Heat Guns

[Marc St Louis]

I found out something over the last few weeks and that is that not all heat guns are created equal.  My old heat gun that I bought many years ago to make heat treating easier finally gave up on me a few weeks ago.  Naturally I went out and bought another.  This one only used 1275 watts as compared to the 1500 watts my old one used.  What a difference.  I couldn't do anything with it so I brought it back.  I went back to where I had bought my old one but all they stocked was a B&D that used 1375 watts.  That was better but still  not as good as I was used to and made the job much slower.  So I took my old one apart and had a look at it.  The heating coil had burnt through so I twisted it back together and I'm now back in business. 

The moral of this story is you need at least 1500 watts out of your heat gun to do the job properly.  Of course a good hardwood fire does as good a job but when there's 2' of snow out and temps are -20 C it doesn't make heat treating a bow very interesting

[cracker]

Thanks for sharing that info. I had noticed that it took much longer than the article in tbb stated to do the job. I think I'll take a look at my heat gun maybe I can speed thing up a little.
Thanks Ronnie

[dragonman]

glad you mentioned that, I was thinking of getting one soon.

[Little John]

Sorry to hear that, I have a Toasting job to do soo. I checked my heat gun and it is 1200 watts.    Kenneth

[El Destructo]

                Well I guess I will just use mine to dry the Dogs from Now On.....since it's only an 1100 Watt Black and Decker

[John B.]

                Well I guess I will just use mine to dry the Dogs from Now On.....since it's only an 1100 Watt Black and Decker

1100 Watts?  That's a hair dryer, not a heat gun!

I must be old, cause I remember when Black and Decker made real tools... 

[El Destructo]

                Well I guess I will just use mine to dry the Dogs from Now On.....since it's only an 1100 Watt Black and Decker

1100 Watts?  That's a hair dryer, not a heat gun!

I must be old, cause I remember when Black and Decker made real tools... 

                     Ooops.....thats 1100 degrees!!! Not Watts............Glad I looked before I dried the Basanji's with it ....eh!!!!

[Justin Snyder]

I noticed that mine is considerable slower also.  I guess I will keep using it since I don't know better.

[Mattco]

I,ve had good luck with the cheepo heat guns from Harber Freight - Prices start at $10.00

[Pat B]

Mine is an old B&D and is 1200w. I guess ignorance is bliss because it works fine for me.   Pat

[dragonman]

it looks like everyone owns a heat gun but me, I'm definately gonna have to get one now so I dont feel left out

[Ryano]

A hot wood fire or the electric burner on the kitchen stove works better than any heat gun I've tried.

[tommy6]

I have gone through 2 heat guns from Harbor freight. It seems that if I have it on for >10 min something in the switch gives out. The gun will work great till I turn it off, than it will never turn on again. These were the orange ones from harbor for $9.99. I have looked at other guns but the cheapest I could find was one at wally world for $70. So I went and got a propane torch for $12, I will see how that works.

[Hillbilly]

I have a $20 gun from Lowe's, I've used it for several years, toasted and bent a bunch of wood, and straightened hundreds of arrow shafts with it. Still going strong so far.

[Marc St Louis]

The original gun that I got was a walmart special direct from China and blue in color.  It cost me $20 and has lasted 5 or 6 years now.  Before that I used a hotplate and it worked well but it was a pain to reflex properly.  Could be that the B&D is not really putting out 1375 watts, just because they say so doesn't mean it does.