Heat guns are versatile tools used for everything from heat-shrink tubing for wiring to paint stripping. In fact the heat gun has been the go-to paint stripper for many until recently. Two big issues exist when it comes to paint stripping: 1) heat guns potentially vaporize the lead in lead paint (and you shouldn’t be dry-stripping lead paint anyway), and, 2) you might burn your house down. I’ve heard anecdotal stories about heat guns igniting an ember in a wall where paint stripping was underway and, so legend has it, the house eventually burned down. Curious about heat guns’ incendiary qualities, I decided to channel my inner Beavis and see if I could get some stuff to catch on fire using only the PC1500HG heat gun sent to us by Porter Cable. I of course observed all the safety precautions of an untrained but cautious professional, but please, don’t try this at home (or at your friend Butthead’s house).
My first task was to target a HomeFixated business card with the PC1500HG. I assumed after a minute or two of point-blank heating the card would spontaneously burst into flames. Much to my dismay, five minutes of patient aim at the highest heat and fan settings and the card was seriously scorched, but still intact. Halfway through the experiment, the card appeared to read “Ho-Fixated.” Not wanting people to get the wrong idea, I kept up the heat until the card was charred to be more socially acceptable.
I guess the moral of this story is don’t count on the Porter Cable PC1500HG to start a fire for you in a survival situation. So, does all this lack of flames mean this or other heat guns can’t potentially catch stuff on fire? Let me and my uncomfortable team of lawyers say, “definitely not.” You should still treat this and any heat gun with the utmost of caution. Legal disclaimers aside, I was reassured that the PC1500HG wasn’t going to start combusting things instantly wherever I aimed it. In most heat gun applications, you’re looking to warm not burn anyway.
Fan setting one, Airflow is 10-11 CFM and 120-900 degrees
Fan setting two, Airflow is 16-19 CFM and 130-1150 degrees
Despite the high temp at and around the tip, Porter Cable did a good job of insulating the body of the gun. When the metal around the tip was over 400 degrees, I could still touch the body of the gun and it was barely warm.
So if you prefer to heat your targets and not completely burn them, then the PC1500HG might be just what you need. You can find the Porter-Cable PC1500HGA Heat Gun with Accessories
There is a lot to learn from both of those TV shows 🙂
If you are going to be using this anywhere other than your own home and have to comply with the RRP Lead Safe Work Practices then you will need to ensure that that your heat gun used for paint stripping doesn’t exceed 1100 deg. F.
Since you asked, I’m gonna have to go with Les. As Fong mentioned he’s all on his own, has to carry his cameras and do stuff twice. Plus he gives you useful information that you can put to use in a real survival situation (assuming you remember what he said). Bear Grils is entertainment. He does stuff he can do because of his physique & training. If you or I tried it we’d kill ourselves.
As for the heat guns that’s good stuff to know. We did a lot of heat stripping when we repainted our house, especially of things like the corbels and trim. Setting the house on fire was always a concern of ours, good to know it’s less likely than we thought.
I like the Bosch heat gun with discrete heat settings so I dial it in easier at specific tasks. Then again, at $45 for this, you could buy almost 3 of them for the price of the Bosch so you could just dedicate each gun to a specific task.
Survivorman Les is crazy that he has to lug around all the equipment with him and essentially do everything twice if he’s filming himself walking away, climbing away or doing anything where he’s leaving the camera. The isolation has got to also be brutal when he’s alone and miserable from heat, cold, hunger, dehydration or sleep deprivation. Bear puts himself in more immediate danger for our entertainment but has a camera crew back him up and even has help building shelters. For the help, he suffers near hypothermia, drinks liquid squeezed from elephant dung and his own piss. There’s no debate here. They’re both crazy…and awesome.