Heat Shrink Customized Headphone Reinforcement

My wife and I each have iPhones and we each use the headphones a lot. We've had several small arguments about which headphones belonged to whom since they're identical. She says mine are the dirtier ones but I decided to put an end to the speculation.

When I started going through my shop looking for ideas I came across my heat shrink and knew I had struck gold. Not only could I use it to mark my headphones as my own, but the heat shrink would also strengthen some pretty weak electrical connections. This project cost me nothing because I already had all the supplies. And the options are endless based on your heat shrink color and color combinations. Hope you like it and please vote for me!

Headphones

Heat gun

Heat shrink tubing

Helping Hands (optional, not pictured)

My heat shrink, heat gun, and helping hands all came from Harbor Freight and cost about $30 at full price. Use a coupon though and save some money. I've found my cheapo heat gun to come in handy for a ton of uses. It was a solid investment.

Slide the smallest size heat shrink that will fit over the headphone plug on to the headphone cable. I used two pieces, one for the plug and one for where the headphones split. For the iPhone headphones I used 3/16" heat shrink. I used a "Helping Hands" for this part (also from Harbor Freight).

Once in place, use heat gun on the low setting and go over the heat shrink until it has shrunk to the smallest size that it can go. Do this for both pieces.

It is easiest to start with the piece that covers where the headphones split for each ear. I forgot and did the plug piece first and had to use pliers to get the inside price over the plug piece.

Caution: the heat gun gets extremely hot. Use pliers or something to hold the headphones while applying heat so you don't burn your fingers.

Let the heat shrink cool off and use your improved headphones.

I hope you enjoyed this instructable!

Roll Tide!!!