After becoming disillusioned with my broken down sealing tools, I sat and watched youtube videos on hot air welding guns and then went and bought
this one from ebay.
I’ve only had it a couple of days and only played briefly with it, but I’m very impressed. It comes with various bits including a 20mm flat nozzle and a silicone roller, is nicely balanced in the hand and should be very easy to use with a little more practice. Bonded joints are strong and uniform, and very quickly made. It’s very practical to tape two pieces of fabric together with gaffer tape the full length of the joint and then weld the seam tape on the tpu side (as for the boat tubes) – the gaffer tape is barely even warm when ripped off. This should make it a doddle to line things up properly. Works just as well on that 30D/100gsm white fabric from Seattle Fabrics as on Matt’s 210D/280gsm fabric.
In summary, this is the bee’s knees. A very valuable addition to the toolbox, and it gives me huge confidence that the finished boats will be strong and survive anything we might do in them.