Rapid LITHION BGX300 – A Cordless Glue Gun When The Going Gets Sticky
I am a great fan of glue guns for certain types of jobs around the house and in the workshop. They are great for temporary tacking jobs in woodturning, for example, and also for more permanent fixing tasks where waiting for an adhesive to dry just won’t do. It is also not an accident that the glue gun I tend to use most is a corded Rapid model that I tested about ten years ago. It has certainly served me well and continues to do so, producing very hot glue streams on target, with a very controllable trigger action. For me it just shows that spending time on design and development on a product usually produces a superior tool that people prefer using. So, I reckoned, if the newly released cordless BGX300 could do the same as
the corded model has done for me, then it would a worthy product and a great credit to the design team at Rapid. Packaging and appearance is a big deal these days, and the Rapid does not disappoint because it comes in a neatly designed and made custom blow-moulded case. All the components, the gun itself, including two batteries, charger and six sticks of adhesive are all secured in their spaces and
Independent Review by Peter Brett
switching off when not needed. Rapid has been careful to supply Lithium Ion battery packs with the BGX300 and these have considerable advantages over old battery technologies like NiCads. They tend not to self-discharge, have no memory effect and are much lighter and more compact. And another thing, they are far easier to dispose of than the highly poisonous NiCads of yesteryear. Using a glue gun is not the most technical of challenges, which is why they can be used in schools and colleges where safety and ease of use are prime concerns. This little Rapid gun would be perfect in the home, the workshop or in a school or college. From cold, the gun takes roughly four minutes to heat up to the point where
the glue can be squeezed out at the right consistency. This is very comparable with a corded glue gun, and although the glue temperature doesn’t seem to be as high, the glue is viscous enough to flow easily and remain hot enough to reposition the glued parts for up to ten seconds if needed. The wire stand is compact enough not to get in the way of gluing actions and it folds away in an instant, but the gun balances quite stably on the base of the battery pack and the stand. There are
will not move around in transit. The case is important here because, unlike a corded glue gun, there are a few more parts to go missing. Having a case means that all the parts are more likely to stay together. The case is compact and slim so it won’t take up a lot of space on a shelf in the workshop or in the back of a van. The BGX300 has the familiar Rapid grey coloured plastic body with the trigger, nozzle, on/off switch and glue stick advance mechanism picked out in a lime green contrasting plastic. The generously sized handle has a grippy rubberized overmould and there is a wire foldable stand under the nozzle. I was struck by just how light this glue gun is, even with the battery attached, and it has a nice balanced feel to it – the battery pack seems to balance the weight of the heating element in the nose of the gun. The overall effect of the design is slick and modern looking without being gimmicky or impractical in any way. In order to get things on the road I had to charge up a battery, and this entailed joining the continental two-pin plug to the British-style adaptor provided in the kit. This proved to be the work of a minute or so as long as you are careful to ensure that the two-pin plug lies in the right place in the adaptor. Then it is just a simple matter of plugging into the mains and plugging the jack of the charger into the side of the battery. The 8.4 volt battery pack takes a fairly lengthy four hours to charge completely, so it is quite a bonus to have two batteries as part of the kit. Once charged, the battery lasts for at least an hour of gluing activity, and probably more, if you are careful about conserving power by
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various solutions to the problem of delivering hot glue at the right place and in the right quantity at a controlled pace. The nozzle of the Rapid is to me a neat design solution. It has a sharp-nosed nozzle that is about 20mm or so long. This fits into most places where glue needs to be delivered. The nozzle is also covered with a lime green rubberized material that protects the user from potential burn hazard as well as being very easy to clean of the inevitable strands and blobs of glue that will accumulate around it. Easy and controlled delivery of the melted glue is taken care of by the easy
trigger action and glue feed mechanism. The trigger is big enough to accommodate two fingers and this helps to avoid fatigue as well as providing a more controlled finger action. I found that the melt rate of the glue was so efficient that I could use a six-inch glue stick in a matter of two minutes or so. Again, this is fairly comparable with a corded tool. There is no doubt in my mind that the Rapid BGX300 will fit easily into my way of working – it is definitely not gimmicky or a DIY only tool to be relegated to the kitchen drawer and dusty oblivion because it can’t keep up. It is a genuinely useful and practical tool that has been carefully designed for regular use. It retails at around £50, which is more than many corded equivalents, but its flexibility and portability might be just the thing for many gluing issues on site and in the home.
Reply No. 216
www.toolbusiness.co.uk
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