Heat Shrink Advice Needed

[Uncle Russ]

Gentlemen:

Having milked the cow dry on advice for using the rail, I am now ready to order some heat shrink for my Calstar 7465H rail rod, and could use some advice as to the material needed. After speaking with a sales rep at Heatshrink - Home I am tentatively considering the following: SCM 1.5 inch diameter (that will shrink down to .5 inch). This is a glue-based product that will provide water and abrasion resistance and some crush-resistance. It requires a heat source of 230 degrees Fahrenheit, which I can get from an industrial heat gun (what we used to call "Russian hair dryers". Linear shrinkage is less than 5 percent. The cost is $7.78 a foot with an 8 foot minimum order. It is alleged to be black and ugly as sin, but the better, even stronger, and prettier stuff goes for $25 bucks a foot with a 10 foot minimum. My questions are as follows:

1. Does anyone have any experience with this material?

2. Does anyone have a material that they prefer for this kind of application?

3. Any comments?

Thanks for any and all advice you may have.

Russ

[jureal]

Got it for $3.34 each for 3M 8428-12 including shipping. Too good to pass up as regular price is over $30 each. Got 13 pieces so if you need some let me know. Just add priority postage from CA to TX.

[Uncle Russ]

Put me down for 2 pieces (or 3 if you can spare it). I will PM you tomorrow to exchange addresses. I really appreciate it.

Russ

Originally Posted by jureal

Got it for $3.34 each for 3M 8428-12 including shipping. Too good to pass up as regular price is over $30 each. Got 13 pieces so if you need some let me know. Just add priority postage from CA to TX.

[jureal]

Three no problem but wait until I receive it from the seller in NY.

[Uncle Russ]

Just received my cold shrink in the mail--Thanks very much Mel. It only took me about an hour to figure out how to release the stuff by pulling on the support cord without binding on the rod--duh. Did both my 760H and 7465H rods with it and all I have to say is...

...Wow! This stuff is incredible. It's like having a layer of flexible titanium armor on the foregrip. The stuff is every bit of 1/4 inch in diameter and tough as an alligator's hide. For anyone needing to fortify their foregrip, I couldn't recommend this product more highly.

Russ

[jureal]

Glad you got it Russ. I have not had to change one yet.

[Uncle Russ]

Of course the other part is that, once I figured out that I had to not only pull on the tag end of the support plastic that comes through the shrink tubing--but that I also had to keep spiraling it around the rod butt as well, once it was honking down on the hypalon and too late to move, I discovered that I had left the ugly white writing facing directly up instead of down. Then, when I confidently launched into doing the second rod, I forgot then as well.

It was a lot like Groucho Marx would have done applying the wrap.

Then I forgot that I had read somewhere the stuff shrinks down slightly larger--you might have told me that yourself--and lo and behold, it came out over the metal on the reel seat and I had to trim it down. I damned near cut my thumb off in the process, but it turned out fine.

I cannot say enough about the stuff--It's a whole lot thicker and more pliable than I thought it would be--I had pictured something like a giant tube of the thin heat shrink stuff you buy. But this is like a huge rubber band, 1/8 inch or more thick and about a foot wide, held from compression by a tube of plastic inside it that is perforated and which you peel away from the end opposite the one that is shrinking down. It's like the rubber band that swallowed Cleveland.

Only downside that might turn some people off (though not me) is weight. One rod's worth of the stuff weighs about half what a Japanese Jigging Rod does. But on these honker rods, it really doesn't make a difference.

One question, Mel: Is there any evidence that the stuff has a shelf-life you have to worry about--other than keeping it in a cool, dry environment?

Russ

[jureal]

This stuff is made to be buried in the ground as an insulator for underground cables. I think that it will outlive you and I. The trick is to start at the reel seat and go forward. That writing on the shrink tube is not permanent. Use some alcohol and wipe it off.

[bunile]

VERY WELL SAID, Thanks for that great information gentlemen!! 3M cold shrink, That's the ticket!!