Thread: Noise reduction

tontine is a good sound insulator as is foam sheets, but remember that as soon as you install vents, which you will have to do, the noise will come thru them

If you can find a way to sound proof it inside you might as well put it outside, that way all the fine dust goes outside as well.

even fibreglass batts will reduce noise considerably

This thread may be of use.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f200/reducing-dust-extraction-sound-46103

Zelk

Rich, there is a product called Acoustitherm, or something like that it's an insulation bat and sound buffer

Allan

If you are serious then these guys have the products for soundproofing and linings http://www.soundguard.com.au/

May be expensive though. A company I used to work for used quite a lot of this type of product, never had to buy any though!

the venting problem described above is solveable by a baffled vent -
http://www.silenceair.com/site/index.html

great for people who live near major roads too.

Rockwool is an excellent sound absorber.
Sound isolation is much more about design than materials.
Any type of structure intended to contain noise must reduce or remove the mechanical ability of the excited air (noise) from being able to vibrate the air outside the controlled environment. This process is called isolation and is the name of the game. A practical example is a stud wall. In a normal wall you have a top and bottom plate studs between them and noggins where ever you dont want to hang a painting later on. Both sides are then covered in a sheet of plasterboard.
In a wall intended to isolate sound the least you would do is to have plates of at least 90mm but the studs of say 70mm would be offset to one side of the wall or another alternatively. The result is that either skin is only fixed to the studs for its side of the wall meaning that if you vibrate or excite one skin the other one does not move with it.
Add insulation and use 16mm plasterboard and you have some good sound isolation. You can also use multiple skin layers and layers of different thickness sound hates to travel through materials of differing thickness.
There are also special flexible isolation glues for fixing multiple skins to each other.

Ross

Try this stuff, I've just used some in my shed to insulate and absorb sound... works a treat. Its a semi rigid blanket, 25mm thick with compressed glass wool(35kg m2)and perforated foil on one side.
Comes in a pack of 10 sheets(1200x2400)about $240, it will cover an area of 28.8m2 per pack you can get it by the roll too, I got it too use in my shed doors, fits up real nice very easy to use its self supporting if you cut it slightly oversize and jam fit it.

If you want to use fatbats as a sound insulation you need to compress it to increase its density and isolate it from the vibrating surface, you could build a heavy MDF box around it and line it with R3.5+ bats then compress it using peg board. This will gain a substantially good anulation of possibly 6db(half as loud)

To sound proof you need to isolate and add weight/density... lead is the best common material known to man, pity we cant use it!

Hi all,

Thanks for the great feedback and product links! It looks like I have something to go on with.

To summarise;

• I should build a box around the fan unit
• multiple thicknesses of materials of variable density
• with a void between which could be lined with a range of sound reduction materials

However I will still need to deal with the point at which exhaust tube leaves the enclosure as this represents a "leakage" point. Taking a look at the links provided by pharmaboy for the silence air products this may be resolved using one of their baffles.

I like the idea of having the dusty fan (and maybe even the compressor) outside the garage as this will release some space for useful purposes.

Thanks again everybody for your help.

regards,

Rich.