I built my own 60W one last year for $10, and a storm rolled in on Halloween night bringing both rain and wind. The webs stay put GREAT. Though, standard glue sticks do yellow in the sun.
I'ld build a much bigger one now, and plan to next year, even.
These are the morning after the wind and rain...
This bunch blew all over and got tangled up in the grapes behind. (previously down to the ground) Actually looks better...
Previous to this, we had a display out front for 10 days that had a lot of webs. At around a week in, they had started to show some real weathering. It mostly just added to the effect, however.
In fact, I still have a gob of webs up in a tree, all yellowed, and tangled in with the leaves that fell and stuck in it, that I'm just leaving.
It DOES NOT like to come off of fences, siding, etc that you might get it on without getting up close and scrubbing/scraping it off, however.
If you're able, I'ld suggest building one yourself. If you're wary of that, there's several options on the market for fairly reasonable prices (compared to just the equivalent glue gun). You'll never go back to the stretchy bag stuff again, that's for sure.
The bigger the gun, the faster it'll spray webs. And, adjustable airflow at the gun is VERY handy. If you're buying/building, keep those things in mind.
Where can you buy these? Or, if anyone has a tutorial or wouldn't mind explaining, how do you make them?
UnOrthodOx, you mentioned "the eqivalent glue gun." Do you have to modify the glue gun to use it for this or can you just use a glue gun? You also mentioned the webs don't like to come off of some things- do they come off of regular walls, mirrors, and windows pretty smoothly?
Thanks for any help =]
Where can you buy these? Or, if anyone has a tutorial or wouldn't mind explaining, how do you make them?
UnOrthodOx, you mentioned "the eqivalent glue gun." Do you have to modify the glue gun to use it for this or can you just use a glue gun? You also mentioned the webs don't like to come off of some things- do they come off of regular walls, mirrors, and windows pretty smoothly?
Thanks for any help =]
The commercially available guns use 80W glue guns as the smallest gun. These start at around $20 or so (plus shipping)
Then you're going to spend another $10 or so in parts.
Or, you can buy a pre-made one for around $50+
The two main commercial ones I know of are the Minions Webber (occasional banner on the forum here), and the Webcaster gun (sold in some stores). Google either of those and I'm sure you'll find em.
My 60W gun did ok for what I needed it to do this last year, but I sure wouldn't want to try to web anything remotely considered a large area.
Which is why I'm eyeballing a 240W gun on a surplus list...
Thanks for the pictures! I was always curious to see what the webcaster gun did, and see how it would weather. We have crazy weather Halloween-time here in north Texas! After seeing your display, I may have to make one for my cemetery!
We sell the Webcaster gun for $49.99. When we got them in last year we took one for a test drive. It was quick and fun to use. You go through the glue sticks pretty fast if you're going for a heavy webbed look. You just stand back and squeeze the trigger and fan back and forth a bit. My friend who helped with the testing took one home and did up his front porch. He loved it. He did say some heavy winds did damage some of the wide stretches. But overall they stayed up for the whole month of October no problem. They come off non-porous surfaces fairly easily, but sticks like "glue" to everything else... go figure. Here's our test photos.
If you have an air compressor and a hot glue gun, go to the hardware store and get an air nozzle. Hold the air nozzle under the hot glue gun. When hot glue starts coming out, shoot the air into the hot glue. It works great. I did my whole haunt last year this way. You have to use two hands to do it this way. But, I saved lots of money doing it this way. Plus all that money I didn't spend on a pre-made unit I could spend on hot glue sticks!!!!!!!
Im not very handy at making stuff so I bought one last yr. I was doing a spider's lair. It was FANTASTIC! I was very happy with the results.. use caution though!! I was spraying the web in an upward direction and accidently turned off the air flow.... burned my hand pretty badly, I learned the hard way to wear gloves! It was a great investment tho, I used the web caster on several projects last yr besides the spider lair and Im sure I'll use it on several again this yr
I got one from Minions last year. It took a little bit to get it adjusted right but once it got going, it was great. I would definately get the long glue sticks rather than the short ones. I used mine outside in early October and it held up great to November, when I finally had to take them down. It does stick to wood, etc (go figure), but I used a power washer and it came off easy...yes, you can make one yourself, but I am not that handy....
if you dont have a good air compressor, it will be very frustratingly slow...i borrowed one from a friend and don't know if i will use this item again...the clean-up is a lot of work as well!
We have only played with our webcaster gun, but I have to say that it is among the coolest gadgets I've invested in. I got mine from a Halloween store in LA for $49.99. I had been wanting one for a while, and not being handy with electronics and the such, didn't feel I should venture into making one myself.... I totally dig that they sell glue sticks for it in different colors, and glow in the dark (which REALLY glows under a black light btw)....Totally recommend buying or making one.
I bought mine from Minions and just loved it. It has a small learning curve to it but, I did HUGE spider webs around my front yard. I'm talking about 15' by about 45'. What you might want to do if you make big ones is: use fishing line to make a diagram of what you want. I did it like a huge spider web and then ran the webbing between the lines. I did it in the trees and had them running to the ground where the huge spiders were. To stick the line to the ground I ran the fishing line to tent spikes and then just tied the line to the tree branches and stetched it to the tent spikes. The only draw back was that the kids thought they could walk through the webbing and almost tripped over the lines and tent spikes. Do this away from the walking area! Also buy a lot of long web sticks. This stuff is addictive!
We got ours from frighteners entertainment and I can't recommend it enough. The webs are so realistic looking and do hold up well to weather. Even if strong winds blow some loose, it looks fantastic blowing in the breeze.
Be warned though, it's addicting. You'll want to web and web and web LOL
We got ours from frighteners entertainment and I can't recommend it enough. The webs are so realistic looking and do hold up well to weather. Even if strong winds blow some loose, it looks fantastic blowing in the breeze.
Be warned though, it's addicting. You'll want to web and web and web LOL
LOL. my roommate had such fun playing with ours he kept asking "what else can we web?" I was laughing and telling him to conserve that attitude for the decorating come Oct 1st. I fear he may become overzealous and I may have to take it away from him!
Well, you run at 90PSI, but most(all?) these guns have an adjustable nob right on the handle (no guage) so in reality, you're running something lower and adjusting it per your situation.
