Duct work HVAC question

[never_retreat]

As many of you may recall from previous man cave/ basement remodeling questions I have posted before I need some in-tell.
I have this big old 8x18 trunk in the middle of the front half of the basement running pretty much the whole length of the house.
It does shrink a little part way down maybe 8x12 ish, I don't remember right now. So from where is starts getting in the way (about 10' from the source I want to modify it. There are 4 6" take offs and 3 4". Is there a way to neck this to a flatter wider duct? Logic would say 4x36 at the start and 4x24 at the reduction. Does such a critter exist?
This is my alternate plan than moving it against an outside wall. Too many drains and crap in the way so it would be almost as obtrusive as being the big bump in the middle.

Here is part 2.

I going to need to supply a bit of heat and a little AC to the basement. I want to zone the system a bit to pipe some in.
And since I'm doing some tin knocking I was thinking about zoning the bedrooms from the rest of the house. To save some coin in the winter. Any recommendations for electric dampers? Also say if only the bedrooms are calling for heat will it be a cycling problem?

I'm not worrying to much about the capacity of the system because it has no trouble heating and cooling the house plus I'm adding another r-30 to the attic come fall. The basement also hovers around 68 in the summer with no insulation, soon to be r-19 walls.

[Brad Johnson]

Is there a way to neck this to a flatter wider duct? Logic would say 4x36 at the start and 4x24 at the reduction. Does such a critter exist?

Duct board, alumatape, a sharp knife, and plenty of patience.

Brad

[never_retreat]

Duct board, alumatape, a sharp knife, and plenty of patience.

Brad

I didn't even know they used that stuff anymore.

[Leatherneck]

As long as you keep the same square inchage at every point, you can change the shape however you want, within reason. 36" wide duct may be beyond reason, but maybe not. Think "volume of air" when you redesign ductwork.

TC

[never_retreat]

I stopped by the supply house and chatted with a guy there that does design work.
There is no standard trunk duct less than 8" tall. But he did give be the card of a local guy that makes ductwork in his garage.
I could also put in a couple of parallel runs of wall stack also.
Zoning is doable but there may be some problems because of the size of the unit trying to cram to much air into just the basement if thats all thats calling for heat or AC. I would need to put in a bypass. Plus 2 dampers, bypass, and controller would be around 500 bucks.
He said I was better off putting in a few vents with dampers and a return.
This will also allow some constant air flow to keep the moisture level down. Because with the average temp being low it might not call for ac much in the summer.

[Jim147]

I'm not a sheet metal guy.

It sounds like you a talking about your supply trunk. You should have a return running with it, unless it is designed to have a single large return.

As far as the zoning goes, I don't think you'll ever come close to saving enough money to pay to put it in.

It sounds like you may have found the info you needed. I was going to post earlier but I was having some connection problems.

jim

[never_retreat]

I'm not a sheet metal guy.

It sounds like you a talking about your supply trunk. You should have a return running with it, unless it is designed to have a single large return.

As far as the zoning goes, I don't think you'll ever come close to saving enough money to pay to put it in.

It sounds like you may have found the info you needed. I was going to post earlier but I was having some connection problems.

jim

Yes there is only one large return in the hall. Its a single floor ranch house.
It not really in the way. It is only extending about 2 feet past the wall for the finished/ unfinished section. I can live with that bump.