Hiding low-V wires in Fillets and Timber
Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 2:59 pm
I have an idea for hiding wire. See what you think…
At the local big box store I found some clear vinyl tubing with a really small inner diameter. Would probably fit no more than one pair of 14ga Type 3 wire.
My thought is that I could use this as conduit and embed in either fillets or cleats/stringers/carlins.
Fillets : Lay in a small fillet and let it cure halfway (or find some other way to hold the tubing in place while laying a fillet). Then press in the tubing and lay the final fillet on top.
Cleats/stringers : Using a dado stack, cut a rabbet (width of the tubing) in the center of the carlin/timber piece. Shove the tubing in the rabbet and then fill the remaining void with thickened epoxy. See attached sketch.
One particular place I’m thinking of using this is mounting a light or fan in the upper aft corner of the cabin. There will be a carlin where the cabin roof joins the topside panel and I’ll run my tubing conduit inside that carlin. Now I have hidden wire from behind BH2 to the upper aft corners of the cabin.
Another use might be the embedding tubing in the continuous fillet that joins the bottom and side hull panels. This gets wire fore-aft, passing all bulkheads, effectively watertight.
I’m not sure what the cons would be. The only thing I can really think of is the wire generating heat in such a confined space, but I can't fathom that much heat would be generated. I'm talking LED lights, and other low voltage stuff. In the case of embedding in fillets, I guess you're robbing the fillet of some % of strength but we're talking a little more than the diameter of two 14ga wires.
Anyone have any thoughts?
At the local big box store I found some clear vinyl tubing with a really small inner diameter. Would probably fit no more than one pair of 14ga Type 3 wire.
My thought is that I could use this as conduit and embed in either fillets or cleats/stringers/carlins.
Fillets : Lay in a small fillet and let it cure halfway (or find some other way to hold the tubing in place while laying a fillet). Then press in the tubing and lay the final fillet on top.
Cleats/stringers : Using a dado stack, cut a rabbet (width of the tubing) in the center of the carlin/timber piece. Shove the tubing in the rabbet and then fill the remaining void with thickened epoxy. See attached sketch.
One particular place I’m thinking of using this is mounting a light or fan in the upper aft corner of the cabin. There will be a carlin where the cabin roof joins the topside panel and I’ll run my tubing conduit inside that carlin. Now I have hidden wire from behind BH2 to the upper aft corners of the cabin.
Another use might be the embedding tubing in the continuous fillet that joins the bottom and side hull panels. This gets wire fore-aft, passing all bulkheads, effectively watertight.
I’m not sure what the cons would be. The only thing I can really think of is the wire generating heat in such a confined space, but I can't fathom that much heat would be generated. I'm talking LED lights, and other low voltage stuff. In the case of embedding in fillets, I guess you're robbing the fillet of some % of strength but we're talking a little more than the diameter of two 14ga wires.
Anyone have any thoughts?