Best Tool For Heatshrink??

Witterings · Mar 23, 2017

Trying to find out what people have found best for heat shrink ….. A hairdryer I find is borderline as to whether it's hot enough, a kitchen blow torch will very easily melt the wrap and a lighter I always seem to end up either not giving it enough heat or leaving horrible carbon deposits everywhere.

Has anyone found the ultimate tool for heat shrink … if so please share

ven · Mar 23, 2017

Hair dryer works fine for me, presume you mean heat shrink for 18650 cells? You dont want to get too hot anyway, even with the boss's hair dryer on high.........OUCH! It gets toasty quick, so too much heat is not good for the cells. Its literally seconds to shrink them.

TinderBox (UK) · Mar 23, 2017

I must have shrunk 100`s of feet of heatshring and we had a approx 20mm tip gun type heat-gun and it worked fine, But i suppose a paint strip gun can be used, a hair dryer just does not get hot enough to cause it to shrink.

I had a quick look on ebay, I suppose something like this with a few different tips to concentrate the air would be the thing.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2000W-HOT...TRIPPING-HEAT-SHRINK-POWER-TOOL-/141859132047

John.

peter yetman · Mar 23, 2017

I just use an electric fan heater and rubber gloves.
Works fine.
P

KITROBASKIN · Mar 23, 2017

Not sure 'ultimate' but also used a portable fan driven electric room heater. Did not use gloves; rotated battery and held in different ways in order to avoid overheating the battery, heatshrink or hands. Ours is 1500 watts.

Witterings · Mar 23, 2017

I dug out a paint strip gun from the garage but I figured that might be overkill, I also found another more substantial hair dryer rather than the little one I was using and that made quite a bit if difference so looks like I may have cracked it.

Cheers for the tip about too much heat ... again I've probably been holding it in one place for too long to make sure it's "well shrunk" so will be careful about that in the future.

AVService · Mar 23, 2017

I use a Bosch Heat Gun but then I shrink for a living pretty often too.
The guns sold at hardware stores should work fine but a hair dryer will just never really get the job done.
Yo need to experiment with different levels of heat with different tubing gauges and construction to dial it in if you want to do it right.

On the other hand I have used a torch and open flame too many times but just no direct flame on the tubing just heat.

iamlucky13 · Mar 24, 2017

Your heat gun used for paint stripping is the tool you want. They're really intended for all sorts of heating tasks, not just paint stripping. The only times I see people at work use anything else for heat shrink tubing is because they don't happen to have a heat gun handy at the moment.

Witterings · Mar 24, 2017

iamlucky13 said:
Your heat gun used for paint stripping is the tool you want. They're really intended for all sorts of heating tasks, not just paint stripping. The only times I see people at work use anything else for heat shrink tubing is because they don't happen to have a heat gun handy at the moment.

No worries ... I'll give it a try ... think I was also a little wary of it and getting my fingers too close to something that gave out a serious amount of heat :caution:

AVService · Mar 24, 2017

Witterings said:
No worries ... I'll give it a try ... think I was also a little wary of it and getting my fingers too close to something that gave out a serious amount of heat

Yeah he didn't say get your fingers too close!
Do not get your fingers too close!

The thing is that yo do not have to blast heat the tubing to get it to shrink so yo can start way too cool and far away and then just move closer slowly until the shrinking starts for real and/or it is too hot to handle.
Usually you can place the tubing so you do not need to hold it while shrunk.

Also try not to melt it or catch it on fire but it s pretty easy to control just take your time.

Best Tool For Heatshrink??

Witterings

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ven

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