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Tried using a heat gun on an old wire bundle instead of my usual method
Ngl, I thought I was being clever shrinking some ancient coax connectors on a Cessna 172 until the insulation started dripping like candle wax and I realized I was melting the whole harness. Lesson learned - what worked on a 90s plane is way too hot for anything built after 2000. Anyone else mess up a cable bundle with too much heat?
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walker.alex27d ago
Heard from an old timer at the shop that the wire insulation on newer planes has a lower melting point because they use different plasticizers to meet fire resistance standards. Explains why my 90s heat gun trick turned that bundle into a sticky mess. Guess I should have checked the date code on the harness before I went full blast mode. The coax connectors survived but the rest of those wires looked like a Salvador Dali painting afterwards.
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