heat shrink

[musicspark]

I have never used heat shrink but, after reading the the many uses and applications on this forum I am thinking of purchasing some.

Can somebody describe the the actual process of applying it?

Also how much does it shrink, and what sizes apply to what size of crimps, cable etc

All info, however basic, would be much appreciated as I am totally green on this one.

 

[Andy™]

heatshrink is normally 2:1 of 3:1 (basically, 2:1 shrinks to half, 3:1 shrink to 1/3 of its size)

you can get normal wall, thin wall & thick wall

and then you can get it with adhesive (to make water tight connections)

use the size which is a little larger that the size of what your covering

 

[musicspark]

Thanks Andy

But how do you apply heat to make it shrink?

 

[Andy™]

depends on size of it - for small heatshrink, i have a gas soldering iron with blow torch end. for larger size, blowtorch with low flame

or heat gun

 

[PC Electrics]

This is the best value place I've found for heat shrink. They do it in many sizes and colours and with adhesive too. Go back up the categories to find the adhesive lined stuff.

http://www.thesitebox.com/Category/5692/heat-shrink-sleeve.aspx

http://www.thesitebox.com/Category/6038/adhesive-heat-shrink.aspx

http://www.thesitebox.com/Category/5646/cable-accessories.aspx

And something like this for shrinking the tube:

http://www.screwfix.com/search.do;jsessionid=QH2MMTKOL31UUCSTHZPCFFI?_dyncharset=UTF-8&fh_search=41676

 

[Lurch]

Link fails

 

[roys]

This is the best value place I've found for heat shrink. They do it in many sizes and colours and with adhesive too. Go back up the categories to find the adhesive lined stuff.http://www.thesitebox.com/Category/5...nk-sleeve.aspx

That is a good price. Just went into www.thesitebox as the link didn't work.

Cheers Steve

 

[PC Electrics]

Links fixed

just to add: 2:1 or 3:1 describes the shrink ratio of the diameter. So 3:1, 6.4mm will shrink to about 2.5mm diameter (I try never to shrink it to the max)

 

[Bacon]

We have to mark all our cables up on installation with heatshrink and print then off on one of these.

And when it's a ring main with say 13 sockets it's a lot of markers to print 6 per socket.

http://www.labelzone.co.uk/viewProduct.aspx?bolBrand=True&product=4AA226C4-4A36-4E70-BF0C-FB316B0F14ED&category=2FB05E33-5CCB-4746-B50D-779E4D418635

 

[Andy™]

why do you have to heatshrink everything?

 

[Bacon]

Well because all the stuff we do is M.O.D contracts it stipulated in the electrical drawings for some reason or other.

Have told them that any sparky would know were a ring circuit goes and a radial circuits goes to and on most of the installations i would print out somethink like 200-250 markers.

And we have to use this type of http://www.habia.com/default.aspx?pageid=3825 cable comes in white and G/Y Earth cable so i have to re- drum have the white on another drum and mark it with a black marker for the Neutral