I just bought one, get the one with the heat shield. It has 3 heat settings. Hot actually melted the all purpose thread if you let it heat up for a long period of time. They don't have an auto off. The melt the plastic stand that comes with. It worked great for doing my Dresden plate and pressing the top seam to make the points. I don't think that I would use it for much else other than fusible bias strips. Deffinately get it half off and maybe wait till the day after thanksgiving, Joann last year had an additional 20% for sales item except door busters.