Heat shrink tube fixing

[PeteFJ]

I'm looking for a shrink tube that shrinks down really tight. I made a fishing rod some 30 years ago and used shrink tube to hold the rod rings on. It was a great success and today it's as good as ever it was and the rod rings are locked in solid and tight.

I now want to equip another rod with new rod rings using the same technique. I can find endless supplies of shrink tube using Google but none seems to tighten to the same degree as the ones that are 30 years old.

Has anyone on the NG any experience with shrink tube and can recommend a product that would do the job?

PeteFJ

[Brian Gaff]

There seem to be two kinds, the shiny pliable stuff and the duller but very very strong dull stuff. All I can recall was that the ones I used to use were made by a company called Raychem, who by now are probably swallowed up into some Chinese company, I do not know. The strong stuff certainly was not cheap, If its just the stuff for flexible joints etc, then I used to find it in cpc, but you generally got a mixed selection in a bag.

Brian

[jkn]

Not sure if it's any better than 'standard' adhesive heatshrink, but I quite often put a thin film of hot melt glue over a joint I am about to heatshrink. Applying a hot air gun (you really need one for this) then melts the glue at the same time as the tubing shrinks.

Works well for me - YMMV.

HTH Jon N

[Chris Bartram]

You might want to consider high-ratio and/or adhesive lined.

[Bertie Doe]

I'd be interested in the outcome. I have a 9' fly rod with the 2nd furthest ring missing. The fishing shop wants £30 to do it. I've done 1.5 mm shrink before for tying loops onto leaders, using a hair dryer. I guess a hair dryer will be ok for the larger diameters?

Pete, where did you buy the rings please?

[Chris Green]

How do you tell from the web ads you find how tight it will be? ... or do you mean the shrinkage *ratio*?

I use quite a lot of heat-shrink, mostly for its normal use of supporting wires etc. It's easy to buy 2:1 and 3:1 ratio shrink, just search for those. You can also get 4:1 shrink ratio tubing but that is a bit harder to find, but even that shows up if you search for "4:1 heatshrink" on Google Shopping.

[Harry Bloomfield]

jkn was thinking very hard :

Good tip, thanks for that!

[FMurtz]

what he said about adhesive lined heat shrink and just enter fishing rod runners into ebay and you will be inundated.

[dennis]

cpc do a range of 3:1 tubing some with hot melt glue inside.

[Johnny B Good]

Another option that might do the trick is to apply a 2nd and perhaps a

3rd heat shrink sleeve over the first sleeve, each additional sleeve being a little longer than the previous, using the material you've already got.

[Brian Gaff]

Ideally the best thing is a proper heat gun, usually with a curved piece to heat all around the joint evenly. Be aware though that these can burn you and also if the material the rod is made from has a low melting point it might not be a good idea. Brian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I use a two heat paint stripper gun on low. Or my hot air desolder station on low heat Dedicated heat shrink guns seem to be about the worst value tool you can buy.

[whisky-dave]

I have a 'bad' habit of using the body/element of a hot soldering iron movi ng it up and down the HS sleeving as normally after soldering I switch the iron off and it's at a temerature that is OK to shrink HS. But I've used h air dryers and matches in the past, but not when students are watching.

[PeterC]

If I shorten a shoe lace (some on 'outdoor' shoes are silly-long) I apply a drop or two of superglue before heating the tube. The adhesive type doesn't seem too keen on synthetic laces. Also, the lace is kernmantle, so sticky tube adheres to just the outer layer; the superglue soaks in.

[Bertie Doe]

what he said about adhesive lined heat shrink and just enter fishing rod runners into ebay and you will be inundated.

Thx FM and Brian. The dia of the rod where the ring is missing, is 10 mm but I guess I need to order say 12 mm s/tube, to allow for the ring's foot?

[PeteFJ]

As far as I can remember I bought them from a place on-line. There are many sources of fishing tackle available through the 'Net. Try using Google. You'll be amazed at the number of sources available. Peter

[PeteFJ]

Many thanks for al the replies and advice. I've found a good source at C P Coponents. Many thanks.

PeteFJ

[Bertie Doe]

I bought some 12 mm adhesive lined shrink sleeves from RS Components online on 6th June. The following day the order confirmation gave a delivery date of 7th July - eek one month. !!

Obviously not in stock but hopefully Air China will come to their rescue. Fortunately I'm in no hurry. At least with Ebay, you get an indication of delivery dates BEFORE you part with your cash.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Thought RS told you if it was in stock for immediate delivery before you paid?

[Bertie Doe]

Nope it stated "Premier (or Premium) Delivery, not available for this item".

If they'd stated "Not in Stock" I guess I may have looked elsewhere.