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Cheers Paul. Living in an inner city neighborhood the advantages for me are significant. I am now able to use a compressor and air tools in the evenings and on weekends without annoying the neighbors. Also the compressor does not take up valuable shed floor real-estate and gets more noise out of the shed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bushmiller
That good to see more progress.
Seems a grand place to locate a compressor. Interested to read what meter readings you take, and from what distance. If the sound is low enough, then I will have a go at an external enclosure.:rolleyes:
I finally got to bring home a dB meter.Quote:
Originally Posted by BobL
With the meter
1) 1 m from the unenclosed operating compressor it reads ~90db (yes it is noisy compressor).
2) 1 m from the operating compressor inside the enclosure it reads ~80db.
3) inside the shed with the meter 1m from the wall that forms the back of the compressor enclosure it reads ~70db.
4) in the middle of the shed it reads ~68 db.
So the overall reduction in sound intensity produced by that enclosure is a factor of 3. Remember it's not a totally sealed enclosure as the compressor needs some air to circulate through the enclosure to cool it down.
The overall reduction in sound intensity produced by placing the compressor outside the shed and in that enclosure is a factor of ~10. It doesn't sound like much but for anyone that doesn't like noise it's well worth doing
Not a great difference but better outside the shed then inside the shed. I currently have the compressor under a bench and when I need this I put on my ear protection.
Maybe some more insulation against the shed wall might reduce the sound just a bit more? Whichever, as you say, it is worthwhile. :2tsup:
Like Christos I have to put my ear protection on when I have he compressor on. :(
I finally have been well enough to makes some progress with the DC enclosure.
Basic plan
Attachment 450530
Its ~1800 mm wide by 600 mm deep and 2400 mm tall at on end and and 2500 m tall at the other.
The frame is made from pine and it is clad in the same coloured colorbond as the shed and is coach bolted to the back of the old shed.
There is not much room to move at the back of the shed so this is the best picture I could get. The open front will be covered by 3 ~2000 x 600 mm doors.
Attachment 450529
Here is a view of the internal ceiling/roof.
Attachment 450531
The ceiling/roof is lined with 32 mm melamine which is then covered with 16 mm chipboard.
The jarrah quarter rounds seem a bit over the top but I have many many lengths of this under the house after fitting new jarrah skirting boards to the house about 20 years ago.
Here is a view of a partially completed side and the exit baffle with the front cover removed.
Attachment 450532
The sides are insulated with foil covered fibreglass insulation which is then covered with 32 mm melamine. The insulation is not used for thermal reasons but to reduce the possible rattling of the colorbond cladding.
The exit baffle air path is 200 by 500 in cross section and made from leftover bits of chipboard. The chipboard baffles are not fixed in place can be removed to enable cleaning etc. The blue arrow show the pathway taken by the air. Remember the front cover has been removed so you can see the flow path.
Here is another view of the baffle and air path (front cover still removes. So far I have only foam lined the tops of the baffle but I will also line the sides as well.
Attachment 450533
I will also foam load substantial parts of the inside of the enclosure.
This is taking much longer than I thought. I can only do about a hour a day for the last 2 weeks because of the blood clot in my left leg.
Interesting
I really should take a leaf out of your shed and do similar :D
Sorry to hear about your leg, hoping for a full recovery :crutch:
Just flicked through the thread, soaking up all the photos.
That is shaping up to be a very fine shed indeed!
Thankfully, whilst I'm feeling a reasonable amount of shed envy, some other photos in the thread have made me feel quite a bit better about what I currently have :p
I look forwards to future updates. Great work Bob, and happy shedding! :2tsup:
I managed to do a bit more on the DC enclosure.
I added a small extension to the roof to better cover the doors from the weather.
Attachment 450540
As I said above it's very close to the fence so its hard to take decent photos of it.
The reason the door is propped closed is because I haven't added any door catches yet - I'm waiting until the colourbond cladding goes on.
As you can see it is moderately flash on the outside - this is because the neighbors pool/entertaining area is about 15 m away from the fenceline and the last thing I want him to complain about is how it looks
There are 3 doors on the enclosure, 2 to service the collection bag, and one to service the impeller.
The doors are 107 mm thick. 32 mm melamine and 75 mm of foam and are on loose pinned hinges so they can be easily removed if required. The weigh about 45 kg each.
Here you can see the inside of the door. The doors will also be clad externally with colorbond to protect the melamine.
Attachment 450542
As you can see it's very cosy in there. If I had more room behind the shed I would have made it 50 mm wider all around and 100 mm higher (I wanted to keep it below the existing shed roofline)
Attachment 450541
Here you can see how the blower unit is mounted in the enclosure. I added angle iron lips on each side of the blower. The lips sit on a wooden beams on either side of the enclosure and one person can slide the unit in and out for servicing if needed.
Attachment 450543
The 4 x 4" ports will be replaced with one 6" port.
The GPO inside the enclosure is on a 20A circuit in the shed but the start up current trips the breaker so I will need to get a 15A line in there meanwhile I have temporarily run a 15A extension cord to it
How does it sound.
Well the naked unit is normally 80 dB at 1 meter.
With the DC inside the enclosure it is 75 dB at one metre from the enclosure and 72 dB at 3 m but it's hard to measure because the sound is trapped in the alleyway between the back fence and the shed and the meter reading varies depending on where it's pointed. I still have not lined the rest of the enclosure with all the sound absorbing materials. Inside the shed (just on the other side of a naked fibre-cement wall) its 70 dB. Once that shed is lined I expect to get it down a bit more.
What worries me somewhat is that there is a distinct rumble that vibrates the whole enclosure - I'm thinking some rubber isolation pads between the blower unit an the enclosure frame.
Are you getting the noise reduction overall that you had hoped for? Bearing in mind the thought and construction detail that has gone into the enclosure?:unsure:
It's not as good as I had hoped. I was hoping for 68 dB at 3 m. It's the rumble that worries me because I know that can travel a long way and annoy people.Quote:
Originally Posted by wun4us
It alsmost certainly would have worked better If I had left the unit on its own trolley/stand (which has solid rubber wheels) since that would have decoupled the DC from the housing. One reason I did not do that is because I needed to build in a set of high air volume baffles and the trolley/stand would have got in the way of the baffles.
I have already tried a 1 cm thick rubber strip between the DC and the housing but it did not seem to make much of a difference but I have some ideas of a spring loaded suspension system that should work better.
Missed the last post about your leg. Hope you are better.
My father had a clot in his leg and was told to eat more onions. After the operations.
You said that you were going to cover the external walls of the DC room with colourbond; have you given any thought to the possibility of the form of the metal acting as a possible reverberator for the sounds emanating from within? Just a thought, I know that the doors are heavy and foam lined, but I take it that the melamine currently is the outer shell of the doors, and that the colourbond will be fixed to that? Maybe some form of 'softish' gasket on the ribs will help?
JMHO for WIW
You are correct the melamine is currently the outer shell but will be covered by Colorbond. In terms of the colourbond vibrating, a few well placed screws should stop that. However I do like the idea of a soft gasket and will have a look around and see what I have in my stash.Quote:
Originally Posted by wun4us