On Sep 1, 2:49*am, aemeijers wrote:
On 9/1/2011 12:47 AM, wrote:



*wrote:

On 8/31/2011 5:13 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:24:07 -0400, wrote:

I'm trying to put a fan into a 12-inch thick brick wall. Diameter is
about 8 inches. Naturally I don't have an 8 inch masonry bit (and I
wouldn't like to pay the cost) so the next best thing is to cut
through enough bricks to make a squarish hole though which the fan
will fit. But that leaves small gaps on each side which I'd like to
fill in with mortar. I should also mention that I can only get to the
inside; the fan (really the vent part) is lowered from a higher floor
using a string duct-taped in place. When it's where I want it one
strong tug and it's free. So I have to push the mortar in from the
inside and it's a pain in the butt. Push as far as possible using
hands and then use a dowel to push it all the way and hopefully
compact it.

Well there's actually a miniature tool that I could use to do the job.
You know when you have a filling at the dentist: he does his drilling
and then uses a thing that looks like a tube with a piston inside to
place the amalgam in the cavity. He then tamps the amalgam down with
another instrument.

Upsize that tube with a piston to 1/2 inch (or maybe have a range of
sizes from 1/2 to 2 inches), pack it with mortar and then push the
piston home to place the mortar deep into the hole. Now where can I
get such a tool?

I use a garden trowel. I have a cast aluminum one with a deep curved
blade that will shovel in a pretty good amount of concrete at a time.

IMHO, this falls into the Life Is Too Short category. For a couple
hundred bucks, a concrete cutting company can put a pretty hole through
there in an hour, using their honking big drill.

What a load of ridiculous answers! Couple of hundred bucks, indeed!
What part of the world do you come from? There's not a contractor out
there who'll move off his fat butt for a job of less than $1000. You
can't even get a quote for a job this small!

Further let me make it quite clear: This is alt.home.repair, not
alt.line.the.pockets.of.some.wealthy.worker. Like the TV show, "This
Old House" you all seem to have lost the point of the whole thing:
D-I-Y. So no way am I going to employ someone to do something I can do
myself. The point of the original post was to ask if anyone had seen
this type of tool I thought to be useful. No?... OK...just say so or
STFU!

Oh, STFU yourself. I paid $300 for two drilled holes through a 12"
section of poured basement wall, for my furnace guy to run ducts through
to the addition here. There are specialist subs out there who do this
sort of thing routinely. But go ahead and bang your head against the
wall, and spend hours doing what the proper tool would do in minutes.

--
aem sends...

It is more fun to watch a hole being cored in a floor, like for a
floor outlet
box of some kind...

Some contractors will fill a garbage can with water to catch the
plug...

It used to run about $500 per hole, $300 for the hole itself and $200
for
the box installed and properly firestopped...

Was cool to watch the big splash when the plug fell through the
hole...

~~ Evan