Last Updated on 4 years by Christopher G Mendla
What can go wrong with using a 40 year old glue gun? The answer is shocking.. Literally.
I was working on a jalousie door at the shore home where the glass was slipping out of the holders. The door was about 40 years old. I decided to try hot glue to tack the glass in place. What I didn’t realize was that the glue gun had some serious electrical issues.
My dad had purchased that particular gun probably a decade or two earlier. It was possibly even older than that. I plugged it in and let the glue heat up. It was a hot summer day and I was sweating a good bit. The tip was in contact with the aluminum holders for the glass. I was kneeling on the flagstone patio and my shoulder brushed up against the aluminum window frame.
I got a pretty decent shock from that and immediately pulled the plug on the gun. (Along with saying a few choice words.) I suppose that a couple of decades of salt air, an early design and possibly even exposure to salt water flooding had caused some type of short.
I got the trusty diagonals out and cut the power cord.. (YES – AFTER it was unplugged). I then walked 4 blocks to the local 5 and 10 that has a fantastic Ace Hardware section. For about 10 bucks, I got a hot melt glue gun that wasn’t trying to fry my butt.