Shrink Wrap - Heat Shrinkable Tubing

How to make your own shrink wrap

So, let's say you have a VGA cable that has a slit in it. You don't want to buy a new one, but you want to protect yourself from sharp wires, or you just want to brand a new cable. You've decided on heat shrink tubing for your project. here's the problem - it's a 1/4" cable with a 1-1/4" wide connector. In order to get the tubing over the wire connector AND have it shrink down snug on your cable, you need a shrink ratio of at least 4:1, possibly even 6:1. For the costs of these highly overexpanded heat shrink tubes, you might as well buy a new cable. We have the solution for you.

Instructions:

1) Select the appropriate sized tubing for your FINAL diameter. For a 1/4" cable, we chose 1/2" 3:1 to guarantee a snug fit on the cable. 2:1 would have been an acceptable choice as well. Cut the tubing down the length as straight as possible.

2) Place the slit tubing around the cable and overlap by around 1/8", leaving yourself enough room to get the glue onto the tubing without hitting the wire. Glue the tubing using a good plastic cement/glue like Ethyl Cyanoacrylate (Loctite 480, Super Glue, etc). IMPORTANT - Read the instructions on the package of your glue CAREFULLY. This stuff will glue your fingers together, or something worse. We recommend you have a paper clip handy to hold the tubing closed while the glue dries (give it about 30-60 seconds of pressure and then about 10 minutes for the glue to dry)

3) Shrink the tubing using a standard heat gun like our VT-1100.

Shrink Wrap - Heat Shrinkable Tubing

Shrink Wrap Slit Tubing

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