Player3
Member
Hi there,
As I am about to dip my toes into DWC for the first time I ordered a air pump, plugged it in and send it back immediately as I was convinced it was broken. Ordered two more just to realize that this is the normal operating noise. I’m pretty neurotic when it comes to unwanted ambient sounds so I played with the thought of returning them all in exchange for a fresh bag of soil ..
In the end I decided to get my hands dirty and make a little sound dampening box. I’m not the first one and there’s a million designs out there.
Well, here’s mine:
I made it from 22 mm of MDF, a 40 mm layer of high density compound foam (should be the right translation, here it’s “Verbundschaumstoff”
) next 2 mm of bitumen paperboard followed by 20 more mm of compound foam. The idea was to create some kind of decoupled box inside of the box.
As an air intake I took a hose which I rolled up a bit inside of the box as I figured that sound doesn’t like to take too many turns.
Originally I wanted to attach the top plate via some kind of pulling mechanism like a swing top beer bottle or some mason jars but my ADD started kicking hard and I just wanted to get done with it. So I put the pump on 95% and screwed that thing shut. All plates are glued and sealed with silicone.
Im satisfied with the result as the only thing left to hear are the air stones. Second video has been taken in a hallway with lots of reverb.
It’s been the first time I used a jigsaw, a hole saw, predrilled screw holes and worked with silicone (you can tell from my floors - I can’t see shit on there but I’m moving like I’m on ice wtf). I will put all of those little mistakes into account when it’s time to make a box for the water chiller next
Oh yeah, i inserted a thermostat probe via the air intake hose and plugged the pump into the thermostat. That way if the pump should get hot or anything it will shut itself down. I don’t think I will need it and if everything goes smoothly the next days I will run the box without.
[video]
As I am about to dip my toes into DWC for the first time I ordered a air pump, plugged it in and send it back immediately as I was convinced it was broken. Ordered two more just to realize that this is the normal operating noise. I’m pretty neurotic when it comes to unwanted ambient sounds so I played with the thought of returning them all in exchange for a fresh bag of soil ..
In the end I decided to get my hands dirty and make a little sound dampening box. I’m not the first one and there’s a million designs out there.
Well, here’s mine:
I made it from 22 mm of MDF, a 40 mm layer of high density compound foam (should be the right translation, here it’s “Verbundschaumstoff”
) next 2 mm of bitumen paperboard followed by 20 more mm of compound foam. The idea was to create some kind of decoupled box inside of the box. As an air intake I took a hose which I rolled up a bit inside of the box as I figured that sound doesn’t like to take too many turns.
Originally I wanted to attach the top plate via some kind of pulling mechanism like a swing top beer bottle or some mason jars but my ADD started kicking hard and I just wanted to get done with it. So I put the pump on 95% and screwed that thing shut. All plates are glued and sealed with silicone.
Im satisfied with the result as the only thing left to hear are the air stones. Second video has been taken in a hallway with lots of reverb.
It’s been the first time I used a jigsaw, a hole saw, predrilled screw holes and worked with silicone (you can tell from my floors - I can’t see shit on there but I’m moving like I’m on ice wtf). I will put all of those little mistakes into account when it’s time to make a box for the water chiller next
Oh yeah, i inserted a thermostat probe via the air intake hose and plugged the pump into the thermostat. That way if the pump should get hot or anything it will shut itself down. I don’t think I will need it and if everything goes smoothly the next days I will run the box without.
[video]
Last edited: