[alfalfa]

Hello all,
This may sound like a stupid question but I am stumped. When my Mom died last month she left behind thousands of dollars worth of craft supplies that my Dad decided to just chuck.
I talked him out of that and he has been mailing me some of it instead that I may be able to use on my layout.
Today I got a bunch of trees and a brand new glue gun. I have never used one before and even though it has instructions, I don't know what to use it for on my layout.

Any advice would be a great help.

 

[Lownen]

You can use a glue gun for lots of things. Mounting your trees might be one. Some people use a glue gun to glue down their track. If I understand correctly you can use the glue gun to reheat the glue and remove items too, so in that way its superior to liquid glues.

 

[alfalfa]

Humm,
Interesting. I just thought of a good way to use it and practice with it at the same time............I like to make my own trees and I could use it for that and not have to worry about melting plastic or styro.

 

[ntrainlover]

Some people use it for making the rib shell for a hill.
You can apply it to foam as long as you apply it to the item your putting on the foam.

 

[sptrains.com]

First of all, I'm sorry to hear of your loss. On to the question at hand. I'm not sure if you bought a high temp glue gun or a low temp glue gun. I have a low temp glue gun, and I used that to glue all of the foam risers of my sub bed, the track bed to the risers, and the track to the track bed. Basically anything that you wouldn't see the glue when you were finished.

As far as gluing trees and stuff like that to the top of your layout. I wouldn't advise it for a couple of reasons.

1. When you pull back the glue gun strings of glue come off, and it's a pain in the butt to get them all away.

2. The glue doesn't dry perfectly clear, like elmers does, so after you glue something, if you have any excess glue you can see it.

3. If you have a hot glue gun, you could end up melting things.

I hope this helps!

Speaking of trees and poles though, check this out - PREWIRED TELEPHONE POLES!. I'm trying to preorder a bunch in, it looks amazing.

 

[ntrainlover]

Im intrested in those, I hope your able to order some.

 

[Boston&Maine]

1. When you pull back the glue gun strings of glue come off, and it's a pain in the butt to get them all away.

3. If you have a hot glue gun, you could end up melting things.

Both of these reasons are why I never use hot glue guns... Basically when trying to fix number one, number three came into play when I burned my fingers

 

[Lownen]

Both of these reasons are why I never use hot glue guns... Basically when trying to fix number one, number three came into play when I burned my fingers

This begs the question, were you using a low temperature or high temperature gun?

 

[Boston&Maine]

This begs the question, were you using a low temperature or high temperature gun?

I have no clue, it was my friends gun and when I used it I never knew that there were two kinds... It did not burn me that bad, just enough to really piss me off... Like I do not have a scar from it or anything, so I am assumming that it was a low temerature glue gun :dunno:

 

[alfalfa]

I ended up practicing on ballast from the tracks by the house. It works great. Not sure if it is high or low temp. The warning label says 300 degrees F. It does dry clear, but the little strings it leaves are a pain.
I just wish mom were still around to teach me how to use it better. She was a master with it. I am looking at a spider she made using wire, beads, and hot glue right now and it is just..........WOW.

 

[Peggy]

the glue strings are easier to deal with if you let them cool and harden...then just cut them with scissors.

be gentle with the trigger (it has a trigger, right? or maybe it just oozes out continually?) so that it only squirts out as much as you want.