On Wed, 12 May 2010 12:38:43 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
wrote:

On Tue, 11 May 2010 19:41:59 GMT, (Mark Zenier)
wrote:

For cable assemblies, I've found that nothing beats a Sunbeam toaster.
Turns itself off, too. You don't have to put it down into the slot,
just hold it over the top.

Isn't there an interlock in the toaster that checks if there's a slab
of toast inside before it will turn on?

No, with the *automatic* Sunbeam toaster you could stick a chopstick
in and push the bread sensor rib and it would go down automatically.
You only had to push it down at first. It would stay down for a while
after that and the only way to get it to come up early was to unplug
it. Although the absence of bread might have some effect on how long
it stays on. Since I never figured out how the toaster worked, the
one with no handle or lever at either end, and I didn't measure the
timing, I was never sure. (Measuring the timing would have required
eating the toast!)**

I'm not sure I want to insert
a slice of bread for every shrink tube joint.

The trick with lighters is to keep the shrink about 1 1/2 to 2 inches
above the top of the flame.

Actually I may use that distance when I use kitchen matches. I
haven't been doing stuff for a few months and have already forgotten.

I always manage to char the shrink tube joint when I do it that way.
It's not the heat that's causing the blackening. It's that the

What does it matter if it blackens anyhow? Is it just appearance and
a "professional job" you're concerned about? No one sees most of my
heat=shrunk areas.


**We had a Sunbeam *automatic* toaster for about 40 years, and my
mother used it maybe every day of those 40 years. Just put the bread
in and it went down. It broke once after about 10 years, didn't stay
down long enough (or too long), even after adjusting the knob at the
end, I took the cover off, and it took me at age 14 about 6 hours to
get it back on. It was one piece for both long sides and the top in
between, and it was spring steel of some sort, and I couldn't push it
tight enough with one hand to put a screw in with the other. I tried
tying it with an extension cord and twisting to make it tighter.
Finally I noticed a square hole next to each screw hole and realized a
narrow screwdriver in the hole could be a lever to pull the two holes
into alignment. Then it took 10 minutes. I'm sure that's how it was
assembled in the first place.

When it was apart I just couldn't figure out what decided when it
would go back up. There was no bimetal strip. There was a 1-inch
square of grey metal, about 3 mm. thick that had something to do with
it, that I think controlled it. Was that bimetal inside? If it moved
at all, it wasn't much, because I couldn't see anything move. But I
did eventually find a screw on the bottom that adjusted the time, and
that's all I was supposed to fix. Turns out I didn't have to take the
cover off to turn the screw. )

When it broke 30 years after that, I also couldn't figure out how it
worked, and couldn't fix it. I think then it wouldn't go down at all.
I never could determine what normally made it go down. The whole
device is a mystery. It may be in the basement, but my mother a"h has
passed away.


burning ligher fluid is too low in temperature for complete combustion
and therefore dumps plenty of soot on the shrink tube. You can
demonstrate it for yourself by burning a lighter under a plate of
glass. The distance doesn't matter. You'll always get plenty of
soot.

If you must use a flame, use a propane torch. Instead of 2 inches,
about 1-2 ft is about right. Don't hold onto the wire as you're
likely to burn yourself. Work very quickly and be prepared to react
if the wire or workbench catches fire.