soundproofing enclosures?

dointhangs · Post by **dointhangs** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:46 am

Alright who else is in an apartment and worried about sound during cutting? Equally as important is the same enclosure serving to catch waste from cutting. The sexiest thing would be one of the misumi extrusion frame kits with panels nicely mounted and the door... But from clicking around a little that would probably end up costing more than the shapeoko itself. I dont have a lot of experience working with acrylic but thats probably what I should shoot for, making a simple box which fits over the cnc, onto some sort of base? Or just make a cheap plywood box with one side acrylic to save cash? Hopefully these things will cut noise down just enough, or I could double box it somehow. Anyways its just common sense stuff but if anyone has some good ideas I am all ears.

bobt · Post by **bobt** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:34 am

The other material that can be used is 2" solid sheet foam. Cuts the noise and easy to work with. Just cut with a knife and tape it together with "DUCK TAPE" yes I was finally able to say that on this site.

Bob Teeter

Will Winder · Post by **Will Winder** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:34 am

You could probably find a plastic tub with a lid that the shapeoko would fit in. Then add some foam or cork to the sides/lid.

I'm not sure how well acrylic would dampen sound, something dense like MDF would probably be much better.

You could have your local hardware store cut up a sheet of MDF and make a big box. Put some blocks at the corners and you could screw it together, or carefully glue them together. Just be sure to account for thickness of the material when bringing in dimensions for the store to cut.

dointhangs · Post by **dointhangs** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 2:04 am

Of course! very nice obvious ideas I like the tote idea with foam inside! Will post pics I promise, this is a very slow train though haha.

DanMc · Post by **DanMc** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 2:28 am

Mass is the one sure fire way to eliminate sound, MDF would be good in that regard, however the hard surface will reflect higher frequency sounds. Something that is often used to disrupt higher frequency waves is insulation, compressed fiberglass is great, it's expensive to buy new but it can often be found in older drop-ceiling tiles from offices. Drywall is also relatively good, think 5/8" or double layers of 1/2" Homasote is also pretty good. The other thing to keep in mind is that sound is like water, it will find any little hole and leak out, so it needs to be fairly tight. There is also vibration which can transmit noise through structures instead of the air, for that the easiest thing would be a carpet or rug under the table that the machine is on. For my money, an MDF box lined with Homasote would be great, maybe replace one side with an acrylic window. It's not as fun covering everything up but...

Post by **edwardrford** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:11 am

Just for some background: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/shapeok ... zdKrDYTL0J

-Edward

DanMc · Post by **DanMc** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 12:59 pm

There's a re-routed link on that thread but judging by the description I'm pretty sure it was for mass-loaded-vinyl. I thought about suggesting that too, but it's expensive to buy. It is good though and thin, maybe 1/8".

Edward, did you do any further experiments beyond what you posted there?

Post by **edwardrford** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:33 pm

I briefly tried another setup made from 1/4" MDF lined with R-11 insulation, but it too ended with no significant sound dampening. In fact, I felt like all of my attempts actually resulted in creating more of a sound box that projected the noise straight forward at what seemed to be a higher dB. But, that may have just been my own subjective interpretation.

My 1/4" MDF box wasn't sealed together very well, I used overlapping edge pieces but didn't go through the trouble of actually gluing it together.... Instead I used a couple of finishing nails to keep the whole thing fairly temporary, not knowing exactly how it would work out. That could have had something to do with it's poor performance?

-Edward

DanMc · Post by **DanMc** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 10:21 pm

I think it's more likely that it was the thin MDF that contributed to the poor performance, there just wasn't enough mass. In fact a thin sheet becomes a membrane with a resonant frequency that could be activated by the sound from the machine (think of a drum kit). The idea would be to have enough mass to where the sound from the device can't move the deadening material and maybe throw in some insulation type material on the inside to dampen the shorter wavelengths. Another concept is to decouple the inner, sound-absorbing surface from the outside with specific adhesives or resilient channels, in that case the inner surface vibration absorbs the energy of the sound wave without transmitting it to the outer layer.

I may delve into some experiments when I get a chance. I have some of materials laying around I could try out.

rpe · Post by **rpe** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 4:24 pm

Get some sound dampening material from junk cars.

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