One of the few things I’ll buy and use from harbor freight is their marine heat shrink. It’s got what appears to be hot glue inside the tube. Once you apply heat not into does the heat shrink shrink onto your wiring splice, but the glue melts and oozes out of the end of the tube, preventing moisture into the connection.

My question: since the only way harbor freight seeks the marine heat shrink is in a box of various diameters, I have a lifetime supply of tubing for large wire (probably big enough for 00 gauge battery cable). I looked at DelCity and other various electrical supply stores, there is a huge variety of tubing with different specifications and grades. Anybody in readerland know where I can get the “marine” grade heat shrink tubing in smaller diameter? I’m thinking 3/16, 1/4, 5/16 would cover most common automotive needs.

thanks.

 

While I'm sure there are other vendors, McMaster Carr has a wide selection of sizes of adhesive-lined shrink tubing.

https://www.mcmaster.com/heat-shrink...rink-tubing-6/

 

Just google it, you will find it on eBay, Amazon, Monoprice, and lots of others...............

 

And in many colors...

 

You could also make your own, by sealing the ends of what you're abour to heat shrink with a bead of silicone, before shrinking. Since silicone never gets brittle, the seal should last forever

 

It's normally called "double wall" or "dual wall" heat shrink, available anywhere that has a good selection of electronics. The Fry's here has 4' sections of dual wall in sizes from 1/16" up. I also found some decently priced bags of pre-cut lengths on ebay.

 

Rachem DR-25 is what you're after. I build all of my engine wiring harnesses with it.

 

Stop shopping at Hazzard Fraught.

I bought my last supply of adhesive-lined heat-shrink tubing off of eBay.

 

Bingo! That’s what I was looking for. Now I have something to do in my free time, watch some videos on heat shrink. I didn’t know there were so many different varieties of heat shrink until I looked on some electrical supply advertisements.

 

I did say the heat shrink is one of the few items that I’ll buy and use. Most of their stuff is junk in my opinion. I go there for one time use tools I don’t really WANT to own, and don’t ever want to use again.

 

The Fry's in Plano still has product on the shelves? The one in Irving is bare!

 

I haven't been in there in a month or two. It's too depressing. The "as seen on TV" section was stuffed, while they're just letting the rest of the store run out of stock. They appeared to randomly restock some of the electronics section, including heat shrink.

 

Its been several months since I was in Fry’s electronics. Lots of empty shelf’s, and what was in stock looked like it hadn’t been touched in years.

Sadly, I think fry's will go the way of Radio Shack. There use to be 5 radio shack stores in this town, the last one closed up about 5 years ago. I keep seeing notifications that they are trying to come back. Unless their business model changes, it’s a lost cause. Seemed like no matter what I was looking for when I walked in they employee had no clue what I was talking about.


Relay? Diode? Potentiometer? Never heard of that! Can I interest you in a cell phone? 🙄

 

In the industry I am in we call it epoxy lined heat shrink. I get it in sizes of 1/4 inch to 2 inch diameters and in large boxes at a time. Really good stuff!