PET Bottle As a Heat-shrinkable Sleeve for Free

A simple method of tube jointing.

Sometimes it is a very difficult job to join two tubes especially if they are different.
Different in diameter and more complex if they are different in shape (round and squared for example).
The best method I now is the Heat -shrinkable sleeve method.
There are many excellent professional solutions but there is also an extra cheap
solution. How much it’s cheap depends of what you usually drink in the afternoon.
For big diameter tubes you have to drink a lot of water (5-6 liters) and for small diameter tubes it’s enough to drink one bottle of coca-cola(1-2 liters).
The final joint is on the picture. If you are interested in, please read the next instruction carefully.
Keep in mind that method is simple but also dangerous.

 

  • It is very strong and reliable joint at room temperature.
  • It is not suitable for high temperature environment.

Step 1: What Do You Need?

PET bottle. be sure that bottle diameter is bigger then diameters of tubes you want to join.
Heat gun (It is dangerous tool. It produce very hot air up to 600 deg.C)
Scissors and.- optional, some soft foam sheet for better connection if the surface of tube is rough (as it is in my case)

Step 2: What I Want to Do

I want to join aluminium tube 15cm and exhauster inlet also 15cm. Any leakage is not allowed.
Joint must be reliable, firm, long lasting, perfect, ideal and cheap, almost free... If you want the same, do next:
Wrap the end of tube with some soft material to avoid leakage (tube has rough surface)

Step 3: Cutting PET Bottle

Result of your cutting should to be a PET tube.

Step 4: Connect Less Demanding End (tube)

Remove all flammable material from working area. Heat gun blow very hot air. (600C). It may cause fire if there is any flammable material. Be careful, keep your hand and head out of air flow! Put the sleeve on one tube,
Switch on the gun and direct hot air flow on to the PET sleeve end to shrink that end. During heating move air flow continuously to avoid local overheating.
Continuously heat equally on both sides.

Step 5: Connect Second End

Put the second tube in to the place Start heating from the middle to the end.
Gradually and carefully move towards the end of sleeve. You can see PET tube is shrinking slowly. During heating move air flow continuously to avoid local overheating.
Continuously heat equally on both sides. It should be completely over in a couple of minutes.

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