You want to hurry up and get to the good part of the shrink job, the final bit where you get to be a professional flame thrower. But first, you have to pull out that crappy flat wrench from the pocket of the case :(. (replace the wrench with a decent 7/8th one!)
You use this junky wrench in three places; First you tighten your pressure regulator to your propane tank, then you tighten your gas line to the regulator, then you tighten your gas line to the heat gun…
Lets just take care of 2/3’s of this permanently to make your life easier.
1. First unscrew the 1/4″MNPT-9/16″(LH) adapter fittings from the regulator and the heat gun, and screw them into both ends of your gas line. Use a 5/8th wrench on the fitting, and 11/16th on the hose. The side of the goes into the gas line is left-hand to tighten.
Now add quick-connects. Do Not Use Air Tool Quick-Connects!
2. Screw on a 1/4″NPT-1/4″NPT male adapter into the regulator, and then screw the female quick-connect valve onto that. (Now you can check tank pressure without having to connect everything)
3. Screw on 1/4″NPT-1/4″NPT female adapter onto a hose end, and a male quick-connect into that. (this side clicks into the regulator)
4. Screw on a female quick-connect to the other end of the hose.
5. Screw in the male quick-connect to the heat gun.
Note – (For higher quality parts $$) the quick-connects recommended by Dr. Shrink are going for about $120 for both sets
* To use these, you will need to use the 1/4″NPT-to-9/16″(LH) adapters that came on the torch and regulator in their original positions (skip step 1).
*Hint. The actual manufacturer part #’s for these are Western Enterprises QDB11 (torch-to-hose), and QDB31 (regulator-to-hose).
The first time I had to connect my gun-to-hose-to-regulator, it was all worth it. Click, click, gas-on and go. Saves lots of time! Plus you can check your tank pressure with the regulator alone.
