I can’t do anything to help with the gross spot on the carpet, stolen lawn mower, or bitter, upwardly-mobile teenager, but those undisconnectable cables aren’t as big a deal as you might think.

Thanks to Zippertubing’s very cool new line of wrap-around heat shrink tubing, it’s easy to repair or add some extra protection to cables that you either can’t, or would just prefer not to, unplug. Unlike traditional heat shrink that needs to be slipped over connectors and slid along the length of the cable you’re trying to cover, wrap-around heat shrink is slit along its length, so that you can slip it around cables from the side.

You’re probably thinking the same thing I was when I first heard about this tubing: “Soooooooo… what happens to the slit when you start to shrink this stuff?” The answer is: nothing. Because thanks to an adhesive strip along one edge, the slit is nonexistent by the time you get around to applying heat. Once the sleeving is positioned the way you want it around the cable, you just peel the backing off the adhesive strip and press it against the other side, sealing everything into a solid tube.

Once that’s done, shrink away – you’ll end up with well-insulated cables that won’t leave you feeling even the tiniest bit of regret. I just wish I could say the same for poor Moonbeam.

When they’re sitting on shelves, waiting to be put into action, utility-grade cables face a little problem: all of those exposed cut conductor ends can start to get dirty, or even worse, corrode in the presence of moisture or chemicals. And then there’s the matter of moisture and contaminants weaseling their way into the open-faced cable. If that happens, you’ve got trouble on your hands.

This is where heat shrink end caps start to make a lot of sense. These cup-shaped pieces fit over cut cable ends, and when you apply heat to shrink them into place, their adhesive inner coating is activated as well, melting and cooling onto the cable jacket to create a tight seal that won’t let anything through. When it’s time for installation, you just cut off the end cap, and you have corrosion-free cable, ready to go. Kind of cool, huh?

I realize that most of you, like me, don’t have reels of cut-end cable that need protecting, and that brings me to another amazing use for heat shrink end caps: protecting the ends of your patio furniture legs. This suggestion from one of my co-workers, who got desperate when she lost a few of the factory-installed end caps on her outdoor chairs. Luckily, the solution was right at work: she bought a few heat shrink end caps, shrunk them onto her chair bottoms, and now there’s no nails-on-chalkboard scraping, or patio damage, when she moves her lawn furniture around. Genius!

Enter the Focus-Lite Heat Shrink Processing Oven, which can shrink many, many feet of heat shrink tubing at a time, without causing the operator heat-related discomfort, or burning up too much energy in the process. It’s really pretty cool – you just hold the heat shrink wrapped cable in both hands, and gradually move it through the oven’s shrinking chamber, which reflects its contained heat around all sides of the tubing for a perfectly even shrink.

The Focus-Lite uses a halogen lamp that’s capable of hitting optimum temperature in milliseconds, and is able to shrink in a fraction of the time it takes a run-of-the-mill hot air tool, which accounts for a large part of this machine’s energy-saving qualities. The rest of the energy conservation factor is due to the fact that the oven requires only about 20% of the power typically guzzled by a standard heat gun. It’s also controlled via foot pedal, leaving you with two free hands, both of which I always like to have available when working on projects that require any degree of precision or quick response.

All this, and it’s small enough to mount right onto a work bench, so it’s ready at a moment’s notice, without you having to dig through a drawer or tool box, untangle a power cord, and plug in. It’s high volume heat shrink done right, with no waiting time, uncomfortable ambient heat, or wasted electricity. So learn from the burn, and get one of these into your workshop fast.

So right off the bat, it goes without saying that patch cords need labels – at least they do if you want to remain in possession of your sanity when you deal with them. But depending on where the cables are located, you need to give some thought to what you use. In well-ventilated areas where heat doesn’t really get the chance to build up, sticker-style labels work fine on patch cords. But if they’re cooped up in an enclosure with hot-running servers or in an otherwise warm environment, the toasty conditions can eventually cause the label adhesive to fail. After a while, you can end up with a bunch of gummy, unidentifiable patch cords and a pile of fallen-off labels on the floor below them. That’s no good.

To keep your patch cords labeled for the long haul, I recommend using a nice tube-style heat shrink label, like the ones in Brady’s IDxpert™ line. IDxpert™ heat shrink labels come in cartridge form, so that they can be used in conjunction with Brady label printers. You just load in the heat shrink cartridge, type the legends you want to use into your label printer, and let it rip. Once they’re printed, slip the sleeve-style labels onto your patch cords, and shrink them into place with a heat gun. No slipping around, no peeling off, just labels that stay exactly where you need them… on those pesky little patch cords.

Anyway – I am going somewhere with this, I promise. All of this stream of conciousness stuff that led me to think about unusual product hybrids ultimately brought to mind Shrinkflex Fabric Heat Shrink Tubing. Shrinkflex is a new type of cable protection product that recently came our way, and while it’s tempting to call it just “braided sleeving” or “heat shrink tubing,” you can’t, because it’s both! Sounds strangely cool, doesn’t it? It is.

Shrinkflex 2:1 (the “2:1″ describes its shrink ratio, and means that the product is able to shrink down to half of its original diameter) is actually woven just like braided sleeving, but incorporated into the blend of yarns is polyolfin, which is a cross-linked polymer that shrinks when exposed to heat. When you combine these features, you end up with a product that has the good looks and flexibility of braided sleeving, but the “like a glove” fit that you can only get from heat shrink tubing.

So why would one want to use Shrinkflex? It provides great protection for cables, wires and hoses found in harsh environments that dish out high heat, vibration, and abrasive conditions. It stands up to liquids and chemicals like oil, antifreeze, gasoline, Diesel, brake and hydraulic fluids, battery acid and water, and can be used at a continuous maximum temperarture of 257°F.

While the most die-hard heat shrink users (network technicians, electricians, custom car hobbyists and case modders) tend to keep multiple feet or even spools worth of the stuff around, buying heat shrink in quantity may not make sense to others who just want to use it for odd repairs around the house. In cases like these, a heat shrink tubing kit is the way to go. These kits include a variety of heat shrink in different sizes and colors, which has been pre-cut into usable lengths so you just have to choose a piece that suits your project, and shrink away. You’ll find that heat shrink is perfect for protecting soldered joints or spliced wires, for holding mlutiple cables together, and even for providing some much-needed strain relief to older cords that have a tendency to hang heavily from their connectors when plugged in. But like I said before, those are just a few standard uses – we think you’ll cook up some far more inventive ways to use heat shrink when the need for a quick fix arises.

To read more about our customers’ and employees’ heat shrink improv, check out “The Handyman’s Guide to Improvisation: 7 New Ways to Use Heat Shrink Tubing” in the CableOrganizer.com Learning Center.

As I mentioned briefly at the beginning of the post, heat shrink tubing is a great way to add extra support and insulation to cables, wire splices and hoses without adding extra bulk. Even though it only forms a thin skin over things, that “skin” greatly increases resistance to chemicals and fluids, provides strain relief for cable connectors, and just plain looks good. That’s right — many people use heat shrink for no reason other than the fact that it gives cables a custom, cosmetically-enhanced look. Heat shrink is also terrific for color-coding cables that need to be easily identifiable.

Our heat shrink tubing comes in a 2:1 shrink ratio, which means that its original, unshrunk state is twice the diameter of the smallest shrunken diameter it can achieve. Shrink ratio and diameter measurements are very important to keep in mind when you order heat shrink, so know the diameter of the object you want to cover, as well as how snugly you need the heat shrink to fit. For example, if you need 2:1 heat shrink to fit tightly around a cord with a ⅛” diameter, you wouldn’t want to use tubing that has a diameter more than ¼”.