This is a great thread. Thanks all for contributing. The dust was driving me nuts, and now the vacuum noise for a long cut is driving the whole household nuts (I have a two stage bag system with tubing throughout my shop).
I also have an air cleaner and hadn’t thought of that as a primary, but will try it. I imagine some things (MDF) really want a vacuum shoe connected and other materials can live without and you just vac the chips up after.
Adding the Harbor Freight speed controller to my vac seems like a no brainer to try for $20. I don’t need quiet … just quieter. Likely extend the life of it quite a bit, too.
Again, thanks all for sharing.
Hi, is there any chance you would share how you build it. Unless it is very complicated, I would like to try making one.
I have built the controller, based on a K2636 kit of the company Velleman. Velleman Kits K2636: SPEED CONTROLLER – Velleman – Wholesaler and developer of electronics . It is a kit, containing just the PCB and the components. You have to solder it all together. Then I just bought the plastic box, the plug,… in a local electronics shop. I added also an optocoupler, a transistor and a resistor to safely control it by the X-controller. The picture below shows it without the cable to the X-controller. It was not finished yet but already succesfully tested in my lab.
I can imagine that sourcing the kit could be a problem when you are living in the US.
But when you can find it, or something similar, i am happy to help you connect itto your X-controller. But it requires that you have the schematics.
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Hi,
Thanks for the link, I will take a look, I am not in the US but I think that getting it to where I am would prove even more of a problem.
If this does not require surface mount soldering I think I should be able to pull it off. I however don’t think I will connect it to the x-controller.
So this is plugged between the vacuum and the power outlet, right? I was looking à te superPID but would like a more affordable alternative I just hoped that DIY would be a good way to do it.
Thanks again.
The kit I used doesn’t require high soldering skils. If you know which side of the soldering iron is the hot one, you know enough 
. No surface mount or other tricky things.
But, like I said, maybe hard to buy outside Belgium.
It indeed just plugs between the power outlet and the vacuum. But, I just realize that it is limited to 5 Amps, which is sufficient @230V but probably not @110V.
However superPID is a super PID, it is pure overkill in this case. If you can find a simple speed controller for brushed AC motors, it will do the trick.
Maybe, even a dimmer can be an option, if the Amps are sufficient.
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Ok, if that is a viable and affordable option I will start looking at AC speed controllers. We use 220volts here so I guess that’s fine. Thanks for the advice.
I think I payed 40-50€ for the complete controller.
Wish you lots of success!
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I built a box that my shop vac fits inside of. See http://www.startwoodworking.com/post/how-silence-your-shop-vac for info. I didn’t buy the special sound deadening foam, I used ceiling tiles. They are made to absorb sound and if you look for damaged ones at the a home improvement store you can get them pretty cheaply. It works really well. I was amazed at how much it reduced the noise.
