Portable planers: How noisy?

[Student]

Very noisy, I know, but please compare it to an ordinary router (Bosch

1617) . I am considerring Delta 22-580 planer. Noise dampening - techniques, how effective...?

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I wear hearing protectors when I use mine. I also have the 1617 router and the planer is a bit louder.

[B A R R Y]

My DeWalt 733 is by far the most obnoxious power tool in my shop, here's why:

- It uses a "universal" motor, like a router or shop vac. This is a much louder motor than the TEFC type on a good table saw or jointer. Think high pitch whine!

- Planers in general make lots of noise as the knives contact the wood at high speed. Even large units with quiet TEFC motors are quite loud while planing wood.

- By functional design, the motor and knives can't really be hidden inside a cabinet.

I can't think of a noise dampening technique for a lunch box planer that wouldn't make it ridiculously inconvenient to use, overheat the motor, etc...

On the other hand, you could have your lumber dealer do your general surfacing, which you then finish with silent hand tools. The same hand tools can be used to create stock of varying thicknesses. Lots of folks work wood in apartments, at night, etc... so they deal with strict noise limits by learning to do things by hand.

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[randyswoodshoop]

The planner is loader than the router.... I dont know of any way to make it quiter... I also run the vac sysytem at the same time ... I try to keep panning to a mimium so, i dont upset the neibors...

Randy http:nokeswoodworks.com

[Leon]

To dampen the noise, wear hearing protection. These little planers with the universal motors are noisy even when not under a load. By comparison, the

1617 is much quieter when running a lower speeds and not under a load.

[<Frank>]

Planer should be noisier but you will be further away so the router may course more damage to your ears since you are at arms length to the cutter plus the router transfer sounds at higher frequencies.You could test it out with a sound meter and see which is louder and by how much.

As for noise dampening you could possibly use a noise cancellation device through a speaker with the sound waveform at 180 degrees out of phase at the same amplitude.

You think the next generation woodworking tools comes with an intergraded noise cancellation device?

[Puckdropper]

wrote in news:feednYpLdrvQLdnVnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

*snip*

I'm sorry [Family member you can't stand], I couldn't hear you because of the noise cancellation device. Maybe you should talk a little less like my planer.

Puckdropper

[hex]

that much. Seriously, the old neighborhood was nice but typical lots were 0.2 acres, and nobody ever said anything but I felt guilty if I fired up the planer before 9am on a Saturday morning. 'Course that was a good reason to keep the hand planes sharp.

And -- DAGS for sound pressure level portable planer which returns (for me) a link to a popularwoodworking.com review of portable planers in which a table throws out numbers in the 90 db range -- I don't think it says whether that's idling or cutting. So a little quieter than the proverbial jet at 100m, loud enough to cause hearing damage with long term exposure. Would be interesting to compare to levels for a stationary planer -- which idles quietly but can also scream when cutting full width boards. So to get a complete answer you need to know how loud the router is -- which depends a lot on the bit you are spinning.

hex

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