cvAdmin
Administrator
I have been asked the question " How loud is your system?" over and over. I'm going to try to answer this question with some qualifications.
First, acceptable noise level is a subjective thing. It depends on many factors and I cannot say what is acceptable to someone else. If you're working in a garage in a neighborhood at 12:00 at night, you would have a lot more of a problem with noise than if you live in the country and are working at 1:00 in the afternoon. Second, the measured noise level will yield different perceived levels depending on the surroundings. Example: If I set up one of our cyclones in the middle of a desert where there is nothing to reflect the sound, it would sound quieter to me than if I set it up in a room with sheet rock walls and a concrete floor where everything in the room reflects sound. It becomes worse if the walls and ceiling have a coating of gloss paint and the concrete floor is sealed or painted with epoxy. The noise level in that room would be much worse than the desert installation. If I installed the unit in a "sound proof" room, it would sound much quieter than either of the above. So, in measuring noise levels, it's important to realize that the best we can hope for is a relative noise level. It is also important to realize that published noise levels by different manufactures are also relative depending on how they did their testing. As far as I know, there haven't been any independent test run on all of the different units and no one really defined how they took their measurements so it isn't a good idea to use these numbers as if they were absolute.
I would like to include here my personal experiences with noise control for dust collectors. Because a dust collector probably runs more than any other equipment in the shop, it's a prime noise maker. Therefore, it's the machine to focus on for a major reduction in shop noise.
Short Background: When I bough my first 2 hp bag type dust collector we put it in a 12 x 24 shop. That's when it became an issue for me. It was so loud we couldn't even talk in the shop. When I built my new "dream" shop I put the dust collector in a room outside of my shop space. I really didn't want to listen to it. For some, that's the easiest solution, for others it's not a possibility.
Solutions: 1. From the inside out. We have done a lot of experimenting with noise reduction. We've tried from the inside out and most of our efforts were to little avail. At one point, we took a blower housing and impeller and sprayed them with heavy duty automotive undercoating which also had sound deadening properties. This resulted in no measurable reduction in noise. Mind you we were not hooked up to a filter. The exhaust of the blower was going directly into the room we were testing in and the noise was coming out of the exhaust of the blower. We then wrapped the outside of the blower with heavy insulation and carpet. This also yielded no measurable reduction in noise. We also tried a customers idea of putting a cone in the center of the impeller to help turn the air. This did help slightly, but it certainly didn't make anything quiet.
2. Building a baricade: When I built my dream shop, I put the cyclone outside in a room of it's own. I built a 3'x4' room, insulated the walls with pink insulation facing to the inside of the room and covered the inside of the walls with window screen so the insulation could absorb the sound. After the installation, we measured 72 db inside my shop at about 10' from the cyclone. You can carry on a conversation without raising your voice at this level. I also want to post some measurements that I took of my machine tools and the cyclone from outside of the door to the cyclone room.
I've measured the sound level of our unit and also some of my shop machines
for comparison. My cyclone and filters are in a room outside of the shop
with a return air cutout back into the shop. I took readings from outside
next to the dust collector room with the door open and closed and inside the
shop with all gates closed and then I measured several of my machines.
Here are the results:
Outside cyclone room with door open......................... 84 db @ 10' away
Outside by the cyclone room with door closed..............82 db
Inside the shop.......................................................72 db
no gates open
4" port open(sound of sucking air)..............................85 db
6" port open(sound of sucking air)..............................80 db
Band Saw(not cutting material)..................................87 db
Jointer running....no material......................................84 db
Jointer in use..........................................................92 db
CNC router........not cutting.......................................86 db
3hp table router.......................................................94 db
Grizzly 20" planner no material.....................................90 db
Planner running with material.....................................107 db
Hope that gives you some idea of the relative sound of the cyclone.
I definitely think it's a good idea to enclose any dust collection unit for sound purposes. I have seen other units advertizing 80 db and making that sound like it's a good number. At 80 db, you can't listen to the radio, talk on the phone or carry on a conversation without shouting. It's not a comfortable level...IMO.
I also put a window in mine so I could see the operation of the cyclone. It
has saved several trash bin overflows, but then that's another topic.
First, acceptable noise level is a subjective thing. It depends on many factors and I cannot say what is acceptable to someone else. If you're working in a garage in a neighborhood at 12:00 at night, you would have a lot more of a problem with noise than if you live in the country and are working at 1:00 in the afternoon. Second, the measured noise level will yield different perceived levels depending on the surroundings. Example: If I set up one of our cyclones in the middle of a desert where there is nothing to reflect the sound, it would sound quieter to me than if I set it up in a room with sheet rock walls and a concrete floor where everything in the room reflects sound. It becomes worse if the walls and ceiling have a coating of gloss paint and the concrete floor is sealed or painted with epoxy. The noise level in that room would be much worse than the desert installation. If I installed the unit in a "sound proof" room, it would sound much quieter than either of the above. So, in measuring noise levels, it's important to realize that the best we can hope for is a relative noise level. It is also important to realize that published noise levels by different manufactures are also relative depending on how they did their testing. As far as I know, there haven't been any independent test run on all of the different units and no one really defined how they took their measurements so it isn't a good idea to use these numbers as if they were absolute.
I would like to include here my personal experiences with noise control for dust collectors. Because a dust collector probably runs more than any other equipment in the shop, it's a prime noise maker. Therefore, it's the machine to focus on for a major reduction in shop noise.
Short Background: When I bough my first 2 hp bag type dust collector we put it in a 12 x 24 shop. That's when it became an issue for me. It was so loud we couldn't even talk in the shop. When I built my new "dream" shop I put the dust collector in a room outside of my shop space. I really didn't want to listen to it. For some, that's the easiest solution, for others it's not a possibility.
Solutions: 1. From the inside out. We have done a lot of experimenting with noise reduction. We've tried from the inside out and most of our efforts were to little avail. At one point, we took a blower housing and impeller and sprayed them with heavy duty automotive undercoating which also had sound deadening properties. This resulted in no measurable reduction in noise. Mind you we were not hooked up to a filter. The exhaust of the blower was going directly into the room we were testing in and the noise was coming out of the exhaust of the blower. We then wrapped the outside of the blower with heavy insulation and carpet. This also yielded no measurable reduction in noise. We also tried a customers idea of putting a cone in the center of the impeller to help turn the air. This did help slightly, but it certainly didn't make anything quiet.
2. Building a baricade: When I built my dream shop, I put the cyclone outside in a room of it's own. I built a 3'x4' room, insulated the walls with pink insulation facing to the inside of the room and covered the inside of the walls with window screen so the insulation could absorb the sound. After the installation, we measured 72 db inside my shop at about 10' from the cyclone. You can carry on a conversation without raising your voice at this level. I also want to post some measurements that I took of my machine tools and the cyclone from outside of the door to the cyclone room.
I've measured the sound level of our unit and also some of my shop machines
for comparison. My cyclone and filters are in a room outside of the shop
with a return air cutout back into the shop. I took readings from outside
next to the dust collector room with the door open and closed and inside the
shop with all gates closed and then I measured several of my machines.
Here are the results:
Outside cyclone room with door open......................... 84 db @ 10' away
Outside by the cyclone room with door closed..............82 db
Inside the shop.......................................................72 db
no gates open
4" port open(sound of sucking air)..............................85 db
6" port open(sound of sucking air)..............................80 db
Band Saw(not cutting material)..................................87 db
Jointer running....no material......................................84 db
Jointer in use..........................................................92 db
CNC router........not cutting.......................................86 db
3hp table router.......................................................94 db
Grizzly 20" planner no material.....................................90 db
Planner running with material.....................................107 db
Hope that gives you some idea of the relative sound of the cyclone.
I definitely think it's a good idea to enclose any dust collection unit for sound purposes. I have seen other units advertizing 80 db and making that sound like it's a good number. At 80 db, you can't listen to the radio, talk on the phone or carry on a conversation without shouting. It's not a comfortable level...IMO.
I also put a window in mine so I could see the operation of the cyclone. It
has saved several trash bin overflows, but then that's another topic.
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