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I was thinking about soundproofing my typewriter with technical felt.
Does anyone have experience with this – and most of all: is it worth it?
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Depends on the design of the machine, but it should help control the high frequency 'clck-clack'. A thick (10mm +) felt pad under the entire machine will work wonders too. Choose the thickest felt you can fit to the inside of the panels - thin pieces will do very little. Good luck.
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This might be of interest: Sound Deadening
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That's an interesing thread, thanks Uwe.
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This is a slightly old thread, but I was also wondering about installing some felt pads inside a machine. I already use a pad beneath but still have a metallic sound from one or two typewriters. Did you ever go through with it?
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beak wrote:
Choose the thickest felt you can fit to the inside of the panels - thin pieces will do very little. Good luck.
beak is right. I recently covered the bottom plate, side panels and top panel of a Traveller de Luxe with thin felt. There was no noticible sound reduction. I did the same with a regular Traveller, because this machine has a higher pitch and a more metalic sound. Also no difference. I added a second layer of felt to the bottom plate, and now the highter pitch was a slightly reduced.
While this experiment is not finished, the results so far could mean that higher tones can be reduced with felt, provided the felt is thick enough or used in multiple layers.
I also talked to someone who was working with felt a lot, she advices me to use wool filt, it has better soundproofing properties. For the above experiment I used synthetic felt.
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Greetings All
I find this thread about sound reduction interesting. I have a cousin in Ireland who has his Ph.D. in acoustics and runs a noise and vibration consulting firm. I also pulled wrench at a John Deere dealership for 15 years and worked on what JD called their Sound-Guard Body tractor and combine harvester cabs. The sound deadening cab lining foam was 2 layers of closed cell foam (forget if it was medium or high density) with a layer of lead foil between them and the textured vinyl of the cab interior on one side of this sandwich.
In the earlier days, this foam was spray glued to the cab interior, but in later days, strips of Velcro (hook & loop) tape were glued to the cab walls and on the back side the sound insulating foam. This meant the foam could be removed for service work or cleaning, then easily reinstalled. Just some things to think about as you continue with your experimentation. All the best,
Sky
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Interesting Laurenz, and I think what you've discovered about the higher tones makes sense. How thick was the felt once you added the second layer?
Sky - also interesting. In the Sound Deadening thread that Uwe references, thetypewriterman refers to closed cell foam as nearly identical to the material used in 1970s Brother portables. I've looked online a bit and looks like it's pretty easy to find quite a variety of closed cell foam thicknesses, thicker than I could find for wool felt... I might try and get my hands on some 5mm closed cell foam
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@typeitup: I used 2 mm thick felt, so the total was 4 mm.
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Thanks Laurenz