Noisy Planishing Hammer-What to do?

[woodildo]

I am in need of a planishing tool. And I am giving the design some thought. These tools, as you know are noisy. I try to be a good neighbor, I am always mindful of thier presence.
Most of the noise that is generated, nothing can be done to lessen it. Such as the hammer striking the anvil or the work piece and in a since I will not address that.
Most of the frame work will be built with square tubing. To reduce the "Skock Wave" affect and causing the frame work to behave like the speaker in the shop radio, this is the area I intend to address.
I have thought of filling with sand, lead shot, simply too heavy. Now I think I will use a casting silicone. Also wrap the outside fiberglass (sheet) or a closed cell foam, about 1" thick and cover it with a protective material, aluminium sheet.
My question is, Has anyone ever tried to quiet down your planishing hammer? What worked? What helped? What failed?

Woodildo

[oldgoaly]

John Butchenkirk built a bunker to work in, something like 18" of concrete, large steel bank vault door. The only thing that quiets down a little, if you use delrin / hdpe / uhmw plastic dies, but you still have air compressor and air exhaust noises. Noisy phammer have been redesign many times via discharging air thru the frame like a Watervliet, it limits it a little but not quiet. If your using an air chisel you have the worst motor you can have, it's cheap that is why they sell them. To get less noise you can look into a Mechahammer that Ben aka Pedalcar designed or a pullmax style machine, you can hold a conversation at normal speaking levels while operating. If you plannish with an English Wheel it will be your quietest option. tt

[Overkill]

There's only so much you can do, but I do agree with looking into the Mechhammer. Built and sold here in the US, under agreement by Rick Scott, a member here.

The way the Mechammer works, you don't have a lot of the air and air compressor noise. But you still have the noise of dies hitting the sheet metal.

I've never tried it (fortunately I live in the country), but you need to deaden the ring in the shaped metal. What about using some magnetic material to help deaden the ring? Essentially going along the lines of Dyna Mat.

Before trying to deaden any noise in the frame, I'd just hang something over it. If that doesn't deaden the sound, then all the other ideas likely won't work.

I know that Gene Winfield uses a sheet or rubber under his hammering anvil (a piece of 2" thick steel). Wonder if putting a thin piece under the dies would help, and still allow the hammer to work?

[captainkirk]

With air powered planishing hammers you have a slug in the gun that strikes a hard surface and makes noise.
Then you have the upper and lower striking on the metal surfaces to increase the noise.

Then you might have a bit of extra noise added by the frame ringing.

Then you have the compressor running.

The frame ringing is very minor compared to the other noise in my testing of the new style planishing hammer prototype.
I tried sand in the frame and it made no real difference in the noise level.

Kirk

[Michael Moore]

I've got a new compressor coming and I've been searching the web for info on noise attenuation schemes. Even though the new compressor will be significantly quieter than my old one, I want it really quiet as it is in the ground-floor garage of my house (living quarters on the second floor).

It looks to me like I've pretty much got to make an enclosure for the compressor, and I've been thinking that will also be needed for a planishing hammer. The enclosure for the hammer needs to be big enough to get both the operator and the workpiece inside. Unlike the compressor enclosure, some light would be handy in the hammer enclosure.

I'll eventually document what I do. It won't be a concrete bunker. There are a number of different building products designed to attenuate noise, and there are different ways to baffle openings (like for air intake/exhaust).

It will be noisy inside a hammer enclosure, but what I'm concerned about is noise outside it. I can double up on ear plugs and ear muffs if I'm in a hammer box, but if my spouse and neighbors want to lynch me because of the noise outside the box I'm not going to need to worry about the noise I'm experiencing inside the box.

cheers,
Michael

[olcarguy]

Just going to throw this out and see if any of it sticks....when using a brake drum lathe it is normal practice to rap a leather strap around the drum to reduce the squeal, something to think about......8)

[woodildo]

Unfortunatly we can't live in ICBM silo, somewhere in North Woods. I have quieted down the air compress by moving the intake with a flexable hose into the attic of the shop, 12" x 12" x 24" long box that is lined with a sound proofing foam and that helps alot.

The air hammer I'm going to start with is a seaming hammer. They are used to turn over the single edge on a Pittsburgh Seam, only because that is what I have under foot. To muffle the discharge air-- just don"t know, yet!!!

As a side note: A friend of mine, who is a Black Smith. His anvil is secured to a tree stump, sitting in a box of sand. This does two things for him, keeps the anvil in place and quiets the hammer strike. I think will keep that avenue in reserve.

Too isolate the anvil or use some form of plastic deserves some serious consideration.

Woodildo

[Michael Moore]

I had the thought after writing the earlier post that it might be possible to make a hammer enclosure that was something like a blast cabinet, where the hammer and work are inside the cabinet and the operator sticks his/her hands into the cabinet to manipulate the work.

Perhaps the window could be a double-glazing made of thick plexiglass for both safety and greater noise attenuation over a conventional double-glazed window? I'm not sure about how to seal the arm holes, but maybe some thick draft-excluder brush would work.

Granted, something like that would need to be for motorcycle-sized body parts because your elbows would be pretty much fixed in location. But anyone who has used a blast cabinet knows that if you have to you can contort a bit and get the arms farther in the cabinet to reach a back corner. It would be similar to using a cabinet where the blast gun has a fixed position with both hands being used to move the work under it.

If this could be made to work it would require less materials and space and the operator could benefit from being on the opposite side of the cabinet walls from the noise.

On the compressor noise subject, I helped a friend install a new 5hp compressor in his shop last week. If you got close and paid attention the intake noise was actually only a small part of the total. It sounded like a lot of noise was ringing in the tank. When mine arrives I'm going to try and make a couple of big hose clamps from some bolts and strap and see if I can cinch them tightly over some rubber blocks spaced around the tank. I'm thinking that might help reduce any ringing in the tank. It doesn't sound very expensive to try and even if it only helps a little, it would still be a help.

cheers,
Michael

[kit]

No compressor, run it off a vary speed hand drill via a foot pedal.
This is the quietest tool I have ever experianced. Works perfectly.



Stand alone frame for it (the above I bolt onto the side of another machine) moving the cradle changes the effective length of the spring and therefore the hit characteristics.

[woodildo]

After I posted my last post last evening, began to think about an enclosure. In the past I have built encolsure box's for air compressures. These where pltwood with an acoustic foam (the stuff with peaks and vallys). I will seriously consider this approach with some modification.

Wraping the tank with draw bands and blocks mage of ???? I retired from the sheetmetal trade. Some jobs the ductwoek had to be insulated on the outside. We would use a 1" fiberglass wrap with foil and tape.

Kit, thankyou, you posted a design I can get into. For me, that is like
"Design on Steroids". Now I can hardly wait to leave Florida behind and get back to the northern latitudes. I'll have the Wife drive and I'll think and sketch.

Woodildo