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Discovered that a cheap hair dryer works better than a heat gun for shrinking PVC tubing
I was trying to fix a cracked rain barrel spigot connection and needed to shrink some PVC tubing to fit, but my heat gun was too strong and kept melting the edges. Grabbed my wife's old hair dryer on low setting and it shrank the tubing perfectly without any damage. Has anyone else found a surprising household tool that worked better for a specific repair?
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wesley_hart4mo ago
Funny how a gentler tool often wins, same with using a butter knife to open paint cans instead of a screwdriver.
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laurabennett4mo ago
Right? The butter knife trick is brilliant. I've done that myself and it works way better than mangling the lid with a screwdriver.
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wren8064mo ago
Build on what @wesley_hart said about gentler tools winning, because that idea goes way deeper than just not melting stuff. It's like how you can use a rubber mallet to tap something into place instead of a regular hammer that dents everything. The hair dryer trick is a perfect example of matching the tool to the material's limits instead of just grabbing the biggest heat source. A heat gun blasts full power like a sledgehammer, but the hair dryer lets you control the heat slowly and evenly. You really gotta think about what the material can handle first, not just what gets the job done fastest. Have you tried using a candle or a lighter on low heat for any small shrinking jobs?
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