Review of Surebonder HE750 Glue Gun

[sleddriver]

This is truly an amazing glue gun. I've used it enough in many situations for an extended test and it far surpasses my old Arrow. And it can be obtained for a very reasonable $20 on Amazon.

It features a very comfortable grip & trigger, a long 80W heater, will extrude glue as fast as you can squeeze, heats glue to 400°F so it doesn't instantly get hard when it hits metal, doesn't drip, is ready to use in about 5min. and according to my neighbors (who owns the one I've been using), lasts longer than a few years.

Plus Surebonder makes their own quality glue sticks, which are available locally. I recently noticed Sears had the long ones for a very reasonable price.

Recently I've hot-glued pottery back together, mended several sneakers that were delaminating, stuck Christmas lights down on a stone wall when it was 45°F outside, held replacement pile weatherstripping in place on an aluminum window, tacked pieces of insulation together in the attic, held weatherstripping in place on the car, and hot-glued a piece of shower-pan-liner used as a sound barrier on my wagon's tailgate (see my post).

Can't wait to start tacking jigs together for woodworking.

Not only is hot glue waterproof, it also holds fast in situations were vibration and heat are encountered...such as in cars. You don't have to worry about this adhesive getting gooey on a hot day.

It's great to use a tool, which actually does what it claims, without getting in the way of your task, and helps you get finished faster. Particularly after you've had the unfortunate & frustrating experience of using a poor one.

 

[dave180]

Thanks for the review. I have been kind of frustrated with my Black & Decker gun in the past. I have a Surebonder framing nailer that I thought would be a throwaway after the one project. Seems they make pretty good tools and its still working well.

 

[sleddriver]

You're welcome! I'd never heard of them before seeing my neighbors. I tried sticking up Christmas lights as he had with my old Arrow. Wasn't even close. The problem wasn't the glue sticks; It was the gun.

Surebonder (www.surebonder.com) makes some very expensive guns for industrial use. You can get a 100W'er for about $5 more on Amazon, but the trigger is different and there's a power switch near the handle bottom that some said was easy to accidently turn-off. So I stuck with what I borrowed.

 

[sleddriver]

Update:

The glue gun has really been getting a workout this year with the Christmas lights. I've fixed numerous things over the year with it: shoe soles, holding window weather stripping in place, cheap "reader" glasses where the cheap frame cracked and the lens fell out, holding the thick shower pan liner in place on the sled's tailgate.

The handle design makes it very comfortable to use and it will really crank out the glue when necessary. I continue to find new uses for it. Best $20 I ever spent!

 

[sleddriver]

Update II:
Sears still carries the long genuine Surebonder-brand glue sticks in store for about $5/dozen or so + they're made in the USA. I've also recently discovered HD carries Stanley's long sticks in the store for ~$7/dozen. Furthermore, you can order different "blends" of SB hot glue (fast set, woodworking, very high strength) from HD on-line and they'll ship to store or your home for no charge. A 5# box contains about 90 sticks.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Update II:
Sears still carries the long genuine Surebonder-brand glue sticks in store for about $5/dozen or so + they're made in the USA. I've also recently discovered HD carries Stanley's long sticks in the store for ~$7/dozen. Furthermore, you can order different "blends" of SB hot glue (fast set, woodworking, very high strength) from HD on-line and they'll ship to store or your home for no charge. A 5# box contains about 90 sticks.

Oops..made a mistake here..the package I bought yesterday at Sears didn't contain 12 sticks, but 20! They were about $7. This is a much better deal than at HD.

 

[kkreit01]

Reviving an old thread.... Thanks for the review on this. Because of this review, I bought the Pro-80 version + 5 lb box of Surebonder sticks from HD(.com). I plan to use it for gluing my 64 new iron balusters to my wood stair railings. The manufacturer says to use epoxy, but many successfully use hot glue. Had I not seen this review, I probably would have used my wife's cheap hobby gun, and stringy glue -- and ended in a failed mess.

 

[sleddriver]

That's an interesting application! Iron balusters? Wow. That is quite a good heat-sink. I'm interested to hear how you like the Pro-80. Beware that even SB's sticks are stringy. I seem to recall they mention something about this on their site; that to eliminate this would affect other qualities in their formulation that are more important.

Good luck and report back!

I recently found another application for hot glue. I re-hung a 25' section of aluminum gutter on a fascia cut 90° to the roof instead of a plumb-cut. Since the roof is a 5/12 pitch, this leaves a gap of about 22.5° between most of the backside of the gutter and the fascia board.

So I cut a bunch of wedges, hung the gutter with long screws instead of those fat, dull, aluminum spikes and hot-glued a wedge every few feet in the gap. It's much better supported this way.

 

[kkreit01]

^ Thanks. It will be awhile before I complete the project. They are all cut, and loosely installed. I plan to remove them all, and apply a gel stain & poly on the railings first, and then put it all back together. I saw a DIY dude (or two) used hot glue. This seems much easier, and less messy than expoy. It's also much less permanent in case you ever need to replace one. 5 lbs of glue may be overkill, but they came to ~20-some cents each vs. 60-70 cents each when you buy them in small packages.

 

[kkreit01]

I'm back to updating this thread again. I finally got around to completing this project (of many). The Pro-80 + SB glue worked excellent. It wasn't terribly stringy. Here are a few before, during, and after pics. We got rid of all the 90's orange oak, or are in the process of it. I used 3 coats of General Finishes Gel Stain + 2 coats of GF Wipe-On Poly on the railings. I plan to do the same with all our kitchen cupboards and bathroom vanities. Other trim has already been painted, and all doors replaced.

Oh, I used 3.5 of 93 glue sticks for this complete project. Yes, I over-bought here! Also, WD-40 does take wood stain out of carpet.

Our carpet is still the original 20 yr-old builder's carpet. Thus, I wasn't too worried about paint, stain, or hot glue on it.

BEFORE -- Look at the lovely orange oak. Before this Feb, it was everywhere!

DURING:

AFTER:

 

[sleddriver]

Nice work! I concur on the dislike of "orange oak". Even "yellow" oak. The dark finish really adds contrast in your setting and sets it apart. Sounds like you now have a lifetime supply of glue sticks!

 

[kkreit01]

Thanks.

Yes -- I have glue up the wazoo. I had to order $45 from HD, in order to get free shipping. They had a package deal with the gun + 5 lbs of glue. I had no idea how much I would need. I knew I used a lot of the smaller sticks when helping my daughter with a small school project. The glue should last forever as long as I keep it in a cool, dry place(?).

 

[sleddriver]

When Christmas comes around, you can stick lights everywhere!