Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 29

Thread: Noise control for dust collector?

  1. #1

    Noise control for dust collector?

    I hopefully will have my dust collector up and running shortly, it has been a struggle with many unforeseen issues. It is located on the first floor of my two story shop. with one wall separating it from the downstairs shop and I plan on building a couple more to fully enclose it leaving air passages for the return air to get back into the shop.
    My question is what is a good material for the sound insulation that will not cost me an arm and a leg. Some of the ideas I have had are white styrofoam, moving blankets, Roxsol, fibreglass ceiling tiles. I'm sure there are more I've been told I'm at the end of the budget so the most inexpensive way is good it doesn't have to be pretty and it doesn't have to be dead quiet.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Sidley View Post
    I hopefully will have my dust collector up and running shortly, it has been a struggle with many unforeseen issues. It is located on the first floor of my two story shop. with one wall separating it from the downstairs shop and I plan on building a couple more to fully enclose it leaving air passages for the return air to get back into the shop.
    My question is what is a good material for the sound insulation that will not cost me an arm and a leg. Some of the ideas I have had are white styrofoam, moving blankets, Roxsol, fibreglass ceiling tiles. I'm sure there are more I've been told I'm at the end of the budget so the most inexpensive way is good it doesn't have to be pretty and it doesn't have to be dead quiet.
    How loud IS your dust collector that it's in a separate room already, and it would still bother you? Do you work alongside monks? Methinks the chanting would be louder. :^) You can't throw the devil out the door and then let him back in through the window (the air passages will negate anything you could do with the walls, probably, unless you're using systems of baffles like they would use in a recording studio, etc.)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    I constructed my DC/Compressor closet with normal 2z4 studs. The inside is 1/4" hardboard pegboard with the rough side toward the noise. There's fiberglass (un-faced) insulation in the wall and the outside is clad with Homasote. This construction, combined with a baffled air return has been very effective for me in reducing noise considerably in the shop.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #4
    Jim, I had to look up Homasote I've never heard of it. It seems it is not very common here in Canada.
    What material did you use for the baffle system I have looked at all your posts but could not find it.
    thanks

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    MA
    Posts
    2,243
    One of the best materials for sound deadening is mass loaded vinyl. Ideally this is not attached directly to the studs, but instead hangs freely (sometimes woven between two sets of studs that are offset from each other just to allow it to be woven in).

    Personally, I have only used it in automobiles and not in a wall, but the home theater hobbiests have quite a bit of experience on how to deaden sound.

    Other options might be acoustic ceiling panels. I have seen smaller rooms lined with egg cartons... lol.. not sure how effective that is.

    Certainly filling interior walls with insulation is good. Isolating sheet rock from studs is another way to help (that is, do not attached the drywall to the stud directly - let it 'float') so that sound vibrations do not transfer directly through. Often this is overlooked - any direct transmission path will quickly become the weak link in isolation.

    Finally - a big heavy blanket simply hung on the wall from the ceiling can have a big effect. I would think a dust collector is going to be relatively higher frequencies which are easier to dampen. Any loose foam or flexible material (usually have high acoustic impedance) will help.
    Last edited by Carl Beckett; 02-20-2019 at 7:39 AM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Sidley View Post
    Jim, I had to look up Homasote I've never heard of it. It seems it is not very common here in Canada.
    What material did you use for the baffle system I have looked at all your posts but could not find it.
    thanks
    Homasote (a brand name) is basically a "low density fiber board" and I suspect you can find something similar in your geography. It's kinda like ceiling tiles but not as brittle.

    For the baffle, I actually used a joist bay as the cross sectional area was large enough when split in two on a horizontal plane to support more than the air movement required for return air. Material doesn't matter, but I did happen to use some pieces of left-over Homasote for the two pieces needed to divide the space and put a bottom on it. Here is an illustration that I've posted a number of times that shows how things are constructed in my particular case.



    Some folks, like John Jordan, used large diameter flexible duct, like would be used for air returns in a home HVAC system, for the air return to the shop. What you use to make it is less important than making it large enough to have free air flow and insuring it's not a direct path for sound transmission. (turns/bends required)
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    Wenatchee. Wa
    Posts
    767
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    I constructed my DC/Compressor closet with normal 2z4 studs. The inside is 1/4" hardboard pegboard with the rough side toward the noise. There's fiberglass (un-faced) insulation in the wall and the outside is clad with Homasote. This construction, combined with a baffled air return has been very effective for me in reducing noise considerably in the shop.
    That is pretty much what I did and the measurements showed over a 10db drop. What was amazing was how important it was to seal the closet literally air tight, except for inlet and outlet, to achieve noise reduction.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,638
    Yes, it was a very noticeable drop in sound level when I completed the closet. Now that I've completed the shop ceiling, the drop is even less because sound no longer "bounces around" in here.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298
    I sound-insulated the walls to the closet that house my cyclone and big air compressor. I built a 6" thick wall with 2x4 studs in a staggered stud arrangement. This method is sometimes used in sound studios. All the studs that hold the paneling for the wall on the outside are separated from the studs that hold the inner wall panels so their is no direct connection to transmit sound. (Normal studs can transmit sound through a wall.) I wound fiberglass insulation down the middle.

    staggered_studs_IMG_2013071.jpg

    I filter the air and return it to the shop through a baffled plywood duct I built into and between the ceiling trusses. I do have an insulated double door for access for emptying the bin and the sound insulation is not as good as the wall so I built it to open into the next room instead of the main shop. I insulated the ceiling with fiberglass too. I mounted the cyclone on an outside wall so the closet wall wouldn't act like a sound board on a piano.

    The sound reduction is incredible. I can carry on normal conversation when either or both machines are running. In fact, I can hear a whisper on the in the shop near the closet. With the cyclone running unenclosed I couldn't hear myself think.

    JKJ




    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Sidley View Post
    I hopefully will have my dust collector up and running shortly, it has been a struggle with many unforeseen issues. It is located on the first floor of my two story shop. with one wall separating it from the downstairs shop and I plan on building a couple more to fully enclose it leaving air passages for the return air to get back into the shop.
    My question is what is a good material for the sound insulation that will not cost me an arm and a leg. Some of the ideas I have had are white styrofoam, moving blankets, Roxsol, fibreglass ceiling tiles. I'm sure there are more I've been told I'm at the end of the budget so the most inexpensive way is good it doesn't have to be pretty and it doesn't have to be dead quiet.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    MA
    Posts
    2,243
    Yes, exactly what John did.

    I have seen the Mass Loaded Vinyl woven through that construction. Very effective.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    I sound-insulated the walls to the closet that house my cyclone and big air compressor. I built a 6" thick wall with 2x4 studs in a staggered stud arrangement. This method is sometimes used in sound studios. All the studs that hold the paneling for the wall on the outside are separated from the studs that hold the inner wall panels so their is no direct connection to transmit sound. (Normal studs can transmit sound through a wall.) I wound fiberglass insulation down the middle.

    I filter the air and return it to the shop through a baffled plywood duct I built into and between the ceiling trusses. I do have an insulated double door for access for emptying the bin and the sound insulation is not as good as the wall so I built it to open into the next room instead of the main shop. I insulated the ceiling with fiberglass too. I mounted the cyclone on an outside wall so the closet wall wouldn't act like a sound board on a piano.

    The sound reduction is incredible. I can carry on normal conversation when either or both machines are running. In fact, I can hear a whisper on the in the shop near the closet. With the cyclone running unenclosed I couldn't hear myself think.
    That's the way to do it, if sound from the machine is an issue. How loud is your DC, anyway? Do you have an SPL meter? A real one, not one of those iPhone apps, those are worthless.

    For the purpose of energy conservation, you would only have the DC on when a machine needs it, and then the noise from the machine would IME be more than comparable to the noise from the DC.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298
    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Dawson View Post
    ...How loud is your DC, anyway? Do you have an SPL meter? A real one, not one of those iPhone apps, those are worthless.
    Mine? Louder than a screaming freight train at 10 paces. Louder than five bull elephants battling for the harem. Painfully, ear damaging loud, far louder than the loudest machine in my shop, the table saw. (This is a 5hp cyclone.) After the install I tested the sound reduction with my Extech meter but I don't remember the numbers.

  13. #13
    I will hopefully have the DC wired today, I do have a meter if I can find it I will take some readings as a starting point. Money is tight right now due to a head gasket on the car so this is a long term project but it will get done.
    Thank you all for the input I'm getting lots of ideas.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    2,754
    Your DC is too loud. Just bite the bullet and get a quieter one.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    NW Indiana
    Posts
    3,076
    I am very surprised that a dust collector is "louder than a screaming freight train".

    I have a 5 hp Oneida Super Dust Gorilla and can stand next to it and talk. My wife's sewing room is directly above and has not complained and just a low vibration. Mine is on a stand and not mounted to the wall.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •