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Install-It-Yourself HRV
By Steve Maxwell
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Cutting and Joining Metal Duct
Sheet metal work usually forms the biggest part of most HRV installations. The good news is that this isn’t rocket science and requires just a few basic tools: sharp tin snips, cordless drill with magnetic nutdriver tip, needlenose pliers, measuring tape and a permanent marker. If you’ve never worked with metal duct before, you might not realize that it comes from the store as curved sheets with an unassembled, snap-together joint running the length of each piece. As fun as it is to snap the duct together, don’t do it until you’ve measured and cut required parts. Duct needs to be cut flat. It can’t be cut after snapping together.
Also, take a look at each factory-fresh piece of duct and you’ll see that one end is crimped and one end straight. This allows lengths of assembled duct to be connected end-to-end, one piece fitting inside the other. But it only takes one short cut to remove the crimped end from a length of pipe. Then what do you do next time when you need another crimped chunk of pipe to make a connection?
Although you can buy a special tool for reestablishing a crimp on the end of metal duct, you don’t need one. Instead, crimp it yourself, one fold at a time, using needlenose pliers. It only takes a minute or two and does a great job.
When it comes to joining pipe, choose self-drilling, hex-head screws torqued in with a cordless drill. The tip of self-drilling screws look like a drill bit, and that’s what you want. Similar screws without self-drilling capabilities abound, but you don’t want them for this job. Why use fasteners that require a pre-drilled pilot hole when the right screws do the job themselves?
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Install-It-Yourself HRV
By Steve Maxwell
|
|
|
Cutting and Joining Metal Duct
Sheet metal work usually forms the biggest part of most HRV installations. The good news is that this isn’t rocket science and requires just a few basic tools: sharp tin snips, cordless drill with magnetic nutdriver tip, needlenose pliers, measuring tape and a permanent marker. If you’ve never worked with metal duct before, you might not realize that it comes from the store as curved sheets with an unassembled, snap-together joint running the length of each piece. As fun as it is to snap the duct together, don’t do it until you’ve measured and cut required parts. Duct needs to be cut flat. It can’t be cut after snapping together.
Also, take a look at each factory-fresh piece of duct and you’ll see that one end is crimped and one end straight. This allows lengths of assembled duct to be connected end-to-end, one piece fitting inside the other. But it only takes one short cut to remove the crimped end from a length of pipe. Then what do you do next time when you need another crimped chunk of pipe to make a connection?
Although you can buy a special tool for reestablishing a crimp on the end of metal duct, you don’t need one. Instead, crimp it yourself, one fold at a time, using needlenose pliers. It only takes a minute or two and does a great job.
When it comes to joining pipe, choose self-drilling, hex-head screws torqued in with a cordless drill. The tip of self-drilling screws look like a drill bit, and that’s what you want. Similar screws without self-drilling capabilities abound, but you don’t want them for this job. Why use fasteners that require a pre-drilled pilot hole when the right screws do the job themselves? |
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