MOTM

Go down to your local K-mart, Target, or Wal-mart and pick up a cheap
Wagner paint stripper gun.  It's the same thing that Milwaukee throws
their name on and call a heat-shrink gun.  You could spend more than
$20 or a heat-shrink gun, but why?

-Cary

PS: I've used guns costing $150, and still prefer the cheap guns.....

I used one of these for awhile. It got way hotter than a electronics heat
gun, and I melted some insulation sometimes when I wan't careful. Also it
died a horrible death when the motor burned up. (Now using a $70 Weller heat
gun).

Dave Bradley
Principal Software Engineer
Engineering Animation, Inc.
daveb@...

> From: Cary Roberts <Cary.Roberts@...>
>
> Go down to your local K-mart, Target, or Wal-mart and pick up a cheap
> Wagner paint stripper gun.  It's the same thing that Milwaukee throws
> their name on and call a heat-shrink gun.  You could spend more than
> $20 or a heat-shrink gun, but why?
>
> -Cary
>
> PS: I've used guns costing $150, and still prefer the cheap guns.....
>

(Dave on cheap paint-stripper heat guns)
> I used one of these for awhile. It got way hotter than a electronics heat
> gun, and I melted some insulation sometimes when I wan't careful. Also it
> died a horrible death when the motor burned up. (Now using a $70 Weller heat
> gun).

I have a $20 Ace Hardware heat gun.  It has two settings described in the
manual as 700 F and 1200 F.  I'm scared to turn it on high, and I've never
held it on something for more than about 30 seconds even on low, but it
doesn't seem like it should melt stuff on the low setting.  Did yours have
only the "strip paint and melt electronics" setting?

peace,
Chris Jeris

>I used one of these for awhile. It got way hotter than a electronics heat
>gun, and I melted some insulation sometimes when I wan't careful. Also it
>died a horrible death when the motor burned up. (Now using a $70 Weller heat
>gun).

In the toolbox at work we get these red hairdryer looking things that
cost $100+.  They work okay but take a while to heat up and forever
to cool down.  Plus they don't flow enough air in my opinion.  I heatshrink
a lot of NT735 bundled coax (12 mini coax cables) as well as Mogami
16pair 2934.  The more expensive guns take forever to shrink the industrial
grade heatshrink we use.  Same goes for heatshrinking all the connections
on my patchbays.  I'll agree that for minature and light duty heatshrink
jobs the more expensive guns are probably better.  But that's what
the "low" setting on my cheap guns are for.......

-Cary  "who has heatshrunk more wires than he can count"
        http://www.retrosynth.com/studio/wiring