Where to get heat shrink tubing

[ave]

Hello,

I need to purchase some heat shink tubing and was wondering if someone had an idea of where I might find it. I need the same think glossy stuff they use on battery packs. I need it in at least a one-piece 3-4ft length, and needs to be able to shrink tightly around a 1/4-3/8in rod. The rod is fiberglass which has been sanded, so it's rough. My purpose is to make the rod smooth both to keep the fiber glass from peeling up and to make the surface smooth when it's being slid in/out from a batten pocket on a sail.

Thanks!
Avery-

[DNA]

http://allelectronics.com/matrix/Heatshrinkable_Tubing.html

[Richard Cox]

Digikey has many sizes, I think they are 4 foot in length.

[Bootneck]

I just stocked up with a lifetime supply of heatshrink from here:

http://www.allelectronics.com/matri...ble_Tubing.html

4' lengths or 100' rolls.

Clive.

[Bootneck]

Sorry, DNA, missed your link. Disregard my last. Clive

[Andrew0820]

Here are a couple more:


Jameco Electronics - tubing page (http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/catalogs/c251/P85.pdf)

Circuit Specialists -- tubing page (http://www.web-tronics.com/heatshrintub.html)

[westfw]

Hmm. "standard" heatshrink tubing as sold at most electronics stores isn't the
slick, thin, and shiny stuff you usually see on battery packs. In fact, it has a rather
rubbery surface (high friction) that might make it a bad choice for your application.
(OTOH, this is certainly common stuff - you can pick it up at radio shack or hope
depot in short pieces, and see how it's going to work...)

A lot of battery suppliers provide the thin glossy stuff for battery packs, but it tends
to come is much larger sizes than you are looking for. I don't think I've seen it
"narrower" than 7/8 inch, and it only shrinks 2:1. Unlike the electronics-style HS,
this tends to shink in both directions, so I don't know how well it would work on a
long thin rod like you are talking about...

BillW

[stroland]

Hi try radio shack, they will ,have some smaller size tubing

[MX]

I got some here: http://www.cableorganizer.com/heat-shrink/index.html

It's not the really thin shiny stuff like comes wrapped around Castle Creations speed controls. I'd like to find some of the shiny thin stuff too.

MX

[ave]

Thanks for the replies guys, the info is great. One thing I'm having trouble with is identifying the difference between the softer/duller type of shrink tubing used in wiring, and the stiff/shiny stuff they use for battery packs. I need the stiff/shiny stuff, but I don't know how to refer to that material. Can someone tell me how it is named/referred to differenciate between the two?

Thanks!
Avery-

[westfw]

The glossy stuff is PVC, apparently, while the softer stuff is usually a more exotic
plastic like polyolefin, pvdf (kynar), or teflon (PFTE).

It looks vaguely like the glossy stuff is primarily a packaging product, rather than an
electronics product. You can get assorted styles for putting tamper-evident seals
around bottle tops (http://www.sealitinc.com/home/home.asp), or for sealing up
other sorts of packaging (http://www.tracopackaging.com/shrink_sleeves.html),
but the sizes tend to be large compared to your requirement. The smallest I've
seen is from an rcgroups sponsor: http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1185
and it's pretty iffy whether it would work for you... (shrink is usually about 2:1,
but this is measured FLAT rather than diameter, so it's about 15/8 circuference
or 5/8 diameter unshrunk, 5/16 shrunk... And then there's the fact that their
advertised sizes don't match (7/8 inch = 25mm? Nope.)

[plane_spotter]

Try doing a search on ebay.com There is usually an abundance of the stuff on there.

[MX]

Anyone ever find the really thin heat shrink in rolls?

MX