Cable-end heat shrink?

[Rhodesplyr]

Many professionally-made guitar and speaker cables have a thick, rubbery shrink-wrap at the ends, different from the stuff I usually have on hand, and I was wondering what it's called and/or where to get it.

As a dumpster-diver, I'm finding that I often run across nice cables that people have thrown in the trash around studios and rehearsal spaces when the only thing wrong with them is a bad solder joint or a cheap 1/4" plug on the end. I fished a 25ft. long, 14 gauge speaker cable from a trash can last week: bad plug.

But I have to remove the shrink-wrap covering to do the repair.

Thanks!

[Tom Phillips]

There are many varieties of heavy duty shrink tubing available. This link, Heat Shrink Tubing , was advertised on the page with your post. You can also find the less common types at the usual electronic supply houses. (Allied, Newark, Mouser etc.)

[km6xz]

The best shrink tubing for instrument cable ends is shrinkable Neoprene. It is thick, abrasion and chemical resistant and is easy to thermal print. I used to have cut pieces printed with my company name and phone number so every cable repaired or made was an advertisement.

[Sock Puppet]

I don't know how commonly they're used now but could they be Hellerman rubber sleeves which are stretched on using a 3 prong tool as opposed to heat shrink?

HELLERMANN SLEEVE EXPANDER TOOL KIT

[Enzo]

Heat shrink comes in not only starting size, but also in percentage of shrink, and also wall thickness.

I got tired of paying through the nose for 3 foot or 4 foot hunks of the stuff at the local electronics store. I found that Weico Wire and Cable sold 100' reels of the stuff at considerable lower prices. I was just buying common sizes. You'd have to look into weights of wall.