[Hypnotoad]

Been lurking for months... I want to get a mill and eventually CNC it. It will be my first mill. I have a couple concerns around noise. My garage is under my kids' bedrooms and I would like to be able to mill into the wee hours of the morning. I also don't want any hearing damage and it's convenient to not wear ear protection all the time. Because I've never been around any of the mills I'm considering I don't have a good reference point for how loud these things are.

I understand a good amount of noise can come from the actual cutting so I'm not sure if motor noise matters that much? I want the ability to work in steel but most of my near term projects would be plastic, aluminum, and wood.

These are the mills I'm considering:

• LMS mini mill (Sieg SX2LF) -- brushless DC motor with belt drive
• Grizzly G0758 (Weiss WMD16VA) -- brushed DC motor with gearing
• Grizzly G0704 (Weiss WMD25LV) -- brushed AC motor with gearing
• Grizzly G0463 (Sieg X3) -- brushed AC motor with belt drive
• Grizzly G0619 (Sieg SX3) -- brushless DC motor with belt drive

Of those, the SX2 and SX3 have brushless DC motors and the G0758 are claimed to be quiet. The SX2 and G0758 would probably be plenty for me but I'd rather get something I won't outgrow so quickly.

The G0704 is my 1st pick apart from noise as it's cheaper than the X3 and the amount of documentation and plans from Hoss is overwhelming. One thing I could do is get the G0704 and convert it to a belt drive if the noise is too much. This would be some work but still cheaper than the SX3. I could also swap the motor for a BLDC in the interest of quiet.

Possibly the most helpful piece of information to me would be whether you guys wear ear protection while operating a G0704.

Thanks for the help.

[lancut]

Grizzly G0463 (Sieg X3) -- brushed AC motor with gearing
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Grizzly 0463 has BLDC motor..

[dracozny]

gear heads are generally noisier than Belt using a VFD. those G0704's are probably the most widely CNC'd mills out there right now. I went with a rf45 clone do to the column size although I have pushed that limit with a few cuts.

[Hypnotoad]

Grizzly G0463 (Sieg X3) -- brushed AC motor with gearing
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Grizzly 0463 has BLDC motor..

Hmmm... not according to Grizzly or Sieg, but it does have a belt drive apparently. I've researched this mill the least since I'd probably just bite the bullet and get the SX3 instead.

[TiagoSantos]

I'm not sure why no one else mentioned this, but your instinct is correct - the noise of actually machining anything will far surpass the motor noise.. The machines with belt driven spindles will be quieter than those with gears, but when you're cutting into a piece of aluminum, I don't believe it'll make much difference. I'm really not sure how realistic it is to expect to machine stuff late at night while your kid is sleeping

The sound while cutting aluminum, for instance, shouldn't be bad enough to give you hearing damage (although I have started wearing hearing protection when I'm standing next to the machine, mostly cause the sound is a bit annoying) but it's loud enough that I'd give higher consideration to other things such as build quality, travels, size.. Rather than how quiet it might be when it's going through air..

[lancut]

Hmmm... not according to Grizzly or Sieg, but it does have a belt drive apparently. I've researched this mill the least since I'd probably just bite the bullet and get the SX3 instead.

I own the Grizzly 0463, I know.. Almost done with the cnc conversion. Here is the specs copied from the motor label.
ZYT-600
DC 110v .8Hp
4000rpm 6.5A

[Hypnotoad]

I own the Grizzly 0463, I know.. Almost done with the cnc conversion. Here is the specs copied from the motor label.
ZYT-600
DC 110v .8Hp
4000rpm 6.5A

Well that's a nice surprise.

[hoss2006]

Hmmm... not according to Grizzly or Sieg, but it does have a belt drive apparently. I've researched this mill the least since I'd probably just bite the bullet and get the SX3 instead.

I own the Grizzly 0463, I know.. Almost done with the cnc conversion. Here is the specs copied from the motor label.
ZYT-600
DC 110v .8Hp
4000rpm 6.5A

How many wires are coming out of the motor? The X3 has always had just a universal DC brushed motor.
Hoss

[hoss2006]

Hypnotoad,
I never wore hearing protection with the G0704 after the beltdrive conversion but it would still keep the kids awake, this isn't a quiet hobby.
You might consider soundproofing after you see how loud it is first, maybe build a little room just for the machine, dad's batcave.
Hoss

[Fastest1]

As Hoss said, machining metal is not quiet. That being said 1 of my children's rooms is right above my machines. There is not much complaint but then again we never were quiet around our kids as babies. They sleep well.

IMO If rooms are kept quiet for children, then any new noise is startling. If there is some ambient noise most of the time, they never notice. My 3 children always slept thru the night regardless of what we the parents were doing.

[pippin88]

I'm planning a belt drive to quieten the racket from my all metal gear drive (g0704 style clone)

[migrusch]

On my machine the air compressor used for misting is louder than anything else.

[arizonavideo]

After I added the belt drive the the IH mill it was almost a bit strange, one night standing their I found my self talking to my brother while milling some brackets with a 3/8" cutter going fairly slow it really didn't make any noise at all. It was almost spooky, we could talk! The bigger mill doesn't ring like the smaller one with light cuts.

But then put the face mill in and take a few .100" cuts at 4000 RPM and 35 IPM and WOW that's really loud.

I would build a little room to put the mill in and add some R8 to the walls and roof. It will make a big difference and also give you chip control.

As for gear noise, for the PM-30/Weiss 30, I hear it a bunch in low but it is almost always in high and its not too bad, about half as loud as the cutter if its not cranked up. Higher speeds it makes a good amount of noise but nothing like the RF-45 gear box.

Belts are a good way to drive a spindle.

[Tkamsker]

I have an extreme silent machine (to Not anoy the neigbour when i Mill Sunday morning) it is about belt and bearings and How precise it is.
I changed cooling from mist to Pumps to be silent i could tape it if you Are interested ..

Gesendet von meinem SM-N9005 mit Tapatalk

[Fastest1]

I have an extreme silent machine (to Not anoy the neigbour when i Mill Sunday morning) it is about belt and bearings and How precise it is.
I changed cooling from mist to Pumps to be silent i could tape it if you Are interested ..

Gesendet von meinem SM-N9005 mit Tapatalk

How about a video? We all want instant gratification.

[Tkamsker]

Hi
ok i can send you fast the existing videos because i am right now changing the electronic from normal to an 5 axis system this video is my lathe which has an miling head
there i milled with an 6mm miller roughing (and no cooling because of video - Steel milling on lathe Klippfeld CNC using Linuxcnc - YouTube so that is the milling noise itself
and i only have an spindle orientation video where the noise is in reality the fan of the vfd -
Klippfel K12 Linuxcnc Spindle Orientation - YouTube
So combine them and you got en feeling what is to be expected.
And this is my router mill (mainly used for pcb, alu and plastic ) so you get the sound of loud cnc machine
But the compressor has 86 DBA ,.. needed for the tool changer ,..
so lets see how you did it to the end
thomas

[Hypnotoad]

Alright thanks for the input guys. Sounds like I should just get the G0704 and later belt drive it if it becomes an issue.

[wizard]

I'm not sure why no one else mentioned this, but your instinct is correct - the noise of actually machining anything will far surpass the motor noise.. The machines with belt driven spindles will be quieter than those with gears, but when you're cutting into a piece of aluminum, I don't believe it'll make much difference. I'm really not sure how realistic it is to expect to machine stuff late at night while your kid is sleeping

I think you hit the number one problem here, no matter which way you go it will be loud enough to wake the kids. You could totally enclose the mill, but you would need to use sound reading materials.

The sound while cutting aluminum, for instance, shouldn't be bad enough to give you hearing damage (although I have started wearing hearing protection when I'm standing next to the machine, mostly cause the sound is a bit annoying)

Hearing damage depends upon intensity and duration. In some cases the sound coming from a mill can be pretty loud. However you as the operator can control that to some extent by controlling depth of cut, using tools that produce less noise and generally babying the machine. Even with all of these tweaks I can still see the sound as being loud enough to wake the kids.

but it's loud enough that I'd give higher consideration to other things such as build quality, travels, size.. Rather than how quiet it might be when it's going through air..

Some houses are built better than others. One thing the original poster could try it to run other power tools in the shop and see how well the sound transmits to the kids room. A circular saw or other noisy tool might be a good test device.

[ChrisAttebery]

On my G0704 milling at top speed (2250) was pretty noisy with the stock gearbox. I swapped to a 1:1 belt drive (Hoss') with a 4200 rpm top speed. The machine is actually much quieter at this speed than the original setup. I tend to take moderate cuts (~.7cu in/min) and at that MRR the machine is fairly quiet. My son's room is directly above the machine and he has no problems sleeping while it is running.

My compressor was MUCH louder and did wake my son up when it kicked in. I just sold it and I'm going to buy one of the California Air Tools Ultra Quiet compressors so I can run it at night.

[dracozny]

just running my ZX45 in high speed without making cuts my kids were pretty peeved off at me, but they are literally 20 ft from the mill, and only a glass door to isolate the sound. they have since gotten used to it as long as I'm not making some god awful squealing chatter, but I try not to run it after bed time anyways.