# Exhaust Fan



## berry (Oct 17, 2005)

*Exhaust Fan and Wiring Question*

I'm remodeling a bathroom in our house and I'm installing a new and better exhaust fan. I need to cut the existing 3" sheet metal stack to fit the new fan. This is an in-the-wall unit. 

How would you cut the sheet metal? 

I have a reciprocating saw and one of those oscillating saws like the Fein. Maybe I should just use a hacksaw?

I have aluminum wiring in my house. I haven't done a lot of wiring in the house I had most project done by a licensed electrician. I've heard that when joining aluminum wiring to copper I should use Noalox but recently I heard that a special wire nut is needed with wiring aluminum to copper. Would one of you experts let me know the truth.

Thanks for reading and sharing you knowledge!


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Berry; funny you should ask that, I just retro-fitted two last week (SWMBOjr new/old house).
My suggestion, seeing as the wall's open anyway, is to remove the pipe back to the first available connection and switch to that flexible aluminized vent ducting.
Not the heavy type for dryers but rather the lighter hose style. Inexpensive and perfect for what you need.


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

Berry, I've used the special nuts in the past (my house also has aluminum wire), but the last time I did some re-wiring, I couldn't find them at either HD or Lowes (where I've purchased them before), and I don't remember ever seeing the Noalox until this last job. So, I'm no licensed electrician, but I'm guessing that the Noalox has replaced the special nuts. But you definitely want to use one or the other. Not long after I bought my house, 20 something years ago, I changed the way our kitchen lights came on (two with one switch, changed to two separate switches) and replaced a pull chain switch in the laundry room to a switch on the wall. We were very lucky. I really shouldn't have been doing it myself, but with just purchasing a home, money was tight. So I did it myself. A few months after, the kitchen fluorescents started giving us trouble to turn on. I went in the attic to check things out and the connections had turned black, along with the box they were in. After telling my brother-in-law, who is an electrician, he looked it over and explained to me about tying copper and aluminum wires together. He said I was lucky I didn't burn the house down. Haven't made that mistake again!!


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## Willway (Aug 16, 2012)

Berry you can make your own 'special' wirenuts by simply filling them with Nolox or DeOx aluminum oxidation inhibitors. Messy but it will work.


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

I would remove the sheet metal pipe and cut it with tin snips . Can you remove this pipe though? 
If you sharpen a flat screw driver and hit it while it's placed on the pipe you will create a hole that you can get tin snips in . 
I have a metal miter saw so I would be tempted to try that seeing as it's only 3" in diameter

The pipe while removed does come apart at the seam also . You simply snap it back together


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