My glitter glue gun jammed on a kid's birthday craft yesterday

I was doing a unicorn horn project for my niece's party and the cheap glue stick melted into a goopy mess that clogged the nozzle completely. Had to scrape it out with a toothpick and now I'm wondering if I should preheat dollar store glue guns before using them like you do with ovens. Anybody else run into this?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninaross21d ago

Honestly 3 dollar store glue guns in a row have done this exact same thing to me. The real problem is you're buying those cheap white ones that can't hold a steady temp. Spend 15 bucks on a name brand gun with a variable temperature dial and you will never scrape goop again. I've done literally hundreds of party crafts and the cheap ones just overheat and melt everything into a sticky hell. The toothpick trick works but only if you let the gun cool down first, otherwise you just push the goop deeper into the nozzle. Preheating doesn't help because the cheap plastic nozzle actually warps when it gets too hot and makes the clog worse.

kevin_bailey21d ago

I just watched a YouTube video where a guy tested 8 different glue guns and the cheap dollar store ones all failed within 20 minutes of continuous use. The name brand ones with metal nozzles and adjustable temp literally lasted through like 6 hours of testing without any clogs. He showed how the plastic nozzle on the cheap ones actually melts out of shape and creates a bottleneck inside. That variable temp dial really is the key, lets you keep it at a lower heat for delicate stuff and crank it up when you need a faster bond.