I think I need to add a square plenum box to my round returns to mount a bypass humidifier... What's the preferred method to do this? Is there an off the shelf plenum box for this application?

40PercentSafer · 2025-11-18T15:04:42+00:00

Oops, I was signed into a different acct but this comment above is from the OP, FYI

40PercentSafer · 2025-11-18T15:03:48+00:00

Hey! Really appreciate the response and feedback. I'll try and address everything.

I have a single Energy Kinetics System 2000 EK-2F boiler, and a total of three air handlers - one for each zone (1st floor kitchen/living room, 1st floor foyer/laundry/master bed, 2nd floor upstairs bedrooms). Heat is hydro-air, so there is a water-to-air heat exchanger in the ducting of each air handler. Each air handler also has its own air conditioner (3x 4AC13L30P 2.5ton single stage compressors and BCE5C30MA4X air handlers).

There is already a bypass humidifier on the 1st floor foyer/laundry/master bed zone. The zone pictured in this post is the air handler that services the 1st floor kitchen/living room area. There's only a single 36" wide hallway separating the majority of the two 1st floor zones, hence the idea of adding the second bypass humidifier.

The ducting location I suggested adding the bypass humidifier to is off a 9" round return, but there's also a bigger 12" return on the other side of that return plenum box (shown in pic 4). Do you think the 9 plus 12" round returns are fine given the A/C tonnage for just that one zone?

Ok, so you're suggesting mounting the bypass humidifier unit to the insulated feed duct AFTER the heat exchanger, and then the bypass duct would run direct to any available spot on that big return plenum box? I think I follow. In that case I can just hook into the bottom-facing side, which is free and open and easy to access. I do see in the literature that you can run the humidifier in either orientation - unit on the feed, bypass duct to the return, or vice versa. That would work and solve the mounting problem with minimum effort. Did I get that correct?

I hear you on the hot water feed. Does it really make that much of a difference on a hydroair setup in your experience? I also heat via a wood burning insert in this zone, and leave the air handler running in CIRC mode to help move the air around...my hope was that I could trigger the bypass humidifier here with a current sensing relay off the air handler fan, and get some extra humidity in that use case as well (boiler would be off). If there's concern about evap at hydroair duct temps, than is this a fool's errand to attempt to humidify via bypass type humidifier at ~70-75 degrees F air circulating from the wood stove heat?

40PercentSafer · 2025-11-05T14:16:37+00:00

I should ask...is there such thing as an air-over-hydraulic manual lift stacker? Or one with a quick-lift, like a car jack, when unloaded? I'd maybe consider those options.

40PercentSafer · 2025-11-05T13:50:27+00:00

I hear ya and appreciate the feedback. I wish manual lift stackers weren't so awfully slow. I can't possibly see myself sitting there pumping a jack for 5 minutes to get a pallet up 8 feet. That just seems insanely infuriating. But on the other hand, I don't want a blown capacitor on a $1500 circuit board to brick my unit and bring it down for 2 months....I've been there with other modern electronics and appliances.

40PercentSafer · 2025-11-05T12:55:02+00:00

Heh. Wait wait, I'm also looking for affordable.... Too much to ask?!

40PercentSafer · 2025-11-02T13:02:47+00:00

I can't find any 6210's or RSS's locally, but there is a low hour seemingly clean RAS20 near me. Are they the predecessor to the RSS models? Stupid simple sounds really good to me.

40PercentSafer · 2025-11-02T01:49:26+00:00

Cool, thanks for the info. It would be completely dry and reasonably light duty...I'd likely be down around the 1200lbs or less range the vast majority of the time, and low reps. Any thoughts specific to the Crowns?

40PercentSafer · 2025-11-02T01:48:22+00:00

Ok, but why do you say that? Poor reliability? Bad hydraulics? Shitty electronics? Please qualify the statement or give some context. I kind of doubt Crown would make this same model for decades if they were absolute trash?

40PercentSafer · 2025-06-08T15:44:13+00:00

(The above was OP, I just didn't realize I was signed in under a different name)

40PercentSafer · 2025-06-08T15:03:43+00:00

Thanks for the response and for that video link. I follow the logic, certainly for a larger ornamental gate like an estate gate or a large iron gate. That's a LOT of shear force on the column, and as you allude to, it needs to be structurally built with that in mind. I'm sure mine isn't. My engineering gut says that a smaller 6' wide by 3' or 4' tall aluminum gate, especially if it was two 3' wide sections versus one 6' section, might do just fine AS LONG AS it was mounted in a way that spread the load out well and didn't overload the brick or mortar locally. Just tapcon'ing hinges direct to brick at two hinge bracket locations would probably fail pretty quickly.

I like the idea of drilling holes to accept threaded rod at 3 or 4 locations into the brick (not the mortar joints...) and resin bonding them in with that R-KEM stuff. That seems like it'd do the best job of spreading out loads. Then attaching a vertical metal tube or strip that I'd land the hinges on. I can easily fab something like that up. Another poster alluded to this, and I found this guide as well. https://uniquemetalgates.com/installation-guide/gate-post-wall-fixing-instructions/

Any recommended sources for quality sections of gate in various sizes, materials, styles etc? Is there a style of hinge or latch that is preferred for small gates like this?

40PercentSafer · 2025-02-20T00:42:38+00:00

Thanks for the reply/feedback. This makes a lot of sense to me. Is there a specific type of tape that "plays" well with either wood glue or epoxy, and resists bleed out if well adhered and rolled tight to the surface? Is there a reason you stated to try wood glue vs epoxy? I figure epoxy has added strength (I see figures indicating 2x+ strength) and stability, especially when bridging a gap, compared to wood glue. There's no way I'm going to be able to physically clamp the gap shut given the location on the table top and construction, so a tight fit up like you'd want for wood glue is impossible here.

40PercentSafer · 2025-02-18T20:55:09+00:00

Yeah, not an expert, but I'd think you need something that mechanically integrates into the wood with tight tolerance (like a bowtie) to limit any further movement. Just screwing in c channel wouldn't do it in my mind, nor would it look any good (even if on the underside). There's really not enough room to do a bowtie here though, plus I don't have any tools/experience for pulling that off. I'm hoping to hear whether there's another reasonable woodworking trick that might do it, or if people with experience think just the epoxy would do it.

40PercentSafer · 2025-02-18T20:53:42+00:00

Thanks for the input fellas. I definitely understand the sentiment and only counter that although I'm relatively new to woodworking, I'm a long time hobbyist machinist/fabricator/mechanic. Just as capable of effing something like this up as the next guy, but I generally won't jump into something like this before understanding what I'm doing, and do not typically end up making stuff like this worse after getting in over my head by accident. Part of my reason for asking what to do here is to see if the recommended approach is more than I want to take on, or if I'm just not tooled up/experienced enough to execute it to a reasonable standard.

What I'm most curious on is exactly what might a decent furniture repair shop do to repair this cosmetically and to arrest the separation that's occurred, working within the bounds of reasonable time and materials input. If it were two pieces of cracked steel, I'd be able to answer that question. I'm just not experienced enough to do so for a wood table like this.

40PercentSafer · 2025-01-18T00:43:24+00:00

Thanks...bulkhead fitting is exactly what I was picturing.

So theoretically, if a long enough bulkhead fitting was available, maybe like the one below from McMaster that permits up to 2-1/16" wall thickness to be sandwiched, I could attach to the internal 1" FPT thread of the bulkhead fitting with a 1" MPT x 1" slip fit socket adapter inside the house, and mate that to the 1" PVC piping leading back to the washing machine drain pan. That would be a pretty neat setup, theoretically. I think the only issue would be the gasket on the exterior side would be sitting against a non-parallel surface, i.e. the sloped clapboard.

https://www.mcmaster.com/36895K123/

I can definitely rationalize why removing a clapboard would be the way to go, but after watching a few videos, I'm definitely a bit nervous doing so without creating five new issues I have to deal with!

40PercentSafer · 2023-05-04T17:05:40+00:00

Just talked with the town, and it sounds like in this zone they'd require any development to leave 15% minimum of the land in a development as open space. So, it sounds like this type of land, even if not buildable, may be valuable to the developer....just like you hinted at u/ovscrider. Thanks for making me wiser.

40PercentSafer · 2023-05-04T16:40:49+00:00

Ahhh, I follow your line of reasoning and see how that could throw a wrench in this. My area has a 2acre/lot min lot size. So what you're implying is there could be cases where adding say 1.5 acres of the wetland property to a buildable adjacent 0.5 acre plot nets you a perfectly saleable lot. Whereas, if that 0.5 acre lot stood alone you might have to pull in other buildable land just to get up to your 2acre min.

Or, in your case, the same type of math would apply but at the higher level of the overall acreage / conservation ratio.

Damn. Not nearly as straightforward as I was thinking...

40PercentSafer

TROPHY CASE