Baffled Air Inlet Box to Dampen Sound

Made a box to deaden sound going into the air inlet. Features baffled design and car sound deafening material. When I held a decibel meter on my phone the loudest locations around the glowforge were the inlet on right side and exhaust on left side. Will also vent exhaust air via an insulated duct and let you know how much noise levels are reduced. 90 dB is too loud right now!!

It’ll be a week before I get it set up and know how well it works, what have others done to abate the noise level?

12 Likes

Wear headphones. I’m also kind of accustomed to the sound by now, but having a way to dull it would be nice. Part of my problem is that the noise travels through the ventilation, so I hear it through the window that it’s ventilated through.

Definitely update us with your results, I’m curious how well this works!

1 Like

90db? That sounds a bit louder than anyone else’s.

An in-line muffler on the exhaust cuts out a lot of the noise. The exhaust fan is the louder of the two.

3 Likes

Very interested in your results.

So far my entire GF is covered in (very ugly) car deadener, about 4 layers thick. The duct is wrapped in a couple of towels. It has made a big difference.

I agree about the inlet, I’ve been slightly concerned about disrupting the inlet air flow, but with the kind of spacing you’ve built there I’m sure it would be fine.

Is the GF going to sit on top of this? If so, that’s a neat idea to keep the space down.

insulated duct is key here. That immediately cut my sound by a lot.

I used this:

Best $25 I spent lately.

Previously:

4 Likes

Wow, a lot of work … Hope it works out for you. I bought the insulated flexible duct.

Hi everyone, thanks for your input. The baffle box is working as designed and the room air is now running through the box before entering the Glowforge. The baffle box and Glowforge are mated by stacked pieces of plywood cut on the Glowforge to fit around the vent. Four pieces of 1/8" glue laminated plywood make up this mating piece. I adhered this mating piece to the bottom of the Glowforge with cyanoacrylate and activator. Filled gaps with cyanoacrylate because clamping pressure dented wood.

Four pieces of 1/8" ply wood glued together. There’s an .svg file if you want to make it yourself. You need about a half inch thick mating piece to make it from the bottom of the intake fan to mate to a hole level with the table surface your Glowforge is resting on. Note: only make this if you intend to reroute intake air from somewhere else, resting this on a flat table will result in no air being brought into your Glowforge. Look at the top of the thread, there is a hole in my box.

That circle to the left of the intake is a speaker. It draws no air.

Fits around the torsion bar support.
vent%20copy

So, was this baffle box successful at abating noise?


No.
Just like most people suggested, most of the noise is coming from the exhaust duct. Because I have a pro I will next make a box that totally encapsulates my Glowforge, and doubles as an outfeed and infeed table for utility of the Passthrough slot. I will keep the baffle box and incorporate it into this next box. Noise will most likely be reduced drastically. And I’ll incorporate the insulated exhaust duct into the design :wink:

An aside, I am super happy with the Kilmat sound deadening product, very easy to apply and works well.

Will keep you updated in a new topic when I build the Whole Enchilada Box.

2 Likes

Great experiment & report out. Looking forward to the enchilada :slightly_smiling_face:

are you using the vent hose inside that comes with it or did you slide the insulation over your existing hose? i worry about leaks in the one that comes with it. i’ve thought about the insulation, but would want to slide it over my plastic vent hose.

I use the included duct, no problems. The inner sleeve is also plastic.

If you wanted to skip the insulation off it would be really easy, I don’t believe it’s adhered.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 32 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.