Inside the Glue Gun

In retrospect, there was probably always something wrong with that pink glue gun, the one that burned so hot that when I accidentally squeezed hot glue directly onto the back of my hand almost exactly a year ago while helping the girls make Sydney's Trashion/Refashion Show wings, the liquefied glue immediately peeled the skin off and I STILL have those scars.

This past weekend, making the wire hanger hoop for THIS year's Trashion/Refashion Show, I kept plugging that pink hot glue gun into the outlet back in the study, and it kept blowing the fuse to that part of the house. Weird, but I have, like, a million things plugged in back there (computer, external hard drive, shop light, two sewing machines, etc.), so I moved all my work to the living room, set the glue gun down on the table, and plugged it into the outlet there.

That damn hot glue gun caught fire! Fortunately, I'd make a big enough production about moving my work that everyone in the family happened to be looking at me at the time, and so everybody got to see the gigantic blue flame shoot out of the little heat vents on both sides of the gun. Matt fetched an oven mitt and set the smoking piece of junk (see how I didn't say "smoking gun?" on account of I have too much pride?) outside on the concrete front porch to settle down.

I'm REALLY glad that I didn't happen to be holding it when I plugged it in, or, god forbid, one of the kids, because they use hot glue more than they use school glue. It was clearly a total fluke, so I don't even know what to do to prevent something like that. Buy a more expensive hot glue gun? Set stuff down before you plug it in?

After the hot glue gun had had time to get nice and cold from our sub-zero outdoor temperatures, Will brought it back in, found a screwdriver, and did what we always do with every appliance that breaks on us.

We LOVE to take junk apart!

The insides are a little blue because I tried that crayon trick once. Did not work:

Will reckons that the fire originated here. See how it's all charred?

Sooo...at least that was fun, right? And now I get to go hot glue gun shopping!