Quiet (er) shop vac.

[n80]

My shop is in my basement. So dust is an issue. I do not have a dust management system and can't really afford a real one. I have a full size shop vac that I use for dust collection. Its hose attaches directly to the belt sander and I stick it under the vice when I'm hand/dremel sanding. It will fit on the band saw with an adapter. The lathe doesn't seem to make that much dust, per se, so I just vacuum up the chips.

And that all works pretty well.

But, the shop vac is loud and my hearing is already bad from years of loud noise exposure. So I wear hearing protection the whole time. Which sucks.

Anyway, I'm going to make a homemade dust collector (two 5 gallon buckets, YouTube, PVC, etc) and I'm thinking about getting another, and hopefully quieter, shop vac.

Do any of you have a brand or model that seems reasonably quiet? Are the smaller ones quieter than the big ones? Any better ideas for a quiet low budget dust solution? Any help much appreciated.

George

[KurtHuhn]

I just wear earpro. I wear it for a collection of activities, so it's just de rigueur for me.

I have seen some interesting attempts at making dust collectors quiet, but they all seem very expensive for the payoff when some disposable earplugs work just fine.

[n80]

Thanks Kurt. I also wear ear plugs or muffs for lots of other stuff. Anything with noise including lawn mower, power drills etc. Can't afford to lose any more hearing. Was just hoping there was a way not to have them on all the time in the shop.

Edit: Just looked up the Ear Pro stuff. I was not familiar with it. I've got a friend who is a professional shooter. He wears electronic hearing protection that he swears by but those things are like $500. I'll definitely try a set of the Ear Pros.

[Sasquatch]

Shop vacs are loud because of the job they do - essentially a vacuum is an air-raid siren. Dust collector same thing.

I started wearing active noise-cancelling headphones in the shop, and they've made life far, far nicer. This is just the kind of thing (droning frequency) they are excellent at. So I work in quiet or listen to Johnny Cash or Black Sabbath or whatever I like at relatively low volumes.

[Adui]

Thanks Kurt. I also wear ear plugs or muffs for lots of other stuff. Anything with noise including lawn mower, power drills etc. Can't afford to lose any more hearing. Was just hoping there was a way not to have them on all the time in the shop.

Edit: Just looked up the Ear Pro stuff. I was not familiar with it. I've got a friend who is a professional shooter. He wears electronic hearing protection that he swears by but those things are like $500. I'll definitely try a set of the Ear Pros.

I don't know what brand your friend uses, but I've seen decent electronic ear muffs as low as +/- $60 and budget rate ones that work for $40. I'm not sure how useful they would be in a shop environment though. They work by letting you hear whatever is going on at the volume you set, while cutting off when loud noise hits.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Spo ... ds/3413511
(hope its OK to include the Amazon link for him to use)

[n80]

His are plugs not muffs and the plug part is custom fitted to his ear. He says he can have a normal conversation with them in and yet they completely protect him from shotgun/rifle noise. I think he is also sponsored by them............

Anyway, I'll explore some options. I'm okay with the eat muffs except when my wife or dog come down to the basement and scare the bejeesus out of me because I didn't hear them.

[Adui]

His are plugs not muffs and the plug part is custom fitted to his ear. He says he can have a normal conversation with them in and yet they completely protect him from shotgun/rifle noise. I think he is also sponsored by them............

Anyway, I'll explore some options. I'm okay with the ear muffs except when my wife or dog come down to the basement and scare the bejeesus out of me because I didn't hear them.

Ahhhh!! OK, yea those custom fitted things get spendy!

[sandahlpipe]

I built a closet with denim soundproofing in the walls for my compressor and dust collector. I can still have a conversation in my shop when they’re both running.

I also have noise cancelling earphones, but don’t end up using them much in the shop.


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[caskwith]

Can you get further away from the shop vac? If you could put it in another room and extend the hose that might make it quiet enough to work without hearing protection.

Personally I use plugs, I have some Uvex 35dB rated plugs that are very comfy and work for most of the things I do. When I sandblast I combine them with a pair of over the ear muffs. When I get a new shop I will be putting the dust extractor and compressor either in another room or a building a small shed for them.

[ReverendThom]

I use 3M Worktunes. They are Bluetooth noise cancelling (not active, though). I love them. Holds a charge forever too

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[JMG]

It doesn't make it quieter, but I bought one of the Duststoppers from Home Depot today. After using it, I could kick myself for not buying one years ago. After using it for about 30 minutes to clean up my granddad's 68 year old shop, hardly one bit of dust or debris went into the shopvac itself and instead into the 5 gallon bucket....WAY EASIER TO CLEAN OUT! I highly recommend it. No more cleaning the dumb filter.

[Masonrygh]

My "dust collection system" is actually to have a standard house vacuum at each of my work stations. I don't know where you live, but in California people regularly throw out their vacuums when they move, so I'll just grab it and deep clean it out before bringing it in (you don't want bugs).

I have a couple of ~$1000 Dyson vacuums that I got this way, and the suction is killer. So I have one at my Lathe, one at my sander station, and one for my table saw/mitre saw.

This was a life saver for me because I can run them individually, where a full Dust collection system would trip the breaker every time in my small California apartment garage.

Maybe this could be a solution for you.

[Sir_Saartan]

you can get "active" ear muffs for about $40 that let you tune in how loud you want to hear,
they shut off when anything louder hits the mike positioned on the outside of the earmuff.
almost all models have a jack to plug in a phone or ipod, so you can actually listen to music
while the outside noice is cancelled.

I have a pair of those that I use at the shooting range. haven't listened to music while
shooting, but I tried if it works and it does.

regarding a quiet shop vac: pretty much your only option to get that done is install some
proper piping and move the vac itself out of the shop. any time you try to insulate a vac, it
will plug up the air outlet and will drastically reduce the vacuum efficiency.

[Sir_Saartan]

I have a couple of ~$1000 Dyson vacuums that I got this way, and the suction is killer. So I have one at my Lathe, one at my sander station, and one for my table saw/mitre saw.

If you can afford a couple of $ 1000 dyson vacuums, you're in a price range where you can actually get some
low noise industrial dust collectors... I'm talking about something that is specifically built for reduced noise.

wow spending a couple thousands on a shop vac... that's quite an investment. I'd like to see a pic of your shop.
there is bound to be a bunch of stuff I whished I could justify buying

[Masonrygh]

I have a couple of ~$1000 Dyson vacuums that I got this way, and the suction is killer. So I have one at my Lathe, one at my sander station, and one for my table saw/mitre saw.

If you can afford a couple of $ 1000 dyson vacuums, you're in a price range where you can actually get some
low noise industrial dust collectors... I'm talking about something that is specifically built for reduced noise.

wow spending a couple thousands on a shop vac... that's quite an investment. I'd like to see a pic of your shop.
there is bound to be a bunch of stuff I whished I could justify buying

Hahaha I guess you didn't see what I had said previously. They're all vacuums that people have thrown away when they were moving hahaha. That was my actual recommendation, "find people who are moving and get their vacuums when they leave them".

[Sir_Saartan]

Hahaha I guess you didn't see what I had said previously. They're all vacuums that people have thrown away when they were moving hahaha. That was my actual recommendation, "find people who are moving and get their vacuums when they leave them".

yeah I missed that part. sorry.
I'm going to pick up my vacuum tomorrow and see what it does in the actual shop.