I made a cable snake, but the wires that fan out are cover in blue foil. It looks bad, and they are all the same. Is heat shrink tubing what I need to make them look better, and to be able to tell them apart by using different colors?

 

Yes, heatshrink sleeving would tidy them up - but can you get it in enough colours?. I think commercially produced snakes usually just use plain sleeving, not heatshrink.

 

How does regular sleeving work? Would it look better, or be cheaper than heat shrink?

 

It would certainly be cheaper - it's just a plain plastic tube, but it will probably be harder to fit the cable down it.

We made a 16 way snake years ago with a band I did the PA for, we used 4 lengths of 4 core screened. Initially we wrapped it with self-amalgamating tape (which none of us had ever seen before) - it worked absolutely wonderful!. Then we coiled it up and put it away! - next time we got it out it was one big solid coil :cry:

You learn somethign every day!.

 

If the cable is 3/32" in diameter, do I want 3/16 heat shrink tubing to shrink to 3/32, or what?

 

Heatshrink is usually made to shrink in a 3:1 ratio, but also 9:1 is available (more expensive, though). So, for 3/32" cable, 3/16" should be OK.