I had to go look. Its a cold air return. The pipe is painted, but the "tape" on the pipe is some sort of woven fiber, I wont disturb it.
As far as my Gizzly tools... Love them. I have never had any problems with shipping, or the tools. I thing most Grizzly owners would comment the same. Maybe not the shipping though, I've read here about shipping problems, but not too many operational problems.