JustJimAZ

Hot glue is a staple of the craft/DIY world. These tips might just save you some headaches as you use it for your own pieces!



Hot glue is not really a glue. It's a thermoplastic. This is important because hot glue "sticks" best to stuff that is porous, or stuff it can flow around. This is why it's basically impossible to get it out of clothing. It gets in between the fibers. This also explains why it's hard to hot glue anything onto glass successfully.

Make sure you are using low temp glue in a low temp gun, and high temp glue in a high temp gun. You can buy glue guns that switch between high and low, and "multi temp" glue sticks. That basically means the glue will melt at a low temp and not burn at a higher temp.

One of the things a lot of people do is they plug the gun in and start to use it as soon as the glue will squeeze out. You should give it a few minutes to get to full heat. This will make the glue easier to dispense and it will work better. Glue just at the softening point will never adhere as well as fully heated glue.

If you are trying to glue anything to glass or smooth plastic, it will work best if you first roughen the surface. Use sandpaper to do this. It's a good idea to clean it with alcohol after sanding. Alcohol will wash away the debris, but also any oils left behind. It evaporates fast too, so that's nice.

You can put a silicone baking mat down on your work area so any errant hot glue will just peel right off. Baking parchment paper is also good and much cheaper - though it is disposable, so it's probably not a long term solution. If you have a bunch of people doing hot glue projects at the same time, parchment is a good way to cover large surfaces or several surfaces. Parchment and wax paper are NOT the same thing. Be careful about that. You can use this property to craft things right out of hot glue!


You can easily buy silicone finger covers to keep the glue off your fingers. These will also let you do things like put a dab of glue on your finger and apply it to your piece.


If hot glue does get on your skin, you can immediately rub it with your fingers to prevent a burn. If done quickly, the glue will roll up and solidify. Many crafters use a bowl of cold water in case of accidental hot glue to skin accidents.

If the hot glue is taking too long to cool off, and/or you are just impatient, spritzing it with water or blasting it with canned air will cool it off quick. Obviously you should not spray water on it if your piece needs to stay dry.

Many a crafter in the Arizona desert has discovered that pieces stuck together with hot glue will pop apart in the heat. The glue will soften and the materials will expand, and this is a bad combination. You can use a glue like E6000 instead. Or, you can put a dab of E-6000 in the center, put hot glue on the side, and press the pieces together. The hot glue will harden much faster and will hold the pieces together until the real glue cures. It is always best to ALSO have a mechanical join too, like a screw, nail, staple, zip tie.... Hot glue is best for light objects and areas that will have no stress.

If hot glue gets where you don't want it, try isopropyl alcohol or denatured alcohol. The alcohol is small enough and slippery enough to slip in between the glue (really plastic!) and the surface and break the bond. This works if you are trying to take something apart too, if hot glue is used to keep it together. Many things made in China are just held together with hot glue.



What did I miss? If you find any of these useful, or if you have some tips of your own, please post them below.

Happy Halloween!