How loud is a lathe?

Hi all

I have a strong desire to learn how to make my own baseball bats and maybe some other woodworking projects and never done it before (sort of a new year's resolution). I have a townhouse with a basement - is this advisable to do? I mean they play drums is it much louder than that?

My dad used to do lathe work on various materials like steel, wood, and fiberglass and as I remember, it depends on material being machined and what type of machining. For the majority of materials, drums will be a heck of a lot louder than a lathe.

leif3141 said:

Hi all

I have a strong desire to learn how to make my own baseball bats and maybe some other woodworking projects and never done it before (sort of a new year's resolution). I have a townhouse with a basement - is this advisable to do? I mean they play drums is it much louder than that?

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I work with metal and wood. My wife says she seldom finds my lathes loud enough to be a bother when watching TV.

Turning wood generally has a thump-thump-thump as you round off the corners. It's not too noisy after that, except when it screeches as it chatters.

Metal is similar. There are times it's quiet enough to talk over and times when the tool hits a resonant spot that squeals or rings.

So the upshot is that it can be very quiet, but there will generally be times when it's noisy enough for the noise to penetrate a wall. It's quite a fun activity, but be careful. A 5 pound block of wood that comes loose at 2000 RPM will have a lot of energy to share.

Daniel

Like badtziscool says, it depends on what kind of materials you are working with and what kind of lathe you decide on purchasing (belt/gear driven). Generally, lathes are pretty quiet (probably the quietest) compared to other woodworking machines. Search "woodworking turning" videos on google or YouTube to get an idea how loud it is. I would rate my loudest WW machines to the quietest (Thickness planer, tracksaw/skill saw, jointer, mitre-saw, table saw, router, bandsaw, lathe, drill-press). It's usually the high-pitch (high frequency sounds = high decibels) that travel and **** off your neighbours.

lathes aren't that loud compared to a router or circular saw(during cutting)..if a circular saw is rated a 9/10 in terms of loudness ..i'd rate a lathe as a 3..it sounds more like heavy bearings rolling..do you guys turn wood on your metal lathes btw?..at the university's machine shop,we're told not to to avoid contamination(of the lubes? not sure what it means)

Playing a drum set at full tilt is louder than turning hard wood on a lathe.

As mentioned above the loudest part is the chisel or gouge jumping and nibbling at corners (unless you're going to be turning round stock into bats).

Sound would not be my main concern, however, dust management would.

I commend you on your New Years Resolution to learn such a thing and I wish you luck!

N10 said:

do you guys turn wood on your metal lathes btw?..at the university's machine shop,we're told not to to avoid contamination(of the lubes? not sure what it means)

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I've never seen it done but I would imagine someone out there has done that in a garage or home shop.
Personally I wouldn't want saw dust and/or chips loading up with lube getting into a finely tuned lathe.

I've turned wood on my 7x12 metal lathe. For pieces with straight sides it works fine. I've even used metal cutting tool bits and cut it like I would a piece of aluminum instead of the normal hand held wood working tools. You end up with the straightest wooden pen barrels that you can imagine.

Yes, wood dust is a concern. Some folks just oil well before, clean when done and oil again and you get most of it. A home shop does not get enough wear to worry too much about the abrasive nature of the dust. Other folks lay aluminum foil over the ways and saddle. Even if it catches the foil tears instead of getting wadded up.

It was easy to make a steel tool rest that clamped into one of the tool holders.


Daniel

It also depends heavily on the lathe. Some lathes are fairly quiet while others are more noisy. I worked at a machine shop as my 1st ever real job while in high school, and we originally had several lathes of different ages. The one I worked on was probably 15 years old, but the one my friend Jamie worked on was from way back in WW2! This was in the mid 80's when I was 16, so that lathe was probably 40-50 year old and it tended to be louder, but it still wasnt really lou lad, except for when he was finishing the final cut to break open the torque converters, which could be noisy. But it was a big lathe though, as all the lathes in the shop were at least 8-12 feet wide. 1.5 years later my boss sold that shop and moved to a larger building and bought brand new lathes and they were the same size as the others generally, but they were quieter. You could have a conversation when they were running most of the time.

A smaller lathe like for your home will be even quieter.

Assuming it's in good shape and the bearings are all good, the only noise from the lathe itself is just a motor running, like a furnace blower motor. The actual noise from the chisel on the wood will depend on the type of wood and size, but you can easily listen to music at a moderate level while using a lathe. In addition, most lathes are variable speed and slower speeds mean less noise in certain phases of turning.

leif3141 said:

Hi all

I have a strong desire to learn how to make my own baseball bats and maybe some other woodworking projects and never done it before (sort of a new year's resolution). I have a townhouse with a basement - is this advisable to do? I mean they play drums is it much louder than that?

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Yes to #1 no to # 2 .
My 15 yr old son has been playing drums for two years now in the basement . ( Progressive metal,jazz etc.)
My woodworking shop is also in the basement .

There is no way ANYONE can hold a conversation on the first floor when drums are active .

Unless you have an incredibly loud dust collection system OR a jet engine going at the same time as your wood lathe ; You shouldn't be causing any noise complaints . When you get your table saw & router that may change .

Spin some timber . Be safe . Have fun .

I have no experience with wood turning, only in metal.
If the the shaft of a small lathe is only driven by belts, its quieter than a cordless screwdriver.
With feed activated and an uncooled gearbox (no oil) the noise noticeable louder.

Depends on the lathe. A 'Hercus 250' for handyman metalworking, you'd hardly hear outside a garage when its operating, whereas an 'Okuma LC20 NC' ( i work with occasionally ) when its working hard, is earmuff territory ( although maybe not as loud as a full kit of drums ).