Good idea or bad idea?

[Bryan Cleveland]

I’m am very constrained on space for my cyclone in my garage. Main goal is to lower the noise level and my proposed noise closet will just eat up to much interior space. Thinking of routing it up into the attic and back down into the garage. Thinking of installing two inline silencers before the u-turn back into the garage. Any thoughts? Negative or positive. Looking for feedback. See pics.

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The isolation hangers should shield the structure from vibrations. Exhaust is all 8” pipe wrapped in insulation. Return air is conditioned.

[Jonathan Jung]

Can you put the motor & cyclone in the attic, with the collection bin in the workspace?

[Rod Sheridan]

One other item to consider is how noisy material sliding against the cyclone wall is.

Silencing the return air will certainly help however…….Regards, Rod

[John K Jordan]

When I installed my Clearvue their forum had a lot of discussion and info about ways to install in tight and odd places and reduce noise.

Can you build a noise-reduction enclosure that contains both the motor and the exhaust, where most of the noise comes from? Perhaps even raise the cyclone so the motor, impeller, and exhaust are all in a box in the attic? Or build an insulated box that extends down into the shop from the ceiling. (more space for the bin below can be helpful.)

I had enough room to build a walk-in closet for my DC and air compressor. I used no in-line silencers other than a return duct I built into the rafters from plywood, with multiple turns and baffles, insulated outside and coated with spray rubber inside. The loudest sound in the shop is the air rushing through the pickups at the machines in use.

[Jack Frederick]

I think the attic is a good idea. I wish I had put more thought into my space as far as DC goes. My solution was the attic as well but my 1.5 hp Grizzly wont’t have the juice to handle the rise. Put the machine up top with the collection drum and return filter in the shop space. I wouldn’t do to many silencers until I saw how the separation of the equipment quieted things down.You will have to fabricate a drop pipe to connect the filter. Would that quiet it down?

[Thomas Wilson]

Would the silencers collect a lot of dust? If so, would they be accessible or removable for cleaning? I am imaging blowing them out with a leaf blower every once in a while. If the silencers are big enough in diameter not to have a big pressure drop across them then velocity has to be low. Fine dust might settle before it gets to the filter.

The Oneida system I have has a two-stage silencer. Both parts are integral to the filter. The first part is a metal drum about 12 inches high that is lined with a thick layer of waffle foam and sits on top of the filter. The second part is a sleeve of thin foam about 12-15 inches long that goes inside the top of the filter, a factor of twenty of so less deadening material than your design. My DC is still pretty loud in the dust closet.

[Bryan Cleveland]

Unfortunately installing the cyclone in the attic is not do-able. I contacted Clearvue awhile back asking that question and due to the fact that I live in North Texas and the summer temps in the attic. Way too hot for the motor.

About the motor in the picture. I am planning to swap out the single phase Leeson motor for a Baldor 3phase and run it off of a vfd to allow me to have variable speed. The purpose is due to the noise and the starting/stopping no more than 4 times per hour. The 3ph motor is too tall for my garage so I will have to cut out a 22” x 22” opening in between the ceiling joists and build a box in the attic and insulate it for enough height.

The reason I have the return air going up into the attic and coming back down into the garage is because the garage is air conditioned and I just don’t have the space for a cyclone closet. John you chimed in a few times when I posted pics of my noise closet. But in the end it just ate up to much space.

The return air duct will all be 8” and insulated. Same goes for the inline silencers. I’m not to worried about dust accumulation in the silencers as I rarely have much dust even when cleaning out my filters. However I do plan to make it removable. The area up in the attic where the return air path is is virtually the only area where other than height goes, I’m not restricted. It’s open space.

[Bill Dufour]

That giant u bend in the attic will restrict air flow. It makes no difference if the ducting is before or after the fan. Since it is up in the attic I would not pay for silencers just use insulated ac flex duct for the same effect.
BilL D

[Aaron Inami]

That giant u bend in the attic will restrict air flow. It makes no difference if the ducting is before or after the fan. Since it is up in the attic I would not pay for silencers just use insulated ac flex duct for the same effect.
BilL D

I do agree that the giant u bend will reduce static pressure and, essentially, air flow. However, using AC flex duct will do the same thing, if not worse. The only reason I see to use AC flex duct is to prevent the rushing air from causing exterior duct noise. You still need to muffle the turbine/impeller noise.

If it were me, I would do a 90 degree elbow coming out of the dust collector, like in your design. Then connect that elbow to a Fantech LD8 duct silencer mounted vertically and extending through the ceiling into the attic. Then another 90 degree elbow and a second Fantech LD8 silencer. Then a final 90 degree elbow aiming down directly into your filter (use a short 8" flex hose to connect things up here). The 3 elbows plus 2 duct silencers will be enough to kill most of the impeller noise.

Then apply sound absorbing panels on the walls in that corner to the left of the filter and behind the cyclone. This will help help reduce the return air/filter noise and the noise of the cyclone itself. You could also put a sound panel on the right side of the filter extending out. You are trying to block sound that would be reflected off the walls and the corner.

[Scott T Smith]

Have you considered mounting the cyclone outside the garage, but mounting the filter inside the garage?

By doing this the bulk of the noise is outside, as is the messy dust collection drum. By placing the filter inside you don’t lose your conditioned air. A simple closet can be built around the DC outside,

[Bill Dufour]

AFAIK a silencer is just a more solid version of flex duct. Of course the inner diameter should be increased.
Bill D

[Bryan Cleveland]

Currently reconfiguring my design. Thanks Aaron for a different configuration idea. One thing I may not have mentioned is that I live in a typical HOA community. Cyclone MUST be installed in the garage and the ducting going into the attic has to be noise controlled. Otherwise all that noise will be in the attic and heard outside. Distance between next door neighbor is only 10-12 feet.

If I can increase the u-turn duct diameter or lessen the sharpness of the turn might that help? I gotta work with what I got. Whatever design it comes out as it’s going to have multiple turns and be roughly located in that general area in the attic to be able to use the Clearvue. Otherwise I’m kinda screwed and will have to sell the cyclone and buy that g700 that I really don’t want. Stay tuned for redesign. Thanks all for the input.

The fact is I never should have bought this cyclone. I love it and it’s awesome but too large and noise for my setup.

[John K Jordan]

When I built my convoluted plywood baffled return duct above the ceiling between the shop trusses I think I made the minimal cross section over 3 times that of the cyclone exhaust to minimize potential back pressure.

[Aaron Inami]

AFAIK a silencer is just a more solid version of flex duct. Of course the inner diameter should be increased.
Bill D

You are correct in some ways. However, think of flex duct as a flex hose with insulation wrapped around it. It's the flex-hose ribbing that restricts airflow and static pressure. The Fantech silencer does not have this restrictive ribbing. I've posted pictures of my Fantech LD8 in this thread (which I'm sure you have seen already):

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....er-coming-soon

[Aaron Inami]

If I can increase the u-turn duct diameter or lessen the sharpness of the turn might that help? I gotta work with what I got. Whatever design it comes out as it’s going to have multiple turns and be roughly located in that general area in the attic to be able to use the Clearvue. Otherwise I’m kinda screwed and will have to sell the cyclone and buy that g700 that I really don’t want. Stay tuned for redesign. Thanks all for the input.

The exhaust duct sizing is already 8", which is pretty big to start with. Once you start putting in larger sections (such as 10"), the airflow slows down due to a larger area. The risk is that you may have dust settling and building up in these larger areas. You still want enough velocity to push the dust all the way through the exhaust system to the filters.

The 8" short run double-silencer design is enough in my opinion.

Another idea you could do is get a water heater insulation jacket / blanket and wrap the cyclone and impeller sections. This helps reduce the sound produced by all the air turbulence inside the cyclone section and the impeller section. Just make sure to leave a good clear area for the motor section to allow for air circulation and motor cooling.