Roy Petersen
11-23-2017, 9:28 PM
Exhaust noise from the DC; a topic that led me to signing up here, since so many searches found the place. I was hoping that maybe I've missed something in what I looked for and have done that might help.
Used to have my DC (ancient 2HP Grizzly) in a semi enclosed cabinet off the back of the main shop (back room, where non-dusty work was done). Since it was so removed I never bothered replacing the original bags, depending on distance and being boxed in it's own closet (escape for air in that was filtered before entering that room) to manage the fine stuff. I hadn't piped it very well (4" PVC with sharp turns, into a can with a "poor man's cyclone" of elbows in the lid) and it was not very good at it's job.
Not long ago I unexpectedly sold something for enough to afford a real system overhaul, and went with the Dust Deputy (5" inlet) and 5" metal 24ga ducting to replace the former setup. Took the DC apart, moved it into the attic and piped it into the shop in one corner. Dust Deputy directly below it, flex hose down to the can that holds the bulk of what's spun out. Took the exhaust and shot that through the wall into that back room (7' of straight 5" pipe off the DC, pair of wide radius elbows to get it into the filter), now into a fine pleated canister filter that allegedly has a muffler in it (again from Oneida-air). I say allegedly, because it pretty much screams while in use. That's not going to work for me.
I've tried isolating the exhaust pipe with a Fernco slip fitting, and it had no effect. My fairly inaccurate sound meter on my phone has this at 75-80 db or so, but I suspect it's somewhat louder than that in reality. It's loud. Very loud. Since there are times one of us is working in there while it's running, I'd like to quiet it. The former closet around the original DC had been removed, so it's open to the room currently.
I've read about mufflers (home made and paid, little change in volume), baffle boxes (slows movement which hurts performance), insulated flexible pipe with curves (don't recall the downside of that one, but I have mice galore up there) and so on, but can't seem to find something that will quiet it significantly and not require lots of maintenance, since the attic is hard to work in.
Have I hit on the main ones, and that's about all there is to try aside from moving it outside (not really an option here) to upset the neighbors?
Used to have my DC (ancient 2HP Grizzly) in a semi enclosed cabinet off the back of the main shop (back room, where non-dusty work was done). Since it was so removed I never bothered replacing the original bags, depending on distance and being boxed in it's own closet (escape for air in that was filtered before entering that room) to manage the fine stuff. I hadn't piped it very well (4" PVC with sharp turns, into a can with a "poor man's cyclone" of elbows in the lid) and it was not very good at it's job.
Not long ago I unexpectedly sold something for enough to afford a real system overhaul, and went with the Dust Deputy (5" inlet) and 5" metal 24ga ducting to replace the former setup. Took the DC apart, moved it into the attic and piped it into the shop in one corner. Dust Deputy directly below it, flex hose down to the can that holds the bulk of what's spun out. Took the exhaust and shot that through the wall into that back room (7' of straight 5" pipe off the DC, pair of wide radius elbows to get it into the filter), now into a fine pleated canister filter that allegedly has a muffler in it (again from Oneida-air). I say allegedly, because it pretty much screams while in use. That's not going to work for me.
I've tried isolating the exhaust pipe with a Fernco slip fitting, and it had no effect. My fairly inaccurate sound meter on my phone has this at 75-80 db or so, but I suspect it's somewhat louder than that in reality. It's loud. Very loud. Since there are times one of us is working in there while it's running, I'd like to quiet it. The former closet around the original DC had been removed, so it's open to the room currently.
I've read about mufflers (home made and paid, little change in volume), baffle boxes (slows movement which hurts performance), insulated flexible pipe with curves (don't recall the downside of that one, but I have mice galore up there) and so on, but can't seem to find something that will quiet it significantly and not require lots of maintenance, since the attic is hard to work in.
Have I hit on the main ones, and that's about all there is to try aside from moving it outside (not really an option here) to upset the neighbors?