Y Transitions - Heat Shrinkable Tubing

 

How To Make A Y-Transition With Heat Shrink Tubing

Making your own Y Transition cable breakout is an easy and cost-effective wire routing solution that can be accomplished using heat shrink tubing and a few common materials. Follow this simple tutorial below to save money with this simple wiring solution.

How To Use A Heat Shrink Y-Transition?

Here is a common example of a wiring scenario where you would need to make a quick Y-Transition: Imagine you have an audio cable and a CAT-5 (a CAT-5 is a twisted pair cable for computer networks) running through the same channel and you need to split them off to create separation between the channels because the audio channel is sensitive to the CAT-5 noise. Instead of buying an expensive Y-transition, we'll make one!

Items Used:

Instructions:

1) Select the appropriate sized tubing for your application. Keep in mind, you have to get it over the connectors but you may want a snug fit on the wire.. In this example, we used 1/2" (Red) 2:1 heat shrink because the plug from wire #2 would not fit through any smaller tubing. 3:1 Polyolefin is a better choice if you want it to be more snug on the wire. Note, we used 3 different types/colors of heat shrink tubing in this illustration to show some different options. It's quite suitable for us to have used the same tubing (and color) for all three parts. If you're unsure, contact us for a recommendation

2) Cut a V-shaped hole in the tubing so the other wire can be pushed out. Place the tubing on the other wire once it's through the V hole. Shrink this one first as seen in Picture #3

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3) Slide the wire back so that the shrunk heat shrink is inside the unshrunk heat shrink tube and shrink the second piece

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4) For a better finished look, it's recommended you use another piece on top of the split like in the pictures below

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Find out about an economy Heat Gun. It has two air speeds, and a temperature control dial for temperatures ranging from 250° to 1100°F


Y Shaped Heat Shrink

Y Shaped Heat Shrink