[sdiy] Nifty tool from Jameco

[thescum at surfree.com]

>         Okay, I'm going to break $20 by a little bit with my suggestion for
>#3.  Jameco p/n 150691 is a butane powered ( uses disposable lighters for
>cartridges ) heat gun.  This is not one of the mini torches but hides the
>flame inside the nozzle.  I prefer it to an electric for the average small
>bench jobs.  If I am doing a lot of heatshrink all at once I use an
>electric but my average heatshrink job is 4 or so 1" pieces, not large jobs
>all at once.

I've found a tool that I really like for doing heatshrink: a halogen worklight, one of the ones with the yellow metal stand/handle.  I took out the glass, but kept the wire cage in place.  A few seconds inside the reflector, and small heatshrink cinches right up.  Nice & quiet, too.

Granted, I mainly use hearshrink on large snake & install jobs, where it's a real timesaver to be able to shrink a handful of connections at a time.  The lamp will also shrink the really large tubes better than any gun I'd ever tried.

>Another tool suggestion is a wire stripper like p/n 161234.  

Another harness-wiring tool that I've become spoiled with: a Teledyne Stripall electric heated wire stripper.  It has a pair of filament blades that heat up, which are mounted on a pair of plier-like jaws.  With it, I never have problems nicking & breaking stranded wire.  With some patience, it'll do teflon insluation.

New, they definitely out of the $20 price range.  Mine came from Ebay for about $25.  I think they're common in the aerospace world.

Byron Jacquot