I saw someone else asked this but didnt get any replies, is anyone able to confirm noise levels during “normal” operations? Im meaning cutting aluminum or plastics.
I asked Jake over email and he said 70dB typical, 90dB worst case and i want to confirm or correst this.
My plans have changed to where noise is now a concern, and i need to be able to mitigate 100% of the sound coming off of it.
Im already planning on getting the enclosure, and am thinking about anti vibration pads under feet, rock wool insulation in my garage, and hell - even buulding a mini room around the mill.
I’ve noticed significant difference depending on what cuts I’m taking.
Plastics and light cuts on aluminum are pretty quiet (don’t know in dB levels) but when I take unadvised heavy cuts in aluminum it can get pretty loud. Loud enough to drown out my 60dB air compressor.
Right, the material you are cutting has more to do with the sound than anything.
416 and 304 squeal, there is no way around it. I wear hearing protection when I do a big job in stainless. Heavy cuts in steel tend to be loud too, but not terrible.
I put 3/4 ply across the top of the mill and it only dampened the noise a little bit. Its in an attached garage but it doesnt make enough noise under normal circumstances to bother someone in the house.
Thanks everyone who replied so far, good stuff to know. This all tells me in going to continue with building a mini room in my garage and throw everything at it i can to kill the noise.
I’d venture a guess on the high side I run 60-70dB. Most of the noise is from the spindle being on and the axial movement when I’m running plastics. I’ve taken to running a lighter step over and higher feed rates on my aluminum and steel work and don’t get a lot of tool noise unless I’m having to use a long fluted end mill on a project.
My machine is in the basement and has rigid pink foam and mass loaded vinyl sitting on top. This attenuates the sound pretty well and you could do the same along the wall that the machine is on.
I’m running a direct drive spindle instead of the stock one with the belt, and it’s also a lot quieter. All of my sound comes from cutting loads in metal.
Cutting thin-ish material without good support is one of the loudest things that I do. For instance my last project was just drilling a pattern of holes and slots into 20" x 1.5" x 0.25" aluminum that was mounted between two vises. The section that it cut on the unsupported space between the vises made a lot more noise. Machinist vises to add some support would have helped, or I could have glued it down to some sacrificial wood to dampen the vibrations.
Mine is in the garage. It’s loud… I wasn’t really expecting anything different. When I take 0.5"x0.05" hogs into aluminum, it can be heard in the house, but it’s not terrible. Wouldn’t be fun for hours but frankly, that’s a lot of aluminum to be hogging out for hours on end.
When I spend hours taking passes with a 1/8 ball end mill, I can hear it in the garage but sometimes forget it’s actually running when in the house.
I wear ear protection when in the vicinity of the machine for longer than 15 minutes.
I haven’t tried covering the top of my machine to dampen noise, I want to ensure plenty of airflow for the spindle.
This might be a good point for the stock spindle, I’m not sure how much it depends on airflow. I’m running an aftermarket spindle that is cooled with dry compressed air (this also keeps coolant and dust out of the spindle bearings).
You may want to look at https://www.footmastercasters.com/. They have leveling casters with a rubber foot that lowers. I bought some for my custom frame that I built for mine. They have a number of models to pick from. I got these. You can also find them on Amazon.
I wouldn’t want walls on 3 sides of my MR1. I considered this in my own build since there is a niche like that in my basement, but I find myself using side access fairly often. Your design would be equivalent to not being able to remove the side panels or rear around to the back panel.
My machine is up against a wall (pulled out 4-6" so that I can reach behind for cabling purposes) but I have about 2’ of clearance on both sides (on the left side there is a roll-away cart that normally lives there).
