Method of assembling endoscope optical components

An optical component assembly method including shrinking a first end of a heat shrink tube about a first optical component, inserting a loading portion of a loading tube into a second end of the heat shrink tube, radially-inserting a plurality of optical components into a staging portion of the loading tube thereby forming a line of optical components, the staging portion being seamlessly coupled to and integrally-formed with the loading portion, moving the line of optical components from the staging portion into the loading portion, and removing the loading portion from between the line of optical components and the heat shrink tube thereby depositing the line of optical components in the heat shrink tube. The line of optical components is fixed and optically aligned within the heat shrink tube by applying radial pressure, axial pressure and heat to the line of optical components simultaneously.