Looking for a super quiet 2.2kw spindle

[Rotax91]

That is a nice looking house!

Some things to watch out for:

1. Lexan isn't the best of materials to deaden sound. Obviously you need it wherever you want to see into the enclosure.
2. Make sure addition gussets are used on all doors. 8020 framing will fall apart on heavily used doors without the additional support at the joints. I'm speaking form experience here with automation equipment. The interesting thing here is that their "light duty" quick frame extrusion make good doors if the Lexan is bolted to a single flange extrusion. The Lexan effectively reinforces the door frame.
3. Dont be shocked if the quote comes back on the stiff side! You may want to buy the extrusions and DIY the solution. The cost for a sheet of Lexan is shockingly high so that is part of the problem, then you have to pay for the labour.
4. If you totally enclose the machine remember to provide a venting solution. The vacuum otherwise has to pull air through every crack and gap it can find.

Hi Wizard,

You make a good point. I had my design very much like the picture of that guys that I posted earlier in the thread. 3 sides of it in Lexan. I sent my measurements to the sales guy yesterday and I haven't heard back from him. I said my budget was around $1300, basically what that guy posted in his bill of materials. Maybe it's too small of a job for them to mess with. So today I've been putting some thought into a DIY solution just as you even bought up. My local Menards & Home Depot sells .118" acrylic. Basically 1/8" The plus side is that I wouldn't have to pay huge shipping costs from an online source. I want doors on 3 sides of my machine to get at it for maintenance. However with only 1/8" acrylic, I wonder if all this would be a waste of time with trying to deaded the sound. Might be just good enough to only contain the dust and do nothing for noise. I'm not trying to eliminate it completely, just trying to make it more tolerable. I cut mostly v-carve signs. After cutting one yesterday, I do realize that's it's not really the Bosch router but the cutting itself that makes the majority of the noise.

[TTalma]

I've had luck buying lexan and thick plexi cutoffs at local glass shops. They normally do a lot of commercial work, so they work with those materials. I've picked up ~1'x2' scraps of 1/2" plexi for around $20. It may be worth making a call to see what they have lying around. You could put smaller windows in the sides, and make a sandwich of ply, foam, ply for the areas you don't need a window. That should help with the sound.

It shouldn't be to hard to bang out an enclosure out of plywood, much cheaper than the 80/20, even if you had a cabinet shop do it. Unless you use a lot of liquid coolants, then plywood would be no good.

The problem won't be high frequencies, but low ones, they'll travel through the plexi/lexan. But I would think with mostly V-carving you would mostly have the high frequencies.

[wizard]

Hi Wizard,

You make a good point. I had my design very much like the picture of that guys that I posted earlier in the thread. 3 sides of it in Lexan. I sent my measurements to the sales guy yesterday and I haven't heard back from him. I said my budget was around $1300, basically what that guy posted in his bill of materials. Maybe it's too small of a job for them to mess with. So today I've been putting some thought into a DIY solution just as you even bought up. My local Menards & Home Depot sells .118" acrylic. Basically 1/8" The plus side is that I wouldn't have to pay huge shipping costs from an online source. I want doors on 3 sides of my machine to get at it for maintenance. However with only 1/8" acrylic, I wonder if all this would be a waste of time with trying to deaded the sound. Might be just good enough to only contain the dust and do nothing for noise. I'm not trying to eliminate it completely, just trying to make it more tolerable. I cut mostly v-carve signs. After cutting one yesterday, I do realize that's it's not really the Bosch router but the cutting itself that makes the majority of the noise.

Consider looking for a local plastics supplier that sells full sheets. Also 1/8" is pretty thin for machine doors.

Speaking of doors, doors add significantly to the cost of an 80/20 solution because you need a frame to support the doors. If you have access to a welder and a bit of fab equipment you might find it cheaper to weld up a steel frame. This does coop some of your time though.

As for the sales guy you need to give him some time. $1300 does seem tight for a completely finished enclosure, a kit of parts might come in under that.

[hoecken]

On the Chinese spindles you are lucky to get half of the KW output they claim.

[wizard]

I've had luck buying lexan and thick plexi cutoffs at local glass shops. They normally do a lot of commercial work, so they work with those materials. I've picked up ~1'x2' scraps of 1/2" plexi for around $20. It may be worth making a call to see what they have lying around. You could put smaller windows in the sides, and make a sandwich of ply, foam, ply for the areas you don't need a window. That should help with the sound.

It shouldn't be to hard to bang out an enclosure out of plywood, much cheaper than the 80/20, even if you had a cabinet shop do it. Unless you use a lot of liquid coolants, then plywood would be no good.

These are some really good points. Plywood, especially if sandwhiched like you describe would have a significant impact on noise.

The problem won't be high frequencies, but low ones, they'll travel through the plexi/lexan. But I would think with mostly V-carving you would mostly have the high frequencies.

Some machinery if worked on simply used heavy gage sheet metal for the doors with windows cut into them and channels arranged for drop in lexan glassing. I'm guessing about an 8 or 10 gage sheet stock, not the best material for sound deadening but such doors are relatively cheap and durable. A good water jet jobber probably could set a person up with a set of cutouts pretty cheap and you don't need to use steel, they could be aluminum, lexan, fiberglass or whatever the jobber has access to. I've seen doors made out of sheets of thick lexan hold up rather well with no supporting frame. These ideas are just an extension of using sheet goods like plywood.

[JerryBurks]

On the Chinese spindles you are lucky to get half of the KW output they claim.

That may or may not be true but how do you know without a dyno? It is just a high speed induction motor, and for maximum power you will probably need a vector type VFD anyway.
For that matter I have a Chinese 2.2kW spindle with a plain Hitachi VFD and no complaints. More than enough power for everything I want to cut.