Muffler box for shop vac

[else24]

Several times on this list, someone has brought up the notion of making the shop vac quieter. I always chime in with my carpeted plywood box story, how the box makes it so much quieter, and the first shop vac was a screaming thirty-dollar bigbox Genie that burned out after over two years of hard work, and the second one is still going strong after over a year, so the box isn't causing it to overheat.

Sunday night I hooked the shop vac to my ROS, sanded parts for about an hour while the wife puttered around the yard. Then we chat a while and go inside for the evening. And the shop vac is so quiet that while I'm talking to her as I leave, glance over the garashop to make sure I didn't forget anything and flick out the lights, I don't notice that I've just left the vac running, all night and all the next day. I also should have emptied it after that last project.

So, you folks who told me that a carpeted muffler box would be bad for my shop vac may now feel vindicated. I had to go out and get a new shop vac yesterday.

I've GOT to put some sort of indicator light on that box.

(And yes, I'll empty it more often too.)

[Lee Michaels]

Which is why a lot of folks put the whole shop on a subpanel and shut down the whole shop when they leave. Can't leave anything on if there is no electrical power available.

It a good thing that your old vacuum did not spark up and cause a fire inside of that box.

One potential fix would be to just install a spring wound timer switch and run your power cord to that. That way it turns off automatically. They are cheap and can be installed easily. I have done this a number of times.

You can install an outlet box with the switch controlling it. Or just cut a heavy duty extension cord in half, install the outlet box with the timer switch in line and plug your vac into the other end.

[else24]

It was a year old Shop Vac brand so I think chances of fire from the motor running too long are pretty slim. Still possible of course and I'm thankful.

The only thing to keep running is the heater but except for that, now that I think about it, killing the subpanel at the end of the day wouldn't be a bad idea. I won't be needing the heater much longer.

But I'm still going to put an indicator light on that thing. Or a timer.

[Upscale]

I haven't got around to building it yet, but awhile ago I drew up plans for a similar box for the air compressor I use in my apartment. Generally, I use it for less than 10 minutes once a week, but I have to guess that even those

10 minutes would be irritating to neighbours.

[else24]

Oh yeah, I built one of those too. :-) That one's got a window fan running constantly at one end, and it DOES have an indicator light on the switch. The motor and output tube get hot enough that even though it only kicks in once every twenty minutes or so, I wanted constant cooling on it.

It's not as quiet as the shop vac but it's a lot quieter than without it. The wife says it's fine unless I want to use it after 9 pm. :-)

A lot of the noise is vibration. If you're in an apartment, I think you'd benefit from cushioning underneath as much as you would from the baffling.