I'm about to order my Axioms, I've learned a *huge* amount by lurking on the boards and reading old posts.

I'm in the process of fishing wire through the walls for my surrounds. Instead of running the wire out of a small hole in the wall into the speaker, I'd like to find a wall plate with a small hole. Ideally, this hole would contain some sort of "rubbery" compound that would seal around the speaker wire. This would prevent whatever small and nasty creatures that inhabit the dark spaces under my house from coming into my house along the wire. Any suggestions? I would prefer not to install plates with binding posts, because it's an extra connection--seems like I'd be asking for trouble.

thanks in advance,
Robert

rjones,

Before you decide on putting a plate up, I'd ask Axiom whether it will interfere with their mounting brackets. That being said, to seal your home from under-house nasties, you could buy some caulk (paintable, if you wish) and just seal the hole around the wire with that.

Get a plate used for a cable TV connection and pick up the appropriate size rubber grommet to fill in the hole while you are at the home store.

I just got three 1.5" plastic grommets from Home Depot that did the trick just fine for each of my surrounds and for the hole behind the receiver. The hole is big enough to conveniently pull the cord through and the grommet avoids the 'critter' issue.

I know what a grommet is on a tarp, but those are brass rings.


What you are describing sounds like exactly what I need. Where in Home Depot do I find the plastic grommets you're refering to? Electrical? Plumbing? Do they have a more specific name?

thanks,
Robert

They're actually more "rubbery" than plastic, so they have a little give in them. Where you could find them I am not really sure. Just ask someone, thats what they are there for.

Electrical. Same place as where they had the speaker cables. Good luck.

Well, I went to Home Depot today, and no luck. The electrical guys just stared at me like I was from Mars. Sigh. Can someone post a photo or a link?

That seems to be what happens to me lately at Home Depot, too, unless I'm asking for something easy, like sandpaper.

The problem with caulk is that the holes are 1.375" in diameter. This was necessary to find the fish tape in the wall. So I pretty much have to put a plate of some kind over them. I suppose there's always duct tape!

And Home Depot used to be *great* for stuff like this. They had people that used to be contractors working in their respective departments. Now with the competition from Lowes and cost-cutting, the level of expertise has gone down *a lot*.

Your Radio Shack or electronics store would also have some rubber wire grommets. Thay may be a little bit more expensive but the folks there would probably understand what it is you are trying to do. They usually have them in their racks with the do it yourself electronic kits/project boxes.