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Hot glue material is traditionally sold as cylindrical "sticks" to be fed into the dispensing "gun".
This "glue pot" or "skillet" holds a pool of hot liquid glue.
| material | low temp gun | high temp gun |
|---|---|---|
| low temp | good | not recommended |
| high temp | probably won't work | good |
| dual temp | good | good |
When used with suitable equipment, all temperatures of material work well. I suspect that the high temperature material was the original formulation, and "low temperature" "hot glue" (sounds funny, doesn't it) was a later development.
In addition to cylindrical sticks, I have seen:
| diameter | length | glue sticks per pound |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4" | 4" | 135 |
| 7/16" | 4" | 45 |
| 7/16" | 8" | 23 |
| 7/16" | 10" | 18 |
| 5/8" | 2" | 45 |
| 5/8" | 10" | 9 |
| 1" | 3" | 12 |
These numbers are approximate, and depend on things like the manufacturing tolerance of the stick size. hotstik.com says that a pound of 1/4"x4" sticks contains about 110; a pound of 7/16"x4" contains about 45.
If you melted a pound of hot-melt glue material into one big lump, it would have a volume of about 27 cubic inches.
| diameter | length |
|---|---|
| 1/16" | 1467' |
| 1/8" | 367' |
| 3/16" | 163' |
| 1/4" | 92' |
| 3/8" | 41' |
| 1/2" | 23' |
These numbers are approximate. hotstik.com has a similar table that agrees well for a 1/16" diameter bead, but predicts longer coverage for other beads.
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It seems silly to have to say this, but the business end of the hot glue gun gets very hot.
And the liquid glue dispensed from the gun is hot, too.
If you are not careful, you can burn yourself with this stuff.
Worse yet, hot glue that falls on your skin sticks to it, holding in the heat.
Given a choice, the low temperature hot-melt glue is probably a bit safer to use.
But don't get complacent.
The material dispensed by a low temperature glue gun is still very hot - hotter than boiling water!
Sources
Hot-melt glue, and the tools to use it,
are widely available.
Warnings
Tips
