I bought a small shrink wrap machine set-up for a friend of ours who is starting out a Hand Made Soap business. She will pick it up in a couple of days but... well, you know Lucy...I had to try it out. Actually I've been looking at everything that doesn't move and wondering how it would look shrink-wrapped.The problem is it is a small set up and will only work on things 5 inches wide or less which means most of the household objects are safe for the time being.
Anyway to make a long story even longer, the friend I bought the set-up for gave us a couple bars of soap as a thank you gift for helping her out, so I decided to shrink wrap them. After all, if you are going to do a test run on something then doing it on the actual item makes sense.
I don't know if you've ever used shrink wrap equipment, so I'll give you a quick review . First you put the object you want to shrink wrap in a special plastic bag then you put it on a machine with a heat tape to seal the bag. Once you have done that then you then use a hot air gun to shrink the plastic bag firmly around the object.
Now, here's the thing (and this is kind of important) They call them heat guns for a reason. They get hot. Really really hot. Hot enough in fact, to peel paint off a wall or varnish off furniture. As a further point of fact, if a heat gun is aimed at anything longer than about 3 seconds the result can be a spontaneous combustible flaming inferno. As in POOF instant fire. Don't ask me how I figured that out, but suffice it to say I firmly believe that those kitchen sink sprayer attachments really should come with a longer hose...what were the manufacturers thinking by making them so short that they only spray the sink and immediate area?
But I digress, I should have begun this tale by explaining first about the sealer. You see, a shrink-wrap sealer is a unique thing that looks like a gigantic stapler. It even sort of works like a stapler. You lay the plastic bag with the object in it on the heat tape then depress the lever ..not rocket science. It is actually quite simple and straight forward. One only has to look at the equipment to understand it's simplicity.
Ahhh, yes. So here is what happened:
I plugged the incredible heat sealer in and then, seeing the heat regulating dial went from 1 to 6, I wisely chose the #2 heat setting which seemed to be a good starting point for the test. Believing I had made a sound judgement call, I sat back and waited. Nothing happened. The heat tape did not get hot. It didn't even get warm. I know this because I kept testing it with my fingers. Before long, I moved the dial to the #4 setting. Still nothing happened. Again, I know this because I used the old-fashioned lick the finger and see if it sizzles it on the heat tape routine. If it sizzles, the tape is hot, if it doesn't then the tape is still cold. When my finger didn't sizzle so I deduced the heat tape was still cold, so I moved the dial to #6 and went though the routine again. Still nothing.
Saddened that I had bought a faulty shrink wrap set up for my friend I decided to take immediate action. I found the phone number of the crook that sold the equipment to me and gave him a call. I haughtily told him I was not happy because he sold me a bad machine. A really really bad machine because it didn't get hot.
He patiently asked how long I had it plugged in and I told him it was about 10 or so minutes which, in my opinion, was plenty long for the contraption to heat up. He remained calm and apologized saying that he sold the machine to me "Brand New" as described. He added that he hadn't tested it, but he had never had problems in the past with them. He added that he would happily refund my money if I returned the machine.
As we were about to end the conversation he asked if I still had it plugged in. I said I did. He said "So let me go over this again...you are telling me that when you put the plastic in the sealer and depress the lever nothing happens?" I sighed and said "Look mister, I didn't even get that far because the tape never did get hot." There was silence on the other end of the connection for a couple of beats then he said "Did you read the instructions?" I said "No but that is irrelevant because the heat tape never did get hot."
He said "Ok, well one of two things...either I can tell you what you are doing wrong or you can read the instructions." I said " Fine, why don't you tell me what magic will make it this defunct machine work?" I can't be certain, but I thought I could sense him smiling and that really upset me Fortunately for him, I held my temper and listened while he said "If you read the instructions you will find the machine has a safety feature. The tape only, I repeat only, heats up when you put the plastic in and depress the lever, otherwise it remains cold."
There was silence on the phone again for a couple of beats, but this time it was me being silent... then quietly I said "So you are telling me that when the lever is up the tape does not heat up and that it is only when it is depressed onto the plastic it does?" I sensed another grin from him as he said "You got it" "Excuse me" I said Could you please hold on a minute ?"
Setting the phone down, I put a piece of plastic in the sealer machine and depressed the lever and son-of-heatgun it worked." There was nothing left for me to do except apologize profusely and disconnect. So I did.
Having successfully sealed the bar of soap in the bag, I next used the heat gun portion of the set up to shrink the plastic around it. This brings me back to the portion of this tale where I began . Really I'm serious about this; manufacturers should defiantly put longer hoses on kitchen sink sprayers. You know...just in case a person wanted to put out small fire or something.
