We used such adhesive heat shrink at Westinghouse for some things, but it is very pricey (5x regular shrink). The NASA splice is how I do it, but with stranded wire I only wrap about 1.5 times on each side, using 2 needle-nose pliers and I don't tin the wire first (would become too stiff). One guy here showed just forcing the 2 stranded wires together so the strands "mesh", then solder. I tried that several times but doesn't work for me. By twisting them, you secure the wires until you can get them soldered. I dropped my old Radio Shack 75W solder gun and broke it a few days ago, so bought a new Weller 140/100W gun iron at Ace. It heats up much faster and has LED lights. If using a little pencil soldering iron it will take much longer.
