Shop vac muffler

[Travis Porter]

Saw an interesting article in Shop notes this month that I will give a try, building a muffler for the shop vac. It appears pretty easy to make and cheap with standard pvc fittings and a piece of foam. It is actually quite similar to the muffler attachment on my cyclone system. They claim it will reduce the noise of a shop vac by half, and if it does it is well worth it as it is the one major complaint I have with my shop vac.

Hopefully, I will go buy the PVC to make it tomorrow. More to come.

 

[junquecol]

Travis, I looked at that article also. I question the wisdom of passing exhaust air through foam though. I think this would cause a lot of back pressure. My first choice would be to line enlarged portion of assembly with foam and just allow air to pass through. The short sound waves would be traped in foam. With this, you could use a couple of DWV elbows and mount muffler to side of shop vac, rather than sticking up out of top as shown. Sticking up, muffler would surely meet an early demise. Just my thoughts, not based on any experience. Bruce

 

[Travis Porter]

Well, your reply got me to thinking, so I went and looked at my shop vac and I don't even have an exhaust port. It is built into the shroud so that idea is shot.:-(

Fortunately, I did look before I went and spent money on something I couldn't use in the first place.

 

[Jim Hancock]

My former vac(5 gal Genie) sounded like an F-15 on takeoff. I wouldn't use it without hearing protection. I found the best solution for me was to unload it and get a Fein. Expensive, yes, but worth it. Runs quiet, very good suction, well built, nice hose, highly recommended.

 

[rhett]

Maybe you could just build a vented box around the vac. I read an article about using this application for a pancake compressor.

 

[sawman]

Travis, I agree with Jim, the Fein is an excellent vac. I still have my 5 gal/Rigid and hardly ever use it any more, I prefer to use the Fein vac due to low noise, hose is about 15 feet in length and LOML likes to use it in the house. I purchased the lower end model but have placed the next model up (has a plug on the vac for your tool to plug into. will cut on vac when tool is started and will run for 5 seconds after you cut off the tool) on my wish list.

 

[erasmussen]

I just got a new shop vac for xmas thats real queit.
its a 20 gal from the "shop-vac company