Hot glue table repair

[Chip]

Woo-hoo. Saturday night, baby! Having a hot time in the shop with some hot glue. Yessirree. Life is good.

So, I decided to repair the roll table that got chewed up by the porcupine in Pennsylvania. I started off with the hot glue gun, my thought being to get behind and tack down the loose vinyl material before moving on to the next phase of the repair, about which I was undecided. I got a little exuberant with the glue gun and just slathered it on all the damaged areas. I used a heat gun off to the side to heat up a putty knife, and used the knife to aid in the slathering.



So, I'm calling the table ready to go, but now I've got to thinking about hot glue.

I'm pretty sure it is water proof. It doesn't seem to be terribly stiff when it cools, but seems to be holding onto everything the way I hoped.

So, what's the scoop on hot glue? Does it hold up?

 

[Guest]

There should be enough rough gnawed surface for the hot glue to adhere mechanically.

One thing I have found is that there can be a difference in hot glue sticks. I used different hot glue sticks to adhere the same things to the same surface. One stuck quite tenaciously and one simply fell off a day later.

I have no idea if the original packaging for those different glue sticks listed Sticks to XYZ, so ????

 

[Conk]

Mmmm, hot glue, a gourmet delicacy of the porcupine.

 

[PaddlingPika]

How hot does it need to get to start softening?

One of my brothers once had one of those very cheap dome tents with a plastic floor. The seam between the tent floor and wall needed some sealer and not having seam sealer handy my brother figured he'd try sealing it with hot glue since it was a cheap tent and he was in a hurry to get ready for an upcoming trip. He liberally applied hot glue to the seam. I shared the tent with his family on a family backpack, with my sleeping bag crowded against the wall. We went for a day hike on a sunny day and came back to find my sleeping bag glued to the tent. The heat from the sun had melted the seam-sealing glue.

Maybe high temp glue will be ok, but before packing your table in a dry bag and leaving it sitting in the sun on a hot day check that it won't end up glued to the bag!

 

[Chip]

Conk, that's funny, but I hope you are wrong!

Mike and Pika, I did a little reading and there are at least 20 kinds of glue stick. The melting temp varies, and some are for specialty applications, like glass. I used sticks by AdTech, which markets 2 sticks: hi-temp (380 degrees) and multi-temp (300 degrees). I used the latter. My guess is that is the temperature it becomes liquid and flows. At what temp does it becomes soft and sticky, and able to glue your sleeping bag? Good question, but I'm glad you mention it so I can beware.