How Loud is My Lathe?

[Janger]

I decided a while back to always wear ear defenders whenever I have anything to do with air tools, connecting or disconnecting tools, fooling with air lines, turning on and off compressors, bleeding air lines, blowing off chips or cleaning anything with air. Anything at all air wear those defenders. I think air noise is very harmful and worse than you think. KMS carries the 3M ones - they are most comfortable ones I've tried.

 

[Susquatch]

I decided a while back to always wear ear defenders whenever I have anything to do with air tools, connecting or disconnecting tools, fooling with air lines, turning on and off compressors, bleeding air lines, blowing off chips or cleaning anything with air. Anything at all air wear those defenders. I think air noise is very harmful and worse than you think. KMS carries the 3M ones - they are most comfortable ones I've tried.

I think you are right about that John.

I think it's good to remember that all sounds regardless of their source are basically vibrating (rapidly moving back and forth) air. Our ears are keenly sensitive to those vibrations. But air doesn't need to move back and forth at audible frequencies to damage our ears. It just needs to move in a way thar creates a potentially very damaging pressure wave.

So ya, I think you are right to be careful around compressed air.

 

[Former Member]

Sounds like a cool app. If a similar app exists on the android platform, I have not found it. I have to use all separate apps to do all that.

You are not that far away from me. If you ever get down past London, give me a shout and drop by. I think you will be surprised to find how much we actually think alike. Although I am old, I'm not nearly as grumpy as you might think! You would enjoy your visit - especially after a few beers......

Sounds like a plan.

 

[Gearhead88]

I had no idea I was living & working such a noise saturated existance !!

I have a Db meter app on my phone now , it displays as a bar graph , perfect for a neanderthol like me ,even my hot rodded unit heater in the shop is approaching the orange zone of danger. The furnace and compressor running at the same time has the bar graph creeping even further into the hazard level.

The wife has the vacuum running now , on this meter it is displaying over 90Db , the hell with that , I'm going out to the shop for some peace and quiet.

 

[6.5 Fan]

You want noise, try being in a metal covered barn with a bunch of momma cows that want their babies back. Daughter and i have to use sign language. Hmm, i don't see an emoji that explains what i mean.

 

[Gearhead88]

You want noise, try being in a metal covered barn with a bunch of momma cows that want their babies back. Daughter and i have to use sign language. Hmm, i don't see an emoji that explains what i mean.

We're down to one cat now , he's getting on in years but at 5 AM , he makes sure we know he needs to be fed. I'll be checking the Db on that tomorrow.

 

[Gearhead88]

To get this topic back on track ……… I just checked my Craptex CT 043 lathe , @640 rpm , fluttering around 100 Db . I though it might be lower than the vacuum cleaner in the house , close though.

 

[Susquatch]

I had no idea I was living & working such a noise saturated existance !!

I have a Db meter app on my phone now , it displays as a bar graph , perfect for a neanderthol like me ,even my hot rodded unit heater in the shop is approaching the orange zone of danger. The furnace and compressor running at the same time has the bar graph creeping even further into the hazard level.

The wife has the vacuum running now , on this meter it is displaying over 90Db , the hell with that , I'm going out to the shop for some peace and quiet.

I'm guessing that app of yours needs calibrating. I doubt very much that your wife's vaccuum is over 90db.

 

[Gearhead88]

I'm guessing that app of yours needs calibrating. I doubt very much that your wife's vaccuum is over 90db.

It’s a really cheap one , she bought it when our central vac packed it in . There’s very little carpet in our house , she mostly uses it for dust n pet hair control. It’s loud & annoying for sure

 

[Hacker]

This is VERY interesting.... It looks like an inexpensive improvement that is worth doing.

I get a little nervous when they use words like "can double the soundproofing of any wall or ceiling assembly". What does that mean? Sound is one of those energy sources that is a lot more complicated than it seems. Different frequencies act totally different. High frequencies are directional and would probably be stopped in their tracks by a sound deadening layer like that. Low frequencies that travel through structure might also be affected. The examples show it applied over top of the framing with drywall over that so perhaps it addresses low frequencies too.

But what does "double" mean anyway? The Decibel system was developed because our ears are not linear devices. 3db is a perceptible difference. 10db is like doubling the apparent volume. Maybe that's what they meant but I wish they had chosen their words a bit better.

Anyone who has ever been inside an anechoic chamber knows what silence really is. That surface is absorbative but also cone shaped to reflect sound into the absorbtion material. But it's usually two feet thick and not very shop friendly.

This material may not be perfect but it does do the one thing that is probably more important than any other. It separates the structure from the surface soundboard which should reduce transmission effects. Flat board insulation does the same thing.

Frankly, I'd love to try it, but my construction days are over. However, I do know a fellow who is building a brand new shop. I think I'll put a little bug in his ear.

For this thread, I think it's worth trying. But I'd still put insulation between all the wall joists. And if noise is a really big concern, I'd install an acoustic tile drop ceiling too. They are called acoustic tile for a reason.

As a side tip, all those accidental divits you get in an acoustic tile ceiling from broom handles and the kids light sabres can be easily fixed with a spray can of Dr Shoal's foot powder. It has the perfect texture and colour to patch those marks up almost as good as new!

They had a demonstration set up at a Home Depot awhile back where they had a box built with Sonopan and drywall with a boombox inside and turned up to a very annoying level. With the lid open it was very loud but when you closed the lid you could just hear the music. It convinced me that the stuff works.
I am going to use it to build a enclosure for our parasitic pump in our mechanical room as that thing is very noisy when it runs.

 

[Brent H]

Well, I will make some noise in this thread just for fun.

We are currently “light” ice breaking so it is not that noisy- just a lot of vibrations so here are the meter readings:

My cabin:

Sorry it is blurry as we are vibrating like crazy but it reading about 65 db

The engine room:

We are rocking about 110 db in the high meter range. In heavy ice we will get up around 120 plus….

In the shop:

We are about 80 and peaking 85-90 db when hitting some of the larger chunks.

Everyone wears the -32 db ear protection and we are supposed to also wear the molded ear plugs under the muffs during heavy ice.

By next week I should be finished forever with this great vibration and noise.

When you are testing be sure you are testing up where you would be hearing. Close into the machines it may be high levels but quickly dropping around your actual hearing area. For example, if I stuff the meter in between the turbos when we are cranking up the reading is about 115 to 120, but drops to under 110 as soon as the meter is about a foot away.

Anyway, there you have Brent’s 2 cents

 

[Susquatch]

When you are testing be sure you are testing up where you would be hearing. Close into the machines it may be high levels but quickly dropping around your actual hearing area. For example, if I stuff the meter in between the turbos when we are cranking up the reading is about 115 to 120, but drops to under 110 as soon as the meter is about a foot away.

Terrific real world examples Brent. Love it!

Also your measuring point is excellent. I tried to say that earlier but failed miserably. In most mediums, sound intensity is inversely proportional to the cubed power of the distance.

 

[Gearhead88]

Terrific real world examples Brent. Love it!

Also your measuring point is excellent. I tried to say that earlier but failed miserably. In most mediums, sound intensity is inversely proportional to the cubed power of the distance.

Some times you type like Mr Spock talks

 

[Dabbler]

I did a lot of construction with my Dad when I was a teen, And between contracts I did quite a few renovations, including some soundproofing. We did use sound deadening drywall on some (with mixed results) but that was 15 years ago and more. The products might have improved.

What we found to be a serious deadener was to mount the drywall onto sill gasket in one orientation (but not too tight, but quite firm), and then redrywall with the sheets turned 90 degrees, with PL between. This creates a serious deadening mass (now that lead sheeting is deprecated) that can absorb the energy without transferring it all to the studs. I did a drum practice room and a room beside a music studio in this way. It worked the best of all our options we tried over the years. It was (at the time) cheaper than specialized sound deadening drywall.

 

[DPittman]

"I did a lot of construction with my Dad when I was a teen...We did use sound deadening drywall on some (with mixed results) but that was 15 years ago and more."
Here I had you pegged at a bit more than 30-35 years old Dabbler!

Your method of sound insulating makes sense to me and is worth considering. My old house does not have a finished basement ceiling in much of the area and it sounds like elephants walking among land mines in the basement when the kids are upstairs playing with the dog. If I ever built a house for myself sound dealing between rooms would be high priority.

 

[Dabbler]

bit more than 30-35 years old Dabbler!

I was lax with my tenses. I moved away from Ontario (and working with Dad) in the late 70s

My own personal experience with soundproofing ended when I stopped contracting 15 years ago, when i retired.