10 Practical Heat Gun Uses – Who Knew?

If you’re into DIY, this article is going to be very helpful for you. That’s because today we are going to unveil the multiple talents of a device which is often feared for its high operational temperatures, but wrongly so. If used properly, this device can offer multiple uses ranging from DIY crafts to home improvement.

We are talking about heat guns, the gun-shaped device that you see at mechanical workshops and engineering laboratories. It turns out that heat guns also belong to domestic settings because of their numerous virtues. In this ‘rediscovery episode’ of heat guns, you’ll learn about 10 heat gun uses that go beyond the conventional ones to make life easier for you in many aspects.

Heat Gun Uses

1. Heat Gun For Paint Removal

This is one very annoying job, especially if you need to strip paint off all four walls in a room. Many people go for the chemical solvent method. This is not just frustratingly harder than using a heat gun, it is environmentally less friendly as well. So if you’re a masochist, do not use a heat gun. For the rest of you normal peoples, just grab a heat gun, plug it in, heat the paint, and carefully scrape the loose paintings off. It’s that easy.

Paint stripping is one of the most popular heat gun uses. If you are redecorating your home or moving to a new one, consider buying a heat gun if you don’t already own one. Trust me, it will help you avoid a lot of headache. If you might need to use one outside of your home such as in your yard, I suggest getting a cordless heat gun. These electric heat guns run on battery and are portable heat guns. With one of these you can also use heat guns to strip paint off the exterior walls of your home as well as the interior.

2. Heat Gun To Soften Adhesives

Ever wanted to remove the stickers on your refrigerator, or the bumper stickers on your car, but felt afraid that it was going to come off badly and ruin the appearance of your car or refrigerator? We’ve all been there. Those pesky stickers just don’t want to come off easily. Then one day I found out that if you put a heat gun in its low heat setting, heat the sticker for a bit, and then pull it, it actually does come off easily.

Not just stickers, this works for all kinds of adhesives including glue and cement. You can use it to remove the tiles in your bathroom, the posters on your wall, or anything really.

3. Heat Gun For Soldering and De-soldering

This one is a tough, albeit an extremely useful use of heat gun. When working with electronics you might often find yourself of the need to solder or even de-solder the wires in a circuit. You might be thinking- “but heat guns provide so much heat it might damage the entire circuit board.” Fear not, heat gun manufacturers are one step ahead of you.

With a specialized heat gun nozzle, such as a cone nozzle, you could heat the wires in a circuit without damaging anything else. A cone nozzle is a very convenient heat gun attachment which directs the heat to a specific spot instead of a large area. It is ideal for soldering as well as other tasks that require precision heating. You can use a cone nozzle and an electric heat gun combination to use a heat gun for electronics repairs of all kinds.

4. Heat gun For Shrink Wrap

What a lot of people do when wrapping things is that they wrap the wrappings carefully around the box, then they heat up their (or their wife’s) blow dryer and wait for hours as the wrappings shrink onto the box. If you have nothing better to do, then this may be a solid way to kill time.

But if you are a busy person, may I suggest using a heat gun for shrink wrapping so that the work can be finished in minutes? This is one of the popular heat gun uses crafts. As you all know, a heat gun can heat faster and also reach way higher temperatures than a blow dryer, and thus it is ideal for shrink wrapping boxes.

5. Heat Gun For Frozen Pipes Thaw

Imagine this, it’s winter and you don’t want to get out from under your blankets, of course eventually you do have to force yourself out because life is cruel. You head to the bathroom, turn on the sink to freshen up… but no water comes out. This is because you have a case of frozen pipes.

Where do heat guns come into this? Of course to melt the ice in the pipes, so that the water can start to flow again. The heat gun can easily heat copper or PVC pipes and thaw it out. But be careful not to overheat it, if your pipes can’t handle too much heat it might burst, and that’s not such a good thing is it? Also consider using a spoon reflector nozzle for heating pipes, it makes the work much more convenient.

6. Heat Gun For Paint Drying

It can take a long time for paint to dry and cure, and if you don’t have the patience for it, or need to work on the walls without messing up the paintwork, it can get frustrating. Luckily for you, a heat gun could come in handy in a situation such as this. Put the heat gun in its low heat setting and begin heating the paint for it to dry faster.

 Not just walls, any kinds of paint drying can be done with a heat gun. And if the paint is near any kind of glass then do make sure to use a glass protector nozzle. Also note that you should not heat the paint too much and with too high a temperature, otherwise instead of drying, some of the paint might start stripping off.

7. Heat Gun For Shrink Tubing

Shrink tubing is just like shrink wrapping, only instead of shrinking wrappings around boxes you shrink insulation, shaped like tubes, around wires. With an electric heat gun equipped, shrink tubing is as easy as shrink wrapping.

When shrink wrapping be careful not to melt the wires in it. To avoid doing that set the heat gun temperature suitably. A temperature below 300 degrees Fahrenheit would be sufficient for the work. You should obviously check the shrink tubing box to see what temperature is recommended, usually a minimum temperate is stated on it.

8. Heat Gun For Welding

You can also use a heat gun to do welding. Home users can purchase an affordable DIY heat gun for their repair work. But more likely welding may be used for construction processes, and many professionals use industrial heat guns for this.

Welding comes in very handy during repairs. A temperature setting of 500 degrees Fahrenheit is usually enough to get the job done. When buying a heat gun for welding, do make sure that your heat gun can reach this desired temperature. You might also consider getting heat gun nozzles that are specially designed for welding, this would make the job much more smooth.

9. Drying Damp Wood

One of the super useful heat gun crafts is for drying wood that is damp or wet. For whatever reason, you may require the wood to be dried as fast possible. Heat guns come very handy in this sort of situations. You would however want it in a low temperature setting so as to not burn up the wood.

Also a very useful tidbit- if you are drying wood that is fitted with glass, such as a window or a table, you may want to use a special type of heat gun nozzle. Glass protector nozzles are a type of heat gun nozzle which does the job its name suggests. For heating wood without damaging the glass, a glass protector nozzle comes in very handy, but you would often need to buy this attachment separately from the heat gun because not many heat guns come packaged with specialized heat gun nozzles.

10. Heat Gun For PVC Pipe Bending

Ever felt like bending plastics for no reason? No? Okay, maybe it’s only me. But there are plenty of good reasons to want to bend plastics, or metals. Maybe you are doing a DIY craft at your home, or you want to change the shape of your sports equipment. With a heat gun you can easily bend the heated plastics or metal.

Many people use a heat gun for crafts because of this capability. DIY people who are home users can purchase a cheap heat gun to complete their little projects, however more expensive high end professional heat guns may be required for more heavy duty work.