How to silence an air compressor outside

[Adam McLaughlin]

Hi Everyone

I have a small OILED Air Compressor right outside of my garage, where I like to work on transmissions late into the night.

Not a problem when I lived on 3 acres, much different here in the 10,000 sq foot Suburban Lot

How would you guys silence the noise?
I wanted to build an elevated box to keep it off of the ground, and then run an air snorkel into it from the outside to move air in and out BUT I want to keep insects out.
How has anyone else done this? I am looking for the U boat affect here; extremely efficient yet silent. Was thinking of plumbing some PVC tubing through the walls of the box and stuff some steel wool in the plumbing?

Lets see your thoughts please.

Adam

 

[ChevyEFI]

Dig a pit. Seal it up well. Run your hoses.

 

[tymbo]

why is it outside the garage? put it inside and close the door.

 

[kc-steve]

^^^ Makes sense! If it is a real problem, I would just shut it down and work using the the tank's reserve air until the tools wouldn't work. Probably not a practical idea unless you have it inside. Building an additional insulated enclosure might help some. I normally work during daytime hours though, so what do I know.

Steve

 

[Haukur]

We did this at our old shop and I made improvements at the current shop.

Make sure the walls are sturdy, resonation can really make a noise. Maybe add a layer of heavy insulation or mats to add mass, really brings down echo and vibrations. If the compressor is not on rubber pads, fix that.

Cooling air ducts with baffles. Inlet down by the floor and outlet up under roof with an exhaust fan. Baffles reverse or deflect some of the sound-waves and the fan keeps the air moving.

We had the fan wired up to a thermostat and had an option to just turn it on.

A silencer for the compressor inlet makes a big difference.

 

[A_Pmech]

The first thing I would do is install a Solberg intake silencer. That will reduce the intake noise and leave just the mechanical noise of the pump. The only way to really deal with that is by building a sound deadening enclosure. Make sure to ventilate the enclosure well!

 

[stonesfan68]

+1 on the Solberg. You can get a 1.5" silencer for about $90.

http://www.solbergmfg.com/ViewSeriesDetail.aspx?SeriesId=12&src=drill

You install it by using an elbow on the inlet, and then screw the air filter assembly into the top of the Solberg. It works really well.

 

[andre_saltiva]

use silencer