I'd like to lower the temperature of a cheap $5 hot glue gun in order to
use bees wax.
Would a simple dimmer used for lighting work?
I took several apart - there is a bimetallic switch inside with an
adjustment screw to set the temperature. Even the cheap tiny guns
have them.
You could use a dimmer to do it, but that would negate the advantage
provided by the thermostat - quick warm-up and fast recovery. The
faster you use the adhesive the more current the gun uses to replenish
the lost heat. Add a dimmer and you become the thermostat.
It is probably a matter of time before they start using PTC wire to
make the elements to lower the cost - just in case you tear into one
and don't find a thermostat. If they can do it to make heat tape to
keep pipes from freezing a glue gun should be next.
I bought and disassembled several a few years ago with the idea of
coating magnet wire with adhesive by feeding both wire and adhesive
through the nozzle - all had a thermostat from the $29.95 gun to the
$4.95 gun.