Silence is Golden......

[Stu in Tokyo]

OK, now come the crappy part of living in Tokyo, well ONE of the crappy parts.

I'm on my Woodlot (which is a demolition site, they are tearing down an old house) and there are 2 VERY large excavators running, Dump-trucks getting filled with rocks blah blah.

Noisy no?

And there is another guy working running his chainsaw, cutting down trees, and stuff.

But I'm milling the logs with my chainsaw mill, the old Husky is running well.

Today I ran it about 2 hours total, not even really. I would make a cut, shut the saw down, move my slab, clean up for the next cut, gas up the saw, check the oil, check the chain, and then make the next cut.

One cut, maybe 10 minutes at a time, WOT.

OK I know it is not "Quiet", but someone has complained, and the boss guy is getting nervous. He very nicely asked me to try not to run the saw too long....

I'm only running it for 10 minutes or so at a time..?

So, is there any way to make this saw a lot quieter?

It has a standard OLD muffler, that has next to nothing inside it.

As the saw is being used on a mill, I can have some kind of big muffler on it, I just need to not lose all my power.

So all you saw builder guys, if you can help me out, that would be great!

I have a MIG welder and I have some old bike 2-smoke mufflers laying around, could I fab up something that would kill the noise?

Help me out guys, I don't want to lose my woodlot !!

Cheers!

 

[2Coilinveins]

Go rip all the mufflers off the excavators and dump trucks?

Edit: I have no idea how to make your saw quieter, my response was a pitiful attempt at humor.

 

[Stu in Tokyo]

Go rip all the mufflers off the excavators and dump trucks?

Edit: I have no idea how to make your saw quieter, my response was a pitiful attempt at humor.

Actually, I thought about doing that for a second after you mentioned it, but in the end, I figured the dump truck and excavator guys might get a little POed

I thought it was funny!

 

[Gypo Logger]

Other then tell them all to ****! and risk further ridicule, find out who the main complainant is and asked them to come and watch and they take an interest. Maybe offer the trouble maker a board or two.
Another thing that may work is if you act like your a lunatic and wave the saw around and stuff while charging around aimlessly brandishing the saw as though you had spun a bearing or something like that.
People generaly avoid and will patronize someone who appears demented I have found.
Hope this helps,
John

 

[Stu in Tokyo]

I'm there at the woodlot on the good will between myself and the boss of the demo company. If someone complains and calls his boss, and he gets a call asking WTF is going on..... I'm out of my free wood, so I got to make nice.

I'm fairly sure who the complainer is, she lives next door to the deconstruction site, husband dead, kids gone, no work, except the local gossip and sh_t disturber. If I even said hello to her, she'd run or hobble away. Besides, I know she does not get along with my mother-in-law, so this is a backhanded attack.

The only option I have is to quiet down the saw, or stop cutting wood.

Really, this saw is loud, there is next to nothing inside the muffler, one little perforated screen, so while I think it is a bit much to complain about it, if she wanted to make an issue of it, she could call a cop and or the city and then I would be done for sure.

They already think I'm nuts, so that last one would not work

 

[HiOctane]

Can you run your Husky while the excavator is running and the trucks are there moving,that would hide the sound of your saw a bit.If you got a std muffler,the sound is not so disturbing .I guess you have some kind of permit to do the job,or if dont ask one from the city hall telling them you have to clean this place.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

There's a time for modded mufflers, and there's a time for stock mufflers. It does no good to have an extra bit of horsepower if you can't run the saw.

 

[bugfart]

Get her a Bose noise cancelling headset radio for a Christmas present and a stock muffler for yourself.

Tell her it's from the entire crew of noise-makers and you are working on quieting the noise on your saw. Work in 5 minute intervals to keep the saw cooler. Just work 5 on 5 off it will blend in better.

You will be appreciated for your efforts and a happy neighbor is a good neighbor. At that point nobody else would be permitted to compete and you never know when they have the next job lined up.

Tokyo must be down to their final three or four trees by now, maybe Gypo has a point.

 

[Gypo Logger]

You may also want to get here as a stocking stuffer a video of Red Green.
Throughout Red's shows you hear the intermitant sound of chainsaws, which by the way isn't objectionable at all, but rather music to the ears.
John

 

[bugfart]

What are flights to Florida these days?

Just hand her an envelope of tickets with the words...
"Wanna Get Away"?

It might be cheaper.

Or if you really don't like her tell her that she has won a trip to Marde Gras and they're starting early. Send her down there with the noisy saw and start drinkin.

 

[woodchop]

Could you fab up a sheetmetal diverter to divert the sound away from where she lives?

 

[Gypo Logger]

Contact Mike Rupley. Mike has a pipe with a silencer that seemed to work well.
John

 

[Lakeside53]

what have you got to loose? just weld on one of those 2 smoker mufflers you have lying around onto the front of your exiting muffler. You can probably wrap it around and stabilize it against the mill frame. If big enough, it won't have any effect on output power, but will baffle the noise. If nothing else, I will buy you another few days until she complains again.

You could also get someone to spy on her and only cut when she goes out!

 

[Stu in Tokyo]

Well, as the saw is an 85cc motor and the muffler I have is for a 250cc, I do figure that there would be little power loss, but hopefully lots of quiet gained. I don't want to butcher the original muffler, as I can't get parts for the saw, so I'll either put the bike muffler right onto the exhaust port, or build a box to mimic the original muffler and have the bike muffler come off the side of that.

Cheers!

 

[Stu in Tokyo]

OK, I dug this old muffler out of the stack of bike stuff I have, it is from an off-road Suzuki RMX250.

Here I have just stood it up against the Husky saw.....

and another view.....

(Sorry about the crappy cell phone pics...)

The saw is being used only for milling with the chainsaw mill I built. I'll keep the stock muffler if I have to do any other work with it.

With a muffler properly packed of that size, one would hope to see a reduction in noise....? I also figure if the noise coming out of the muffler goes straight up , it should be better as well.

More later....

 

[Lakeside53]

you might want to tack on a screen a few mm away from the muffler - might save you a few burns..

 

[whatsnext]

I would lie that Suzuki muffler down so it's parallel to the bar. Cut a hole into the front of your current muffler and weld this stinger to it then cover up the current exhaust outlet with a plate of some sort. You could support the exhaust end with your milling attachment so it's not just hanging out there. You should be able to reverse the process at some future date. If the new pipe is parallel to the bar you should be able to point it away from the old bag while sawing. Just lengthening the current exhaust path will help greatly as the exhaust flow will have a chance to shed heat, and lose energy, before exiting the pipe.
John.....

 

[Lakeside53]

I'm not familiar with the "anti-vibration" mounts on your saw, but watch out for stress if the cylinder can move and the muffler can't...

 

[whatsnext]

I'm not familiar with the "anti-vibration" mounts on your saw, but watch out for stress if the cylinder can move and the muffler can't...

Yes, watch out for that but if the bar is fixed into your milling fixture I would think that the saw's cylinder would be also. Still, it would be a good thing to check out if you are designing a machine for long term use.

 

[bugfart]

Hey that looks cool.
Hows about one of those deisel flappers for the top!

If this does not pan out.... and you get harrassed.... I have two suggestions.

1) Tightly affix an E string from a piano across the top so every dog within 2 miles goes crazy
2) Put an old tea-kettle whistle on top. When you saw everybody will check the range for hot water.

OOPS; you could do both so that's actually three.