Heat Shrink Tubing...Is It What I Need?

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?

sjaguar13 said:

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?

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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?

sjaguar13 said:

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

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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.