Ok, Tench is a magnificent bastard! It has been said that the devil is in the details but Tench shows us that the glory is there as well. I have been enamored with his artful shrink tubing technique for his t-bar wire connections for some time. Tried like crazy to figure out how it had been done. It was not until the post above that I finally got the last piece of the puzzle. I like these so much that I have put together a short photo series with my method of performing the "Tench T-bar". Tench, I hope you will chime in after and straighten out any of my technique missteps. First, Tench used a custom made brass connector for the basis of his splice but this method can be used for any type of 90 degree splice. I started with two pieces of 10AWG silicone wire and stripped a section out of the middle of one and the end of the other

For speed I simply fanned out the wires of the stalk and wrapped them around the center and soldered (badly I know)

Now is the time to get all of your shrink tubing onto the wires and slid down out of the way if the opposite ends are permanently connected.

Now for the base shrinks on either side of the arms. These need not be long but they should have a little dog ear cut on one end.

This allows the tops to overlap and seal. I used 1/4" adhesive lined shrink for this and every other part of this except the over-wrapper which I will talk about later. I shrink using my weller portable butane soldering iron with a little heater tip on it for good control.

I shrink the overlap section first and let it cool slightly so that the adhesive will prevent it from pulling apart when the rest is heated.

Now comes the part that flummoxed me for so long. Originally I thought that the method was to take another piece of shrink, split it up the side and use this as the over-wrap.

Well of course shrink tubing does not shrink that way. What you need to do is get a piece of BIG tubing and cut it cross wise like this

The biggest tubing I had on hand was 1/2" and it is too small. I would suggest 3/4" or 1" adhesive lined for this part. Anyway, after cutting a piece to the proper width to cover your joint with some overlap, dog-ear the bottom corners slightly. Leave about 1/2" full width, cut in an arc and then straight down to the bottom like this.

And then snip through the bottom.

Roll the bottom legs between your fingers to give them a little arc.
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I'm going to finish this up in the next post so I don't go over the picture limit. See you two lines down. Obiwan.