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A few days ago I bought my first hot glue gun. Full disclosure - it was dirt cheap (£4, approx $6), and two packs of 10 glue sticks at £1 per pack.

I've just fired it up (turned it on, inserted glue stick, left it for 4 mins) and tried to glue some stones to a 32mm base. Epic fail!

The glue is a blob, so once I push the stone in place the glue's poking out the sides and would be visible once left. Maybe I used too much glue, but there's not much control with the gun.

But worse, the glue doesn't actually seem to adhere. It immediately cools and hardens and there's just no adhesion there at all.

I tried about 5 times, each time the stone just fell off and I could just pull the lump of glue off the base to start again.

Am I doing it wrong, is the gun gak, or is this just what hot glue guns are like? Maybe for this task I should stick to super glue and the hot glue is for other things (although at this point, I'm not sure what!!).

It sounds like your glue us not melting hot enough. Are you allowing it time to warm up?

I don't think I'd use a hot glue gun for anything hobby related, I guess I don't think of it as a "neat" tool, more of a "slop it on and smoosh it together" sort of thing, we use them a lot at work for stuff we want held together temporarily and don't care if it's not neat.

It's possibly not hot enough. What's the room temperature like? On a cold morning sometimes the hot glue gun can be hard to use because it goes cold too quick and loses much of its adhesive power.

But yeah, I'd probably not use a hot glue gun to begin with, superglue, epoxy and PVA are my staples, with polystyrene cement for, well, polystyrene stuff.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
It sounds like your glue us not melting hot enough. Are you allowing it time to warm up?

I gave it the 4 mins it said on the packaging. But maybe I need to leave it longer. I'll give it a shot...

This will sound totally nuts but what size is the gun? Is it a junior(the price suggests it is)? If it is,then that may well be the problem.I had one and could never get it to heat up enough to work properly.What you need is the standard which is around £15,I hav the bostik gun and it works really well,if you need burning glue landing on your fingers then this is the one!
It won't eradicate glue spreading out though.
I'd suggest epoxy resin glue(2 parter) if you can stand the smell as I'm sure that would be better.

Slipstream wrote:
This will sound totally nuts but what size is the gun? Is it a junior(the price suggests it is)? If it is,then that may well be the problem.I had one and could never get it to heat up enough to work properly.What you need is the standard which is around £15,I hav the bostik gun and it works really well,if you need burning glue landing on your fingers then this is the one!
It won't eradicate glue spreading out though.
I'd suggest epoxy resin glue(2 parter) if you can stand the smell as I'm sure that would be better.

It's a Rolson 10W "mini" glue gun. So sounds like it might be the junior.

Oh, now I feel dumb. Whilst looking at the packaging to find the wattage, I noticed it said 'dual temperature'. Didn't say anything in the instructions, but now I've seen that I've just cranked the temp up. Let's see how that is in a few mins...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, turning the temp up made it...different.

It's clearly hotter and more 'gluey', but I think maybe just not the right tool for the job. I need a pretty small dot of glue but the gun doesn't have enough finesse, hence the big blob which then pokes out the sides. It still didn't seem super sticky, but certainly better than first time.

I'm also getting a string of glue between where I've applied it and the tip of the gun, which is surprisingly hard to stop. I just end up with stringy glue all over.

I think I'll try again next time I come to do something bigger like plasticard terrain or something.

I use UHU to stick rocks to bases.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
I use UHU to stick rocks to bases.

UHU what? UHU is the company, they make a lot of different adhesives.

While I do use a glue gun, I dont recommend it for most applications. Its blobby. Use it for blob or goo type things.

Glue guns aren't an all-purpose tool.

Some jobs they just don't work for. They're fine for sticking foamcore buildings together - but gluing ballast to bases or such? Better off using an araldite or superglue for those.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
UHU what?

THE uhu glue, you know the best one and the most well known and their biggest seller and the onew that pops up on Google before their homepage etc
Not uhu pritt or uhu superglue or uhu tac or anything special.
Just standard uhu glue.
http://www.uhu.com/en/products/all-purpose-adhesives.html

I use mine for terrain projects and love it -- but it's not precise enough for miniatures.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
UHU what?

THE uhu glue, you know the best one and the most well known and their biggest seller and the onew that pops up on Google before their homepage etc
Not uhu pritt or uhu superglue or uhu tac or anything special.
Just standard uhu glue.
http://www.uhu.com/en/products/all-purpose-adhesives.html

Ok, on my google that link actually pops up AFTER their home page

Growing up my main exposure to UHU was those cheap non-toxic glue sticks young kids use for sticking paper together which is probably a less effective adhesive than a ball of snot for anything but paper <-> paper joints. So when I hear "UHU", that's the first image that enters my mind, a room full of primary school aged kids slopping that gunk on their school projects, and a couple of them chewing on UHU sticks

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
UHU what?

THE uhu glue, you know the best one and the most well known and their biggest seller and the onew that pops up on Google before their homepage etc
Not uhu pritt or uhu superglue or uhu tac or anything special.
Just standard uhu glue.
http://www.uhu.com/en/products/all-purpose-adhesives.html

Ok, on my google that link actually pops up AFTER their home page

Growing up my main exposure to UHU was those cheap non-toxic glue sticks young kids use for sticking paper together which is probably a less effective adhesive than a ball of snot for anything but paper <-> paper joints. So when I hear "UHU", that's the first image that enters my mind, a room full of primary school aged kids slopping that gunk on their school, and a couple of them chewing on UHU sticks

Yep, my childhood means that UHU = Pritt Stick

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I don't think I'd use a hot glue gun for anything hobby related, I guess I don't think of it as a "neat" tool, more of a "slop it on and smoosh it together" sort of thing, we use them a lot at work for stuff we want held together temporarily and don't care if it's not neat.

I use a hotglue gun constantly.

You don't use hotglue to adhere finished pieces together if you can help it. You use it during construction to build structures, then cover any joins with details as usual.
If, like the OP, you don't like the blobby spread, you use less glue so that the glue stays hidden or simply cover it up with pva and sand- an area where soil/dirt/loose stones have built up around the object glued.
If you are building Cities of Death and other plastic kits and making intact structures, or just making intact buildings, you can use the hotglue on the inside of the corners to make a fillet for strength.
You can also use it to add details such as running waste fluid or organic shapes on trees.
Finally, you can go nuts and build horrific Tyranid terrain.

https://www.google.ie/search?q=fillet+radius&safe=off&espv=2&biw=1152&bih=394&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF2qCPv4HNAhWsCMAKHRygBp8Q_AUIBigB#safe=off&tbm=isch&q=tyranid+hot+glue&imgrc=JKVujFUIwfnf2M%3A

I have used hot glue for a lot of terrain projects - it is just another tool in your collection of adhesives, etc.

However, it is not perfect for every job - and does have some limitations. Take time to work with it however, and you will get better - like any new method/material - experience is king.

Once you get the hang of it - you will find it amazing - for the right jobs.

Check out 'the dm's craft" terrain channel on you tube - the guy on there does amazing things with hot glue.

Again, its not a panacea for every job - but invaluable for those it's unique properties suit.

I have very good luck with a product called Goop for terrain work. It's super thick out of tube, dries quickly, is tacky to start with (the name is accurate) and once hard is very strong. Course, it's a standard DiY here in the US, so not sure its available where you are. Just a five spot for a big tube here.

Hot glue is not good for smooth surfaces. Sometimes sanding or otherwise roughing up the surface will help (this will generally help any glue). It is therefore not great for plastic.

Also, Hot glue is very poor on cold or highly heat conductive surfaces; such as metal or a cold rock from the garden. These make the glue cool too quickly to allow it to get a good grip on the surface. A wet/damp surface will also do the same thing.
This could be the problem you are having with your stones. Try warming the stones by leaving them in your pocket for a while to bring them up to body temp', this will mean that the glue doesn't cool so quickly.

But hot glue is not a permanent glue in any case. It's best used to quickly tack things together in the correct place, that will then be fixed in place with subsequent glue/plaster/putty/etc...

Also, there are two types of hot glue; low temp (usually clear or white) and high temp (usually yellow). Some guns are designed to work with both but the problem comes from using the wrong glue at the wrong temp'.
Put a high temp' glue in a low temp' gun/setting and it may not even melt.
Put a low temp' glue in a high temp' gun and it'll come out like water.

Low temp' glue is basically what is described above; temporary.
High temp' glue is more permanent as the glue is harder (which is why it melts at a higher temperature), and so holds things together better.