Great material for sound absorbtion

[tracer7]

Hi All. I have my CV1400 up and running and I love it! Like most everyone else, the first time I turned it on the noise was overwhelming. I went all out and built a free-standing frame and enclosed the cyclone, filters and my compressor in their own small room. The results were outstanding so I wanted to share some info.

Instead of fiberglass insulation I used a cotton product called Bonded Logic Cotton. It is available from www.paylessinsulation.com. They are in Houston Texas (so am I) so I just picked it up there, but they ship anywhere. It looks a lot like ground-up blue jeans and is extremely easy to work with.

Just putting the insulation around the free-standing frame reduced the noise considerably. Once I built the closet around the frame and compressor, then added the cotton inside wall of the closet, the result far exceeded my expectations. I can stand right next to the cyclone (with the closet door open) and carry on a conversation. When I close the closet door there is just a small hum noise in the room! My refrigerator is noiser (no joke).

Of course in the shop the airflow noise is all you hear, and any of my shop tools pretty much drown out the airflow noise.

If I had it to do over again I would most likely leave the free-standing fram out and just mount it to the wall. I cannot feel any vibration in the frame. My shop is in a separate building than my house so perhaps I would feel differently if the shop were attached to my house.

To be able to get to my filters I covered one wall of the frame with AC duct board. It works suprising well for sound deadening. I used the same material for the baffle on the return vents.

I used a modified Genie garage door sensor to give me a remote warning when the dust bin is full. It works great and I will try to come up with something a little more generic for use.

I used an inverted 35 gallon fibre drum (from Woodworker Supply) for the dust bin. The 55 gallon drum liners fit around it nice and snug so you just lift the drum off and the dust is already in the bag. It is similar to the product that is on the links page, but I had already exceeded my budget so I had to build my own.

I'm out of time right now but will attempt to pose some pictures. If anyone needs more details I will reply as I have the time.

One final note for today...the difference in the cleanlyness of my shop is amazing! Sure I get some chips and dust (mainly from the table saw) but the fine (and hazardous) dust is GONE! And so far, nothing has passed through to my filters. Thanks Ed for a fantastic product!

 

[dwdrury]

Photo Gallery

Photo Gallery

Any chance of talking you into making an album in the Clearvue's Gallery? You have some unique installation features that might make for a good photo essay.

I did notice the neatness of your shop, as compared to my pig sty, but wasn't going to mention it (tongue firmly in cheek).

Thanks!

DWD

 

[tracer7]

Hi DW,

I plan on posting a more detailed description with more pictures. I'm just real busy right now but wanted to get the insulation information out for everyone. It really is amazing stuff. If I had known about it when I built my gameroom I would have used it in the interior walls (the kids can get pretty noisy playing in the gameroom).

I wish I had before and after shots of the shop. The layout remained the same but the dust on everything was amazing (and very unhealthy!). I decided to do a deep clean on the shop so I would be able to tell if the ClearVue was doing its job. As you can see in the pictures it has reamined pretty much spotless after four weeks of a lot of woodwork.

I was in such a hurry to get it up and running that I did not take pictures during the process, but I may be able to get more detailed pictures of everything.

One other thing I did but forgot to mention in the original post concerns the remote control and motor cooling. I had a Long Ranger 115VAC remote so I bought a 230VAC high current contactor (actually rated for 7hp (I know; overkill but it wasn't much more $ than the 5hp rated). The coil for the contactor is activated by 115VAC so I came off the Long Ranger with an extension cord and that is where I power the contactor and a 12V adapter that powers the Genie door sensors and I also added a 120mm AC fan to that output and the fan is mounted up by the motor and blows on the motor when the cyclone is on. I'm sure the motor could handle the temperature without the fan, but keepnig it cooler is never a bad thing. I will run some temperature measurements with and without the fan to see what the difference is.

I did a rough calculation on the air volume through the cyclone and figured it would exhaust all the air in the shop in about 2 minutes. That convinced one of my woodworking buddies that I could not exhaust to the outside (he was trying to talk me into that). Initially I had only the top return vent installed but the velocity through that vent was too high for my taste. I added the lower one and that lowered the return velocity to an acceptable level. It was a fun demonstration for my friends to turn on the cyclone before I had the closet sealed and the airflow from the main garage would force my shop door open. I had to put a brace on the shop door to force most of the air through the top vent. That is when I decided a second vent opening was needed.

One last note on my "cleanliness"; One of my friends has nick-named me "AB". When he first called me that I asked him what it stood for...Anal Ba$t@rd . I guess I could have been called worse

Mark

 

[dwdrury]

Hi, Mark,

Been called worse myself! And actually, with our hobby, your new nickname can be viewed as a point of pride!

Afraid I'm going to have to do a similar mucking out. The whole idea of my acquiring the ClearVue was so I could lose the old Delta dust pump and free up a corner of the shop. Well, that and better collection. Seems I have at least one machine too many, and shuffling the Titanic deck chairs is getting tiresome. Have to do more work rearranging to get to things than actually butchering wood. Not a good sign.

I'm counting on the negative pressure created in the shop by the ClearVue to keep anything from escaping and thus coating the cars and other junk in the garage. Haven't yet decided whether to include a dedicated return, as the doors I have between the two don't seal. But as the builder just left a floor to ceiling opening, and I added the header and doors, would be a simple matter of cutting some drywall and paneling.

My decision on the not venting outside part was more due to the noise it would likely inflict on the neighbors. And thus an equal and opposite amount of noise and pain from them and the POA on me.

Extra cooling is never a bad idea. I popped three of those fans, but 110VAC powered, into our stereo cabinet, and am glad I did. I run them off the switched outlet on the amp. They are surprisingly powerful and not terribly noisy, especially the type designed for computer cases. But they allow me to keep the doors shut, and thus the cat out of places she shouldn't be, and not cook the electronics.

Nice thing about the gallery Matt uses is you can put in quite a lengthy description for each photo, as evidenced by some of the more verbose ones I've added to mine. So when you're ready, still might be worthwhile to post there, even if the "before" shots are unavailable. Describing the features of your installation, along with the photos you have and lessons you learned in the process will still, I think, be very helpful and of interest.

Regards,

DWD