A Simple Tip For Gluing Those LED Filaments

May 29, 2025 by Donald Papp 6 Comments

[Boylei] shows that those little LED filament strips make great freeze-frame blaster shots in a space battle diorama. That’s neat and all, but what we really want to highlight is a simple tip [Boylei] shares about working with these filament strips: how to glue them.

Glue doesn’t stick to LED filament strips, so put on a small piece of heat-shrink and glue to *that* instead.

The silicone (or silicone-like) coating on these LED filament strips means glue simply doesn’t stick. To work around this, [Boylei] puts a piece of clear heat shrink around the filament, and glues to that instead. If you want a visual, you can see him demonstrate at 6:11. It’s a simple and effective tip that’s certainly worth keeping in mind, especially since filament strips invite so many project ideas.

When LED filament strips first hit the hobbyist market they were attractive, but required high operating voltages. Nowadays they are not only cheaper, but work at battery-level voltages and come in a variety of colors.

These filaments have only gotten easier to work with over the years. Just remember to be gentle about bending them, and as [Boylei] demonstrates, a little piece of clear shrink tubing is all it takes to provide a versatile glue anchor. So if you had a project idea involving them that didn’t quite work out in the past, maybe it’s time to give it another go?

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The Incredible Shrinking Coin Cell Battery Pack

December 7, 2017 by Kristina Panos 15 Comments

How’s it going with your project for the coin cell challenge? You can only use a single one, but Hackaday alum [Jeremy S Cook] has a great way to package coin cells into a sleek little power packs whether you need one, two, or even four.

[Jeremy] is building a wireless Wii nunchuk, so he needs a small battery that won’t short out or get punctured in the confines of the controller body. A single coin cell holder is already a bit bulky, and he needs to use two in series. He thought, why not try shrink wrapping them together? The only downside here is that the biggest tube that came with your average heat shrink multi-pack is probably a bit too tight to fit around them, so you might have to buy more (aw, shucks!).

After trying a few ways to make a good connection between the leads and the bare coin cell faces, [Jeremy] settled on generously stripping stranded wire and wrapping the long strands around the end to form a conductive swab. This slides in nicely between the coin cell and preshrunk tube. A little more heat will make a good connection, and some hot glue secures the wires. Click past the break for his build video and the other connection methods he tried. Have you come up with something better? Let us know in the comments.

Stray a bit further from the bench and you might come up with something like this googly eye battery holder we saw a few months ago.

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Heat Shrink Tubing And The Chemistry Behind Its Magic

April 13, 2017 by Dan Maloney 70 Comments

There’s a lot to be said in favor of getting kids involved in hacking as young as possible, but there is one thing about working in electronics that I believe is best left as a mystery until at least the teenage years — hide the shrink tube. Teach them to breadboard, have them learn resistor color codes and Ohm’s Law, and even teach them to solder. But don’t you dare let them near the heat shrink tubing. Foolishly reveal that magical stuff to kids, and if there’s a heat source anywhere nearby I guarantee they’ll blow through your entire stock of the expensive stuff the minute you turn your back. Ask me how I know.

I jest, but only partly. There really is something fun about applying heat shrink tubing, and there’s no denying how satisfying a termination can be when it’s hermetically sealed inside that little piece of inexplicably expensive tubing. But how does the stuff even work in the first place?

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