Another set of ears saved from vacuum noise

Skip the blower port, make due with something else.
I use a leaf blower in the garage.
It’s worth it in my mind

4 Likes

The one I bought (DXV12P-QT) from Rona Canada came with a bag.

1 Like

I have an Oneida Super Cell that serves all the machines in the shop, including the Shapeoko Pro. In a closet, low noise and picks up virtually all the dust in the shop. A massive improvement over any previous dust collector.

1 Like

Save money - get the Rockler version and it has a tool port!

Interesting that this popped up for me today. I had a long cut to do 2 days ago (2 hrs) so I hooked up my 16g 6.5hp Rigid shop vac to a slinky type hose hung above the cnc, and exhaust tubed out of garage. OMG the Noise! but ya know what -NO dust. So I was wondering what size vacuum would be enough. Also, the slinky type 2" hose got sucked up/in pretty far (20ft was probably only 10ft with vacuum on). So too much vac. > good thread here <

For those in the UK, the Numatic NV 750 is not a bad option, the sound of the air in hose and spindle cutting is louder than the vacuum, there’s lots of suction and it can run quite a long hose without losing flow.

In general, flexible hose lengths should be minimised as these reduce flow pretty quickly, where you can run smooth walled pipe, I like to use 65mm waste pipe as it’s a decent match for 2" conductive flex hose and cheap. You can run at least 5m of smooth wall for the equivalent flow loss of 1m of flexible.

2 Likes

I use a small 5gal Shopvac modified with a motor speed control on it. Also have a power meter I use with my CNC & Shopvac.
When blowing exhaust air out of my workroom so I can remove the vac cartridge filter(still have a bag in it), I can reduce the Shopvac power draw to 450-600W(from 1.2-1.4KW max) & still get enough air flow thru the dust boot to suck up most everything except maybe really large chips - gets all the fine dust for sure.
Allows for readily running my CNC & dust collection on a single 15A circuit without worrying about blowing the breaker.

Joel, Interesting, I brought up an older 5gal shopvac from basement and compared sound, it was just as loud as the big one. I am interested in maybe using a motor control on the ridgid. Amazon has them for under $30… is that similar to what you use?

One concern with the add-on motor controls is that they make it possible to reduce the device speed below that necessary for adequate airflow for cooling.

3 Likes

Liam, thanks for comment. I didn’t plan on using the whole 20ft flex, just haven’t built the vacuum arm yet. You bring up a good point about the noise coming from the vacuum hoses. Will think about getting some 2/2.5 in pipe and building the arm with that and using it for air flow. Then look into a motor speed control to dial back the vacuum. I’m just a hobbyist whose running out of room. :slight_smile:

1 Like

I have not encountered any issue of the shopvac overheating due to running at lower speed. Less power used means less heat generated by the motor.

I did use a speed controller from Amazon.

Be advised, it does need to be mounted in such a way that it is within the motor air cooling path to keep it properly cooled as well. While testing the module I nearly burned my fingers on the heat sink.
I believe I mounted mine so it is cooled after the motor.

1 Like

I think most of my noise is from too much vacuum. So when I am going to plumb it with pvc pipe I will add a valve to bleed off some vacuum. I like porting the vacuum exhaust outside so I don’t need to add a cyclone. I need to be able to hear the the machine cutting without standing over it. At least until I decide to move this to the basement.

If you are using the regular sweepy consider switching to the deep sweepy.

The hard angle on the regular one causes much more noise.

2 Likes

Looking at the deep sweepy, I can see how that would make a difference, but my sweepy has a ridge inside, so I can’t slide it up higher. My bits just fit now, they would not fit with the bigger bottom unless i file off the ridge on the top piece?

@CullenS is 100% correct. The noise difference is significant. It handled stringy chips much better as well.

On my 65 mm VFD I do not have a ridge to contend with. I use the same top as the regular sweepy .

It does limit Z heights a bit

I switch to the regular one when I need to because of the height restriction and endure the noise.

Then I switch back.

I am seriously considering a Z independent dust boot solution.

I also pause and switch between them for some cuts. and that thought has also crossed my mind

I am considering this and hoping it will go on sale.