Heat shrink tubing is fantastically diverse. Our customers use it for a wide variety of commercial and industrial purposes, but did you know that the malleable tubing also has a broad range of uses in domestic environments?
Here are eight of the most creative uses that we could think of for heat shrink at home.
Heat Shrink Silencer
Not for a gun, but for keys, or anything else that makes a noise at inopportune times. Wrap a piece of heat shrink around a big set of keys to stop them from jangling around in your pocket and waking people up late at night.
You can also use the rubber wrapping to muffle noises of other metal objects like dog collars or to silence some of those rattling sounds on your car or bike.
Tennis Racket Handle Booster
Fancy yourself a bit of an Andy Murray or Roger Federer? You could improve your game by using a large textured heat shrink sleeve to add extra grip to your handle.
Hit more accurately down the line and generate more power in your cross-court shots with Hilltop Products non-slip textured heat shrink tubing. Available in a choice of colours.
Phone Charging Cable Reinforcement
Have you ever broken the charging cable for your smartphone? It seems like the big manufacturers build their products flimsy these days, so they are easy to break and you have to buy more.
There is a way to reinforce (or repair) your charging cables so that they are much less likely to break. Just put the heat shrink over any flimsy parts and apply like shown in the video below.
Fishing Rod Repair Kit
Heat shrink tubing makes a great replacement for the thread and glue that you use to repair an old fishing rod.
If you break the tip off your rod and don’t want to replace the whole rod, then you can use heat shrink and a bit of glue to hold the tip in place and prevent it from coming off again.
Headphone Repair Kit
Will work on all sorts of headphones, from your thin wired ones to large fixed plastic headphones.
Simply wrap a suitably sized piece of heat shrink around the damaged area – making sure that the recovered inside diameter (I.D.) is less than the diameter of the wire – and heat with a lighter or hot air gun.
Shoelace Revitaliser
Those plastic caps that sit on the end of your shoelaces (called aglets if you are interested) can be particularly annoying if come unstuck or fall off – but rubber heat shrink tubing can help give your frayed laces a new lease of life.
Simply wrap a tight piece of heat shrink around the end of your shoelaces, heat it to shrink, pinch the material and trim the lace down to size.
Circuit Builders
Heat shrink tubing has all sorts of uses in electronics, especially commercial electrics. But it can be used in simple homemade circuits too.
Use heat shrink to group LEDs and other components together, cover up messy soldering and much more. Another possible use is on for wrapping around the teeth of crocodile clips (sometimes called helping hands) so as not to damage electrical components while they are being gripped by metal.
Pen/Pencil Gripper
Just in time for back to school, give your kids a (supervised) project to complete and ask them if they want to customise their pens or pencils for the new school year.
With Hilltop Products’ value-added printing service, you could even order some https://hilltop-products.co.uk/cable-markers-identification/cable-wire-identification/printed-heat-shrink-sleeves-markers/flat-printable-zero-halogen-heat-shrink-tubing-zh201b.html them.
