Thread: Quieting a motor - suggestions?

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I have a spider victim that I'm making, and he thrashes... I'm achieving this through a powerful car door lock actuator. Moves pretty fast and strong, and gives a good twitching motion.

That being said, the motor makes a lot of noise. Too much noise.

Anyone have any good suggestions for muffling the sound? I was going to maybe wrap it in bubble wrap, or cotton, or both... but wanted to know if anyone had some techniques to muffle the sound that are proven winners?

You need to be careful not to completely block the airflow on the motor or it could overheat and actually start on fire. Is there any way you can build an enclosure around the motor? There is a rubber known as vibex that is used on large AC units to stop the transference of sound from the unit to the concrete and into the building. I have used sheets of this to stop noise in live PA situations. You could also try asphalt roofing (for flat roofs) it has a large Sound transmission coefficient and would block a lot of sound. Another thing that works really well is mineral fiber insulation. It is more dense than fiberglass and is used in the stud cavities in recording studios to block sound. Check with a local home theater installation company and see if you can get some left overs. Hope this helps, Keith