Tiny ferocious heat gun may aid evil glue removal!

Howdy from the clock-repair universe.  I've read the tales of woe
concerning removal of inappropriate adhesives, and I wonder if
a 'hot air solder rework' device might help for this task.  (To see
them, go to eBay.com and do a search on those words.)

The Chinese machines cost less than fifty U.S. dollars and include
a tiny hot-air gun.  It is pretty amazing, for the air stream is maybe
five or ten mm in diameter and is hot enough to melt tin/lead solder,
char wood, and very likely destroy any kind of illicit glue lavished
on a pneumatic valve.

Several nozzles are included, and the air stream is quite precise
because its intended purpose is to melt solder joints on crowded
electronics circuit boards.

I understand that a heat gun of the sort generally used for paint
removal is usually recommended for this task, but there may be tight
places where this tiny air stream might help prevent damage to adjacent
structures.  I've been using mine for largish soldering jobs on brass
clock bezels with broken hinges, because there are no flames involved
and no contact with a heated soldering tip is required.  Just as an
experiment I tried using it to blue the head of a steel nail, and it
worked.

Note that most (all?) of these seem to come with an additional
temperature-controlled soldering iron which is likely of limited use in
restoring mechanical musical instruments, though it's great for wiring.
My machine also came with a little DC power supply built into it, and
perhaps I will use that some day.

Mark Kinsler