Dear Paul Cataldo:
The PIPE here yet AGAIN...and I DID give you TWO good sources...the Alpha FIT-221 VERY flexible polyolefin tubing from Mouser, with Mouser's "in-stock" link at
http://www.mouser.com/index.cfm?&han...&N=0&crc=false , AND the Russell HUG line of ALSO VERY FLEXIBLE polyolefin tubing...that my LOCAL electronics store (
http://www.youdoitelectronics.com/ ) has in stock up here in the Boston area!
I'm TRYING to do a search for GOOD electronics stores in YOUR area, Paul, that could very well ALSO have the Russell HUG tubing, but due to a DANGED "internet attack" directed at a Cambridge, MA Internet company you MIGHT have heard about (mentioned at
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...3635_2004jun15 ) I CANNOT use the Verizon SuperPages to help you find one "for the time being"...[sm=rolleyes.gif] !!!
Part of the "skill" in using heat shrink tubing is selecting the RIGHT size of tubing to START with...then you DON'T have to worry QUITE so much about the shrinkage ratios! ALL the kinds of VERY flexible polyolefin tubing on the market have about the 2:1 shrinkage ratio you've already found out about, and though I'm NOT too sure about THAT stuff you SAID you had that had the HIGHER 3:1 shrinkage ratio, that 3:1 stuff COULD be TOO rigid for use with wires that MAY do a lot of flexing while in use...it's REALLY got to be FLEXIBLE to stand up to possible motion of the wire itself, and NOT cause that dreaded "second point of stress" where the wire EXITS the heat shrink tubing in the first place!
One "secret" to using the VERY flexible polyolefin tubing is "getting that RIGHT size to start with" as I said before...
and I usually use a "rule of thumb" that the tubing HAS to JUST BE ABLE TO SLIDE OVER (with JUST a tiny bit of effort) the finished solder joint it's going to cover to select the size of tubing I'm going to use. With 26 gauge servo wire and a Deans connector, the SMALLEST size of polyolefin heat shrink tubing made, which comes in a "marked 3/64ths of an inch" size, WILL just slide SNUGLY over just such a wire that's been PROPERLY soldered onto a Deans connector's soldering pin!
MOST of the polyolefin heat shrink tubing you'll find out on the market IS that drab BLACK color...but I HAVE used both the Alpha FIT-221 AND the Russell HUG stuff in colors OTHER than black, such as red, blue, and even TRANSLUCENT CLEAR tubing! But the colored tubing does NOT seem to be "in a lot of demand", so you MAY be faced with a LOT of the drab black stuff...I know it CAN be boring-looking, but IF you want to have the BEST protection against wire breakage and ease of use with the heat shrink tubing you're going to get, it's NOT the color...it's HOW WELL the stuff works!
I'll READILY admit the black stuff DOES get boring looking REAL fast...but when I think about HOW WELL the VERY flexible polyolefin tubing I DO use...no matter WHAT color it is...is protecting the wire joints in my homebuilt RC gear investments, I just do NOT worry about the color, and go ahead and use it anyway...just as long as I've carefully selected the RIGHT SIZE of heat shrink tubing to use on a given solder joint!
[Hint here...Nik Rende's link DOES show an equivalent in the
"2:1 Std Wall" tubing available at HIS link, mentioned at
http://cableorganizer.com/heat-shrin...-reference.htm ...it's an equivalent to the Alpha FIT-221, that I've HIGHLY recommended before here at RCU...and they SEEM to have LOTS of colors available!]
Hoped this helped just a LITTLE bit at least...
Yours Sincerely,
The PIPE!
