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Sleeving/Heat Shrink/Tools Help

J

jnick

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 25, 2004
Messages
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I'm looking to get some sleeving to mainly do my fans, and minor wiring, as most is hidden behind the mobo tray any way. However, I have no idea what's the "better" sleeving kit to use, what size heat shrink tubing I need, and what tool kit I would need as well. I'm basing the product selection off of SVC.com.

Sleeving:
http://www.svc.com/flexokits.html - I'm looking at blue sleeving. Wasn't sure If I should go with the Logisys or the "UV reactive" one. Is any one better than the other on that page?

Heat Shrink - This is necessary when sleeving, correct? If so, would a blow dryer be sufficient, as I'm not fond of putting a lighter neat the cabling.
http://www.svc.com/heatshrink.html - Have NO idea what sizes to get for the normal 3 & 4-Pin Molex.

Tools:
http://www.svc.com/pmtk.html

Would that be he tool set that is needed to remove the molexes?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.
 
Well, I usually use 1/2" Flexo for ATX wire bundles (ATX connector wires), 1/8" Flexo for 3-pin connector wires (standard 3-pin fans and such), and 1/4" Flexo for everything else (4-pin molex, aux. 12v, everything)... As for heatshrink, I use 3/4" for ATX connectors, 1/4" for 3-pin, and 3/8" for everything that I use 1/4" Flexo on (4-pin molex, etc, etc).

I generally dislike those kits because they never come with enough of anything. Though, a molex pin extractor, ATX pin extractor, and a small flat-head screwdriver will do fine as far as tools go... and you don't even really need an ATX pin extractor (but it does make the job a lot quicker and easier).

*edit* also, yes... a hairdryer will work to heat heatshrink tubing (albeit very slowly).
 
Wow thanks for the reply.

When you said you generally don't like those kits, are you refering to the sleeving kits, or the tool kits? If you're referring to the sleeving kits, what would you recommend instead?

Also, thanks for the recomendation on the main tools. It'll save me some cash :).

Besides a blow dryer, lighter , or heat gun, is there anything else that can be used to shrink the tubing (I'm just heading to bed, so I'll do some more googling on it tomorrow).

Joker - I'm confused on what you mean about removing the floppy cables. Are you talking about the floppy PSU power cables?

Thanks again guys.
 
jnick said:
Wow thanks for the reply.

When you said you generally don't like those kits, are you refering to the sleeving kits, or the tool kits? If you're referring to the sleeving kits, what would you recommend instead?

Also, thanks for the recomendation on the main tools. It'll save me some cash :).

Besides a blow dryer, lighter , or heat gun, is there anything else that can be used to shrink the tubing (I'm just heading to bed, so I'll do some more googling on it tomorrow).

Joker - I'm confused on what you mean about removing the floppy cables. Are you talking about the floppy PSU power cables?

Thanks again guys.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was referring to the sleeving kits... I usually just buy individual sections of Flexo (but, if you're needing a lot if it, it can be purchased in 50' spools directly from TechFlex). Really depends on how much you end up needing... So, I'd suggest pricing how much it would cost you if you purchased individual sections of sleeving and compare that to the cost of an equivalent (or close) amount purchased in kit form. Who knows, the kits might end up being cheaper *shrug*

Blow dryer, lighter (not really recommended), or a heat gun are pretty much it for the heatshrink.... You could get creative and find other heat sources but your kitchen oven is likely not the best solution. ;) Though, I do find the lighter useful to fuse the ends of the sleeving after it has been cut (helps to prevent fraying...just don't over do it :D ) .

....and, yeah, Joker was talking about removing the floppy power connectors. The edge of a small flat-head screwdriver works great for those and 3-pin fan connectors.
 
Thanks Petra. I was looking at those FLEXCO sleeving on SVC. I'll have to do some more research on it to find what'll work best for me :).

Thanks again man.
 
A heat gun is highly recommended. You can get them fairly cheap. I got mine at Home Depot for like 20 or 30 bucks. They can be found cheaper online though.

Using a heat gun will pretty much garuntee a clean even look to the heatshrink tuning. I used a lighter on my first PSU and regret it. No matter how hard I tried, I still ended up with some spots of soot and it looked like crap. I got a heat gun for my second PSU and it looks 100 times better.
 
Wow $14 for a heat shrink gun thats way cheap a little big for the kinda use you want but hey $14 is like nothing.
 
i have a baseboard raidiator thing along the walls in my apartment, its very toasty. anyhow, i heatshrink to where i want it with a soldering iron, and then leave the cables under that, and the long heat baking it makes it super super tight. I know thats wierd but it works nicely for me.
 
I've got a related question:

What would you recommend doing to keep track of the different wires in the ATX molex(the 20-pin cable)? I guess you could use tape, but then that might get in the way of the sleeving.
 
I cut up small strips of masking tape and tag each wire with its corresponding number. The tape tabs are small enough where they don't really interfere with the sleaving. Once the sleeving is on and the heatshrink tubing, one by one I put the wires back into the ATX connector and remove the tape tabs. It can be a tedious task but in the end it looks nice and the chances of having the wires mixed up are much lower.
 
the Home Depo near my location has wire markers in the electrical section, made by Ideal. they work very very well. also radioshack has them. make sure to stager your markers, so that the bundle fits through whatever. if they are all in the same place they will make it much thicker.
 
jnick said:
Heat Shrink - This is necessary when sleeving, correct? If so, would a blow dryer be sufficient, as I'm not fond of putting a lighter neat the cabling.
http://www.svc.com/heatshrink.html - Have NO idea what sizes to get for the normal 3 & 4-Pin Molex.
Click to expand...

Blow dryer is sufficient. It just takes a very very very very long time. I personally use a lighter. I weave it back and forth pretty quick so stuff doesn't melt. As for sizes, get bigger heat shrink than you need because as the name implies... it does shrink :p
 
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