Heavy Duty Heat Gun

[BudRow]

I have on occasions used my Home Depot heat gun to preheat my molds. Works good and saves time. Anyone else?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have a older Black-n-Decker Heatgun, while I don't use it for pre-heating molds, I do use it to preheat boolits when tumble lubing...and I have used it to pre-heat a lubesizer when I use to use a lube requiring a heater.

[comprschrg]

I tried it once about ten years ago. I hadn't used it in a while, and when it started spitting sparks out, and the idea that the last time I used it was to peel paint. I decided not to use it any more. But I was doing my casting in my wood shop at the time.

[rancher1913]

it works but be careful that you do not concentrate all the heat in one spot or you might warp the mold.

[Ickisrulz]

I use my heat gun to clean wax lube out of dies and cookie cutters. I also use it to help remelt lube when pan lubing. I have never preheated molds with it. I just set the mold on a hot plate.

[reddog81]

Good Idea. I might try hitting the sprue plate for a minute before I start casting. I use a hot plate which does a good job of warming the mold up but it's still hard to cut the sprues until you get a couple of minutes in.

[David2011]

That Black and Decker is a beast. It puts out an amazing amount of hot air; far more than those intended for covering model airplanes.

[lightman]

I never thought about using a heat gun in my casting operation. I can see using one to heat the top of the pot and speed up the melt. I would be a little skittish turning one on one of my molds.