Ice castle Hole sleeve Length

[Japeloquin]

Hi guys and gals just got my hole sleeves for the ice castle. I went with the glow in the dark ones. My question is how long are you guys cutting them to? I was thinking the Tubing is 4" (I believe) and the plywood is 3/4" so cut them to 4 3/4"? I wont be putting wood under the shack because it will never sit in one spot long. A few days max and will always be heated during that time. Of course if the water is pooling around shack I may need it on wood? What do you guys that use them have them cut to and why? THANKS!

[Boar]

I dont cut mine, I bought the 9" ones, I block my house on 4x4 blocks, so 4" plust frame plus floor I also crank down half way drill, remove half of sluck around the hole, lower down, insert sleeves, the come flush and the sluch forms a seal and the sleeves run fluch the floor easy cheesy.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Best bet is to keep them just a little bit long, 1/2" or so.  If you set your house down on bare ice, they'll melt in after a couple hours.  Most of the time you'll be setting down on at least a little bit of snow.  Either way allows them to form a good seal with the top of the ice/snow.  If they are short you'll always have some sort of air flow under them.  My $.02.  

[Hawg]

LRG is right, don't make them too short.

[dj2quick35]

i cut mine down to about 4" i think.  What i do is take the end that i cut off and insert it back into the sleeve so it pretty much makes an adjustable height sleeve. 

[Boar]

now thats thinkin right there.

[Japeloquin]

22 hours ago, dj2quick35 said:

i cut mine down to about 4" i think.  What i do is take the end that i cut off and insert it back into the sleeve so it pretty much makes an adjustable height sleeve. 

Now I like that idea think I will try that but cut mine to 5" thanks

[dj2quick35]

38 minutes ago, Japeloquin said:

Now I like that idea think I will try that but cut mine to 5" thanks

mine might be at 5"...just cant remember at the top of my head. I marked all around the sleeve with a sharpie and then used a dremmel tool.  I also tried using a oscillating tool and that seemed to work out well too.  What i found to work best is to drill the hole and then i have the ION with reverse so i would clean the hole out but leave the cone that is formed on the ice.  Then i would put the sleeve in and then the part that i cut off from the bottom.  I push that bottom part down into the cone and then finish cleaning out the hole if any slush fell into the hole.

[Hawg]

It's only an early ice problem anyway most years. When the ice gets a little thicker everything works just fine.