Exterior Hood for Blast Gate

I’ve looked through the forum with no luck- I would like to make a hood, like a dryer vent hood, to mount on the exterior of my blast gate setup. Will have one piece of clear cast acrylic the width of the window, edged with weather strip. The exhaust hole will be in this one piece of acrylic with the other parts of the blast gate mounted to it. I would like to have a simple downward hood mounted on the outside to keep rain, etc away from the blast gate. Everything will be clear acrylic. Has anyone by any chance made such a file? Thanks- I’ve been thrilled with my few projects so far.

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honestly, i think most of us just buy a dryer vent cover with flaps. i’ve been using the same one since 2017.

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I agree with @shop, way cheaper than the acrylic you’ll use. And, it works great. I have a screen on mine so wasps can’t build a nest!

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i removed the screen on mine. after about 5-6 months, the mesh was all clogged anyway. maybe a chicken wire screen would be ok, but the fine mesh style will get clogged eventually.

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Never used mesh. Livin on the edge, yo.

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werd.

now, i do have a blast gate (which i rarely close unless it’s really windy) and the outside has multiple louvers on it, so it would be a PITA for a squirrel/bird to open and get stuff in. maybe if you just had one big flap, it might be an issue. but i’ve never seen anything in there. and squirrels/birds hang out on that outside sill of the window often enough. to the point where if the squirrels get chatty, i bang on the board to make them go away.

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Oh, (note to self), Go outside and check mesh.

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Yeah the louvers have always been enough for me.

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Just cut an occasional lbit of acrylic or leather or possibly MDF. No wasp woukd want that for a home.

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Exactly what I was thinking :grimacing:

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I do a reasonable amount of leather so maybe that’s why they stay away!!

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When you can buy something like this for ~$10 it’s hard to justifiy acrylic.

That being said, if you wanted to make one it wouldn’t be very hard.
Use a box generator to make a triangular box (this console box is 90% of the way there), and then make the bottom a grid, and cut as large a hole as you can fit into the rear wall (possibly extending it’s edges out to give you easier access to screwing it into your house).

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