# How to quiet down the screaming router?



## urbanarcher (21 Jun 2011)

ok so i have a router its nothing fancy but from my experience so far they are all pretty noisy. The router is mounted in a charnwood table with a 1" mdf top. i work in a residential garage connected to my house and the neighbours. This router setup is so loud what can i do to quiet the process down? has anyone enclosed the router completely and has it quietened it down much? like in a cabinet? 

i really need some way to silence this system somewhat and suggestions to buy a different router wont help me!

Any ideas?


----------



## 9fingers (21 Jun 2011)

Almost impossible IMHO. You must not reduce the airflow into the motor otherwise it will over heat and it is the air the transmits the sound from the router.
I'd be surprised if the noise will pass through a brick wall to your neighbours so whilst it will seem loud to you, Provided the doors and windows are shut, they should not hear too much. Put in the earplugs and be damned!

Bob


----------



## myturn (21 Jun 2011)

When I was young we lived in a semi with garages adjoining and whilst you couldn't hear noise from next-door's garage in our lounge (which was on the opposite side of the house to the garage and across the hall) you could hear noise in the upstairs bedroom that shared the same party wall as the garage.

Sound-insulating your wall should help reduce any noise transmitted next-door but they may still get some in the upstairs room on the party wall.

Other than that, some of these for yourself and your neighbours.....


----------



## urbanarcher (21 Jun 2011)

lol ear defenders are a must maybe its time to look for tooling for my spindle moulder. at least its induction motor is a smooth hum. Been putting it off cos the router is much cheaper for bits.  keep my eyes on ebay. i think i'll have to speak to the neighbours and see how loud it is in their home! hopefully they'll say they haven't heard a thing! :shock: 
Ryan


----------



## 9fingers (21 Jun 2011)

Are you running a business from your home home? just wondered because the local council can 'have a view' on such things and maybe alerting your neighbours just might be the wrong thing to do.
When I got planning permission for my metalworking workshop to be attached to the back of the house, there was a specific stipulation that it was for hobby use only.

Just a thought

Bob


----------



## Recky33 (21 Jun 2011)

I run a fully enclosed table and its really quiet, so quiet in fact I can hear my extractor running, The router plate has holes in it so air and dust go down and out the bottom to a 100mm pipe, keeps the router cool enough or at least has done for the last 5 years, mind its never running for 8 hours a day

Allan


----------



## OPJ (21 Jun 2011)

My home-made benchtop router table is also fully enclosed, made from 18mm MDF. It contains all the dust that falls below the table and also, it does significantly reduce the noise output from my router. It has a door on the front (for access to the collet) and I also added a couple of large holes (40mm) lower down on the back, to provide some ventilation for the motor, which is naturally 'on top' of my Freud router... I've been using this set up for a couple of years now and, so far, no problems. 

Another hole I have is for the vacuum hose, so that I can collect more of the dust ejected when cutting grooves, as Steve Maskery demonstrates in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrDO6CipASE

While it does help, you can still expect some noise to come from the cutter (which is above the enclosure) while the router is cutting. However, I have found that it also helps to reduce the router's speed a little (assuming you have a model with variable-speed). Using a split fence set very close to the cutter or even, breaking through a false fence, can also increase noise levels.


----------



## condeesteso (21 Jun 2011)

Hi - I have had a similar problem. I am absolutely convinced that the problem is far more to do with the table than with the router. The table can act as a loudspeaker, capable of vibrating at its own resonant frequency (or frequencies) and effectively amplifying the sound the router/cutter makes. The frequency range is generally mid-spectrum and does penetrate very effectively. I bet your router when handheld is far far quieter??
If this table was mine, I would add mass (weight) and damping (anything soggy) - add a sheet under, well bonded to the main top (with aperture for router and mount of course). I am about to make a new one and plan to use one layer of cement sheet (sorry don't know the tech name) in the table-top sandwich. It's in most diy stores - try a sheet of that, bonded with a roof repair medium (bitumen) and compressed tight. So a layer of the cement sheet, 6mm mdf or ply (prefer ply) under - bitumen between all 3 layers (table underside, cement, ply) then clamp tight for a few days to let the bitumen go off. That is just patience, and a flat surface and plenty of weight.
Otherwise just add say 12mm ply under, but bond it with an 'elastic' medium (Bostik, Thixofix etc) - at higher frequency the shearing between the materials will dissipate a lot of sound energy.
Personally, I am actually excited about the cement sandwich approach - will definitely be on my new router top (with a really stiff flat top surface, of course!)
Sorry this sounds odd and Heath Robinson, but combining stiffness with mass will make a big difference, as the vibrational energy produced will be dissipated into the structure, whereas at the moment it is 'driving' the top like a speaker.

(sorry, a one-time acoustics engineer speaking)


----------



## urbanarcher (22 Jun 2011)

bob its a workshop at home for hobby use only for now. who knows where it might go in the future and with a lot more practice, i understand about the alerting the neighbours thing that's why I'm holding off for a complaint :shock: . Thanks to the guys OPJ And Recky with the enclosed tables for leaving their comments it does seem like the way to go. do either of you have any images you could post showing how you set up your tables and extraction? 

i understand that s really heavy top will help and i might go that way I'm not sure about the concrete layer board but sounds like food for thought. I was thinking about 2x 18mm mdf with something rubber like between? 

The noise i get is high frequency when cutting so i guess anything solid will stop it?


----------



## geofflw (24 Feb 2013)

OK, here's my five pence on this subject.
The fan in the router is supersonic if my sums are correct That'll be 1100 ft/sec approx. for the speed of sound.
The other sound frequency will be say between 10,000 and 24,000 x 2 for a two flute cutter.
Putting a y piece in the extractor suction and coupling the one end to the motor after removing the fan gets rid of the motor noise and means you just have to put your vacuum cleaner in an mdf or ply box with egg trays inside to quieten that.
I saw some stuff on you tube for sound deadening which was for outside and inside use. It looks like the stuff they used to use in coal mines for diverting air supplies a kind of heavy PVC sheet. It's hung from a 2x4 batten and is often used in home sound studios. ie. garage bands situation. There are also a few more options under the home studio headings when it comes to panels which get hung like pictures to kill the noise.
I find the bit about adding mass to the base to damp the vibes very interesting, I know it's pretty much a given in machine tool design to stop chatter, I wonder if anyone has ever measured the various proportions of where exactly it comes from. That would make it easier to kill I guess.


----------



## Phil Pascoe (24 Feb 2013)

I suspect the only way to quieten a router would be to totally surround it with twenty gallons of water.


----------



## Gary Morris (25 Feb 2013)

would adding weight to the table reduce noise, as this is the advice for scroll saws that vibrate badly, so reducing the vibrating = reducing the noise?

Gary


----------



## andersonec (25 Feb 2013)

I had the same problem with mine, the scream got louder and louder until it got very stiff and I could hardly turn it by hand, problem was the bottom bearings, had to have them replaced and it went back to normal.

As long as any work noise is not carried out outside the hours of 8 am and 5 pm there is no problem.

Andy


----------



## Jacob (25 Feb 2013)

High frequencies make you go deaf but don't travel. You might be surprised about how little noise gets away to annoy the neighbours. Low frequencies travel much further.


----------

