Thread: Glue Gun Snafu

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Melted my finger prints off tonight....eeeyouch! typing this with one hand is about as fun as prop building with one hand. Please tell me I'm not the only one who makes this mistake...at least once a year? {sitting with fingers in ice}

I burn my heads with hot glue all the time, so, you are not alone at all!! hope they feel better soon


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Oh too many times to count. Last year was the worst I think, when my glue gun malfunctioned and leaked a pool of VERY hot glue into my palm. Nice large second degree burn. And yet, the glue gun is probably the one tool I couldn't do without!

I have a ton of stupid injuries related to props and Halloween... including a lovely pumpkin carving incident where my hand slipped up the blade of the knife and severed a tendon. It required surgery and now I have a double life line where they opened up my whole hand to stick in another tendon... Needless to say, I am not allowed to carve pumpkins with knives any more.

I remember reading a year or two ago about someone that got hot glue on their finger and instinctively stuck the finger in their mouth... and burned their mouth. I so am going to end up doing that one of these days!

Just did that yesterday. Me and hot objects don't get along, but manage to come into close contact often. I try to stick to low-temp guns, but sometimes they just don't cut it.

Sorry about your fingers, Skull.

Thanks everyone! I was trying to be so careful {duh} but at least i still have all my fingers!

I cannot use a soldering iron without burning myself at some point in the process. I'm sure when I start using the glue gun more often this year that I'll have even more burn marks

Just a note: these under $20 glue guns from craft stores... they're really not meant to sit on the table while powered on for an hour while you go around working on your props. There's lots of reports of glue guns leaking as mentioned above, or outright exploding/sparking/otherwise doing bad things by people who kept them constant-on. I leave mine on a floor tile so even if it were to somehow catch on fire it'd probably be okay, but it would be much safer to buy a $50-100 glue gun that either has instant heat or is rated for constant-on.

I have scar on my middle finger on my left hand. I was using my gun a few years back and it had a blockage it exploded hot glue on my finger and ate through my skin. I still manage to get the odd burn now and again.

Ugh. I got myself a few days ago finishing a costume. The dumb ting was I thought the bubble on my finger was the hot glue so it just ripped it off! ... but it was actually my skin that had bubbled up ... oops!

The worst one I have done was stab my thumb with a hot knife. It didn't bleed a lot and it really did cauterize on the way in and left a pretty cool scar. If I press my thmb backwards I can see the while cauterized area inside the thumb - about 3/4 ". It's really cool, unless that sort of thing grosses you out :P

ouch...

got pics? j/k