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Super Glue Gun Progress

makerkaren

This week we're back to working on the Super Glue Gun. We've reviewed many of the comments and suggestions posted here on the Community and are factoring them into our design.

The first thing we are addressing is the motor location. Ben originally had the motor positioned so that it was sticking out the side of the gun, making the gun unevenly weighted. I suggested that we move the motor into the handle with the gear facing upwards to make the design more compact. While this solved some bulk and balance problems, it created new issues of the motor interfering with the auto stand and the trigger. Our new idea solution is in the photo below.

image

The proposed modifications here would also help another issue brought up by a community member, . We had the motor set farther back near the handle. However, this would make it so that there would be a significant time where the glue stick that was actively being melted would be past the point where it would be engaged by the motor gear, making the anti-drip function useless. By shortening the feed tube on the hot end and moving the gear as close to the hot end as possible, that drastically reduces the amount that the active glue stick would not be engaged by the gear. Hopefully negligible enough to not be too much of a design flaw.

We also want the end of the nozzle to be long and narrow to reach into tight places. We're hoping that by adding on a nozzle as shown, rather than having the normal small cone at the end of the plastic casing, will be enough to achieve that design feature. The concern with this is, will the smaller hot end be powerful enough to melt the glue within the the nozzle from a cold start.

Other suggestions we received said to make the stand mechanical and spring loaded rather than electrically extended and retracted by a servo. Others say to eliminate the stand all together in favor of a holster or cradle, or simply going cordless, using a heavy battery at the base as a stand like a cordless drill.

 

At this point in the design process, we're looking at, "What makes our glue gun better than what is on the market?"  Can we keep enough features in the gun to warrant making an entirely new product? Moving forward, we turn to our community members for help.

 

What features would need to be in the Super Glue Gun to make you want to buy it?

 

Our key features are the auto extrusion and anti-drip. Are those features alone enough?

Does it need an electrical auto stand? Or is a spring loaded stand, or is no extending stand a better solution?

Should it be battery powered and cordless?

Should it have an LED indicating when the hot end is up to temperature?

Should it have an auto-shutoff timer so it can't be left on accidentally for too long?

Are there other features we haven't considered that if included would convince you to buy such a product?

Should it use 1/4" mini glue sticks or does it need to have a larger capacity?

 

Please share your ideas and opinions below!

  • Perhaps you might get some more responses if this was set up as a poll ?

     

    From what I've seen mentioned so far, I think that one issue may be that glue guns are used in a number of different ways so some features are going to appeal to some types of user more than others. For example a heavy bulky cordless glue gun with large glue sticks might appeal to someone who works a lot out in the field away from mains power and they may not be too worried about drips. However someone doing precise work might need a much lighter weight compact tool and they may not appreciate it dripping. Some may spend all day every day using it, whereas others may only use it on occasions, and as has already been mentioned some may even ideally require a hands-free version.

     

    If having an auto shut-off timer then it might be worth adding the option to allow it to be enabled/disabled by the user.

     

    An LED to indicate that the anti-drip system has been compromised due to the position of the end of the glue stick in relation to the drive gear might be of use to some people, however this may be difficult to detect if a second stick has been loaded to follow the first.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    I wasn't sure how to pair the options down to get the feedback I needed from a poll. Too many variables at this point.

    Your varied user scenario is definitely something we need to think about. There are a lot of use cases for a hot glue gun, so which features would apply to the most uses? Which users are we targeting? At this point, Ben is building the gun that HE would use since he knows what problems he has that need solving. I suppose figuring that out comes down to either just choosing features ourselves, or lots of market research.

  • in reply to dougw

    That's a use I hadn't thought of before, having the gun stationary or using a foot pedal. If you've ever noticed the flowers in my hair, I make them. There's a piece that gets glued on the back and then the hair clip and I use hot glue. When I was really cranking them out, having a mounted hot glue gun with a foot pedal trigger would have been very useful and made the process more efficient. And boy do I love efficiency. It also likely would have prevented the scar I have on the side of my knee from dripped glue. Great idea!

  • I've not used one in a very long time, but my main memory of it was the dripping image

    Maybe some LEDs to illuminate the end would be awesome - usually the end was chunky, so you couldn't sometimes see where it was being used, due to shadow.

    Also the shape of glue guns was awkward because of the need for the trigger mechanism, but if it is motorized, it needn't take that shape, perhaps a more cylindrical design held like a fat pen could be comfortable? (if it isn't hot!).

  • Honestly I don't think it needs a retractable stand at all. Even a fixed or removable stand would be fine. I have one with a removable stand, but I rarely bother to take it off, as it is rarely in the way. If the extended nozzle works, a fixed stand has even less of a chance of being in the way as well. As much as the retractable stand is a cool idea, I think it's more of a flashy gizmo than a necessary feature.

  • in reply to makerkaren

    This is starting to sound a lot like "The Work Song Nanocluster" episode from The Big Bang Theory tv show... (the one with the 'Penny Blossoms' ) image

     

    "The Big Bang Theory" The Work Song Nanocluster (TV Episode 2009) - IMDb

  • in reply to makerkaren

    To be honest I wasn't sure that a poll would get totally meaningful results either image but it might give an indication of the more popular features from this particular audience. I suspect more people will participate in a vote and get their 15points as opposed to having to put words together for 5points...  

     

    Personally I don't think there is any issue in taking it to market as "The Ben Heck glue gun" - plenty of people will be swayed to buy a product because a celebrity endorses it.

     

    If you don't plan to take it to market as "The Ben Heck glue gun" then that's perhaps where the polls may help to find out the features that majority of the participating audience are looking for and that are presumably missing from existing products so as you can come up with a new product with those features.

     

    However I get the feeling that in this case due to the variety of use cases, the polls would need to be in more of a matrix format to identify the specific combination of features rather than just the individual features. A bit more like the "DreamBoard" What is the DreamBoard?  project perhaps.

     

    I can see the attraction for some of having an auto stand, however I suspect that it is somewhat dependent upon the anti-drip feature. If you want to lay your glue gun down wherever you want, then you probably don't want it to drip wherever it wants. With that in mind then perhaps one needs to establish at this point whether or not the anti-drip feature can be made to work reliably or not.

     

    An alternative to the auto stand which I thought about the other day and could now perhaps tie in with Doug's  free-standing idea was to make the heel of the glue gun magnetic so as you could sit it down anywhere on a plate or tray to one side of the work area.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    All of my friends that watched that episode said it made them think of me and my flowers. So you're not far off.

  • in reply to heblmedic

    I've got a cheap glue gun that I bought from woolworths years ago, I don't use it too much but my main gripe is the cable, especially when its cold outside in the garage, the cable becomes stiff, gets in the way and causes it to fall over.    It would be good to have a battery powered one that heats up quickly and becomes ready for use as soon as possible, like the idea of having a ready to use light like my toasty maker or maybe a small audible noise that tells you it has reached working temp.  Likewise if battery powered needs to power off automatically and tell you when it needs charging, again possibly with some sort of led or audible indication.  Perhaps instead of having an auto stand the stand could be a cradle that could also charge it, a bit like the automatic toothbrushes.

  • in reply to mcb1

    Hi

     

    Man, this is an interesting project.

     

    Wireless charging has far more possibilities than the known smart phone charging capabilities.

     

    feel free to get in touch with me regarding any inductive solution. We have dedicated people to WPT and I´m certain we can find out, if it´s suitable for you or not.

     

    Thanks Mark for pointing this out to me. I´ll take my time to dig a little deeper on this project.

     

     

    Regards

     

    Simon