http://lmgtfy.com/?q=uses+for+a+heat+gun

  Please take that with a grain of something good. Just had it done to me recently and thought it was hilarious!

  Seriously, a couple of related applications are drying stain touch ups, nooks/crannies after wet sanding and heating wood before applying epoxy (to improve penetration.)

  Re. the low cost heater I certainly wouldn't leave it plugged in and unattended or expect it to last very long. That said..why not?

I haven't used the heat gun on my small boats for anything except removing the wires . . . but by far my largest use has been stripping varnish.  I've stripped all the exterior varnish off of TWO cruising boats with a heat gun before starting over with new varnish.  Way easier than chem. removers or all that sanding (although you still need to sand afterwords).

HTH!

Dan

Thanks for the info.  I also work on furniture so the varnish removal will be great.

Anyone use it to make wood more pliable for tough bends?

Thanks again,

RichMPL

I have a cheap heat gun that I bought for my first build, a Great Auk. I used it for bending strips quite a bit, and have since found many more uses for it, including stripping old epoxy and varnish from the tiller on my sailboat. They're handy, and also inexpensive, since its really just a glorified hair dryer.