New vac box nice and quiet.

[knight_toolworks]

After both of my feins melted I wanted another setup that was quiet. that way I can turn off the dc and talk to a customer. I did a lot of screwing around trying to work it out. fein has it down good I mean it is about 65dbs but you take the motor out and it is 100db's with just some plastic and a little foam they knock the noise down almost 40 db's.
I am using two amteck fein replacement motors though they are a bit more powerful then fein motors. They run at 100 db's in the first box I made. so I went on the warpath to quiet them. if you ahve looked at the inside of the fein it is just plastic dome a little bit of baffle and a little bit of foam. I think most of the should blocking is the shape over the foam.
so I made the box with plywood and I used mdf I made groves in. I also mounted the motors on neoprene (acoustic foam) and held them down with a clamp and more foam to keep the vibration down. fein uses two rubber gaskets.
I think the only really important part is the top box. I offset the air inlet holes and groves them and I used ultralight mdf. Put sheets of acoustical foam in there and closed it up and tested it. Success got the db's down to 82dbs. But there was a small amount of air resistance and the heat out of the output was a bit higher. so I took the foam out and guess what now it is down to about 75 db's. Now you can't beat that. Not sure what happened but maybe the little bit of resistance of the foam raised the noise.
I Ordered a muffler for the air output from central vacuum as there is some noise form that source.
this box is 16z16x32 but it can become smaller I think. the next one will be a round design of stacked rings plywood on the vac part mdf for the rest. I have two 220 motors I want quieter.
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[michael_schwartz]

Thats good that it works after going to all the trouble to cut the textured baffles.

I am still undecided if I am going to attempt to quiet mine. The materials for my enclosure and spoilboard are coming tomorrow.

It looks like you achieved some success. A 20-30 DB decrease is pretty good.

[knight_toolworks]

my circular design will be easier and simpler to build and smaller. i think 14" diameter not sure on height but should be under 30. it will be fast to make and should not use more than a sheet. I will post the drawings in a few days.

[knight_toolworks]

my dc is only 92 dbs so these are the loudest things in the shop. I have soem easy idea's to make all the fittings for my setups. the muffler should knock off the last bit
http://www.centralvacuumstores.com/Central-Vacuum/Imperium/Accessories/Industrial-Muffler.php

[knight_toolworks]

My new box for my 220v motors. this is about 16"x16"x24" high so smaller. I have been debating on making it from Russian ply or mdf.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/knighttoolworks/posting/D5C577ED.jpg

[michael_schwartz]

I was going to make mine from russian birch and dub it the "peoples box" :rolleyes: but I am going to use black melamine instead, mainly to keep costs under control. I am going to cut the motor mounts from baltic birch.

My thought would be that the MDF would be less resonant.

[knight_toolworks]

I have made speakers from Russian ply so I don't think it will be an issue but we will see. I wanted something more durable then mdf. worse coems to worse I have to replace the top baffle with mdf. I will get it together and test it in the next few days.
for the baffle I would think melememe will really not stop sound at least the face will jsut reflect it unless you break it up.

[knight_toolworks]

I modified the top baffle to get the height down. it does as good of a job on noise though I noticed a few degrees hotter running (got a wireless thermometer in the box) I should have made it wider to get more space between the baffles I guess. looks like I missed the picture showing the slots in the middle rings to let the air through.

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[curtiss]

Any thoughts of adding a wire loop where you can check the amp draw of the vacuum motors with an amp meter ?? This is the best way to tell how hard they are working, and whether they are developing a problem at a very early stage. I check my vac and dust collector amp draw just about every time I use them.

[knight_toolworks]

no I have not. may be a good idea. thew temp tells me a lot though I found block the air intake a bit and the temp goes up better vac hold down it goes up. How woudl I do it?

[curtiss]

You might make a trip to Sears to look at a few meters. They can show you how they work.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_03482372000P?mv=rr


To take a reading you have to expose ...one... of the two (in your case) 220 wire leads and clamp over it while in the correct meter range. It does NOT need a bare wire JUST a single insulated wire.

I read mostly 110 volt items and I use a short extension cord that is opened up so I can clamp around an individual wire.

You should take operational readings on your air compressors, refrigerators, saws and any heavy duty motors and see that the readings do not suddenly change... such as before they ignite...

[knight_toolworks]

I wanted to make the box smaller so I made an external filter box that will connect the two vac setups I have. a shopvac cartrdige filter glued to the lid with silicone adhisive simple plywood box again sealed with the silicone adhisive. the one end is removable for cleaning. I have pvc check vales for easy air control. screw connectors so it all can be taken apart and reused if needed. Just waiting on the flex pvc to hook everything up.
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