LTIL (the TL : DR version) -: Managed to install the new rangehood last night, so the stove is officially back in service!
LTIL (the full saga) -: Rangehood delivered by Appliances Online as promised on Tuesday afternoon, taking the faulty rangehood away with them. Note that I'd elected to
not take up the offer for them to professionally install for $217 (given that was basically 2/3 the price of the whole rangehood!!).
Pulled everything out of the box and naturally, not only are there no mounting screws (which I was admittedly expecting to be the case), but various designated mounting points are completely obstructed by the fan motor and cowling. What idiot designed that, let alone what idiot signed off on that design?? Took a trip to Bunnings to purchase the requisite screws and extended screw bits for my drill (as there was no way my hands/fingers were getting in there to hand screw the thing in place), got home, held the thing in place to confirm the mounting points would work ok and
then realised the power cord was slightly more to the right than the previous unit, meaning the hole in the cupboard meant for feeding the power cable through would not fit. Bunnings now closed, so no rangehood install on Tuesday.
Visited Bunnings last night to purchase a holesaw for the drill so I could easily drill out the extra space needed. Choked when I saw the prices!!! Walked away with a cheapo Ryobi set that was pretty average but would do the job for $40. Get home and start to drill out the hole - get halfway down and holes refuses to go deeper. Start drilling smaller holes around the area and discover a random screw poking in from the wall (i.e. as if someone has drilled from the outside in, rather than from the inside out. Weird!!) that was obviously fouling the holesaw. Manage to clear around it and make the requisite space, so all good. Hold the rangehood back into place to check the fit and we're in business! Then realised I can't hold it in place
and secure it to the cupboard without assistance from someone else, however given it's a 60cm wide unit, having someone else hold it means I don't have space to get in underneath and see what I'm doing. Aargh!!!! Stressful thoughts ensue until I realise I can "MacGyver" a hoist and brace out of some wood offcuts and a vehicle wheel jack!
Off I go to Bunnings again to locate some offcuts. Soon after, I'm heading back home with a flat offset for the princely sum of $2, and another chunkier piece to use as a vertical brace that the Bunnings guys gave me for free and kindly cut into shorter lengths for me (also free). I set to work constructing my hoist/brace and (finally) have the thing held in place with enough surrounding space that I can see what I'm doing and start securing it to the kitchen cupboard above. Success! I mean.... sure it cost me almost $100 to buy the bits and pieces necessary to do the job myself, but $100 < $217, so happy days
Perhaps I should now change my name to Richard Dean Anderson?
you could maybe side hustle.....?
$217 sounds a bargain 
