The Ultimate Heat Shrink Tubing Project Guide - Part Two

Part Two

In the first part I told you about all the crucial steps that you need to know before even trying to applying heat to your tube, here in part two you will continue where we left of and follow the road to a successful heat shrink tubing method.

Phase number four out of seven discuss the following: before you even start to think about shrinking your tube, make sure that you have done everything mention in phases one to three, when you have done that you are ready to take a look on the tube’s specifications. The specifications should tell you all the information you need about using it in action, it should say what kind of heating temperature that is recommended, something that also is very crucial. For the actual shrinking moment I recommend that you use any commercial market heat gun, you could easily get one for less than $40 and will ensure you a professional and successful project, if used right. So like with everything else involving fire, you know that uncontrolled heat is really bad, and we would like to look out for that. Uncontrolled heat regarding the heat shrink tubing method is bad because it would most likely cause uneven shrinkage of your tube and create both insulation failures and strong physical damage, so don’t even think about treating your project with an open flame, take it easy and follow the instructions, do not use an open flame!

Phase number five is about the length again, you need to know the length of the tube or cable inside and out, because there is a chance your cable is of a very long length so you will have to begin your project by shrinking it at one side and then working towards the other ending. So do it professionally and make sure that it shrinks without air bubbles, and do it slow so that it shrinks evenly, this is easiest to do by ensuring that you keep on rotating the project during the time you are applying the actual heat, and remember don’t use an open flame, use an heat gun or in extreme cases an heat shrink oven.

The sixth phase is to continue evenly applying the heat over your projects length and around its diameters, evenly shrinking the tube, and do this until your tube and project is firmly shrunk and so that it conform the exact shape of your cables and whatever else it is covering. When you done that correctly you should remove the heat immediately and allow your tube and project to slowly cool itself down. When you have followed the steps of the sixth phase you can start doing all eventual physical applications that you might would like to do.

The last and seventh phase is to try avoid overheating, and that is more or less to remind you of the risks of not doing that. It would most likely result in making your project and tube charred and brittle, making it unable and to damage for any future and present usage. I would also recommend you to use any silicone lubricant spray, if you have access to this you should apply it to your wires and cords before shrinkage, as it will help you to guide the heat of the heat gun or oven without compromising any of your material.

I hope you succeeded with your goal and that you found this whole guide very useful. Next week I will tell you about when to not use the heat shrink tubing method. I wish you a good weekend, see you on Monday.