How to Make a Heat Sealer

Step 6 Ok, now string up the wire

So you put a single nail in the front. Wrap one end of the wire around this nail and then twist it a few times. Then put the nail in. Then, holding the other end in a crescent wrench, or wrapped around a stick a few times, pull it taught across the edge of the blade and then wrap it around the other two nails in a figure eight. Make sure you don't pull towards your eye, in case the wire breaks while you are doing this!

There are two reasons I prefer 27AWG for this (whereas 26AWg or larger is typical). 1. It heats up very fast, even with a laptop supply. 2. It cools down very fast. 3. It is easier to get decent tension on the wire even using this crude method. Tension is important, because the wire stretches when heated. If there's not enough tension, the wire will "walk" during the impulse. 4. It's big enough to do the job. Mine will seal 4 mil bags. I use 2 mil for everything in the pics.