Adam Savage's Favorite Tools: Best Hot Glue Gun!

Adam shares his choice of favorite hot glue gun for foamcore builds and prototyping! There are a lot of options out there for hot glue guns, and the ones Adam always goes back to heat up quickly and have stable stands that don't tip over. And just as important as the glue gun are the glue sticks--here's why Adam recommends low temp melt sticks.

Adam's Everyday Carry in his apron:

Shot by Adam Savage

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[christopherlatham]

I run a structural engineering research laboratory at UC San Diego. We use hot glue guns extensively to apply instrumentation. We teach all new students and staff that if they get hot glue on their skin that they should press it against a piece of steel. There's a lot of steel around a structural engineering lab. The coefficient of heat transfer is much higher for the steel than for one's flesh and so the heat gets sucked up by the steel.

[jensschmidt]

To quote my dad: „We‘re not rich enough for cheap tools.“ Quality costs money and is worth it. Better than buying or replacing a crappy tool ecery other month.

[Desasteroid]

"You could prototype the whole planet, if you had enough cardboard and glue sticks."
That one made me chuckle.
Thanks, Adam.

[chasevogt]

Anyone else get just as excited as he did when he said "don’t try this at home" can take the Adam out of the myth busters but, you can’t take the myth busters out of the Adam

[ropeguy]

I actually quite like the Ryobi battery operated hot glue gun and the battery acts as the weight for standing it up.

[the_wolfman]

i watched Mythbusters since i was 5, i am 13 now and i love your shows, you and grant were my favorite Mythbusters, I heard what happend to grant, I hope that your doing alright after hearing that. i hope you see this because you made me a science nerd and now i got a 7nth grade Science Award :D thx, your friend
-carter

[Cheechb]

2:28
*glues together some random pieces without even thinking*
*creates beautiful sailboat*

[jhouse]

The ryobi cordless hotglue gun is the best one I have ever found. It uses the same batteries as my other tools, and the battery in in the base keeps it standing upright. It is very light, heats up quickly, and there are no cords dragging through your work

[EpicProvider]

honestly i like my ryobi one, stands up straight, portable, heats up quickly. works great for me and i got it for $40. with a battery. that retails for double that.
also 3 year warranty i believe, but all my ryobi tools are l well used and living strong.

[wsoeltkakd]

Personally, my favorite glue gun is the one made by Ryobi, I love how it's portable and not tethered to the wall, and that it has a timeout function in case you forget to turn it off

[j.]

Adam! You've made my day by one word!
I'm Scottish and I've never neard any one from the US use the word "shite" and pronounce it correctly,
I know its sad but at 8.45am you've already made me grin from ear to ear!!
Thank you!

[zacreed]

The 18v Ryobi glue gun is the makers best friend! I never knew how many things I would need to hot glue as soon as it was cord free! I've used it as a third hand to hold siding for a repair, I've made custom screens for my car windows for camping, I've even used it to plug a hole in my outdoor cooler. The thing is super cheap, incredibly hot, heats up in about 60-90 seconds and stands up on the battery. 100% my favorite cordless tool.

[Zveebo]

The fact that Adam uses uses the word “shite”, and moreover uses it correctly and in the right context (something I rarely see from our US friends) just makes me admire him even more 🤩

[crystal-annemerson]

when I know i'm using hot glue for an extended amount of time i tend to have a little water cup near me and dip my fingers in when i get glue on them. I used to put them in my mouth after getting glue on them and then realized a small but of water works just as well.

[jhonbus]

When you said the fastenmaster was expensive I started wondering "Jeez, how expensive can a hot glue gun get?" but I was pleasantly surprised to find you're using regular-person scale of what is expensive. Like, $100 is expensive for a hot glue gun but you could definitely justify it if it's good and you use it a lot. I thought it was gonna be like $1200 or something. I used a $5 mini glue gun for literally decades, and it got a lot of use. My friend who bought the same one from the same place went through about 10 in the time that one lasted me. I guess some of them just turn out super robust by accident. The little flippy stand did fall off mine though, so I screwed a hook into the top of it and hooked it to the underside of my bench. Maybe that's the key.

[davidp]

Adam always looks like he's having fun when he's making the videos.

[shanemarsh]

I was actually incredibly pleased with the glue gun that Adam sent out in a quarterly maker box, the dual temp Surebonder. I have used it all through my theatre degree to present

[coreysimm]

I use the Surebonder PRO2-220. It's not cheap but it has the same stand and trigger as yours but has variable heat which I've come to love.

[DTeK]

4:58 i have an "Ellix 539 530" hot glue gun that i bought 10/15 years ago and its working fine, i use it all the time, try to search it online but there is no info about it, must be super cheap back in the day but its strong and does the job.

[StrivingInStride]

I recently purchased the Arrow GT300. I feel it is a reasonable entry level hot glue gun. It comes with removable stand and an adjustable squeeze lever which doubles as a means to portion out the hot glue. They've included an extra neat feature. They call them "wing stands." As we all know conditions are not always ideal and a glue gun can get tipped over. These wing stands keep the tip of your gun facing down preventing molten glue from backwashing into the gun leading to premature failure.