[TheForge] Acoustical baffling for compresor

[PlumDon at aol.com]

Thanks for all  the great suggestions re quieting the compressor. I am, as 
you might expect,  looking for the quickest and most inexpensive solution. It's 
beginning to appear  there may not be one that is quick and inexpensive. I 
also need to go back and  look more closely at the compressor. Where is the sound 
actuall coming  from? 
I like Jim  Binnions note on the blanket but cant get in to online ordering 
at that site and  it may be quite expensive. Also thinking of a drop down wall 
of ceiling tiles  hinged at alternating sides with duct tape.  
Unfortunately I  need it's full capacity of about 20 cfm when running either 
the Skat Blast or  Old Blue so cannot reduce capacity on the compressor. 
Lot of great  ideas and I thank you, kindly. 
Don  Plummer 
You can buy  sound dampening blankets that are basically 1"-2" thick quilted 
fiberglass  blanket covered with an aluminized cloth. One trade name is 
Sorba-Glas  http://www.industrialnoisecontrol.com/absorb.htm 
Mostly I'm  reinforcing what others have said, with one addition: do you 
really need  that much air? 
You'll probably  have to enclose the compressor to really deaden the sound.I 
had the same  situation with a  portable generator, and a big plywood box with 
ceiling  tiles inside worked wonders. Of course, air intake and exhaust 
baffles were part  of the construction. Not hard to figure out. 
One method I used  was staggering the 2 x 6 studs on a 2 x 8 plate and 
shoe......and then weave the  fiberglass insulation between the studs prior to  
sheathing.  
The energy of the  sound waves needs to be  either absorbed or dissipated  
in some harmless  direction 
We bought 18  linear feet of foam for a 12' run of ceiling, looping it and 
nailing strips  about every foot, so it was UUUUUU like that, with much more 
surface  area. 
but in addition to  the sound panels what about a muffler style design on the 
air input to break  up/disperse the wave front ? 
I have used egg  crate mattresses to reduce noise in the past. The results 
were OK best part was  they were free. 
If you build   dry-stack walls of  cinder block, cover it with surface 
bonding  cement  to hold it together ( fast and cheap). and fill it with sand for  
absorbant mass it won't retransmit the sound. Add an absorbant surface inside ( 
 sound tiles, egg crates, etc) and  that'll shut it up 
for sure. Sinking  it in the ground is also a possibility. What a lot of  
work. 
Fiber glass  is good for absorption, our anechoic chamber used  pyramids and 
wedges of fiber glass  contained by wire mesh as the  absorber. I would 
suggest sticking with fiberglass for home made  absorption systems.

If you are going to experiment with  foam for absorption be very careful, 
most foams are very  flammable 
Have you tried  getting a dog.  If you tie it up, your neighbors will not 
even notice the  compressor over the barking. ;-)