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How quiet is your lathe?

My 20 year old powermatic 3520A only makes fan noise but it's louder than I would like. Not obnocious but not quiet.
 
Webb Willmott said:
I was turning a tool handle and had a fan running. I had to look at my new Sweet 16 to see if it was running.

So I took a DB meter and measured the sound at ear level with the fan off. It was only 5 DB’s more than the ambient noise.
Click to expand...

Not quite enough info. What speed? High speed at a low speed belt range (requires higher motor speed)? Any vibration in the piece?
 
OK, I got out my digital sound level meter, a fairly cheap one, less than $200.
It brought up some new questions.
  • Is your meter digital or analog (moving needle)?
  • What was the indicated sound level in dB of the ambient noise? How many decibels did it indicate with the lathe on?
  • Time since last calibration? Requires an external calibrator. Recommends calibrating before each use. I don't have one - it's almost $400.
  • Weighting: A weighting (similar response to the human ear) or C (flatter, for analyzing machines/engines)
  • Meter response time? (mine can be set to Fast: 125ms or Slow: 1 second)
  • Minimum sound level the meter can detect. I understand the cheap, non-laboratory meters we are likely to have are notoriously inaccurate (i.e. not useful) at very low sound levels, better at high levels. My meter recognizes this and simply reports "LO" until the sound it reaches a certain level it can detect accurately. The ambient sound level in my shop, even with the heat pump running, is too low to measure so I can't provide a delta.
JKJ
 
Digital and a cell phone app with a fast response time. Not terribly precise but got a measurable result. 1000 rpm. Ambient noise in the garage was 47db with door open and lathe on was 52db. No vibration.

Regardless of baseline accuracy, it detected a delta of 5db. With a fan on, I can’t hear the lathe. And last hearing test for my pilot medical, right ear tested 100% and left ear only missed 1 barely audible tone. The only time I don’t hear something is selective hearing when I tune somebody out.

Bottom line is I was impressed at how quiet my new lathe is compared to my previous one.
 
My VB is silent. Maybe a little motor hum and the little Powermatic (2014) is not much louder
 
Those cell phone sound meters can be pretty sensitive - I use mine to "hear" when I think there might possibly be some sort of an issue around the shop (picked up buzzing from a wasp nest in the eaves outside from inside my shop) and sometimes I turn it on if I just happen to think there might be noise somewhere (Or my nervous system is playing tricks on me - I'll sometimes "hear/feel" a "Boom" but no one else does) they seem to be sensitive enough to be able to detect noise that normally people will just tune out automatically , doesn't mean the noise isn't there so what is "Silent" to one person might seem awfully noisy to someone not used to hearing it.. (or to a cell phone mic)
 
Mine uses a standard vee belt on a swing arm gravity tension set up. Perhaps not the quietest lathe but im ok with it.
I'm in the process of fitting a 220 three phase motor, with variable speed control. With I may have fit 220 volt fan to the motor to get enough air flow at low rpm. Noise maybe an issue here.
 
My lathe is pretty noisy but it’s a 75 year old Wadkin with a 2m long belt and metal joining clip. You can watch a lathe tour here if interested. There’s another thread about lathe height going on at the moment, mine is on 5” laminated plywood pads to lift it up to about 4ft centres where I like it to suit my 6 ft 1 height.

Hope you enjoy the video

Richard
 
Webb Willmott said:
I was turning a tool handle and had a fan running. I had to look at my new Sweet 16 to see if it was running.

So I took a DB meter and measured the sound at ear level with the fan off. It was only 5 DB’s more than the ambient noise.
Click to expand...
Dunno. I can't hear the lathe over room air filter. I can't hear the room air filter over the PAPR fan. And I can't hear the PAPR fan over the dust colector. :)
 
Well, unless I am running at very high speed, the most noise comes from my phase converter which has a fan in it. 2 Robust, one Vicmark, 2 mini Jet lathes.

robo hippy
 
My Rikon 1824 is pretty quiet. I'll take a reading when I get home if I remember. Most of the noise comes from the live center when I'm using it. I have a Robust cup center so quality isn't the issue. I think live centers are just noisy.
 
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