Heat gun - what kind to get?

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Permalink Reply by Diana on June 22, 2011 at 10:23am

If you only want to dry your work, any hair dryer will do.

If you want to do encaustic, or dry your acrylics or watercolors really quickly, or do gary's bubble technique, then you need a heat gun. i LOVE my heat gun.  It cost about $20 on amazon.  It's called a "heat-pro duluxe" but there are plenty similar ones out there.  Mine has three settings: off, low and high.  it has five temperature settings which go from low to high and i can't remember what the high temperature is, but it's hot.

 

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Permalink Reply by Pranesha Bunsee on June 22, 2011 at 11:52am

Thanks Diana. Ok, so the various heat settings are important.

Silly me...I thought it was only available in on or off mode :-)

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Permalink Reply by IN-grid on June 22, 2011 at 4:47pm

I bought mine 5 years ago (still working well)for $ 60 and it is a paint stripper,when you use a regular hairdryer,it will get overheated very quickly,and breaks down after a short while (happenend to me)

Paint strippers can be heated a long time,just do not keep it to too close to your work ;-)

Cannot imaging life without a heatgun ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Jirrup on June 22, 2011 at 5:30pm

I notice you have posted this under oil painting... unless you are using heat set oils a heat gun wont dry an oil painting, bloody good for water based paints though.

 

I use a Ryobi, 1600W heat gun, variable fan and heat settings. Granted I used to do a lot of furniture restoration, it would be overkill for drying artwork alone.

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Permalink Reply by Palma Rea on June 29, 2011 at 8:03am

I'm completely ignorant about oil paints. How do they dry?

 

Oh, I used a hair dryer for larger works and a heat embossing gun ,sometimes.

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Permalink Reply by Grant Dowling on June 25, 2011 at 12:58am

I use a Bosch 2000W with variable speeds and temperatures.. very efficient and powerful. But whatever you get, be careful of the brutes. I used mine the other day to loosen the glue of a label on a nice wooden box.  After I had turned it off and unplugged the thing, I  accidentally touched the nozzle against my arm as I was hanging it up to store. I copped a burn that blistered my skin and is still painful three days later. They hold their heat for a long time but I now know better about safety issues.

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Permalink Reply by Pranesha Bunsee on June 27, 2011 at 4:01pm

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. Much appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on July 4, 2011 at 11:05pm

They are cheep and you can get them from Hobby lobby and from the any auto parts store and hardware store... NEVER pay over about 20-25 bux at the most.  If its marked any higher DONT buy it... Good things come to people who just wait...lol.

 

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