Is there a tool that does this...

[degeneration]

Sorry for the vague title.

I've registered on this site to find out the answer to the following query.

For something I do, I'm regularly sealing the ends of heat shrink tubing. To date I've just been using the jaws of a pair of pliers, which I heat up with a heat gun, then when they're hot enough, I clamp down hard on the end of the tubing and it seals together. It does what I want, but I figure there must be something out there that is actually designed to do this more neatly and quickly than my current method. Problem is I've not been able to find anything, or know what it may be called to look for it.

A place like this I figure is more likely to know, and if you don't know here then I'll conclude there is no such tool! So, does anyone have any ideas?

Hopefully someone can help, and I'll appreciate any answers I get!!

Thanks.

 

[SteveF]

would you not be better buying heat shrink caps?
I wonder if a bag sealer may do the job

Steve

 

[degeneration]

would you not be better buying heat shrink caps?
I wonder if a bag sealer may do the job

Steve

I considered them initially, but the ones I found had too thick a wall, and were too expensive to make it worth it compared to what I do at the moment.

The tubing I use is not adhesive lined, and has a thin wall thickness (can't recall exact size, but fraction of a mm in rough size order), so would be looking for similar thickness end cap, but didn't find one when I looked a while back.

 

[essexalan]

Depending how many you are doing at a time then I would use a blob of epoxy in the shrink tube before you shrink it I have even used gel type CA glue

 

[degeneration]

Depending how many you are doing at a time then I would use a blob of epoxy in the shrink tube before you shrink it I have even used gel type CA glue

The lack of an adhesive is deliberate, as the things I make get used orally!

Is a bag sealer the only thing that may do what I'm after?

I havent found one, but is there no such thing as an electrically heated crimping tool or the like? If not, there should be!

 

[beech1948]

I did a google search for "Electrically heated crimper" and came up with these

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=e...GLJ_en-GB&gfe_rd=cr&ei=smVnWbzVI7Sn8wfQsLL4BQ

eg http://uk.farnell.com/klauke-textro...ookieCreated=true&CAWELAID=120173390000550142

eg http://www.transpack.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=crimper

Try your own search maybe. My results show not too much of use but many hairdressing crimpers.

 

[nev]

What about hair crimpers? You could always add a toggle clamp for pressure.

 

[degeneration]

Hadn't thought of hair crimpers... Will see what the wife's got handy...

Those linked ones, the top one if it does what I'm after is way too pricey for me but it does seem along the lines of what I'm after. At that price though I'll stick to my current method!

 

[monkeybiter]

Temp. adjustable soldering iron pressed against a small 'anvil' [could be ceramic etc.] ?

 

[degeneration]

Temp. adjustable soldering iron pressed against a small 'anvil' [could be ceramic etc.] ?

That's just as fiddly as what I do now. I'm wanting a self contained method/tool!

 

[AndyT]

A few photos and some dimensions would help those of us who are struggling to visualise what you are doing... But how about an ordinary soldering iron, with the removable tip taken off? It will leave a socket, about 6mm diameter by 10mm deep on mine, which gets uniformly hot. Your little ends of shrinkable tube could be pushed in, or the iron could be held over them if they were held in pliers or something.
If the dimensions aren't right, you could improvise with small tubing or drill an axial hole in some metal rod and put that in place of the soldering iron bit.

 

[Racers]

The only thing I can think of is the Antex pipemaster.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=antex ... 4gSl9J-QAQ

Heatshrink orally! what are you making?

Pete

 

[degeneration]

I make camera wired remote shutter releases, that are mouth activated - e.g. your tongue presses the switch. Used primarily in skydiving but equally applicable to any sort of activity where you have no hands free! The end is sealed as shown in the pic. I'm guessing from the replies so far that there isn't an obvious tool that springs to mind!

 

[sunnybob]

its called a hair dryer.

 

[degeneration]

its called a hair dryer.

No it's not. I presume you didn't read my whole post as a hairdryer will be 100% useless for what I'm asking.

 

[beech1948]

Antex who are UK based.....Exeter I think.....have a range of plumbing pipe heated clamps up to 22mm. Your gadget looks to be about 30 to 35mm so 2 quick bites at it would get it done.

The plumbing gadget is about £76 and Antex offer custom bits so they may be able to cheaply provide one which is solid without the pipe diameter cut out. Its a case of not doing the cut out operation rather than any engineering.

 

[degeneration]

It's actually only about 1.5cm wide the bit I crimp. I'll look into the antex stuff and see what I can find.

Thanks.

 

[degeneration]

Looks like the antex pipe soldering tool is a solid head with the pipe diameter cut out rather than two separate halves clamping together. Or at least that's what the picture looks like. But it's certainly the closest to what I'm after!

 

[AndyT]

I've got one. It's two separate parts, so you can open it up and clamp it onto a piece of pipe without access to the end. A bit like a pair of pliers.
You wouldn't need so much heat - running it on a dimmer switch might work.

 

[degeneration]

Interesting. That's good to know.