Dental Impression Mixing Dispensing Gun Universal Dispenser Gun 1:1 /1:2 Silicon Rubber Dispenser Gun 10:1 50ml Dentist Tools (WHL #59)
Some filler content (ha, pun intended) for THAT time of the year. I want my beloved winter back, and I want it to last all year round. Fuck that …intergluteal cleft sweat.
So what do we have today? A 2K epoxy dispenser gun. I bought this to test (and use) some 10 epoxy cartridges that randomly appeared at work – nobody uses this type, nobody even has a dispenser for it (we only have 2:1 and 4:1 glues, no 10:1), and it was expired like a year ago. As it is hard to justify buying an original dispenser gun for the extreme rip-off price of like 70€ for glue that is likely not even usable, I kindly disposed of the cartridges, bought the dispenser with my own money, and had a shot. This unit was 7.75€ on AliExpress back in March, and we ordered another 2:1 unit in June for 7.10€ as mine works just fine. The second one is just a replacement for the messiest unit at work.
This is the unit after the highly complex assembly:
Of course it’s just putting in the dispenser piston (there probably is a technical term for it?) in the correct orientation, as a fully assembled unit would be more expensive to ship. Given the front part is somewhat removable, there’s chances there could be a universal model out there. Again, as this is less than 8€ a piece, one could just buy three guns for 1:1, 2:1/4:1 and 10:1 mixtures and still spend only a third of a single branded and fully locked Henkel/Loctite or 3M unit.
As we do have such branded units, I can confirm that those certainly are overpriced and do not work any better despite being an order of magnitude more expensive. Maybe they do last longer and are slightly more ergonomic for daily use, but it’s not mechanical failure that makes us toss them out, it’s sticky gunk that cannot be cleaned off and slowly makes them hard to operate. And this is also not a printer scheme where one part is sold at loss and the other is the cash cow – those 2K epoxies are often around 1000€ per liter with considerable amounts of mixed product being thrown away in the mixer tubes. There’s absolutely no need to price the guns that way.
Mixing tubes are also sold by these Chinese guys in huge variety, by the way. Designing these is a bit of an art (yeah, math and physics…) I would say, just have look at the deterministic shapes that fully mix up two liquids within centimeters of linear travel out of the cartridge.
But I digress. The original motivation to post this item was actually the shipping label. Our mail man has to deliver lots of strange things, but now he probably thinks that I’m also doing DIY dental work at home. What a weirdo.
Same description was also used on the second unit, so this is not a mistake.
Oh, and the expired glue was toast – never fully hardened even if catalysed by heat, so those several 100€ of raw materials unfortunately went to the bin. 
