FWW #195 silence your shop vac
sharpenedtool
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
This months FWW #195 has an article on muffling your vacuum. I have often thought of doing the same thing, but have worried about the motor overheating from not getting enough air.
The use of exhaust air will make the motor run hotter which in turn will make the exhaust air hotter..
Creating a hotter cycle… that repeats..
Has anyone built a similar enclosure… can you run your vac for long periods and keep it from overheating?
Replies
Not having read the article, I'm not sure what you're describing. For the vacuum to work, it's got to be dumping the exhaust air somewhere. Can you describe what you mean?
Pete
Most shop vacs don't have a separate cooling air circuit; they get their cooling air from the incoming air stream. As long as your vac is of that type, and as long as you don't block the inlet hose or the exhaust, you should be fine.
-Steve
Mine does have a separate supply. I'll bet yours does too.
Some are disguised like mine.
I have a craftsman and it is hidden in a slight separation of the motor housing. About 1/16" all around.
Some ShopVac have caps over the top that hide it too.
My big Craftsman does, but my little Ridgid does not (at least, I can't find anything).
-Steve
I have an old craftsman shop vac :-( and the only thing thats going to silence it is 1/4 lb. of C4. Have tried two hoses(exhaust going out the door), but the noise comes from the motor and the large centrifugal fan. No muffler can help them.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
See: http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/workshop/workshopArticle.aspx?id=29740Listen to the results of this..
I just need to know I won't be buying a new unit because I overheated my motor.
I think I mentioned in a posting in another thread that plans for a similar muffler box were published in another magazine some years ago. That author claimed that he had run his vac extensively without any problem. Sorry I can't remember which Mag. it was.
Jim
Thanks, that was the confirmation that I was looking for.
Found the article. American Woodworker # 79. Unfortunately their website index doesn't go back that far. The design is simpler than the FWW one, basically a lined box on casters, with hose inlet on the side, and an exhaust hole on top with an optional plastic elbow to divert air. It's made of a sheet of 3/4 mdf with 8 wood battens, and was the work of Jack Beste of WoodWrite Ltd. The lining is carpet.
"The noise reduction from this muffler box is amazing. It's easy to have a normal conversation with the vacuum running right next to you, and to have the vacuum running for long periods of time without driving you batty. We don't know what this box does to the longevity of your vacuum's motor, but we have reports of people having their vacuum going all day long for days without ill effect."
Jim
Bruce
Don't know if we have the same SR vacuum but mine is very loud. I have been rough on it over the years and she keeps going. I have vacuumed lots of liquids as well as wood dust. I'd like to quiet that little monster down a bit. I think I might build one for the monster at school and see if it cooks itself. Really I don't think it will.
I'll post some test results and hope others will post their results.
We had a cyclone double bag collector in the small boathouse I shared with another builder and we had to move it outside and build a small house around it. That was 8 plus years ago. No problema and I can actually fit a strake on a rib without getting a headache from that screamer.
I'm suspicious of the air flow in that design also. The exhaust slot is in the bottom, separated by the shelf, right? My big vac puts voluminous exhaust right out the topside of the vac, can't imagine that design would work for it. The smaller vac doesn't make enough noise to justify building a box.
I agree F Girl. After reading the article, the first question that came to mind was how does the exhaust air get out. After studying the plans I figured it out, BUT if I wrote the article I would have addressed this issue so the reader would not be confused.
I must have missed this article; the video is pretty impressive.I'm interested as besides my regular shop-vac (my original finally croaked after 7 years, and got replaced w/ a 14 gallon Ridgid) I also have a larger shop-vac employed as part of the central vacuum system for the house (switched outlet, etc.). It works pretty well, but the racket when it starts up unexpectedly (to me) can be a bit irritating at times.My concern, as with others, is the air flow... I recall seeing some other plans where they set up a baffled chamber for the inlet... 'tortuous path' I believe is the term, so the sound waves have as much difficulty propagating, but the air flow is relatively unrestricted. Might be a good weekend project for some noise abatement ;) I wonder if Dyno-Mat (not sure of the spelling) would work... used to see it used to dampen noise/vibration in car body panels w/ high-powered stereo systems. I don't think the stuff was very cheap, though.The big concern I have w/ my 14 gallon Ridgid vacuum is I think it might be one of those that use the incoming air suction as part of the cooling air flow... just putting a 1-1/4 hose on it for use w/ a router causes a marked change in the pitch of the sound coming from it, and the air discharge starts getting pretty warm in a hurry.
Edited 11/23/2007 12:30 am by milanuk
I would think what we need is one of these devices..http://www.ccivalve.com/pdf/347.pdf
Take a look at the article and the video.
The raised floor that the vac sits on is shorter than the box allowing air to flow around it to the outlet port. That’s part of the noise abatement design. The outlet port of the box is at least 8 times the size of the outlet of the vac.
When the vac is on it’s there is a constant unrestricted airflow through the box.
Since the outlet port of the box is so big compared to the vacs outlet through flow I don’t see a problem with keeping the vac cool enough.
I use two vacs as dedicated dust collectors on my chop and band saws and I fully intend to build two of these boxes to get the noise down.
As I have seen the actual unit from the article in use, (I have been in Mr. Schrunk's shop) I can say that it does exactly what is promised. As for overheating, there is plenty of exhaust airflow in the boxes design. Now, if only I had the time to build a really big box for my cyclone...
Peter
www.jpswoodworking.com
Peter,
You just gave me a new project to design and build.
A quiet box for my cyclone.
Hmmmmm
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled