First day of deconstruction

On the first day of deconstruction, I got to use the Makita HG1100 some. I was impressed with how quiet it was. It's not nearly as loud as a hair dryer, yet pushes a whole lot more heat. The weight was just right. I had already stated some of my physical observations on this model before I took it home, but now I got to actually use it on a job that it's intended for.

Even though the cord was in the way at times, I don't think I'd nominate it for a V28 cordless model for most jobs. The benefits of lightweight outweigh the coolness of cordless for this application. Even so, I'm sure that there are times where lack of cord would make for a better heating experience, so I may still have to suggest that to our rep as a future tool. It's not going to be a huge seller as a cordless.

Removed tile easily
Yes, we had pink tile in our bathroom on the walls. That was a factor when deciding to remodel, but there was also the fact that the tile in the shower was cracked and was leaking enough to cause some of the wood around the tub to rot. But that doesn't mean we want to replace everything. It's much easier to take tile off in smaller areas than replace the drywall.

By using the HG1100 on a setting of 4 (scale of 1 - 5) the adhesive quickly softened and we could peel off the tiles fairly cleanly by prying with a screwdriver, although a chisel or some other wide scraper would have probably been preferred. We just don't sell those yet, so I had to settle for a screwdriver (we'll be adding more hand tools to our inventory after we get moved into our new building.) It'll just take some solvent to remove the glue and we're in business on those walls without a lot of extra sanding. That'll make me happy.

Large areas were easier with a hammer
Since the removal of the glue is rather time consuming, large areas of tile were easiest removed with a hammer. Not only does this save some time, but it's also fun taking my frustrations out on this stupid pink tile. Ahhh... I should have done this ages ago. I used my Makita cordless circular saw to cut a nice straight line (I put the guide along the top of the tile) and we pulled a couple of walls down.

Next up: Flooring
Well, we peeled all the tile I think we'll be peeling for a while. Now that many of the walls are cleared out, we'll be removing the linoleum from the floor, which is one more use for the heat gun. We tried a little of the linoleum and it seems to be coming up pretty easily with a little heat, but I'll let you know for sure when we get it all out of there. Until then, I'll keep enjoying all the tools I'm getting to use for once instead of just creating a website about.

Makita Heat Gun HG1100 - A closer look

I gave a general overview of some of the nifty things that the Makita HG1100 can be used for back in December, but now that I'm getting ready to use one there are a few nice things that I'm seeing here that I thought could use commented on. There's more engineering to these than just making a heavy duty hair dryer as I've heard referenced at times.

Cyclonic Action
You won't see this listed anywhere in the owners manual, but the air outlet has fins to make the output have a swirling effect. I'm sure it has some use that I don't know about, but I just really wanted to say cyclonic. I could imagine that it creates a much tighter air pattern, directing the heat more where you're pointing it and less to the sides. Maybe I'll have to fire off an email here shortly to find out for sure.

Swiss Made
One of the first things that caught my eye on the product ID tag were the words "SWISS MADE for Makita U.S.A." This one isn't Korean or Japaneese - but I can't say that they're all that way. This one has a 2004 date on the side, so that may have changed since then, but I thought it was interesting that it was built by a country normally associated with precision and accuracy and not the home country (well, either one - Japan or the US) of Makita.

Large Adjustment Dial
Simply saying "Variable temperature control 250 - 1,100 degrees F to get the correct temperature for the job" doesn't relate to you just how huge the dial for the temperature is. Granted, you can't dial up 750 and press go, but there is a lot of room to move the adjustment if you need a little more or a little less heat.

Very Lightweight
Again, their literature just says the basics of the concept. "Compact and lightweight for easy handling" doesn't relate that at 1.3 lbs, the cord weighs almost as much as the tool itself. I wasn't sure if that 1.3 was just the tool or if it was with the cord as well, but a scale confirmed that it was 1-1/4 lbs (that's all the more accurate this particular scale could do) with both the tool and the cord. Not bad at all.

Decent Balance
I won't say it's the best balance I've ever felt. Their LXT line has a much better balance in my opinion. But with the weight being just over a pound and the cord offsetting much of the tool's weight, the balance isn't bad at all. I guess I should also keep in mind that this was designed quite a while back, before ergonomics were as much of a science in the tool industry as they are now.

Eagerly Awaiting Tonight
Yeah... I don't have to wait long to use this. I get to start removing tile from our bathroom wall and the linoleum from the floor tonight. It's well out of my normal evening routine, so it sounds like fun. I guess I'll know tomorrow just how much fun it was. If I quit posting here, someone check the hospital.

Heat Guns

For some unknown reason, David and I both use the Makita HG1100 as our benchmark and our common search item for testing. If it doesn't come up when we search on our site, the index and search algorithm isn't any good - back to the drawing board.

But why is it the tool of choice for us geeks?

Well, it's just incredibly useful and fairly inexpensive. Heat guns can be used in projects such as replacing glass in a window, shrink wrapping DVD's and CD's, stripping paint, thawing frozen pipes, loosening tile, remelting adhesives and perfectly applying heat-shrink tubing. Besides, we always seem to have a lot in stock, so we like seeing the "Currently ## in stock". It was popular this holiday season, so we're out right now. However, we can still drop ship them with only a 1 - 2 day delay over us shipping them from our warehouse.

I remember as a kid having to scrape the chipping paint off of the side of the house. Then my parents got a heat gun and it was suddenly fun to scrape paint. The way it would bubble up and then just seemingly melt off in long strips with my scraper, all the way down to the bare wood, was really fun compared to just scraping. The real trick was going just slow enough it would start to bubble, yet quick enough that it didn't start to burn. That's a delicate balance to maintain, but it didn't take long to get it perfected. Luckily we have steel siding on our house, so I won't have to do much scraping for a long, long time.

Matt used a heat gun as a manager at a video store for selling the used movies. I hadn't ever really thought about how they did that, but once he said a heat gun it was much clearer to me. The clear plastic just needs a little heat and it clings and shrinks to the object it's been wrapped around. Returned music and videos at some stores get that same treatment for reselling.

I'm going to be remodeling our bathroom here soon, so I'm thinking I'll pick one up so I can soften up the adhesive that was used on the wall tile. A few are loose already, so that'll be my starting point. It should go rather quickly with the heat gun. On top of that, with all the other cool uses I'm sure it'll get used more than just this one project, so I shouldn't get too much grief from my wife for buying it. Anything under $100 isn't all that bad for a professional grade power tool if you ask me.

I'll post some pictures of how the project goes when I get some tile peeling off. Until then, you can learn about the rest of our heat guns. There are 10 to check out, so if we're out of one we should have another. I just like the Makita because it can do a cool 250 degrees and up to 1100 degrees for a reasonable price. For almost twice as much, some go as low as 90 degrees, but I'd find that much harder to justify for just a few around-the-house type projects.

Happy heating!