Cutting Correct Holes for AC and Other Things

Eugene Silberstein 3

Since there was a thread about cutting incorrect holes for AC, I thought I would share a trick of the trade that was taught to me by an old-time electrician. He used it quite often when locating and installing recessed lighting fistures (hi-hats). He used nothing more than an old wire hanger. Here's what he did...

Let's say he needed to locate a 4" hi-hat fixture. He would take the hanger,cut it to give him a long, straight piece of of rigid wire, and plunge it through the sheetrock. With the small puncture hole made, he would bend the end of the wire hanger so that there was a 2 1/2" bend on the end. He would feed the bent end of the wire through the hole and then rotate the wire a full 360 degrees.

This would let him know if there were any obstacles within a 5-inch radius of the original pilot hole. He would then push the hanger up into the hole to determine if there were any obstructions over the proposed hole site.