Anybody thought about somehow enclosing the entire frame in a “box”? Having a plexi cover that you could see through would probably be nice.
My thoughts were to contain the dust some more, and mostly for noise containment. I’ll be cutting in my garage and there is living space above (and neighbors :-))… the whine of a router for long periods may be objectionable.
Access to work on it (hinged doors?) and airflow could be potential issues, although I would think with a vacuum running the airflow would take care of itself, maybe.
I played around with the idea a little bit. I was thinking about doing a sliding door in sections so it wouldn’t have to extend that far past the ends of the machine. No matter what you do it’s going to be a big box
To keep the noise down, I’ve found that running my router at a slightly slower RPM (15kRPM-ish) and using router bits with a shorter cutting surface like the ones we designed (http://www.maslowcnc.com/store) keeps the noise down QUITE a bit. My dust collector is at least as loud as my router now. A dust collector designed for wood working instead of a shop vac will also run much quieter.
Combining those ideas with an enclosure could probably reduce the noise quite a bit.
I built an enclosure for a CNC machine I made about 10 years ago. I actually insulated and double walled it to further reduce noise. I was kind of disappointed with how little it reduced noise. Maybe a 10 db reduction in sound level again. If I ever do something like this again I’d just do a single walled construction without insulation. That said it was really nice for dust collection. http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=18
Ridgid’s Shop Vacs with SNR (Scroll Noise Reduction) are extremely quiet, and relatively cheap. Certainly quieter than the router, so not adding too much to the system.
I would just enclose the router sled for noise reduction. Those ridged routers have a lifetime warranty anyways, though I doubt they will burn up. For $5 you can get a delay timer switch relay on ebay that could kick on the vacuum every 5 minutes for ten seconds. you really don’t need to run a shop vac continuously iMHO.
I built an enclosure for a CNC machine I made about 10 years ago. I actually
insulated and double walled it to further reduce noise. I was kind of
disappointed with how little it reduced noise. Maybe a 10 db reduction in
sound level again. If I ever do something like this again I’d just do a
single walled construction without insulation. That said it was really nice
for dust collection. http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=18
a lot of the sound is being conducted by the wood, it makes a big sounding
board. you would need to isolate behind/below the workpiece and put any mounts
on rubber, not just put a cover over the thing.
A 1500W or so water cooled Chinese CNC spindle would be a much quieter alternative, if somewhat more money and more complex to plumb/wire than a router. Maybe somebody will give it a try?
I have one of those Ridgid vacs, it’s the quietest and best I’ve owned so far, and I’ve worn out a number of shop vacs. I have a plastic cyclone on a 5 gallon bucket that gets hauled out for especially dirty stuff. Far quieter than the HF (claimed) 1HP dust collector on the basement wood lathe.
I was going to suggest some of the marine engine compartment material I worked with in the distant past, but stopped to look at current prices. Never mind; it’s effective, but as with anything ‘marine’, way too expensive…
I’m in a similar garage position with neighbours I’ve no intention of upsetting. As such I’ve given the enclosure idea significant thought. I’m in rental property, so it would prefer it to be on castors so I can wheel it away, as such I think enclosure is unrealistic. Initially to get things going I’ll be building a frame that leans up agains the wall so I can play with angle of the machine. But I think I might partition off part of the garage as a slender room, having access at one end, and the other being a wall of vac filter, over and above the router connected vac. I’m considering constructing it out of insulation panels - definitely cuts noise, easy to cut/shape, join. Cheap, light, and might even make part of the garage warmer in the winter months!
I come from a health & safety background (he says putting on hard hat) so the noise and the dust are a specific concern, especially when machining in the garage on the side of the house with two children! The dusts created from milling ply, and MDF (think that’s outlawed in the US, but commonplace in EU) are not at all good for you, especially fine dusts. I’d advise everyone, once you’ve got the rig running pay careful consideration to capturing all that dust.
Another concern that enclosure raises is fire risk. If you create a lot of dust in a confined space and have the router brushes sparking away in there, it’ll only be a matter of time before something starts smouldering. Again it’s the fine dusts that create a greater issue as they are airbourne and if the air/dust mix is right, that router could ignite it and BOOM! In days of old flour mills and even toilet roll factories regularly had fires, and even building levelling explosions, so please exercise caution. And once the shop vac has been used to clean up ply, prolly best not to use it on the kid’s playroom!