I originally bought my heat gun after reading Matthew Bastian's excellent article on homemade vinyl dry bags.

If you want to build vinyl drybags, you must invest in a heat gun--it simplifies things so much. (sort of like an ROS is a must-have for any boat construction). Even if your glue starts to flag, when you hit it with heat, it reactivates and really sticks--makes a killer bond with the vinyl. If one of your seams doesn't seal completely, hit it with the heat gun and press it back together. No problem.

Then, Rob Macks introduces the steamless bending process. Brilliant! If you don't already have a good enough reason to get a heat gun, this is it.

Well, I have a third great reason for the heat gun. Gluing.

When you glue something with polyurethane glue, you generally need to wet both pieces, apply the glue, and clamp it for an hour or two while the glue foams and cures. Try wetting the wood, gluing it, clamp or hold it together (if you don't clamp it, watch your fingers!) and then hit it with the heat gun. 30 seconds later, the glue is foamed, and hard--not brittle-scrape-it-and-it-dusts-off-like-you-didn't-wet-your-wood-enough hard, but tough-hard.

But that's not all. It slices, it dices!

The heat gun also works just as well with yellow glue. A year or so ago, I described a way to rub two glued pieces together so the friction would make the glue set up faster. This is even easier: glue both pieces. Hit them with the heat gun. The glue will bubble up. That's it. Within 10 minutes, they'll be super solid. You don't have to wait 2-3 hours or even overnight. The gun heats the glue. It dries. It sticks hard. No problems!

For doing my thin accent strip around my cockpit recess cutout before installing 45º dropper strips, I simply put a bead of glue around the rim, stuck my 1/16" strip to it, heated it with the heat gun, and it stayed. No clamping required. When I then put in the 45º strips, I beveled them, stuck them in place with glue, and hit them with the heat gun. I did my entire recess in one evening. No more clamping tiny pieces. No more waiting for glue to dry.

No more excuses--if you don't have one, buy a heat gun!!!

Shawn