Introduction: Electrical/Household Shrink Wrap - for Free

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A little instructable about a handy helper for your soldering or packaging of goods - free shrink wrap.

Shrink cover rubber for soldering is not very expensive but if ya can get something just as good and more flexible for free then weeeeellll lets try that I say.

The material we are going to be using is nothing more than old plastic shopping bags or black bin liners for a tidy black finish - with the use of a heat gun this easy to use item is very handy and always available to just about anyone.

For use around the home - well I use it for many things but most of all when sending items I have sold on Ebay or anything else to be posted that will benefit from a waterproof, tight cover for fixing shipping labels etc, just take your item and a sheet of plastic big  enough to cover, gently heat and your all sorted.

Once you start using this material I think you will find loads of uses.

Step 1: A Demonstration

Ok - here we have two items needing repair. The smaller cable is the power lead for the wifes laptop that her son decided to mess with and managed to damage the cable, the larger is the cable for my soldering iron that I managed to touch with the tip while hot (what a puddin).


Step 2: Find

So - grab some pliers and keep them to hand - a heat gun - some strips of plastic shopping bag.

Step 3: Lets Wrap

Now wrap a length of plastic around the exposed area - this is great for covering newly soldered parts to stop shorts, plus the material does not go sticky like electrical tape.

Make the binding as tight as possible, simply to give a better finish - I have done the first covering in white to show things up a bit better but will finish with a covering of black in a moment.

Ok run the heat gun gently over the wrapping - takes only seconds - if need be, hold the end of the wrapping with pliers (aha see told ya ) to give a nice finish where the material ends.

Step 4: There Ya Go

There ya go - a proper tidy job.

Lets finish off with some black though just to show you how really tidy it can look.

Step 5: Over the Top

There ya go - much better with the black in place - the job would be better and smoother if I had not put the white there first to show things up a bit.

If you find a ragged end just re heat the plastic till it is quite a bit hotter and smooth things down with your fingers by rolling the wire between them  or! wait till everything is cold and trim up with a blade.

Step 6: Just to Conclude

Have you got a ton of floating cables behind your PC or TV - drives me bonkers.

Grab hold of the cables and gather them up into one run - take your plastic material ( get a whole bin bag and spit it into a long length ) - wrap around the multiple cables in an overlapping spiral and then use the gun to seal the lot .

Try this out - play around with the different applications and I think you will be really surprised how well this performs.

Be well,  have fun.

DZ