heat gun

[Yahman]

I have used one of these from "Top Flight" for many years now and it still works great. You should be able to find one at your local hobby store.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHZ16&P=ML

Larry

[TopCatGr58]

I've got 3 name-brand grinders in a drawer (Milwaukee, Makita, Bosch), all with bad switches and the replacement parts are $25-40 each. The switches seem to last about 1-2 years..... do the math.

'78E original owner

Hey Steve,

I had a cheaper 4" grinder that had a switch go bad. I bought another grinder from HF because they were on sale, but I also went to RS and got a 120V single pole, on/off switch and wired and zip tied it into place replacing the OEM switch. It works just fine, not as pretty, but stays on. IIRC, the older switch was a variable current style to allow variable speeds, but I rarely used it spinning slowly, so full speed gets the job done. I didn't know how to wire in a variable speed switch, nor could I find one, or at least an inexpensive one, vs. getting an OEM replacement like you quoted for $20-30!
JAT! T.C.

[fredintoon]

Try Ebay,,,,they are all made in China no matter which brand you get. I got one for 14.00 and it works great. - - - ,Mike in S.Diego

Hi Mike,
not necessarily, some electrical stuff is still made in North America.
Mind you, I was told that one particular item came in an orange case labelled "emergency" at $50, a gray case labelled "industrial" at $35 and a black case labelled "domestic" at $27. All the cases came out of the same mould and each set of innards was identical.

[planedick]

Hobby store

I got a good one from the hobby store that is designed for shrinking the film on RC planes. Seems it was around $20 and has served me well for about 15 yrs now...