YouTube sheetmetal tricks.

[C-Bag]

the YouTube AI made this one pop up and this guy did great job IMHO. As with anything it seems once you get the basics it’s all about tricks and shortcuts. HVAC ducting has always fascinated me and anytime someone wants to show you how to do something with just hand tools I’m all in.

He shows how to make a plenum box and introduces several super handy tools. The first one he calls bulldog snips which are short snips perfect for doing inside corners. The next one is using a screen spline tool that’s a double ended roller for installing screen splines when installing screen in frames. He uses it to do the stiffening X’s, very slick. I happened to have one and just replaced the screen on our back sliding glass door. And the last one was S lock which I’d never heard of which is used for joining sheetmetal. A comment was to make Pittsburgh locks which is similar but needs a brake to make where you can supposedly buy S lock somewhere. Another handy tool for 1” bends he had was a 15” slotted plate. I have a short 6” version and have used it a couple of times.

Hope someone finds this useful.

 

[cwilliamrose]

Been a while, how you doin' these days? Thanks for posting that.

 

[C-Bag]

Been a while, how you doin' these days? Thanks for posting that.

Yup, been a minute as they say Not been doing any sheet metal but it's always on the back burner just waiting it's turn on the todo list. Glad you enjoyed the vid. What tip did you get that was new to you? Ever heard of "S lock" before? Seems as though it's only at HVAC specific suppliers

 

[mickri]

I watched that video and others when I was researching how to install a FAU/CA in my house. I used the HF sheet metal bender to make the chimney cap when I replaced the flue pipe on my wood stove. The "S" lock is available at Lowes and Home Depot.

 

[cwilliamrose]

The use of the screen tool was great, I'll be using that one in the future. I had not seen those S lock parts until now. I have always wanted to play with Pittsburgh joints but in aircraft they are seldom used. I built a crazy Y-pipe for our cooktop exhaust which went through a concrete block wall (into the garage) but around a concrete filled and re-barred vertical cell. The quote I got was for Pittsburgh joints in galvanized steel all around. I really wanted to see if they could actually pull it off but it would have cost me $3500 (!!) for that bit of fun. I built it myself in stainless and TIG welded the joints. Did the design in Solidworks and had the complex parts cut on a CNC nibbler;






My wife calls it "gorilla butt". The exhaust goes through a fan in the attic and then vertically out through the roof......Bill

 

[C-Bag]

gorilla butt....hehe. Nice work.

The "S" lock is available at Lowes and Home Depot.

hmm, both places have horrible searches. I don't have a Lowes close but I did a search for S lock hvac and got bupkiss. Do you have a link Chuck?

 

[RJSakowski]

A very interesting video. I especially liked the screen spline tool. The bending tool for the tabs was great too. It looked like a commercially available tool. I'll have to check that one out. The one concern that I had is it looked like he was working with 24 ga. sheet and I was wondering how well those two tools would work on 20 ga. sheet.

Thanks for sharing.

Some thirty years ago I built a custom wood burning central heating furnace and made all my own duct work. I used a heavier gauge sheet metal than normally done. A friend has a large shear and brake so I was able to make the straight sections from two pieces of two adjacent sides. The smaller pieces like offsets that needed final measurements and fitting, I made at home using my 30" shear and an improvised brake. For the joints, I tack welded every 2" and every 5" on the inside with my MIG welder. I did use the S cleats on the section joints though. Some ten years later, we replaced the LP backup furnace with an LP HVAC unit and about fiver years later, a new wood burning furnace. I had to replace the duct work to my hot air plenum and had a sheet metal shop make one to my design. It was offset in two directions and was more than I wanted to take on at that time. I had the shop make up a special S cleat that was 2" wide to allow me to lift the wood burner up to the duct work.

 

[RJSakowski]

Menards carries them. https://www.menards.com/main/heatin...4-c-14260.htm?tid=-3627257136865553964&ipos=7

I believe the S cleats are sometimes referred to as Z cleats.

 

[brino]

hmm, both places have horrible searches. I don't have a Lowes close but I did a search for S lock hvac and got bupkiss. Do you have a link Chuck?

Hi Tony, I went to homedepot.com and searched on "hvac ducting" and eventually found it on the eighth page:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-60-in-S-Cleat-CS60/100170140

The bending tool for the tabs was great too. It looked like a commercially available tool. I'll have to check that one out.

RJ, I saw that one too:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-18-in-Folding-Tool-86532/304788047
....and it says 24 regular and 28 gauge stainless, and comes in 12, 18 and 24-inch lengths.

Brian

 

[brino]

I built a crazy Y-pipe for our cooktop exhaust which went through a concrete block wall (into the garage) but around a concrete filled and re-barred vertical cell. The quote I got was for Pittsburgh joints in galvanized steel all around. I really wanted to see if they could actually pull it off but it would have cost me $3500 (!!) for that bit of fun. I built it myself in stainless and TIG welded the joints.

Great job on that coupler!
Thanks for showing that.

Brian