Turns out, a high-temp got glue gun heats to about 380 degF (193 degC) and PLA softens ~50C, melts at ~ 160C, extrudes and bonds well at 180C-190C.

Be interesting to try this with PLA and a sacrificial high-temp hot glue gun.

I would think just using hot glue as the building material might be good for little figures, coins, etc, as long as the "strings" and flow issues could be dealt with. The cube shown looks lumpy.

Subject: [New post] Tearing apart a hot glue gun for a 3D printer
From: "Hack a Day" <donotreply@wordpress.com>
Date: Tue, 5 June, 2012 10:01 am
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Post : Tearing apart a hot glue gun for a 3D printer
URL : http://hackaday.com/2012/06/05/tearing-apart-a-hot-glue-gun-for-a-3d-printer/
Posted : June 5, 2012 at 9:01 am
Author : Brian Benchoff
Tags : 3d printer, cnc, hot glue, reprap
Categories : cnc hacks

http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/hot-glue.jpg

If you're building a 3D printer, the most complicated part is the extruder. This part uses a series of gears to pull plastic filament off of a spool, heats it up, and squirts it out in a manner precise enough to build objects one layer at a time. [Chris] made his own extruder (http://www.instructables.com/id/Hot-Glue-Gun-Extruder-for-Your-CNC-Machine-or-3D-P/) out of a hot glue gun and made it so simple we're surprised we haven't seen this build before.

The basic operations of a plastic extruder - pushing a rod of plastic through a heated nozzle - already exists in a hot glue gun available for $3 at WalMart. To build his printer, [Chris] tor apart the hot glue gun and mounted the nozzle on a piece of plywood. The hot glue sticks are fed into the nozzle with the help of a 3D printed gear and a stepper motor driver.

After the break, you can see [Chris]'s hot glue gun RepRap printing a 10cm cube. It's not fast, but the quality is exceptional, especially considering he made it out of a hot glue gun.

Read more of this post (http://hackaday.com/2012/06/05/tearing-apart-a-hot-glue-gun-for-a-3d-printer/#more-76242)

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