Noise Pollution

[chris mabbott]

This topic probably doesn’t pertain to those of you who have detached work shops, but for those of you that, like myself, have a dungeon (basement) area, or to people who have a room in your house, or live in an apartment, you can possibly relate to this…

Noise, Vibration, and the soothing sounds of light industrial work being performed on a lathe, mill or drill, that tends to bug the crap out of certain parties that may live in the same dwelling with us 😆

When I use my lathe, apparently the vibration from it sends a signal of annoyance to my better half who is in the above portion of the dwelling. The washing machine, which produces a somewhat different level of vibe, doesn’t cause this :
It seems that the hearing sensitivity levels of the opposite sex are attuned to these noises more so than the male hearing, maybe we’re simply accostomed to turning a deaf ear 😆

In my quest for a peacful existence, I’ve designed a wooden workbench that I hope will solve the vibration going through the house issue, as at the moment, I have the lathe sitting atop a concrete countertop that is attached to the wall (obviously) so I think this might be the main cause of the vibration transmitting it’s lovely sound through the walls..

It’s a bit of a pain because in order to keep the peace, I’m constrained to using the machine when alone, which seriously limits my creativity in the wee hours of the morn 🙄

Which led me to wonder if any of you have this same issue?

[bernie weishapl]

Nope doesn’t affect me as I have a detached shop or my dog house as my better half calls it. 😆

[chris mabbott]

I’m sorry sir, this is the vibrationaholics annonymous meeting, I think that you’re looking for the lucky so & so’s who have seperate shops meeting just down the hall 😆

[dulwich2410]

Have got some of that cheap Chinese machinery.

All the best

John.

[khoward279]

Hi Chris,
What about those anti vibration pads they use for machinery. We use them in our shop and I have them under the pads on my air compressor and they work great. Just a thought.

[stevefitzwater]

First lets find out what freq. bothers her, it is the low rumbling, or the high pitched squeals?

Low rumbling can be fixed with vibration damping, rubber spacers, if it is the high pitched, the only true solution is an enclosure to capture the noise, ie cork or foam walls which can be a pain in the wallet. You could build a small enclosure around the lathe, sound is directional, so if you block 3 sides and the top, along with vibration reduction, you should be able to greatly reduce it.

Also I want to reserve a seat in the meeting “just down the hall”, at some point, I want to build a shop, besides Horology, I have a herd of green deere that I maintain, and the garage is always full with her car and my green Deere’s, so my truck sits outside.

[namonllor1953]

Ahhh, my Brother from another mother; how I love ya!!
I’ve had to pick myself up twice from the floor, I’ve laughed so much at this post!!!
I laugh only because I had the same nagging problem for two years and all of a sudden, it took care of itself. She found someone else and left. 😮 Problem solved… 😆
I have two rooms in our house that have been turned into workshops, one a machine shop, the other a wood/bamboo shop. I work on clocks and watches in our living room.
I’ve been slowly cleaning out the woodshop and moving it out to the back porch in hopes of turning the woodshop into the horology room.
Luckily for me, both my children love doing hands on stuff and use both the rooms and the tools themselves.

[chris mabbott]

My brothers, it’s always a pleasure soliciting responses from ya’ll here on our little slice of heaven, dare I say our collective man cave where fires can be built, drums beaten in a rhythmic fashion whilst we perform our modern tribal dance around the carcasses of prey that we’ve just hunted down, without giving offense that is, to our sisters who may, or may not, frequent our humble domain 😆

Now c’mon chaps, I’m surprised no one has mentioned ear plugs, I understand we have a time difference here but… 😆

All good ideas guys, except for brother Bernie who was just taunting us because like William, they both have fabulous workshops with golden floors, diamond encrusted walls and overhead hoists etc etc a veritable sultans palace..

I’ve considered the rubber mounts, but this lathe has only a single center mount bolt hole, the main feet are either side and sit flush with the surface, the mounting bolt is in a slightly raised channel between the two feet. I would have to find a piece of square rubber to cover the whole mounting foot area then drill a hole in the center. I’ve also looked at those pre made rubber mounts, but I they wouldn’t work here.
If I was still living back home I could zip down to Home Depot and buy a chunk of rubber, but here in downtown españa….. No la encuentro facilmente 🙄
The drawback of bench-top lathes but no matter, we’ll get a handle on her.

Ren, it’s nice to see your young apprentices all donning their safety glasses, a gold star to you buddy for safety first training
Although I can appreciate your technique, the first time I tried that method it cost me dearly, it would have definitely been cheaper for me to build another house to keep my gear in, and that was just the lawyers fees. If anyone chooses this method, make sure that you’re quite a good distance away from California 😆

Ok, back to die machinen, it’s definitely vibration, which is caused by the variable speed rheostat like device which cause the motor to hum during low speed operation. When I wind her up (the lathe) its better, but it’s operation that dictates rpm and not a physical being, unfortunately this explanation falls on deaf ears, deaf that is, to all sounds other than production noise 😆

At last it’s Monday and I hope that today my bench will be ready or at least sometime this week as promised. The top of the bench is 3 inch pine, and it won’t be attached to the wall, so I hope this will eliminate 50% of the issue.
I might add that I also attempted to drown out the noise with loud reggae, apparently reggae has an adverse effect on the auricular center as well, as does punk, alternative and electronic music 🙄

[stevefitzwater]

Well if you move the lathe to the new refinished bench, try rub mats under those legs to help reduce it even further..

Ear Plugs.. right.. if I had this issue, and I suggested ear plugs.. I would be need a “dog house” as Bernie’s wife calls it to live in, so in hindsight, ear plugs would of been the worst suggestion in my mind!

a better “easy solution” would be a blue tooth headset, for music or TV, or what ever she is doing when your are playing, the best way to resolve it is to cover it up with a different more pleasurable sound..

Ok Story time with Uncle Steve-

I am a gamer, PC gamer to be exact, I build my own gaming systems, I have been part of many gaming communities, and everyone wants to know my secret on how my Wife allows me to play online games when ever I want and for how ever long I want. Here is how I solved a similar issue, but was able to turn it around on the wife, so she was tell me to go play those “Dam Games”

Well it all started about 10 yrs ago, I started playing online and as I made friends, I was starting to play more and more, which made the wife mad, so I stopped, and every night I watched TV with her, but she quickly learned that I would not watch shows like American Idol, or The Voice, or some of the other shows she had been watching while I was playing. So after a couple of weeks, realizing she was missing her shows, she suggested I go back downstairs and play with my buddies!

[willofiam]

Hey Chris, I am not having the noise complaint because every now and then I chip out one of the diamonds from the walls to appease any opposing force 😆 BUT I have put a variable speed dc motor (from a treadmill) on this Schaublin I have just set up and it sounds like the sounds your describing, gets better with more speed but still there. Anyway, I am mounted on a wooden bench, which is tied to a wooden cleat along the wall but I think if I had it sitting out on its own bench it would still have the same noisy “hum”. I am guessing that putting yours on a bench out on its own would help with the noise transferring thru the house but I have a sneaky suspicion that noise may still be a issue. I vote for Bob buying us all a new Hardinge HLV-H. William

[chris mabbott]

William, that’s exaactly the issue, the damn vario DC motor controller, it sounds like my 1978 trans am with the 454, when I used to drive around town in second, it wanted to go go go.. 😆
Good thing is that your guys diamond studded walls come in handy when you work on a PW that needs a new diamond endstone

Steve, I’m also a FPS gamer from back in the day, I feel ya buddy

[maitai11]

Chris,

Perhaps check into earthquake technologies (Think huge spring coils under your bench or foundation, at least for the workshop ? Your other option (I saw this the other day as “one of the worst new products) is to hack into the “magnetic floating stereo speaker system,” and modify it to fit your lathe bench. I’d say your table legs would be about two inches off the ground, suspended in mid-air by magnetics. Which would mess everything up, so you would have to then create a “demag room” on the back end.

In other words, I don’t have this problem because, 1: I live alone, and 2: there’s nobody living with me. Got it?

What about sound crates to deaden the vibe? That’s what bands do when they practice. It’s all over the walls and ceiling.

Best,

Tim

[stevefitzwater]

After re-reading his posts, I think if he moves the lathe from the concrete countertop attached to the wall, it is basically using the house as a “speaker”, those vibrations traveling through out the house, by moving it to a freestanding table, it should significantly reduce the transference of sound through out the house. If additional reduction is needed, take a pair of old sneakers, old tire, or any other hard rubber item that he can shape into pads for the legs of the table.

[mclark3617]

I don’t think the problem is solvable, what you have there are male vibrations, as apposed to female vibrations women are more highly tuned in to the male vibration, often made when a male is enjoying himself. Which hits a nerve in a female that causes her to immediately find the source and squash it. It’s the bird and the bees my friend.

[chris mabbott]

@Mclark3617 wrote:

I don’t think the problem is solvable, what you have there are male vibrations, as apposed to female vibrations women are more highly tuned in to the male vibration, often made when a male is enjoying himself. Which hits a nerve in a female that causes her to immediately find the source and squash it. It’s the bird and the bees my friend.

😆 dis I like

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