Caulk Guns
Apart from construction or renovation purposes, caulking is a must when sealing around shower or bath tubs, renewing old seal when it gets dry over time; sealing the gaps in siding or caulking around the windows and doors will help you improve energy efficiency. If you have a lot of caulking to do, a caulking gun is what you need. This gun-shaped tool will help you easily spread sealing and adhesive material or any other substance that comes in tubes or cartridges.
A caulking gun, also known as a cartridge gun, allows you to dispense a controlled amount of substance from tubes and cartridges without much effort and wrist strain. Apart from being capable of regulating how much caulk is applied, the tool also allows for additional precision. There are manual and pneumatic caulking guns. A standard manual caulking gun features a metal frame that holds the tube, a trigger and a plunger which advances as the trigger is squeezed and pushes the product out of the tube. Air-powered models utilize the same construction but have an air pressure regulator that substitutes a plunging rod.
The mechanism of a caulking gun is a plunger/rod fitted inside a removable tube or cartridge. Squeezing the trigger makes the plunger advance and push material out of the nozzle of the tube. The rod can be connected to the trigger either by friction or by a number of notches on one side of the plunger. The push rod design helps you easily dispense a smooth flow of product from 1/10 gallon tubes/cartridges, also allowing to empty the cartridges completely. Quickly releasing the trigger, you remove pressure and stop the material flow. Steel and die cast construction makes the caulking gun a long-lasting tool.
Before starting to use a caulking gun, first of all remove the tip of the caulk tube. The nozzle must not be too narrow otherwise the bead might be difficult to control. Many models feature a hole near the trigger designed to easily cut off the tube tip. The next step is puncturing the seal inside the tube to allow sealant flow. Then the hooked rod must be pulled all the way back to insert the tube into the frame of the caulking gun. This will be easy to cope with thanks to the tool’s convenient half-barrel body. Then holding the caulking gun at 45 degree angle and pulling the trigger you can start sealing.
