Easiest Drill Powered Caulking Gun

Welcome to the wonderful world of homemade tools! From bottle openers to table saws - we got it all. There is just something magical about making a tool that is later used to make new things.

My name is Andu and this my latest homemade tool - a drill powered caulking gun.

Soon, I will do a lot of caulking work and having done it before I know the strain on the wrist when trying to push out several tubes of silicone. For this reason, I wanted to come up with a cheap solution to make my work more effective and easy. The idea popped into my head during one sleepless night. For some reason, I have lots of them - mostly because I keep thinking about all the new projects. Am I the only one? Well, it is probably a price one has to pay for being a hardcore craftsman.

Anyway, dedicated motorised caulking guns cost over 200€ and this is just way too much. But if you combine a regular cheap caulking gun with few parts from the hardware store and a cordless drill you can get away with just 5€ (If you have a drill, of course :). As Michael Scott from The Office once said: " It is a Win-Win-Win situation". It is probably not going to be the same experience as using a 200€ caulking gun but with little practise the result could be just as good.

Follow me along and I will show you how to make this simple tool.

This is a pretty simple build so you do not need any fancy tools.

• Cordless drill with metal drill bits
• Wrench and Plyers
• Flat-headed screwdriver
• Marker and a ruler
• Hammer
• Metal file
• Hot glue gun
• Hacksaw

The materials list is short as well:

• Cheap caulking gun
• M6 threaded rod (30 cm long)
• M6 T-nut
• M-6 locknut or M6 nut with a washer

The first step is to remove the plunger and the plunger arm. The plunger seems to be almost always fixed in place with a single locknut. Remove it with a wrench and the whole thing comes loose. It might take a little fiddling to get the plunger arm out of the handle mechanism. Once you get it out grab a drill with a metal drill bit and drill out the rivets in the handle. Choose a drill bit that is big enough to just remove the rivets and not rest of the frame material.

Remove the handle from the frame by prying with a flat-headed screwdriver. Tap it in with a hammer and twist. It should be easy but you might have to really work it since these parts are also spot welded.

Remove any burr or sharp edges with a metal file.

Next step is to insert the T-nut.

First off, hammer the base of the frame as flat as possible. This helps with installing the nut. Next, you probably need to enlarge the hole so that the nut could fit. Mark the locations of the teeth by lightly tapping on the nut with a hammer and drill it out. Insert the nut and hammer it if needed.

It is important to insert the nut from the side where the silicone tube will be since most of the pressure comes from that direction. If you do it from the other side, the nu could come loose.

The last thing to do with the T-nut is to bend the teeth so that the nut can not come out. This could be quite tricky since they are not protruding a whole lot. Nevertheless, it is possible. Use a combination of flat-headed screwdriver and hammer to achieve this.

If it feels firm, screw in the threaded rod and reattach the plunger. Cut the threaded rod so that when the plunger is completely in there is still room for the drill chuck to crab on. Do this with a hack saw or with an angle grinder.

An optional step is to also add a bit of hot glue around the T-nut on both sides. This further secures it and significantly decreases play.

This is it, now you got yourself a new tool!

One thing I would have done differently is the size of the threaded rod. M6 rod is quite soft and bendy. Upgrade to M8 would significantly improve this.

I hope my instructable has inspired you!

If you have any questions or suggestions please do leave them in the comment section. I would love to hear what you think!

Stay crafty!

CraftAndu