Noise Pollution

[55thSwiss]

Hi All,

I have a bench top mini mill but unfortunately live on the second floor of a two family apartment. I don't use my mill nearly as much as I'd like to because of the noise. The machine itself is quiet but whenever I'm cutting obviously the metal to metal is loud. My neighbor is having a baby in a month and as much as I don't want to disturb him I can't bear to not use my mill for the next year while they have a new born. Does anyone have any cheap suggestions for dampening the sound? How it looks doesn't matter to me just as long as it works, so I don't know if some sort of foam core or cardboard enclosure would help, something like this? Any suggestions?

[J Tiers]

The largest amount of noise will be through the table to the floor and then to the neighbors. Noise directly through the air won't be as much of a problem.

So get a foam rubber pad, material more like wet suit material, or like some of the softer floor mats sold for work areas. Put it under the machine, (most of those are self-contained, or can be mounted on a board) and you will find a lot of the noise is eliminated.

You might have to experiment to see if full coverage, or narrower strips are better. Full coverage may still let through lower frequencies.

[A.K. Boomer]

Dampening the machine itself can help allot too, there's allot of write ups about this subject from guys filling voids of their base with cement to hanging/wrapping vibration dampers around the head-spindle area, everything from the choice of cutters to what JT stated should be considered,
best of all - level with your neighbors too and find out what would be the best times and also how much of a dent you put in the noise with the changes,,, and remember - you have a bargaining chip cuz not a whole lot of fun listening to some snot nosed little whining humanoid and in fact id take the machining noise any day of the week...

[oldtiffie]

Why not think about using resilient mounts?

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=r...Q&ved=0CCkQsAQ

https://www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ss...silient+mounts

[Rosco-P]

A cheap solution? Try a truck mud flap. You might be able to find one that a big rig lost, on the shoulder of a highway in your area.

[darryl]

Yeah, I'm thinking that adding a solid base under the mill, like a concrete slab, then mounting the stand on cushioned feet would probably take care of it. The mill would like the slab base. You might make a suitable stand that has a wide enough stance that it won't be tippy on the cushions. I'm thinking of something like a U shaped 2x6 frame that sits on the cushions, then the legs of the stand would sit on that. Perhaps you would drill a recess for each leg to sit in, and put a rubber disc under each leg, or maybe some cork. The U shape frame would give you an area to stand or place a stool or whatever in front of the mill, so the frame can be large enough to be stable. Perhaps that frame can be H shaped- two sections going front to back and one across the middle. Yeah, that would be a good way to build it- probably better than a plywood base which would probably want to resonate with the floor.

[Mike Amick]

Coordinate your efforts WITH your neighbor. He will appreciate your concern and will offer
valuable feedback.

Mike A

[PStechPaul]

Rig up a "crying baby" sound detector, and run your mill when the kid bawls.

The other suggestions sound like they should work well. If you are on good terms with your downstairs neighbors, perhaps you could set up a sound level meter in their apartment while you try some of the noise abatement measures. And offering to help them with things during their baby tending period may go a long way as well. Good luck!

[J Tiers]

Yes, the heavy base, on resilient mount will be good. A heavy base UNDER the resilient mount would be good also. Maybe better. It has enough "impedance mismatch" to make transfer of noise power through it nearly zero if set up right.

[doctordoctor]

are you sure its actually loud to your neighbor? I would confirm that first. It might be barely noticeable

[spinningwheels]

a crying baby can and will couse a lot more noise pollution than the largest mill you can think of.
Did your neigghbors asked you if it was OK to have a baby with all the noise that comes with it ?

[CCWKen]

Apartment living is always a treat... For someone else. Way back in my apartment days, I had a 50 gallon fish tank near an adjoining wall and the neighbors complained about a constant hum from the wall. Rather than tell them to turn up their head-banging music, I relocated the air pump and put it on a tool drawer liner. That seemed to do the trick. As already mentioned, low-tone vibrations are probably more irritating than anything else.

[spinningwheels]

Low tone vibrations might be a bit anoying sometimes.
but a baby crying at full throttle is way worse that a F 16 fighter plane on a low 200 ft pase with afterburner.

[kendall]

When I lived in an apartment, I used multi-stage resilient pads. The way I did it was to place pads on the bench, 3/4 inch plywood, then pad, then plywood etc. Never had any complaints.
It's the same method I currently use with my turn-table. It's an old, low end kenwood, if placed on a table it starts to feed back the amp even at low volume, two levels of rolled tool box pad (webbing covered with foam, can't find an example on line.) with boards between, and a jug of pennies on the turn table lid allows me to crank the amp
(My good TT needs a cartridge, not sure I want to spend $200 for one though)

[old kodger]

The trick to this is frequency (of the noise).
Your post does not say where you are so to recommend a particular "system" , might not help, but here in Australia there are a number of companies that produce sound nullifying mounting products (Makay Mounts).
In my younger years I worked for an air-conditioning company, and we installed most of the air-con in the opera house in Sydney.
Because the plant room is below sea level, all pipe work and machinery had to be suspended from the ceiling not the floor.
As a result of various spring mounts total de-coupling of noise was achieved between the plant room and the auditorium.
I'm not suggesting that you go that far but if you know the disturbing frequency a sympathetic mounting will go a long way to de-coupling it.
Good luck,
Rob.