Building a Better Hot Glue Gun

We makers tend to use hot glue guns a lot more often than most of us would like to admit. I don’t even want to talk about how many of my devices have PCBs held in enclosures with hot glue. But like every other maker on the planet, I think the hot glue guns themselves are frustrating to use. John Boss agreed, which is why he set out to build a better one.

There were two frustrations in particular that Boss wanted to address and they’re common to virtually every hot glue gun model in existence. The first was the mechanism for pushing glue sticks, which grips too far back and so can’t push half-used sticks. The second was the flimsy stand, which never provides enough support and is almost useless.

Boss’s solution was to design a new 3D-printable hot glue gun that uses the heating element from a popular model of hot glue gun that you can find at any big box store.

This design has an extended ratcheting mechanism to push the hot glue. It is long enough to push an entire stick through and has a nice spring-loading feature for quick adjustment. It also has magnets embedded underneath the “barrel,” so it can rest securely on the accompanying stand or anything ferrous.

Plus, it looks very cool. And as a bonus, it has built-in storage for eight extra glue sticks.

Boss hasn’t yet released this design for others to use, so be sure to comment on his video if you’d like him to do that.