I was using my heat gun fine on max heat with a restrictive nozzle. Then I turned it off. When I tried to use it again, it wouldn't come on. I checked the plug fuse and that was fine. Any hope of repairing this?
Heat gun kaput?
- Thread starter DiyNutJob
- Start date
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D
Deleted member 174758
Make? Model? If it's a decent make spares should be available, DIY tools - much less likely. The heater element is the most suspect part
You presumably don't know how to prolong the life of your heater elements after running the gun hot - you don't just turn guns off after using them, instead you turn the gun down to the lowest setting (ideally blowing cold) and run the gun for 3 to 4 minutes to cool the element down gradually before switching the gun off. You see the trades users of heat guns doing this all the time on site. I believe the cost of the element on something like a Steinel industrial gun is well north of £100, so it makes sense to baby them. Not so sure it's as worthwhile on a £30 DIY gun
You presumably don't know how to prolong the life of your heater elements after running the gun hot - you don't just turn guns off after using them, instead you turn the gun down to the lowest setting (ideally blowing cold) and run the gun for 3 to 4 minutes to cool the element down gradually before switching the gun off. You see the trades users of heat guns doing this all the time on site. I believe the cost of the element on something like a Steinel industrial gun is well north of £100, so it makes sense to baby them. Not so sure it's as worthwhile on a £30 DIY gun
It's a very old black and decker KX2000K 2000W type 2. By today's standard, it's probably a luxury model worth £500 because it has (I believe) an analogue heat dial. The cheap guns I see now only has 3 heat settings.
I have measured the resistance across the switch and it's fine ON or OFF.
I have measured the resistance across the switch and it's fine ON or OFF.
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D
Deleted member 174758
If the heater element and fan work if you wire them directly, then it'll be that fancy analogue heat controller which will be to blame, unless you have a broken contact somewhere. I was just chatting to one on our neighbours who lays industrial vinyl flooring for a living. He told me his Leister gun was about £500 new and that the elements are £120 a pop, so not as bad as I thought. His main gun is about 10 years old, but that spares are no problem. You will possibly struggle with your B&D
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The continuity of the element looks OK. Nothing broken and no burnt marks anywhere. Green indicates the path from the switch to the element. X marks a shielded object that does not have continuity across it. Any idea what that object is and is it supposed to have continuity?
OK, got the gun back in action. I cut out the fuse and bridged the gap using a 13A wire. This allows me to use the gun while I get the fuse replacement. Thermal protection is on manual. So, the gun is not kaput after all.
I have one of the digital display Steinels, and yes, the instructions say to run it at 80 degrees (the lowest setting) before turning it off. It is a lovely heat gun, it even has a red (battery powered) LED which flashes until the gun is sufficiently cool to touch. My model is a lot cheaper than the Leisters but I don't use it for plastic welding joins, but could if I had the correct attachments.
The old fuse was fairly loosely clamped on by rivet on one side. This side could be replicated using a slight force. If this fails, I can simply unwind the wire going to the element from the rivet and crimp the new fuse onto that. The other side was crimped on by a mini ring crimp attached to a rivet. Since I left a large part of the old fuse wire in place, I can splice crimp the new fuse onto the old wire. I believe the exposed old wire was intended as a temperature conductor.
I don't have any splice crimps and I don't really want to buy some. I am thinking of cutting off the crimping part of spade connectors I have and crimp using those. Before anyone think this is a dumb idea, have you tried undoing one of these crimps?
At this moment I have not yet decided on what to do. I can:
1. Live without a thermal fuse
2. Replace the fuse through crimping
3. Replace the fuse with a china thermal switch
1 appears do-able. So, I am leaning towards that.
2 - although do-able, the new fuse will not achieve the original thermal performance because the heat conducting wire will have a break in it even if it's crimped.
3 - same limitations as 2, but with greater modification to the original thermal protection characteristics. A correctly rated switch would look similar to the following (not with the correct ratings):
No monkey see, monkey do please! All 3 options are for nut jobs only. Could be bye bye thread after this. But I think it has some educational value.
My analysis of the thermal fuse suggests the following:
A) Shielded from the heating element, placed outside the element coils, oriented towards the fan meant it was intended to measure input air. This would be done to prevent heating of incoming hot air that would cause a thermal run away. Without a fuse, thermal runaway would happen if the gun is switched on unattended in an enclosed space. Although, there is additional thermal cut out in the gun that might prevent this.
B) Shielded from the heating element to reduce chance of residual heat blowing the fuse after gun off. From actual experience, this works in average conditions but fails on a hot day.
I don't have any splice crimps and I don't really want to buy some. I am thinking of cutting off the crimping part of spade connectors I have and crimp using those. Before anyone think this is a dumb idea, have you tried undoing one of these crimps?
At this moment I have not yet decided on what to do. I can:
1. Live without a thermal fuse
2. Replace the fuse through crimping
3. Replace the fuse with a china thermal switch
1 appears do-able. So, I am leaning towards that.
2 - although do-able, the new fuse will not achieve the original thermal performance because the heat conducting wire will have a break in it even if it's crimped.
3 - same limitations as 2, but with greater modification to the original thermal protection characteristics. A correctly rated switch would look similar to the following (not with the correct ratings):
No monkey see, monkey do please! All 3 options are for nut jobs only. Could be bye bye thread after this. But I think it has some educational value.
My analysis of the thermal fuse suggests the following:
A) Shielded from the heating element, placed outside the element coils, oriented towards the fan meant it was intended to measure input air. This would be done to prevent heating of incoming hot air that would cause a thermal run away. Without a fuse, thermal runaway would happen if the gun is switched on unattended in an enclosed space. Although, there is additional thermal cut out in the gun that might prevent this.
B) Shielded from the heating element to reduce chance of residual heat blowing the fuse after gun off. From actual experience, this works in average conditions but fails on a hot day.
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