Shrinking -- Heat Shrink Tubing ---The Easy Way

What do you use to shrink heat shrink tubing?

I have been using matches, small lighters for the most part for years.
Tried a larger paint stripping heat gun, just throws too wide of a heat pattern good chance of melting anything near by.

I found the perfect tool at a local thrift shop for $3.00.
Originally bought it for my wifes hobbies.
It's a Embossing Heat Tool for scrapbooking and rubber stamp embossing.

Had an idea this morning. Decided to try it on some cable connectors.
WOW, this tool works great, small nozzle heat pattern, you can hold the nozzle within 3/8" from the tubing and it will not melt.
Perfect shrink. Even on 26 guage wire without melting the jacket.

Specs for our tool is 350 watts, Temp 650 degrees F

I looked on the web and the only company that sells these for shrink tubing is Sparkfun [www.sparkfun.com]
Their's is only 300 watts.

Any craft stores probably carry this tool in stock, as well as on ebay, Amazon, etc. Prices range from $16 to 27.00.

So if your tired of using matches, lighters etc. give this a try. Think you'll like it.





DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me

Good info!Have to tell the wife to grab me one next time shes at her yarn store.

I think that's about what I paid for a heat gun at Harbor Freight. It works fine on shrink tubing so far.

Past(or)Tom
Using a Legend, a Deus 2, an Equinox 800, a Tarsacci MDT 8000, & a few others...
with my beloved, fading Corgi, Sadie

www.treasurelinx.com comes up with a virus warning from my WebRoot antiviral system ?? Anyone else?

Its fine on mine. I am running Windows Defender and Malwarebytes.

Past(or)Tom
Using a Legend, a Deus 2, an Equinox 800, a Tarsacci MDT 8000, & a few others...
with my beloved, fading Corgi, Sadie

www.leister.com

eres my current hot air gun,lol. Would be a little overkill. Use it for pvc roofs. My guys can light their cigarrettes with it.

doc holiday Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> www.treasurelinx.com comes up with a virus warning
> from my WebRoot antiviral system ?? Anyone else?



My site has been up for years with over 25,000 visits from around the world.
I get roughly 200 visits a day, no one has ever complained about a problem.
Folks download all the time info from my site.
Must be your anti virus software giving false positives.
Research your program on google for false positive problems
[www.google.ca]

DeepTech Vista X with 3 search coils.
Works for me

Good find Sven, proper shrinking is best done starting at the middle of the piece of shrink then working both ways..... when dealing with small wires and sometimes close proximity to delicate components, a larger heat gun will work but you risk damage to nearby components plus you don't have control necessary for proper shrinking. Professional heat guns do come with attachments that help but the cost is out of sight for the average user for those guns. This is a good find and I'll be looking into getting one, Thanks!

Cliff