Drilling holes through a wall for a Stage Snake

[lavenders]

Hi everybody,

I've looked around for solutions to this simple construction problem ALL over the internet to no avail...

I work at an online radio station that hosts live bands several times a week in a bit of a makeshift space ("live" as in pre-recorded Pro Tools sessions with everyone playing at the same time). We've been running cables from our live room to our control room for years, but just recently purchased a stage snake!

So now, I have to run the snake cable from control to live (control room desk is directly behind the wall of live room), and will obviously have to do some drilling through the existing wall. We opted not to wall mount it as we have very eclectic sessions and need the snake to move around the live room.

I'd like to just feed the snake cable through about a 3" hole in the wall, but I obviously don't want sheetrock dust all over it every time it grazes the sides of the holes... plus I don't want it to look ghetto.

So I'm looking for something like a bass drum port "O"... but for a wall. Some sort of tube ( ) that the cable can rest in within the wall. Home Depot looks at me like I'm crazy, and like I said, the internet hasn't been much help.

Any ideas, suggestions, or simple workarounds would be greatly appreciated!

PS We're a pretty diy non-profit and hiring someone to do this doesn't seem like much of an option considering our budget this year...

[xaMdaM]

Technically they're called Rat Hole's...

Seriously, you can find exactly what you need, but they're gonna be EXPENSIVE!

There's a better alternative for those on a budget...

Contact any reputable commercial electrician or plumber... ask them for about foot of some 3"-4" PVC. (or however thick your wall is, plus a coupla' inches on each side.)

Come up off the floor about 1-1/2", then trace the outside diameter of the PVC pipe on both sides of the wall... get a drywall saw and have at it.

You can clean up the edge where you push the pipe through with a decent paintable caulk.

When you push the cable through, stuff that puppy tight with rags to soften up the bleed between the two rooms.

Of course, you can get all fancy and use two 90 degree sweeps and turn them in an "S" shape, and let the ends rest on the ground. That will help cut the bleed as well... But you'll have to spend more on the PVC glue than you will the two 90's, and it'll be a bit more work to push the connectors through.

[jwl]

Agreed, PVC is the way to go. If you want to get hardcore with iso, then you can use 2 separate pieces of PVC pipe that don't quite touch each other, just a few mm apart inside the wall cavity, one attached to each wall. This way you don't get flanking noise transmitted between the 2 wall assemblies. If you don't have an isolated, 2-leaf wall assembly that this is probably overkill.

Once the cable is run through, I'd stuff them tight with open-celled acoustic foam, or even fiberglass or rockwool if the cable won't be disturbed much, rather than rags.

[xaMdaM]

Agreed on the use of fiberglass batt... stuff it in pantyhose (sausage roll style) and stuff THAT inside something like a cloth roll and sew it up.

But assuming that the OP will be pulling the snake repeatedly... the foam and fiberglass will likely break down with extensive use.

To help, with the barrier issue, no matter what you use to stuff the PVC with, you can sometimes find latex sheet goods and glue it over each end of the PVC, then cut a single slit in it. Make one vert on one end, and horz on the other... anything that you can do to make it hard for air to move through the opening.

Whatever you use, stuff it TIGHT.

[spm_gl]

I really wouldn't make it slide inside the wall. Rather have a loop in the live room that you roll up somewhere, and make sure noone can pull the snake through the wall.
The prettiest solution would be a multipin connector box on the wall that you simply plug your snake into.
The ugliest solution is the one we currently have in our piano room, with a big black cable coming out ouf the top right corner. Haven't had the time to finish it up yet :-(

[Rick Sutton]

One small note......don't go gung ho and cut the hole with a large saber saw UNTIL you carefully cut or drill a small hole through one side and probe and inspect for any AC wiring (or ANY wiring/plumbing/obstacles) that could be running in the wall.

[lavenders]

Thanks SO much for all these replies. I'm taking all this into consideration and will begin work today. I'll let you guys know how it comes out!

PS, Definitely going to drill a hole first so I don't go pummeling through some lightning. Thanks.

[lavenders]

So I completed the job and thought I'd post some pics with a good idea, IMO, that I stumbled upon!

Desk Grommets!

Those little friends that slip into a (perfect-sized) 2.5" hole in a desk to help organize monitor cables and the like. Popped one on each side of the hole through the wall (drilled with a hole saw) with a 2" dia. piece of pvc pipe inside the wall. The little cover with the hole slipped right over the snake cable after running it through.

My only regret is using Gorilla Glue that flared up a bit more than I thought it would where I over applied. Oh well... from the pics you can tell the building is in questionable shape as it is. Most importantly though, it's not going anywhere.

Thanks for all the insight and quick responses everyone! Another reason to love gearslutz.

[Rick Sutton]

Excellent solution!

And you didn't cut through the AC lines!

[lavenders]

That was definitely my biggest concern... I held my breath and drilled a test hole first!