Vibrating Blast Gates

[Patrick Harper]

Does anyone else have this problem?

I'm running an Oneida 3hp SDG with 8" mains and 6" drops. Most of my blast gates are 6" self cleaning gates. I've noticed that quiet often when I shut down the system all of my closed gates vibrate and create a lot of noise for a few seconds. There's no large vibrations coming from the collector. You can't even feel and vibrations in the pipe near one of the offending gates. I think the issue is with some sort of resonance in the pipes due to the pressure changes.

I've tried damping the gates with magnets, but that only helped a tiny bit...could use more weight. Any ideas?

[Jim Andrew]

Also have metal gates, and they rattle some. Find if I loosen or tighten the thumb screw it can cause it to make less noise.

[Ben Rivel]

When they are closed and screwed down they rattle? They are in stalled the correct way right? With the screw pushing the gate toward the suction when screwed down.

[Patrick Harper]

Ben, yes. They rattle when closed and screwed down. Yes, the screw pushes them towards the suction.

[Patrick Harper]

I did discover that the metal dust bin was leaking. I'm not sure if this could have had an effect. I sealed it with silicon last night, but didn't have a chance to test again after the caulk dried.

[glenn bradley]

I took advantage of the threaded hole for the lock knob. This might trigger some ideas.

blast gate magnet 002.jpgblast gate magnet 001.jpgblast gate magnet 4.jpgblast gate magnet 3.jpg

[Patrick Harper]

Glenn, thanks for that. I definitely think I could figure something out using the threaded hole. Is that a small magnet? Did you have any vibration issues?

[glenn bradley]

That is a small magnet. I did not have vibration issues but, the gate would start to close a bit during use. I would finish a process and find the gate sometimes nearly half closed. I just didn't feel like fooling with the knob :-)

[Patrick Harper]

The knobs are a bit of a pain. It would be much easier if they worked well on friction or magnetism.

[Martin Wasner]

They rattle when there's not enough vacuum to hold them tight. Other than that it's not a indication of anything being wrong.

[Larry Frank]

I had the metal gates and was not real happy with them for a variety of reasons. I ended up making my own with a BB ply gate and no rattles.