How does heatshrink work?

[plague]

I'm going to put a relay in my watercooling setup today and I will attach the wires to the relay with heatshrink. My question is, what do I have to do to get the heatshrink to...."shrink" more or less? And is it reliable to hold the wires on there? I dont want the wires coming off and my pump shutting down for no reason.

[Breadfan]

Heatshrink shrinks when you heat it. The best way is to take a standard flame lighter or butane torch and light it, and hold the flame an inch or two under the heat shrink (when its over what you wish to insulate). The heatshrink tube will then shrink itself over the wires. You'll see it working, so you can move the flame accordingly.

Keep the flame moving in a back and forth motion across the lenght of the heatshrink tubing, that way it'll shrink uniformly.

It works really good!
If you don't have a lighter, I guess matches might work, but might take longer, and perhaps a stovetop or something...

Mike

[plague]

cool, thanks

[Breadfan]

not a problem...infact thanks for reminded me of the stuff, I keep trying to remember to pick some up from radio shack or somewhere and then I somehow forget to do it. Its just cleaner looking and easier to get a good insulation over spliced wires than electical tape can be...

Mike

[Sonny]

Heatshrink tubing is more for insulating then for securing wires. Just make sure that the wires attached to the relay are "clamped down" properly the use the heatshrink in place of tape.