Venting through the garage wall
 

I have my mini-studio set up in the garage again but the torch isn't getting fired back up until I get my ventilation finished. I have all the parts and pieces except for whatever I'm going to use to get the bad air out of the garage.

My squirrel cage fan is almost identical to the pic below. The way I have it set up, the cage is on a shelf high on the garage wall with the duct-work coming into the side and the exhaust butted up against the garage wall. I need to cut out a hole in the sheetrock and also in the siding of the house and pipe the exhaust out. Therein lie my questions:

- The fan doesn't have any flange or anything on the exhaust side. I need something to funnel the fumes from the back of the fan through the wall to the outside. The rectangular exhaust outlet on the fan is approximately 6" x 7". What do I use for this? The best plan I can come up with is taking the fan to somewhere that can make a galvanized steel rectangular "pipe" that will slide over the exhaust and is just long enough to go from the fan to the outside of the house.

- Once I get the exhaust pumping out of the garage, I need some sort of cover on it that will keep rain and small animals from getting in. The hole in the side of the house won't be a standard size so what should I do to get it "capped" off?

Thanks for the help and have a blessed holiday and upcoming year.

-BEP

ps. I have the make-up air dealt with already.


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ns/SCFan02.jpg

First thing that comes to my mind is to take a pair of tin snips to an eight inch round duct section and cut four slices that will flatten out to the size of each side of the fan outlet.

You will want a fingers length of overlap onto the fan outlet if you can.

Screw the duct work to the fan and fold the excess duct work in where you can otherwise trim it even with the curve and corners. I used screws at the fan so I can disconnect it but I also used pop rivets to control the cone shape before it got to the fan.

Wrap all the seams in sticky aluminum tape used for ductwork. ( Not the shinny plastic stuff )

Then the duct can go through a round hole in the wall, turn 90 degrees upward and get a rain hat. I mounted mine a foot above the edge of the roof edge.

Be sure you have 10 feet of distance from the rain hat and any windows or doors where fresh air might go back into the studio. Diagonal distance counts.


I wrapped my outside seams in the sticky aluminum tape when I found icicles forming a few winters back so I suggest doing it while you have the ladder set up now.

Mine is set up in my house so I used an 8 inch blast gate from ebay to control heat loss.

You may not need it if your garage is not heated.

As it turns out, I bought an extra 8" piece of ducting that I was going to return. Using it to fab the pipe through the wall is a much better idea.

I'd prefer to have a flush-mounted vent on the side of the house, but will keep the 90* bend + rain hat idea in my back pocket in case I can't accomplish what I want.

Thanks for the great idea(s).

-BEP

You should be able to use quarter inch hardware cloth to keep the birds from nesting in your flush mounted vent outlet.

IF you get smaller screen you will have to make sure you take into account how much the tighter screening will reduce your air flow.

Window size screening can cut the air flow in half and could block the output enough to cause the fan to over heat.

This finally got done yesterday. Aluminum tape is next, once I find the roll I already bought.

The duct is 8" ( 25.13" circumference ) and the sides of the outlet are 6" and 7" ( 26" ) so it worked out great.

Thanks for the idea, Phil.

-BEP

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...thDuctOnIt.jpg

Glad it worked for you.

I have something similar. I can go grab some pics if you want.

I'd like to see what you have outside for the vent, assuming your fan is on the inside the house. My fan will be inside the garage venting through the wall.

Thanks!

-BEP

Here is my exhaust vent on the outside:

I found my squirrel cage exhaust fan to be too noisy so I am doing what Pam did, see link below, Lots of great photos and a very well thought out studio.



http://bluebetween.com/studio.htm

I looked at one like that but it had a flap on it along with the screen. I was worried it would restrict the airflow too much. Now that I see yours, I need to look at them again and consider removing the flap. Thanks for taking the time for the pics.

-BEP

I had a SWEET shed built at my previous house that was going to be a shedio. I can't have on here, unfortunately. I also can't have the fan outside.

-BEP

yes, we removed the flap. Haven't had any problems. We just added another vent down the wall for intake air so I don't have to leave a door etc open. Still playing with that one.

Very good to hear. I'll hit up Locke at lunch and grab one, then.

My plan was to raise the garage door a bit and use that for makeup air. Where I sit is far from the garage door and I'll be venting on a different side of the house so there's no worry about recycling the "bad" air. But, this plan makes it harder to torch when it's cold, hot, or raining. Popping an intake vent waaaaay down the wall from the exhaust vent will probably be a better solution.

Thanks yet again,
-BEP

That is exactly what I was doing, cracking the big garage door maybe 8-10", or leaving my side garage door open. Not so fabulous when it is cold or hot, or raining etc. The intake vent is something I've wanted for a long time. I have not cut a hole in my bench top yet. Right now, the duct is under my bench on the floor. I can feel the air coming out of it, tho it isn't as much as I expected. And my two vents are not as far apart as I wish they were - maybe 8-9 feet. I think I read at least 10' is needed but I just didn't have that much room. I still open up a door when I can, for added replacement air.

Yesterday, I hung the new shelf, rotozipped the hole in the sheetrock and placed the fan up there temporarily. I also bought the 2 exterior vents.

This is a pic of the "dry fit" to see how it's going to look. I'm happy with it.

-BEP

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...nTestFit01.jpg

Congrats! Looks great!

Appreciate it. It's time to get this project done.

-BEP

And...... DONE! ( almost ).

I still need to seal around the ductwork leaving the fan into the wall with something that blocks the air but isn't a permanent seal. I haven't come up with a great solution for that, yet.

And, I need a flap for the make-up air hole to keep one of my cats out of it.

Besides that, it's done and passes the smoke test easily. It's a lot quieter than expected, though. For that, I am happy.

Now I have to clean up all the crap in the area and get it where I can do some melting with the torch. I have all this fusing stuff taking up most of my room especially since I work with both 90 and 96.

The power cord and strip look janky at the moment, that will be addressed tonight.

-BEP

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ompleteLWE.jpg

Could you put a wire screen in the hole? We used the kind with little squares, pretty stiff, not sure what it's called. The little squares are maybe 1/4" wide.

A screen with 1/4" or 1/2" holes sounds good, thanks. I was trying to come up with something that would make it looks less unsightly and saw the ring I removed from the fan when I attached the ductwork to the intake.

I cut a short piece of ductwork to put in the wall as a short tunnel and capped it with the ring and it looks pretty good, now.

I'll put some screen in there to prevent Kira the cat from doing something stupid. I also need to fill those holes around the ring that are left from a tool rack I took down.

-BEP

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../ReturnAir.png

Moving right along!!! You're going to love it!

Great progress!!

With standard size pipe you can often get a loovered vent/cover from global industrial, McMaster, or any comercial HVAC company/supplier.

The vents close automatically when not in use and blow open when you turn on the fan/blower.

I'll check Locke Supply at lunch. I went there to get the venting for the exterior and didn't see what you're describing, but I probably just missed it.

I've seen pics of round ones and square ones in metal and plastic.

-BEP

I ended up interviewing a potential employee over lunch so didn't get to go to Locke. I did pick up some cement board for the wall after work at Lowe's.

Mounted half the cement board and had to fire up the Bravo. Grins.

Except for a different vent cover, this is the end of my ventilation journey. Thanks for the help and support, folks. It's almost time to melt some damned glass.

-BEP

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...entilation.JPG

Glad to see venting through the garage wall worked well for you. I have to do the same exact thing as you. Vent out of the top corner of the garage with an 8" duct, and some type of nice looking raincap for the exterior. As well as making sure its sealed, screened and has some back-flow shutter. You said you used a short piece of ducting to fill the space in the wall itself? Like a coupler? That sounds like it would work well. I also plan to use an inline fan such as a Can Fan instead of your squirrel cage, to hopefully make it a bit quieter. We will see. Gonna try to rubber isolate mount it, maybe try an enclosed box for it if too loud. I plan on doing most of my work at night when the family is sleeping in the quiet attached house. And unfortunately mounting the fan on the exterior is not an option.

I used a rotozip to cut an 8" diameter hole in the side of the house and a matching hole on the inside.

This pic was from the exhaust hole, not the return air hole. For this hole, I didn't use the rotozip on the inside. I also learned that I should have started on the outside so I could put the hole in the middle of a piece of siding, instead of leaving it to chance. The siding above the hole interfered with the rotozip and also made the metal cap not sit flush with the side.

The return air hole and vent cap looks much better.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...xhaustHole.JPG

On the outside, I used one of these things, except mine had a metal flap that I took off and it has screen build in:

https://basc.pnnl.gov/sites/default/...NL_6-28-12.jpg

On the inside, I used a ring that I removed from the squirrel cage fan when I attached the ducting to it. It fit nicely over the hole.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...turAirRing.png

Since the hole was 8" and I had a whole extra run of 8" ducting, I measured the depth of the hole and cut a small piece from it to make a short "run" between the outside wall and inside wall. It worked better than I had expected. You can sort of see it inside the hole on that last pic.

Right now, I don't have any sort of flap on the return air. I may add one later.

-BEP

How is your studio coming along? Any updates on how your ventilation work for you?

The ventilation works well and it's quieter than I expected. A slightly higher CFM fan would be better, but this one is doing the job.

I haven't been melting much lately, but that will hopefully change this weekend. Space is an issue; the whole area is cramped because I have too many types of glass ( sheet, rod, tube, 33, 90, 96, 104 ) along with both lampwork and fusing stuff all in a small area. CALGON!!

I can't even try the new big kiln because I can't free up space around it. We're in the planning and acquiring stage of redoing our kitchen counters, sink, and backsplash. The new sink and all the tile, etc. is taking up too much room in the area around the kiln.

I need more lighting. I have a small lamp sitting on the top of the hood facing down, but I need something more permanent. I haven't quite decided how I want to set it up. Two single bulb lamps fastened to the side of the hood appeals to me for some reason.

-BEP