[Allanmarcus]

 

  This the one I use. It's very reliable and only $26
https://smile.amazon.com/Wagner-0503008-HT1000-200-watt-Heat/dp/B00004TUCV
Wagner 0503008 HT1000 1,200-watt Heat Gun

 
Literally JUST bought one of those. Can't wait to try it out!

Works well on paint too

 

[Paladin79]

The $20 heat guns we bought were reliable if used once a week so I am sure the Wagner would be fine for casual usage. I was getting five packs for as low as $15 each but they did not have a name like Wagner on them. Those should be a decent choice. Some of the cheap ones all look the same and they will slap any brand name in the rectangular space on the side of the gun.
 
In a pinch you can use a cigarette lighter. I have a portable butane soldering iron that has a heat shrink attachment. That works great for working on such things as landscape lighting. I redid a bunch of my lights using some scrap cable that had a very thick jacket, heat shrunk all connections and it is very water proof. The original wiring was made with the intention of you buying new lights in a couple years lol. Oh yeah I soldered all connections, the original method is like insulation displacement, a couple sharp metal prongs stick down through the wire. That is wonderful till the copper oxidizes and you lose connections.

 

[Arty McGhee]

  This the one I use. It's very reliable and only $26
https://smile.amazon.com/Wagner-0503008-HT1000-200-watt-Heat/dp/B00004TUCV
Wagner 0503008 HT1000 1,200-watt Heat Gun

i just bought one of these after my $13.00 ebay one went bang and started smoking
 
the wagner works well and it will sit flat on the bench with the heater end pointing up
 
i use the low setting and hold what i'm shrinking above it and kind of roll it around
 
works well

 

[Paladin79]

  i just bought one of these after my $13.00 ebay one went bang and started smoking
 
the wagner works well and it will sit flat on the bench with the heater end pointing up
 
i use the low setting and hold what i'm shrinking above it and kind of roll it around
 
works well

The one I use has a metal stand that keeps it in a ready position, it will not fall over if you bump it and it is so quiet you barely know it is on. I tend to watch movies or listen to audio books or music as I work at home. I will be working with cables all weekend and hope to rewire some headphones as well. (internal wiring and driver replacement).  The inexpensive ecg unit has a wire stand that props the end a bit so it lays in a usable position but they do not put out the heat of the Wagner. 
 
We should have this same discussion about glue guns sometime. I know which ones tend to fail but that list greatly exceeds those I like.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

I like this better for my heatshrink tubing.......

 

 

[Paladin79]

There ya go, you should come by the next time I cannot get a fire going in my fire pit.

 

[buke9]

There ya go, you should come by the next time I cannot get a fire going in my fire pit.

Not sure you'll have fire pit after that though.

 

[Paladin79]

Not sure you'll have fire pit after that though.

True, a book I read recently talked of fires being so bad that bricks melted. That could have been fiction, I forget which book it was from.
 
Anyway back to wire and DIY. Inside some headphones I am modding, they use tiny little wires. I am going to use at least OFC and maybe OCC, the wire is like two inches long so I figured I would use the best thing I could lay my hands on. Anyone got any good sound logic why I should not do this, or leave well enough alone. These were maybe $200 headphones so nothing spectacular anyway.I seem to recall ZMF or someone saying they upgraded the quality of wire in their headphones so I cannot see where it could hurt.

 

[i luvmusic 2]

Speaking of tiny HP driver wires i just melted mine (Beyerdynamic DT 770 250R).

 

[sharktopus]

  True, a book I read recently talked of fires being so bad that bricks melted. That could have been fiction, I forget which book it was from.
 
Anyway back to wire and DIY. Inside some headphones I am modding, they use tiny little wires. I am going to use at least OFC and maybe OCC, the wire is like two inches long so I figured I would use the best thing I could lay my hands on. Anyone got any good sound logic why I should not do this, or leave well enough alone. These were maybe $200 headphones so nothing spectacular anyway.I seem to recall ZMF or someone saying they upgraded the quality of wire in their headphones so I cannot see where it could hurt.

I'm not sure if any even vaguely normal fire would melt bricks (short of lave, etc).  However, bricks will certainly explode if heated enough. Fun fact, lots of rocks too (especially sandstones) so be careful building your fire-pit! Thats why if you ever build or work with forges, high-fire pottery kilns, and other stuff that puts out a crap load of heat, you have to use special heat resistant bricks or you will have a very bad day :'''(   I'm actually planning on building my own portable gas forge soon, and sourcing good (and inexpensive) firebrick is one of my main challenges.

 

[Paladin79]

  I'm not sure if any even vaguely normal fire would melt bricks (short of lave, etc).  However, bricks will certainly explode if heated enough. Fun fact, lots of rocks too (especially sandstones) so be careful building your fire-pit! Thats why if you ever build or work with forges, high-fire pottery kilns, and other stuff that puts out a crap load of heat, you have to use special heat resistant bricks or you will have a very bad day :'''(   I'm actually planning on building my own portable gas forge soon, and sourcing good (and inexpensive) firebrick is one of my main challenges.

Luckily I had a six foot diameter pit built and landscaped around so I have some room in it and the outside brick does not get too hot.
 
Glad to here you received the wire I sent. I am working seven days a week so I get sidetracked now and then. I keep asking companies for 24 awg ofc and better and not too many American companies offer it so I lucked out with this one. I may use some this weekend inside headphones.

 

[Paladin79]

  Speaking of tiny HP driver wires i just melted mine (Beyerdynamic DT 770 250R).

That is very close to the high impedance drivers I am installing into some low impedance headphones and one of the reasons I want to go with larger gauge wire.
I believe amps for such high impedance headphones are high current, lower voltage. Power ratings on headphones can be five watts or less on many I have seen. Power equals voltage times current.100 volts times one amp powers a 100 watt bulb. I have tried to warn people that no matter what they are doing with headphone wire gauges, if they can handle a certain amount of power, the internal wires are in series and generally pretty small. Enough power and that wire tends to act like a fuse lol. Another power formula is P=I squared times R. The impedance of a circuit is made up of resistance, and inductive and capacitive reactance but resistance is certainly a large factor. A large resistance increases the overall power in a circuit, combine high resistance and high current and suddenly you had best have a wire that will handle that. This may or may not make sense but look at it this way. You have a 300 watt power amp, 16 awg speaker wire coming out and you decide to hook it directly to your headphones. Inside them is wire of maybe 30 awg, tiny wires. Turn it up a bit and you just melted the wire in the headphones.

 

[sharktopus]

So I'm trying to make some fancy-pants cables with interchangeable ends (e.g. 4-pin XLR or TRS, etc,etc). Until I looked at the plastic piece on my rean mini 4-pin XLRs that grabs the cable. As far as I can tell, there is no way my star quad cable is gonna fit in there. How do Y'all make this work? The only thing I can think to do is to strip a bit more of the sheath off and then use heat shrink to replace it,which should be a bit thinner in diameter. Here's a photo of my conundrum with the two included mini pieces on the right of the cable, and for comparison on the left one from a regular-size XLR.

 

[sharktopus]

Also, do any of you know the pinout for Hifiman's older headphones (eg HE500) with the screw-style SMC connectors?

 

[Allanmarcus]

So I'm trying to make some fancy-pants cables with interchangeable ends (e.g. 4-pin XLR or TRS, etc,etc). Until I looked at the plastic piece on my rean mini 4-pin XLRs that grabs the cable. As far as I can tell, there is no way my star quad cable is gonna fit in there. How do Y'all make this work? The only thing I can think to do is to strip a bit more of the sheath off and then use heat shrink to replace it,which should be a bit thinner in diameter. Here's a photo of my conundrum with the two included mini pieces on the right of the cable, and for comparison on the left one from a regular-size XLR.

Check the specs on the connector and the cable the cable will have an overall diameter (OD) spec, the connector will have a max wire size spec.

The boot of the connector is supposed to be tight, so you may just need to work the wire into the boot.