob

Grippier Knob

One of the switches was harder to turn than the other. Hot glue wasn't gripping tight enough, so I split the new knob, then clamped it on. That did it. But the clamp hit the shade and was hard to turn. So I found a smaller shade.

Smaller Shade

It didn't sit right, so I attached it on top of the nut. More hot glue!

Threaded Smaller Shade

The lamp has been trying to convert itself into a pile of lamp parts. I've been trying to persuade it to hold together. (It's base is coming apart like R's did here.) I've been securing it to the adjacent shelf, to the point they're becoming integrated. More hot glue!

Bamboo and Hot Glue Brace

Not all hot melt glue is the same.

We have an industrial hot melt glue gun at work and it’s much hotter and uses bigger sticks. It glues a lot more than my wimpy home one.

But glues are different too. You can have plastic, wood, or paper hot melt glues to get better adhesion. So you can get woodworking hot melt glue and do some woodworking crafts or intricate origami.

And I use hot melt glue for my book binding machines, which is a fast cheap way to do perfect bookbinding EXACTLY like what you buy in a bookstore.

It’s used in industry a lot because it’s cheap, works and versatile!

The above mentioned household member with less than stellar grip is interested in gardening. She hasn't tried it yet, but I modified a new hose end shut-off valve to turn easier and be grippier. Of course I used hot glue. A wheel style faucet handle (That didn't fit the valve at all. YET.) for about $4.00. A longer screw for the handle and a washer, for around a $1.00. I didn't think that was bad for a metric stainless screw and a copper or brass washer. I put the wheel style handle on top of the lever style handle, lining the lever up with one of the spokes and wired them together. That plus the center screw made for two-point contact. Then I hot glued the tip of the wire so nobody gets poked. Then I put some more everywhere the two handles touch. And some over the head of the screw to be sure it doesn't loosen or come out. Then I enhanced the grippiness. Ta-da.