Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Looking for advice on Heat Gun purchase
Getting ready to strip my Keith Steele drift boat of paint, so I looked at heat guns this week. I came across $30 options by Black and Decker and others with two heat settings and Makita and Milwaukee $90 options with 6 or 8 heat settings. BTU ratings seem to be all over the board, so that doesn't seem to be driving price. Any advice on whether heat sensitivity is important or whether $60 more will pay off in the long run with quality and reliability?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mike Thomas on
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I bought this gun over 20 years ago and have hundreds of hours on it. (its all metal) It only has high and low, and you adjust the air opening for temp, but it has a cool down mode too which is crucial for the heating element. I bought it originally for bending laminate when I did alot of counter tops but have used it for everything over the years. Its a commercial gun and was over $100 when I got it, however it has proven itself big time, it was a wise move.
Ive seen alot of guns not last over the years, its like anything. I just took a chance and bought that cheap wood planer.
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Thats a Master Appliance HG-501A,,,,they are still about the same price around $112. I always say if you can afford the better tool get it. All my good tools, no regrets. I wish I could have bought a good planer, I know I`ll be sorry, just cant afford it now. Thats my .02
The other option is to buy the lifetime warranty on something cheaper and just keep taking it back ;)
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Permalink Reply by Kirk Miller on
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Thanks Mike. Some have scraper attachments you can buy that fit on end of gun. Good idea or better to go with a high quality separate scraper?
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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My $10 Harbor Freight heat gun has worked for years without an issue.
Rick N
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You`ve had good luck. We have gone through 3 of those in the last year at work, we just use them to heat plastic tubing in spas. But they are cheap. I hope my HF planer lasts a while. Every cabinet shop Ive worked for uses the Master gun. Ive never had one with a scraper.
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Permalink Reply by David Witton on
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I've been watching the Laughing Loon videos lately - the buy builds beautiful strip kayaks - he's using Milwaukee. I've always had good luck with their tools.
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Heat is important. I found scrapers with replaceable carbide blades even more rewarding. Plain steel blades dull quickly and are never as sharp. Around $10 - $12 @ Lowes.
Rick N
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Permalink Reply by tungsten on
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When i use to use a heat gun on a regular basis the cheap ones went about a month,they would just et too hot and burn out.The $100 ones would go about a year.
If you just use it here and there a couple minutes at a time the cheaper ones will work.But an hour at a time will just brn them out.
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Well, I went middle of the road with a Wagner because the local shops don't carry higher quality units and it has a wide range of temperature settings. After 3 months and probably 30 hours on it, most in hour long stints, it died. Good news is Wagner is sending me a new one, no questions asked. Bad news, I am ready to flip my boat and tackle the interior, so I will lose a week of work. It hurts because the blue winged olives started popping on the Missouri below Holter dam last week and the Mother's Day Caddis hatch is less than a month away.
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Yep. The good ones have a cool down setting for when you get ready to stop it that saves the element.
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This one has the cool down. After Wagner agreed to send a replacement and I didn't have to worry about voiding the warranty, I took the heat gun apart and cleaned it with pressurized air. Upon reassembly it fired back up and has worked fine for almost 4 hrs of use!
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