Puppet Kaos - where Kelvin Kao plays with puppets and tell random stories

Before I post the tutorial on how to build Bottle Monster, here’s a few tips about glue gun usage, since hot glue is what’s used a lot for these kind of projects.

1. Get a low-temp gun: Hot glue guns come in three varieties: high temperature, low temperature, and dual temperature. High temp guns heat up to 380º F (195º C), and low temp guns heat up to about 250º F (120º C). Now, the low temp gun is more suitable for building puppets, because you’ll most likely be using it on fabrics, paper, or maybe plastic and foam. The high temp guns (and glue) get so hot that they might actual demage the materials you are using. Besides, low temp guns will hurt you less when you accidentally burn yourself. When you are using a dual temp gun, choose the low temp setting.

2. Have cold water nearby: Some might suggest having a bowl or cup of cold water nearby, so when you accidentally got glue on your hands, you can quickly dip your fingers in water to cool it down.

3. If you get glue on your finger, rub it against your thumb: Well, I haven’t seen anyone giving this tip, so it’s totally from my own experience. When you got glue on your finger, your first instinct might not be burning your thumb as well. However, if you rub your finger and thumb together with the glue in between, it will quickly harden. And guess what, it cools down in that process. And you can peel the glue off easily so it stops burning you. I actually found this trick to be more useful than water because it’s faster and you don’t get water all over.

4. Don’t ever touch the nozzle while it’s hot: I learned this the hard way when I burned my thumb on the hot glue gun nozzle. It was actually a careless mistake but it hurt.

5. If you burned yourself, take care of it: This should be pretty standard for any kind of burn: run it under cold water and keep it in cold water for a lil bit. Usually, the glue will not burn much if you use a low temp gun. It’s like getting a piece of food on you when you are cooking. It might hurt for a half second but then it’d be gone. Now, accidentally touching the nozzle would be like accidentally touching the pan/pot when you are cooking… it hurts more. But either way, glue guns aren’t likely to cause any severe damage that would not heal itself given some time.

Anyway, just be careful. And even if you burned yourself, it’s not likely to burn you too bad but it’s still an ouchies experience nevertheless. (What? You mean… “ouchies” is not a word?)

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