How to silence a power hammer

[Glenn]

How to silence a power hammer?

 

I know there are many threads on blacksmithing, neighbors, and noise all over the forum. I know the suggestions have been barriers such as trees, carpet hung from the ceiling, isolation of the hammer from the floor, erecting a sound deflector on an angle,  etc.

 

I had a discussion with a blacksmith living inside the city that wanted a power hammer. Angyang was discussed as it is small(ish) and would fit in his shop. Then came the concern about neighbors and trying to keep them happy with a power hammer within feet of their house. 

 

Isolation was approved as was some carpet to grab and hold the noise from using the hammer. But the purpose of this thread is what to do with the compressed air exhaust?  How do you make it quiet or silent?

 

 

Lets say the exhaust piping comes off the hammer, and into a pipe. Now what? 

 

Pointing it straight up would divert the noise to up.

A muffler from a automobile, or motor cycle could be used to tone it down.

 

The conversation turned to a 90 degree elbow and a length of pipe to put the compressed exhaust air into a 55 gallon barrel of water. The moonshiners call these tanks a thumper for a reason. So what if you drilled several holes along the pipe to release some of the pressure before it got to the bottom of the pipe? What about putting some expanded wire above the end of the pipe to break up the BIG bubble of air into smaller bubbles? Rather then going to the bottom of the water barrel, would going to a depth of say 12 inches be any better? What about going to 12 inches depth and then going horizontal with a length of pipe. capped at the end with holes on the bottom side of the pipe to let the air escape?

 

 

Here is the challenge,

What would you suggest to make the power hammer exhaust quiet, very quiet, or silent? How did you handle this problem on your hammer? Give us some ideas. We did not build a box so anything is available as an option.

 

Would any oil in the exhaust cause a problem? 

[MOONY]

DO NOT TURN IT ON WILL BE THE BEST 

[trinculo]

I use a BMW motorcycle muffler. I have two power hammers y'd into it and it works great.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Gents,

 

I never used it mainly because I moved my shop to the country but I ran across this idea from a stationary power plant on an island in northern Michigan..   If you take an old stainless steel beer jug or fire extinguisher and install an inlet and outlet pipe bent over .... Than burry the unit about 2 ft down outside the shop...   Direct the hammer exhaust into the inlet of the ground muffler and make sure the outlet has a bend so rain does not fill the container....  The ground absorbs the noise...   I seen this work on a diesel power unit and was amazed on how quiet it was...

 

I hope this helps someone

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

[MOONY]

with a anyang an many other air hammers there is no real exhaust out let tha anyang exaust under the fly wheel so no place to put a pipe massey under the frame 

 some of the other fabricated hammers blow out a small pipe these you might be able to duct  but its the smak that is the trouble with noise notso much the air

  you can build asound proof room to have the hammer if that one way to shut it up lolol

[Jamesrjohnson]

Even if you change the general operating noise of any hammer (self contained, utility, mechanical) you still have the much louder noise of the dies hitting and moving material. 

 

Our hammers idling are not as loud as other simple tools that would be found in any garage (table saws, grinders, compressors)

 

I have customers that share shop space with other trades, and usually if there is a noise complaint,  it is while the hammer is hitting steel.

 

If your friend is concerned about noise I would focus on the source of the loudest -which would be actual hammering.  Other than installing some kind of sound dampening I don't know if there is was away to reduce hammering noise (without hitting softer;)

[Judson Yaggy]

Cast frame hammers tend to be quieter than welded types unless exceptional measures are taken.  Despite their other limitations mechanical hammers only have mild motor noise when idling, but it's not going to be the idle that bothers neighbors.  In my experience 2 piece (separate anvil) hammers will have a little less noise than a one piece of similar size, but probably not enough to matter.  

 

Exhaust into a bucket of lathe swaff is a reasonable DIY muffler.

 

Sounds like a job for a fly press.  

[rthibeau]

if'n you sent your power hammer to me, I'd see it had a good home and then you wouldn't have to worry about any noise from it

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Again,

 

I'll stick to the challenge..   I forgot to add if you make a ground muffler drill a hole in the container in the bottom for oil or condensate to escape.

 

Jim

[WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith]

I have a 155 Big Blu Max with a Harley Davidson muffler.  I hear no exhaust noise and when hammering the sound is similar to hand clapping when hammering orange hot metal.  The hammer is on a 6" wooden base with he anvil caulked to the base and the base caulked to the floor. 

[HWooldridge]

I ran a 100 lb mechanical in the middle of a residential neighborhood for a few years and the noise from forging was what you could hear more than anything. The closest neighbor told me her windows rattled occasionally but she thought I had a "welding shop" so it was no big deal to her. I think compressor noise is lower down the list than the thump of hammering.

[sal the blacksmith]

G'day everyone , I'm new here so this is my first post . I would have to agree with Jim Cokes' point which is rather clever or if you don't want to go underground with the noise dampening unit then make sure the noise reducing unit is made of suitable noise dampening materials to break down sound vibration just like a gun silencer in design & materials to also absorb sound waves.

[PMARTINKNIVES]

I built a few air hammers and used mufflers from a lawn tractor, pointed to the ground and they work very well.

 

 

Peter

[VaughnT]

Building something like a pistol's silencer would certainly work, it's what a silencer is designed to do.  A car or bike muffler does the same basic thing, though I wonder if the number of baffles isn't limited to save money and building costs.  More baffles will make the exhaust quieter, but you have to deal with back-pressure on a motor and not on a hammer.

 

One thing I'm thinking.... everyone always cautions you to keep as straight a line between your blower and the fire pot because every curve or turn slows the air down.  Okay, if that's the case, why not apply that to the exhaust?  A full curl or two of the exhaust pipe, transitioning into a larger pipe towards the end, would decrease the speed of the air to the point that a regular muffler wouldn't have much left to do.  Right?  I think it would look cool, too!

 

Were I to build a silencer, I wonder what the spec's would need to be?  How long/wide for maximum effect?  You could completely eliminate any exhaust noise just like a pistol's silencer can, but what would you use?  Well casing pipe for the outside, but what about the baffles?  "K" baffles are nice, but I wouldn't be able to machine something like that.  Maybe PVC end caps with a few holes drilled in them and stacked in the pipe?

[Madmike]

A microphone facing the hammer, some computing stuff in a dust-heat-moist/proof container and some speakers 360° around the hammer to emit a cancelling sound wave just opposite to the hammer noise  :rolleyes: 

Daniel.85, it doesn't sound more complicated than induction heating, right ? 

[Frosty]

A glass pack or other muffler for the air noise, don't forget the intake, some compressors are noisier on the intake side. Set your hammer on wood with a layer of felt under it and ground vibrations will be significantly damped. Better than a sheet of rubber in fact. A welded steel frame hammer might make noise from the frame, you can glue felt to the frame in places to damp the resonance, it doesn't need to be total coverage. Another method is to bolt zinc strips to the frame. Basically anything that will damp the resonance of the frame will cancel a LOT of noise. this is why my anvils all stand on steel stands, they damp the resonance and my anvils just clank rather than shriek out with ear splitting rings.

 

My 50lb. LG is pretty quiet, even dry firing the dies. You can hear it outside the shop but not in the barn or house, let alone the neighbor's place. It's mounted on 4x12s on concrete floor, nothing special atall, atall.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Quarry Dog]

I'm not really sure if it had any effect, but when we installed a LG 25 that we re-babbitted, we put 2 layers of some really wide mats made cut out of woven belting under it, almost like old line shaft belting.  I think that may have been more to protect the concrete?  It's not really all that loud though, so who knows.

[Glenn]

You may want to consider a horse stall pad for under the hammer. I found them at Tractor supply and horse type stores, feed and seed stores, etc..

[L Smith]

Yes it is the hammer slap that bothers folks. My neighbor has a gasket making business and ran it in his garage for a while, before he rented shop space.Rattled everything in our house. My wife was going to call the city on him every weekend. My reaction-- he is not on welfare leave him alone. Glad he found shop space though.