Simple Heat Shrink Insulation Protection
by Len Buffinton & John Frank
Recently I was building a 6 meter sailplane called a Shark. This sailplane has a motor pylon mounted on top that is removable allowing the plane to be flown strictly as a sailplane if desired. Because of this, the wires have to be detachable. The wires coming from the motor came complete with bullet connectors and I noticed when everything was hooked up, the connectors could come in contact with each other, shorting out the expensive motor. Since that was BAD THING, it appeared I would have to tape the wires up every time the motor pod was removed and replace. I had taped them up last fall when we maidened the plane.
The Shark has sat on the shelf waiting for a break in the winter weather, then in January, my friend John Frank, came up form Georgia to visit, and being an avid R/C guy himself, he wanted to spend some time in the shop looking over the sailplanes. We were examining the setup in the Shark when the topic of the connections came up. John was an electrician in the Navy for 20 years before retiring to becoming a Professional Pilot, so he has a very good technical mind. He took one look at the connectors and said “that has to be changed.” Of coarse my reply was “have at it”
Here’s what we did: simple yet effective.
Parts needed to complete this task.
- The wire with your connectors soldered on
- Heat shrink to go over the wire and connector
- A piece of brass tubing that just fits over the female bullet connector
- A piece of heavy shrink tubing that fits over the brass tubing
1) Solder on the connector to your wire.
2) Apply heat shrink tubing over the solder connection.
2) Find a piece of brass tubing that will just fit over the FEMALE bullet connector itself, not the shrink tubing you just put on.
3) Find a piece of shrink tubing, the thicker the better, that just fits over the brass tubing. It should slide over the tubing, all the way over the connector and onto the wire.
4) Shrink the tube with a heat gun, and let it cool down COMPLETELY
5) Remove the brass tubing by carefully twisting and pulling at the same time.
6) Trim the overall “socket” you just made to the desired length and plug in your connectors.
The completed connection, safe, sound, and removable.
