Shop vac silencing

[Leadhead]

Is there a cool way of quieting down the metal can type shop vac,s? Without causing them to overheat.

[PaisleyPCdoctor]

I had excellent results by putting the whole thing in an 18mm plywood box, lined with foam on inside. Hinged top with clips and a foam draught excluder seal. A 4" hole at the back is lined up with the exhaust port. The only noise is the airflow.
Box has 4 castors for wheeling it around.

The airflow noise was actually massively reduced in volume when I added the cyclone dust catcher (from screwfix).

My shop vac was stupid loud before, its barely noticeable now.

As to overheating- it could easily be an issue. I've only run it for an hour at a time, usually only a few minutes and it's not been a problem.

For running extended periods, I could run it with box lid open and still get ~80% sound reduction.

I couldn't live without it now- hated that noise!

As to overheating

[Neale]

I thought that most of the cooling came from that high volume of air going through it? Comes out of mine fairly warm, anyway. Not a lot of scope for cooling apart from that, especially in a plastic-cased model like mine (£35 from Wickes).

[PaisleyPCdoctor]

I thought that most of the cooling came from that high volume of air going through it? Comes out of mine fairly warm, anyway. Not a lot of scope for cooling apart from that, especially in a plastic-cased model like mine (£35 from Wickes).

That is an excellent point. Thanks.