Tutorial: Rewrapping a battery

They look much cleaner, even using the 'right' size tubing, if you heat the top or bottom and then press it against something flat while it's still hot.

I just wanted to say thank you for the tutorial HKJ! I re-wrapped about a dozen of my 18650’s. The green ones were from a laptop pull and the black ones are CGR18650CH’s that are a year or two old and the wrappers were getting worn around the edges. I bought 2m of black, red, and green shrink wrap from FT. I also used a hair dryer to shrink the wraps. Worked pretty good, but I had to hold my hand over the back to get it a little hotter like you suggested. I have a heat gun also, but didn’t feel like walking out to the garage to get it.

I started out with the green laptop pulls and made some of the wrappers too long. When I got the the CGR’s, I had the length down pretty good and they all came out looking good.

The black shrink wraps I got from FT are useless. They refunded me. Maybe they are now stocking better quality wraps, as your black wraps look thicker and more sturdy-looking.

Yea, the black seems to be alright to me. All 3 seem to be ok actually.

Thanks for the tutorial how to.

nice tutorial.

i bought some yellow wrap a few years ago on ebay and have tons of it left.

i had a buddy with a cell that the wrap got a little beat up and i wrapped it in some tape a little but then remembered that i had the wrap. so i pulled off the tape and it left a bunch of sticky tape stuff so i only wrapped the bottom bit of the battery overtop of the old wrap.

worked like a charm and still fits in his light.

i used that battery wrap on all kinds of stuff. like stuffing RC car electronics in too small of a car. :slight_smile: take boards out of the plastic cases that they come in and just heat shrink them and glue the ends shut with hot glue. now they fit in alot smaller place. :slight_smile:

Brian

Anyone use the clear wrap from FT?

Yes.

+1 it’s a new favorite - there are some colors with transparency on ebay, but clear is good.

I haven't measured it to confirm this but the clear seems a little thicker than the colors. The others from FT are really thin, they're obviously not translucent like the red Sanyo cells, but markings on the cell are still readable through the colored wraps.

Thanks guys. I plan on buying some of the clear to fix a few batteries. :beer:

Great post about Rewrapping a battery.

Thanks a lot.

I got some clear from FT.
Didn’t do a thing with a blowdryer, had to use a blowtorch…

I use a heat gun, looks like a blow dryer, but way hotter.

You mean a paint-stripper-heat-gun?
Got one somewhere…
Will try it next time.

I’ve held it over a toaster. Worked well except the wrap didn’t take on enough of the delicious aroma. Easier to shrink it evenly then it is with a butane torch.

I used a Bic lighter :stuck_out_tongue:

I use a hair blow-dryer for the shrink ends and body, and afterwards use a lighter to remove or shrink the crease lines on both sides for a nice tight shrink. The flame from the lighter should touch in a buzz the crease to shrink it.

I used an 1800 watt blow dryer and had no problems at all on hot/high. Only took about 10-15 seconds for the whole wrap to seal tight! :smiley:

Is there a similar tutorial on installing cell protection PCB’s. I got these cell protection PCBs and clear heatshrink from Fasttech and I intend to use it on my Samsung ICR18650-28As but I’ve no idea what to place in the positive end yet. :~