Quiet shop vac

[RFGuy]

So, doing an 8 ft hose on the exhaust side of my Shopvac and routing it outside (under garage door), dropped my sound level to 76dBA at 10ft from the Shopvac inside my shop. Originally it was 86dBA, so I am seeing a 10dB reduction using this method. My Shopvac is a beefy 6.5HP (pseudo rating) model so it is very noisy and might be overkill for your application. Using a smaller, quieter shopvac in the house with a hose on the exhaust out a cracked window might work for you. If worried about losing heat during the winter, you could use some insulation to fill the crack in the window when you are using this.

[dusty]

My Realistic (Radio Shack) Noise Level Meter has both A and B weighting and Fast and Slow response rating selections. For the test that I just now performed these options made some but not significant differences.

For low level (below 60dBa) sound environments my meter is useless.

[reible]

Just a couple of random thoughts.

For working with a scroll saw you might well get by with a smaller shop vac, this might be at least a little less noisy.

Look for one without the blower function. The larger shopvac I own but no longer available is one of these and it is much quieter then most I have heard. The exhaust is distributed around the rim.

You might see if you can find a spot under a work bench say where the vac can live. If so then perhaps you can add some sound proofing, commercially available to the top, behind and to the sides. Look for "Acoustic sound panels" and or "Noise and sound isolation foams". Of course it should be with in a hose length of where you will use it.

I personally built a dog house for my air compressor many years ago. Just a top, sides and back, it helps a lot. It would be nice to do the front but that seem a bit difficult to achieve given the nature of the beast.

Ed