Heyall,
So, I just got, in the mail, a little blower. It is tiny, but supplies a ton of air for it's size, which is excellent, my only problem is that it is as loud as a full sized vaccuum cleaner, or a circular saw. Not pleasant. So, I'm looking into ways to dampen the sound, because if I don't, it will drive me insane. I'm thinking of putting it inside of a heavily padded box, but with air vents so that it doesn't over heat. Sound like a good idea? Any others? Are there commercially available sound dampening paints or somesuch? I don't think that wrapping it with chain will help, unfortunately.

Thanks!
Arch

We just got our Central Vacuum Systme installed in our house. One of the attachments on the exhaust side is a muffler. I don't know how much it helps, I never heard it without but, for the amount of air that this thing moves, it is pretty quiet.
Jerry

Thanks Jerry! I'll look into that.

Can you place it outside of your shop and just run an air pipe in---like you do for noisy compressors?

I mounted my blower outside in a weather tight incloser but you want to have a vibration damper between the wall & the blower otherwise the stud bay will amplify the noise good luck

Your shop has a stud bay? How Odd! (but it's a good point about not "driving the wall"

My shop is actually open to the air, so putting it outside won't really work. I tried putting it in a box with 3 inches of foam to dampen the sound, but it was still about as loud as a skilsaw, unfortunately. My neighbours are rather crotchety, and don't take kindly to even basic construction, so I'm actually looking into just getting a quieter blower. It would cost me more to return the blower than I paid for it (I have to pay for shipping) so I'm looking into other blowers. Do any of you have experience with this one? I've hear it's quite quiet, the motor turns half as quickly as the little one, so it should be quieter, I am thinking a (60 cfm fasco centrifugal blower)

Thanks!
Archie


bad link removed

Build an expansion tube for both the intake and exit. Take PVC about 3x the diameter, end caps with holes the correct diameter (based on the port you are quieting). If I got this right about 12 inches should be about right...if I got it wrong it will get louder. You need one on the intake and exhaust. Since it is feeding the forge, try the intake first. In reality most any material will work, and the tube does not need to be round. You can build it out of plywood if you wanted.

Having it so you can adjust the position of one cap by a few inches will allow you to "tune" it for quiet.

This assumes that motor vibration or failed bearings are not the root causes of your noise.

Phil

I tend to wear ear-plugs around the shop because of all the noise from equipment in general.

The easiest way to quiet a noisy blower is to replace it. In fact, I've found it is the only way to do it reasonably.

Bigger fan blades at a slower RPM. High volume, low pressure. The hand crank blowers are a good example. Have you ever noticed how a mechanical siren is made? Kind of like a squirrel cage blower. That is one reason I hate Shop-Vacs. I did find one of their quiet models at a garage sale, and it is much quieter than the originals.

Dave, I completely agree about the cheapest thing to do being replacing the blower. After an hour of trying to soundproof the little fella (it does look oddly like a siren...hmm...), I gave up, and I'm getting a chunky 60cfm fasco blower. I had an excellent 10cfm fasco which lasted me years before I gave it away, and apparently it's still running and whisper quiet as ever in it's new home, so I'm hopeful. It's rpm are a third of the noisy blower, yet it pushes 3 times the air, and it's a lot quieter (I saw one in action at the forge at a local college) and I can also use it for more than just the small gas forge. I'm not worried about the pressure, as I'm not dealing with coal.
Thanks for all the advice, everyone!