Productive weekend
It's been, what seems like forever, that I've updated my blog. Sorry for that, I've been busy.
This weekend I decided that I needed to move the fresh air intake for the heater over one joist bay. The builders apparently didn't care that they had run it in the wrong joist bay, requiring it to jog under a joist because it was running directly into the metal air ducts. This would make building a nice looking soffit impossible and so I had to move it to the correct location.
This involved cutting a new (approximately) 7.5" hole in the side of the house (and not cutting any sized holes in the drain pipe or electrical wire that are in that joist bay). After moving the air intake over I was left with a gaping hole (if 7.5" could be considered gaping). Luckily I have some spare siding and I was able to patch the hole. While I didn't do the world's greatest patch job (there's a small section of siding instead of a few larger sections which I suspect a pro would have done), it's more than acceptable and from more than 5' you can't tell it was any other way.
I also bought some metal ducting to see how much work it would be to install ducting in the basement. To get the ducting installed they make special adapters that have a large plate that allows you to cut a rough opening and connect a 6" round duct cleanly. Of course Home Depot didn't have any of those (though they did have the picture of them). Instead they had only the duct starters that require you to make a perfectly round hole.
I already had a circle cutter for the RotoZip, but I didn't have a metal bit for it, and RotoZip doesn't make one. Luckily Dremel makes a tungsten-carbide bit and I have a collet that will take the 1/8" bits that the Dremel uses (because I don't have a circle cutter for my Dremel). Installing the Dremel bit in the RotoZip was a bit dicey since RotoZip bits are a lot longer than Dremel bits, so I had to put it in just the barest amount, but it was, just barely, long enough.
Starting the hole was easy enough since the bit has a rounded tip. Making the circle cut was a bit more of an ordeal than I was expecting. The metal for the ducting isn't very thick, so I wasn't expecting to see flames shooting out from under the RotoZip. Sparks were expected. Flames? Not expected. The cutting was slow going, slower than I expected, but after a few moments the sparks lessened and the flames stopped. About half way around the circle the cutting slowed and I saw that the bit was glowing orange hot. Orange! That's hot. I let the bit cool for a moment and was able to continue the cut. It made a perfect 6" hole and the adapter fit in perfectly. I think I might need to get another bit before I'm done with all the ducting, but it's worth it rather than trying to cut a hole with tin snips.
It was no effort to the horizontal run of ducting, though the half an hour I spent fighting with the 90 degree adapter to get it bent into 90 degrees (they come straight and you have to rotate the sections to get them into their 90 degree configuration) was rather frustrating.
It looks like the other two runs of ducting will be quick and easy, though I'm a bit worried about the work for the return air ducting since that will have to be much larger (and is generally put into a wall -- and I'm not sure that I have one handy). I'm sure I'll figure something out though.
I'll try to keep the blog up to date better. More news to come. :-)
This weekend I decided that I needed to move the fresh air intake for the heater over one joist bay. The builders apparently didn't care that they had run it in the wrong joist bay, requiring it to jog under a joist because it was running directly into the metal air ducts. This would make building a nice looking soffit impossible and so I had to move it to the correct location.
This involved cutting a new (approximately) 7.5" hole in the side of the house (and not cutting any sized holes in the drain pipe or electrical wire that are in that joist bay). After moving the air intake over I was left with a gaping hole (if 7.5" could be considered gaping). Luckily I have some spare siding and I was able to patch the hole. While I didn't do the world's greatest patch job (there's a small section of siding instead of a few larger sections which I suspect a pro would have done), it's more than acceptable and from more than 5' you can't tell it was any other way.
I also bought some metal ducting to see how much work it would be to install ducting in the basement. To get the ducting installed they make special adapters that have a large plate that allows you to cut a rough opening and connect a 6" round duct cleanly. Of course Home Depot didn't have any of those (though they did have the picture of them). Instead they had only the duct starters that require you to make a perfectly round hole.
I already had a circle cutter for the RotoZip, but I didn't have a metal bit for it, and RotoZip doesn't make one. Luckily Dremel makes a tungsten-carbide bit and I have a collet that will take the 1/8" bits that the Dremel uses (because I don't have a circle cutter for my Dremel). Installing the Dremel bit in the RotoZip was a bit dicey since RotoZip bits are a lot longer than Dremel bits, so I had to put it in just the barest amount, but it was, just barely, long enough.
Starting the hole was easy enough since the bit has a rounded tip. Making the circle cut was a bit more of an ordeal than I was expecting. The metal for the ducting isn't very thick, so I wasn't expecting to see flames shooting out from under the RotoZip. Sparks were expected. Flames? Not expected. The cutting was slow going, slower than I expected, but after a few moments the sparks lessened and the flames stopped. About half way around the circle the cutting slowed and I saw that the bit was glowing orange hot. Orange! That's hot. I let the bit cool for a moment and was able to continue the cut. It made a perfect 6" hole and the adapter fit in perfectly. I think I might need to get another bit before I'm done with all the ducting, but it's worth it rather than trying to cut a hole with tin snips.
It was no effort to the horizontal run of ducting, though the half an hour I spent fighting with the 90 degree adapter to get it bent into 90 degrees (they come straight and you have to rotate the sections to get them into their 90 degree configuration) was rather frustrating.
It looks like the other two runs of ducting will be quick and easy, though I'm a bit worried about the work for the return air ducting since that will have to be much larger (and is generally put into a wall -- and I'm not sure that I have one handy). I'm sure I'll figure something out though.
I'll try to keep the blog up to date better. More news to come. :-)
posted by Mark at 7:55 PM
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