Muffler for shop vac

[Joe Trotter]

I have an older craftsman 16 gallon, 6 HP shop vacuum that has an ear piercing sound to it. My vacuum is in good shape and has impressive suction but the sound is way too loud. I hate to replace it if it can be sileneced somewhat.

I have seen a muffler made for central house vacuum's that appears to be made from an innner and outer pvc pipe. The inner pipe has holes drilled in it and is wrapped with fiberglass insulation. It is then inserted into the outer pipe. It looks similar to a glasspack muffler design.

I am unable to find information on how many decibels the muffler would drop the overall "noise". Has anyone here tried a muffler of this style?

Otherwise I may buy the Rigid WD1450 due to the many positive comments I have read about it.

Thanks, Joe

[Bruce Page]

Sears used to, maybe still do, sell a muffler for their vacs. It helped my old vac a little but I still couldn't wait for it to die. When it did I bought a Fien

[Bill Huber]

I have a muffler that I took off my Ridgid shop vac you can have if you want it. I exhaust my shop vac out the side of my shop so I don't need it.

I just fits in the exhaust hole of the vac, it does help some.

If you want it PM me with and address and I will mail it to you.

[Lee Koepke]

several years ago there was an article in Shop Notes on how to build one like you described.

Its on my 'list'.

I got a newer shop vac now, so its not as urgent as before for me

[glenn bradley]

I have the one Bill is offering. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I don't. It helps a little, little bit. As a side note, I always wear hearing protection when running the vac. I survived rock an roll and I plan to survive wood working with my ears intact ;-)

[Eric Brown]

Don't remember which magazine (in the last year or two) but they had a project where they put the shopvac into a wood box with a baffle chamber and filters from a furnace. They implied that the sound was cut considerably. If interested, I'll try to find the article.
Eric

[Paul Kinneberg]

I used one for years prior to getting my Festool I thought it definately helped and worth the price but is it as quiet as the Festool not even close.

[Ray Schafer]

I think the article was in FWW ... just a couple of months ago. I think I made a copy from the library that I may have lying around somewhere. They made a box with sound-board to muffle the sound. I never made it but may adapt it to my compressor instead.

[jerry nazard]

Put it in a box. The muffler does not cut the noise level by much and it considerably reduces the suction of the vac.

[Greg Cole]

I'd either make an enclosure for it or send it the way of the 8 track and upgrade. The Fein and Festool vacs aren't exactly cheap, but you'll use it more, like it more, eat less dust from them with the MUCH better filtration.... etc etc etc.
The noise from my shop vac and a ROS drove me nuts & shoved me down the Neander slope for final surface prep. And now I've treaded on the Festool slope, a CT vac is in the cards "one of these days".

[Andrew Joiner]

A simple fix might be to wear ear plugs or Music head phones.

[Mark Engel]

I have probably the same Craftsman shop vac, 16 gallon, 6.25 (yeah, right) hp. The top is removable to use as a leaf blower. Got the Sears muffler for it. It lowers the tone of the exhaust note, but it is still way loud. I just wear my hearing protection when using the vac.

[Steve Leverich]

Here's a link

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=75593

Just googled (on SMC) "shop vac box", it was the second one on the page. (Wouldn't have had to do that if I'd SAVED that link like I THOUGHT I had :confused:.... Steve

[Myk Rian]

Put it in a box. The muffler does not cut the noise level by much and it considerably reduces the suction of the vac.
I'll second that.

[Shawn Christ]

I too have a screamin' 16-gallon Craftsman, bought new around 2002. It performs well for me, really no need to upgrade. I tried the Craftsman brand "muffler", but it didn't seem to help much for the price tag. I still needed ear protection, so I returned it to the mall BORG.

I saw this plan for a muffler box in an issue of Family Handyman a few years back. It looks similar to the FWW box in the other thread. The build instructions are fairly detailed. They suggest carpet as the sound-deadening material. It is shop tip #2 at this link:

http://www.rd.com/familyhandyman/content/17685/

4 other small shop tips are included. Also note that Family Handyman has a free searchable index for all of their printed articles from the last several years. I think this is a relatively unknown resource.

[Sonny Edmonds]

That's the reason I bought my Rigid Shop vac.
You can remove the motor head and use it like a leaf blower.
So what?
Well, I took and attached a hose to the discharge and put it to my dust collectors inlet in my old shop, and in my new one it is hosed to the Cyclone collection barrel.
So not only is the noise channeled away, the suction of the DC actually boosts the shop vac's performance as well.

http://home.earthlink.net/~pie/dust_collection/old_cyclone/suctionY.jpg
__________________________________________________ __________
My old pre-separator for the shop vac system. Suction to the center, discharge (along with that horrid noise) to the DC inlet.

http://home.earthlink.net/~pie/dust_collection/old_cyclone/vacnbarrel.jpg
__________________________________________________ ____________
That same barrel now serves as the collector for my cyclone, and the shop vac discharge still goes to the DC system.

http://home.earthlink.net/~pie/images/shop_shots/cyclone_1.jpg

So if you can, try channeling away that noise, or better still, send it through the dust collector to muffle it. ;)

[Joe Trotter]

Thanks for all the advice guy's...

I will be putting it in a cabinet under my chop saw soon. I like Bill's idea of exhausting it outside as well.

When the screamer dies I will invest in a decent one.

Joe

[Lee Koepke]

Thanks for all the advice guy's...

I will be putting it in a cabinet under my chop saw soon. I like Bill's idea of exhausting it outside as well.

When the screamer dies I will invest in a decent one.

Joe
depends on the one you have ... I have one that survived about 15 years now, in heavy use for a family owned construction company. I finally broke down last Christmas when Home Depot had Rigids on sale for like $25 :D

[Joe Trotter]

I survived rock an roll and I plan to survive wood working with my ears intact ;-)

Ha Ha...

When I went into the Marines i failed the entry physical due to poor hearing in one ear. I pleaded to with them to get in and was admitted.

When I got out they did the hearing test again and the Navy Doc said "Boy, have you been listening to that Rock and Roll through headphones"

Guilty as charged....

But your point is well taken with the hearing protection.

[Richard Spain]

I have the craftsman shop vac and I put it in a box. I used a 2X4s frame with regular fiberglass insulation between the studs. to allow for air flow I raised the box off the ground about an inch. The box is sturdy enough to support my compressor.

I can hardly hear the sucker.

[Greg Cole]

A simple fix might be to wear ear plugs or Music head phones.
My point for a better vac is simple. If you use a ROS with a shop vac for example, even with a good filter installed... you wind up with a dust pump of a "vacuum" pumping the finest dust (aka worst for your lungs) into your work space.
Ear & eye protection should be used regardless of running a shop vac or not.

[Alan Schaffter]

One thing not discussed in any of the posts about putting a shopvac in a cabinet is heat. The shopvac will run a lot warmer (hot?) if enclosed in a cabinet. That being said, I put mine in a cabinet too. This pic was taken before I lined the cabinet with sound absorbing material.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1404/medium/PB050004.JPG

[Brian Kincaid]

Alan,
That's a really nice clearvue setup. I have been struggling to get a tight fit between my CV and the bucket. What did you do for yours?

Brian

[Greg Hines, MD]

I have one of the Sears Craftsman diffusers on my shop vac. In addition to helping tone down the noise level, you avoid the jet of exhaust air when you don't need it. The only problem that I have had with it was when the filter cracked, and dust and dirt filled it up, then shot it off the vacuum. A good cleaning, and repairing the filter, and it has worked fine.

Doc

[Bill White]

I have a muffler that I took off my Ridgid shop vac you can have if you want it. I exhaust my shop vac out the side of my shop so I don't need it.

I just fits in the exhaust hole of the vac, it does help some.

If you want it PM me with and address and I will mail it to you.

I have the ridgid muffler on my SVs. Sure makes a difference.
Bill

[Joe Trotter]

One thing not discussed in any of the posts about putting a shopvac in a cabinet is heat. The shopvac will run a lot warmer (hot?) if enclosed in a cabinet. That being said, I put mine in a cabinet too. This pic was taken before I lined the cabinet with sound absorbing material.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1404/medium/PB050004.JPG

Alan,
Thanks for the visual. I am going to do this very thing tomorrow. I did some expiermenting today and almost all the high pitched sound is coming from the motor.

I have a place under my chop saw that can be enclosed. It is worth a try.

Thanks, Joe

[Russ Kay]

I think the article was in FWW ... just a couple of months ago. I think I made a copy from the library that I may have lying around somewhere. They made a box with sound-board to muffle the sound. I never made it but may adapt it to my compressor instead.

It was the 2007 Tools and Shops issue.

-- Russ

[Dewey Torres]

Alan,
Where did you get the plans for that mini separator? I like it.

[Michael Gibbons]

I bought a muffler for my Ridgid vac at HOME DEPOT. I don't know what the size is but it might work since a lot of those things are made by the same people anyhow. It was cheap if I remember correctly,like $6.00 or so...

[Dewey Torres]

Alan,
Where did you get the plans for that mini separator? I like it.


Later I found the answer for this. The Clearview 06. I thought it was a DIY job. Anyone try to make one of these minis or is everyone buying them?