Dust Collector Noise

[R. A. Mitchell]

I've been looking through past posts for ideas about how to reduce noise from dust collectors and have learned a lot. Most posts are in the woodworking sections. Those guys use much bigger systems than would be needed for a Laser.

Based on the recommendation of my rep, I bought a 1HP mini dust collector from Harbor Freight. It's bigger than the machine requires, which I thought was an advantage until I heard all of the noise it makes. I have it hooked up to my laser and venting out a window. I'm using flexible hose for now. My plan is to work with the laser for a couple of months before I install anything permanent and start knocking holes in walls.

For people with similar setups, what do you use for exhaust systems, and how do you control the noise? I'm thinking about building a Muffler as described on Bill Pentz's site. Anyone try the same?

[Mike Mackenzie]

RA,

Are you talking about the air noise or the motor noise?

If it is the air noise you can reduce that by putting a longer hose on the output this will muffle that noise.

If it is the motor noise try to build a box with some sound deadening material to place over the motor. leave a small intake for cooling and maybe even put a small cooling fan into the box.

[R. A. Mitchell]

I'm most concerned about the air noise. I already have an extra 10 feet of hose on the output. That's where I was thinking about putting a muffler.

I'm also looking at some of the air filtration systems. Much more expensive, but quieter and eliminates fumes, too. I'm interested in what people who live in moderately congested areas are doing (i.e. quarter acre lots).

[Roy Brewer]

Based on the recommendation of my rep, I bought a 1HP mini dust collector from Harbor Freight.

1hp green or 1hp red(from HFT)? If it is the little red one, throw it away(3 times the noise of the green one and uses brushes which won't last long and you'll have difficult time finding replacements)! If the green one, you'll have a difficult time beating Mike Mc's suggestions.

[Joe Pelonio]

For whatever reason the noise mine makes is minimal, the fan/motor is inside and runs out the wall within about 2'. If you go outside the sound is like a dryer vent. The motor is nice and quiet, and you can barely hear the sound of the air being drawn into the laser if you have the laser off, but it's not as loud as the laser itself. Is some of the noise from vibration? I used rubber in the mounts to stop that.

It's a Fantech fx10 xl and cost about $300.

[R. A. Mitchell]

Unfortunately, I have the red one. Do you have a model number or some other identifier for the green one?

[R. A. Mitchell]

I was fishing around with the more expensive filtration systems, and when I called to inquire about the RSU-20CC/R, the person from Allerair said they have just come out with an Allerair Laser LX that is not yet on their website. It's still not cheap - $2000 :eek: - but it is $600 less than the RSU and the rep says it does a better job for laser cutting. Apparently, some people had a problem with the RSU's carbon filter clogging prematurely with bits of plastic and rubber. To address this, Allerair put a prefilter in front of the carbon to prolong the carbon filter life.

Anyway - anyone out there have experience with the Laser LX? Still a pricey solution, but I have no desire to cause a stir with neighbors or to stink up my studio.

Rob

[R. A. Mitchell]

1hp green or 1hp red(from HFT)? If it is the little red one, throw it away(3 times the noise of the green one and uses brushes which won't last long and you'll have difficult time finding replacements)! If the green one, you'll have a difficult time beating Mike Mc's suggestions.

Is this the "green one" that I should get?
13 GALLON INDUSTRIAL PORTABLE DUST COLLECTOR http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos/31800-31899/31810.gif
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=31810

I'd hate to run out and get the wrong tool AGAIN:mad:. At least the red one was on sale when I found it ($85). This one lists for $109. Still a lot less than a filtration system!

[R. A. Mitchell]

For anyone who is interested, I went ahead and ordered the green machine described above. The local HF didn't have one in stock, so I have to wait 5-10 business days for delivery. I'll post my results (in appreciation for all of the help I get from other posters!) when I hook the new machine up.

Just out of curiosity, Grizzly industrial also sells similar dust collectors. The model G1163 looks a lot like the HF red machine, and the G8027 looks somewhat like the HF green machine. Both are somewhat more expensive, and the G8027 comes on a double dust bag mount which would be useless to me. Even so, I'm wondering whether anyone has experience with these machines. I am a bit partial to Grizzly machines from a value perspective.

Rob

[Robert Ray]

I have that green Harbor Freight unit posted above, and it has been running perfect for the past 5.5 years, and it has always been left in the back yard. It's not super noisy, having more of a thrush sound, but I don't have much room for it in the garage.

I just put a 2' x 4' plywood table over it, and set it on bricks to raise it off the ground. We don't get snow, but it does rain, and the motor has never suffered from the humidity of rainy weather or bay area fog. I run it between 20 and 40 hours every week, and on weekends often run for 16 hours without turning the unit off, so I would call it a reliable blower, at a great price.

-Robert

[Bill Parker]

I have a Grizzly industrial Model # G1163 and while its been a great motor, it is pretty loud.

[Nigel Morgan]

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/sup1000.html

Penn State Industries

Product sup1000

[Anthony Welch]

I also have the little red one from HF. I have it out side my building and the noise is tolerable. Being that it is outside, thanks to the info from Roy, I'll probably be getting another one sooner than later. But I needed to start as cheap as I could. Hopefully, it'll last long enough to upgrade.

[Dee Gallo]

I also have the red one, which I put inside a $14 Rubbermaid snap-on top container and cut holes for the intake, exhaust and electrical wire. Then, I built a box out of blueboard to go over it and the whole kit and kaboodle is outside. It is vented with a flap type dryer vent. The switch is inside and when it's on, there is no more noise than the laser fans make. All this was to allow the fan to be outside in the worst winter conditions (I'm by the Canadian border), keep out the chipmunks and ants which would try to nest in there, and dampen the noise. I have it hooked up to vent 2 lasers with shut-off doors for each one.

It seemed like overkill at first, but it is great now, not to worry about it. It is easy to open up if needed (like when the whole thing was wired and I forgot to flip the switch outside - duh). Thanks to the advice I got from Creekers and my service rep, this is a good solution to the problem.

[Anthony Welch]

Dee,

I like your setup. Although mine is outside, it just has a tin roof over it's head.

[Larry Hannan]

R.A.
That's the same blower I'm using (the green one) I added a muffler to the end of the run, very quite and it works like a charm. This is my first post
I hope the pictures come out ok. The muffler is, two 4" to 5" reducers and a
2' length of 5" pipe. a 2'-6" long by 13" wide length of expanded metal lath which is wrapped in 1" fibber glass insutation.
Hope this will help you.
Larry

[Leigh Costello]

I would agree with everyone on the green machine you have ordered. I would recommend putting some kind of rubber feet on the bottom - helps with vibration as well as keeps some of the noise down.

Hint: if you notice reduced air flow, unplug and clean the intake. I don't know where you are located, but the humidity in StL is horrible in the summer and can really gum up the intake if you do much wood lasering.

[Jeanette Brewer]

RA,

Just confirming ... yes, that's the correct green fan (#31810) about which Roy wrote.

[R. A. Mitchell]

I received the green one and it is somewhat quieter than the red one. Still building out my final setup - I'll post again when I'm farther along.

Rob

[Kevin Baker]

Anyone tired this?

http://www.steelcitytoolworks.com/products_tools.cfm?section=2&category=5&tool=65115

Kevin

[Gary Hair]

I have two of the green ones. One is at home and is used on my sandcarving cabinet, the other is at the office for the laser. Both are pretty quiet and have been as reliable as I would have hoped for a $90 item. They are normally $109 but go on sale pretty regularly for $89, you might want to wait a bit and save $20.

Gary

[Skip Weiser]

Anyone tried these?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Darren Null]

Just as a theoretical question, has anybody tried a vacuum cleaner motor? It's for the same thing (moving air from A to B) and one could be picked up a lot cheaper than $100 if you look around. If you have a vacuum repair shop nearby, you could get quite a large motor for pennies with a bit of sweet talking.
OK, you'd probably have to build housing, but many of you are doing that anyway...
Just a thought.

[R. A. Mitchell]

Tried em, but had a hard time getting six sets of neighbors to wear them, too.

[David Fairfield]

Has anyone tried rigging one of these blowers with a 3 speed power switch?

The max power setting is just too much for some of the stuff I burn, for example when I raster or vector cardstock, I have almost no smoke at all.

Cutting the power by a third or a half would be a good option. Save on the noise fatigue and the heating bill.

Ideas????
Dave

[Rob Bosworth]

On going exhaust problems. Yesterday I got a call from my brother's shop. He is doing a large engraving job on walnut plaques. He is running three machines and cranking things out. Anyway, he calls and says he is having smoke problems. We have two 1 hp. exhaust blowers hooked up to 3 machines, all piped out one 6" dia. smooth walled exhaust pipe. I would think we had enough slurp to actually suck a slightly overweright, OK, overweight person into the machine and out through the ducting. So Ol' lights and sirens laser service flew up to his shop to investigate. Looked into one of the laser cabinets and smoke is just wafting around inside the machine. So I pull the machine out and away from the wall and pull the exhaust hose off the machine to check to see if the exhaust port on the back of the machine were plugged up. I happen to notice that I wasn't getting any suck out of the flex hose. Dang nabbit, the T in the line must be obstructing the air flow. So off to buy a Y to replace the T. Pretty soon everything is back together, adding one more exhaust blower in line to give extra oomph. Start all three machines and the smoke is being wisked out of two of the machines, but just ok out of the third machine and the extra bower. OK run the parts.

A couple of hours later, the younger brother calls and says the system is backing up again. Smoke just lingering in the cabinets. So he pulls the whole system apart and just happens to notice the screen leading into the exhaust blower is pretty well plugged up. So he knocks the crud off the screen, re-attaches everything, and VOILA smoke being blown half way across the county again.

Now these are systems that in our eyes have very little usage on them. A few hours here. A couple hours there. Nothing that would make you think they could get clogged up with stuff. OK, so he has been running them for the last week 12 to 14 hours per day, but what is that in the life of a laser engraver?

So let that be a lesson to everyone. When you notice that you seem to be having less slurp in your exhaust system, check the system for any obstruction. It is a subject that we have discussed in the past. But who would ever think it actaully happens.

[Brian Robison]

Yep happened to me too. Mine had card stock and plastic stuck to the inlet on the blower.I need to make a screen pack for the laser exhaust and not have to search around for the problem. Just add checking that to the PM schedule.

[Gary Hair]

Yep happened to me too. Mine had card stock and plastic stuck to the inlet on the blower.I need to make a screen pack for the laser exhaust and not have to search around for the problem. Just add checking that to the PM schedule.

Must be the season... I had some problems with my system and tracked it down to a piece of paper that was stuck in the same place as your card stock. I'll be putting a piece of screen on the back of the laser this weekend.

Gary

[Mike Smock]

Hi guys, I'm new around here. Hello everyone!

I just bought a 24 x 48" laser and have worked out most of the kinks except for the dust collector. I have the Grizzly 1hp G1163 and I can tolerate the sound of the motor in my shop but the air noise out the end of my 4" flexible pipe is quite loud. I have about 15' of hose poking out a door right now until I make a more permanent set-up. Anyways the noise out the end of the 4" pipe will be disruptive to the neighbors. I've read the posts here and visited Bill's Cyclone page - any other suggestion for muffling the air noise?

Thanks!

[Dan Hintz]

There are a number of threads on the subject... one as recently as a couple of weeks ago... reverse the work done for quieting the intake and you'll likely have a workable solution.