It’s official… I’m an idiot!
My time at home lately has been almost exclusively spent on finishing my "little furnace project". This job has been a real pain in my A** to put it lightly! But, I think the light at the end of the tunnel has been found. I wanted to make this cool blog with images of the before and after, but I ran out of time tonight. Maybe later.So, on to my story of how I messed up! As stated before, this ductwork is made of fiberglass boards. Seems easy to work with at first. Kind of a "cut and paste" idea comes to mind. Oh how I oversimplify things.As of yesterday, I had the main "trunk line" and the "plenum"(upright duct directly out of furnace) done. The connecting piece was the most 
thought needed, but it went in well. I had decided to put 3 take-off's (branches into the home) out of the plenum, due to the proximity of floor registers. I finished the trunk/plenum before I cut the holes for the 3 take-off's just in case I had to change something. All is good with the tie-in 
so I go to cutting the holes in the plenum. On the first hole I cut, the cutout piece fell back into the system and landed into the heat exchanger. Now what do I do? Well, I cut the other 2 holes, carefully pulling the cutout from the duct without dropping it. Oh look, I have 2 other holes to see though to find the missing piece. There it was, on top and ready to be saved. Using flat head screwdriver, I tried to snag the damn thing, only to push the cutout down into the heart of the heat exchanger. F**&! I deal with heat exchangers daily at work. I surmise that if I pull the cool side (blower) out, I must be able to reach it. After taking apart the furnace and wiggling my ass into the portion that I believe will save me, I find that the heat exchanger has another baffle built into it. If I was a snake I could get there!!! Again F%%^!What to do, what to do? Well, I have 3 holes in front of me and I am looking for a foreign body about 2 feet bellow. I break out the old digital camera baby! 6" holes are plenty big enough for my arm. So I snap a shot. 
There is was! So I took a dowel rod that I use for Christmas decorations and poke for this thing. I must have took 16 pictures, moving it around until I finally got it stabbed.
So I pull up the rod and the cutout up slowly, like I am playing the game Operation. F*&^, the rod is too long and hits the top of the plenum before the piece is out of the heat exchanger. “Drop” it goes, back in. So I cut about 5” off of the rod and tried again. Oh, I got it, not! Again, Not!!!
Two and ½ hours later, I got it out. After poking and stabbing at this thing for what seemed like days, I got it.
I fired the system up tonight, for at test. :-( The house smells like burnt fiberglass!!!!!!! Evidently stabbing at this thing for so long, over and over, left some fiberglass in the area. Burn baby burn!!!!
I am truly an “I D TEN T” = ID10T!!!1
thought needed, but it went in well. I had decided to put 3 take-off's (branches into the home) out of the plenum, due to the proximity of floor registers. I finished the trunk/plenum before I cut the holes for the 3 take-off's just in case I had to change something. All is good with the tie-in so I go to cutting the holes in the plenum. On the first hole I cut, the cutout piece fell back into the system and landed into the heat exchanger. Now what do I do? Well, I cut the other 2 holes, carefully pulling the cutout from the duct without dropping it. Oh look, I have 2 other holes to see though to find the missing piece. There it was, on top and ready to be saved. Using flat head screwdriver, I tried to snag the damn thing, only to push the cutout down into the heart of the heat exchanger. F**&! I deal with heat exchangers daily at work. I surmise that if I pull the cool side (blower) out, I must be able to reach it. After taking apart the furnace and wiggling my ass into the portion that I believe will save me, I find that the heat exchanger has another baffle built into it. If I was a snake I could get there!!! Again F%%^!What to do, what to do? Well, I have 3 holes in front of me and I am looking for a foreign body about 2 feet bellow. I break out the old digital camera baby! 6" holes are plenty big enough for my arm. So I snap a shot. There is was! So I took a dowel rod that I use for Christmas decorations and poke for this thing. I must have took 16 pictures, moving it around until I finally got it stabbed.So I pull up the rod and the cutout up slowly, like I am playing the game Operation. F*&^, the rod is too long and hits the top of the plenum before the piece is out of the heat exchanger. “Drop” it goes, back in. So I cut about 5” off of the rod and tried again. Oh, I got it, not! Again, Not!!!
Two and ½ hours later, I got it out. After poking and stabbing at this thing for what seemed like days, I got it.
I fired the system up tonight, for at test. :-( The house smells like burnt fiberglass!!!!!!! Evidently stabbing at this thing for so long, over and over, left some fiberglass in the area. Burn baby burn!!!!
I am truly an “I D TEN T” = ID10T!!!1
posted by mattandriver at 10:29 PM
6 Comments:
Dont you just hate that? Irks me to no end! Good job on the ductwork, looks like you had a helper. Much better than I could've done.
I would have been frustrated and angry about half way through this project and would have called someone to come fix my mess. You have perseverance!!
Oh, an update:
Well, she is up and running at 100% Captain. The dilithium crystals are back to normal.
Thanks for all the complements.
And by the way, it's pronounced I dot...that's courtesy of my nephew a few years ago...go figure, he's Dorman's kin.
Okey!!! :p
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