1 - beak
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
- Posts: 912
Anti-noise mat material
FINALLY I found an ideal (and easily available) material for typewriter mats - those designed to help deaden the noise of typing. Local hardware chain (Bunnings) sells it as pinboard material, mentioning its sound-deadening properties. It is also used as a wall covering in studios, doubling as pinboard. Available in sheets about 700mm x 600mm x 9mm thick (3/8") for about $19AUD.
I cut my piece into four, which makes a good size mat - it cuts very easily just with a sharp knife.
After listening tests (by indulgent blindfolded locals) the effect from a single piece was rated good, but from two layers was unanimously thought excellent. A third layer did not noticeably improve on two. Two layers results in a very effective mat which is only 18mm (3/4") thick. As it happened, I had a couple of old leather place mats exacty the same size, so stuck one on as a top layer to improve the appearance - I used stick-form contact adhesive throughout. The material is quite firm, so it supports the machine properly - no spongey rubber or foam feeling. This stuff really works!
Last edited by beak (28-12-2014 09:17:06)
Sincerely,
beak.
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
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Re: Anti-noise mat material
Excellent stuff! But what's the aligator skin type material covering it? It has perfect edges, so I assume you cut the sound deadening material to fit it? Looks very classy.
Edit: Oops, missed the part about them being placemats.
Last edited by Uwe (10-1-2015 10:57:18)
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- Ektagraphic
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- From: Mass.
- Registered: 05-10-2014
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Re: Anti-noise mat material
Very nice! I too like the alligator look very much! I don't know if I have come across such classy placemats! So this does well at dampening the sound?
- beak
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Re: Anti-noise mat material
Ektagraphic wrote:
Very nice! I too like the alligator look very much! I don't know if I have come across such classy placemats! So this does well at dampening the sound?
Indeed it does, though the leather is just decorative; it's the stuff underneath that's doing the work.
My Hermes 3000 used to make quite a loud, deep hammering sound on this desk, but that has been reduced to almost nothing. The high-pitched clattering sounds of a typewriter are best takled by internal sound-proofing materials, I think, and are still there to some extent. The sound of the slugs hitting the papper / platen cannot, I think, be reduced except by tuning the machine so that the slugs travel only just far enough to print through the ribbon - and that sort of adjustment is beyond my experience level at present.
As far as I know, nuisance noise from typewriters at 2 am mostly concerns lower pitched sounds, which tend to travel as far as the neighbours, whereas the higher pitched sounds tend to be directional, and thus absorbed somewhat by walls and soft furnishings. So the mats are a hit with the folk next door!
Last edited by beak (10-1-2015 21:27:55)
Sincerely,
beak.
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Thread Starter- KatLondon
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- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Anti-noise mat material
Hi Beak, any idea what this stuff is called?
I made one by knitting it huge and then felting it, so that it becomes a very dense, thick material - it's about half an inch thick, maybe a little less. You can get the stuff that makes slippers nonslip, and put it on the bottom. I'm going to make more of them once I catch up on everybody's overdue Christmas slippers!
But I'm only really using portables at this stage - my next thing is going to be just as you say above and getting some felt for lining inside the few machines which have the most 'ringing' inside. I tried it already but need thicker felt and more of it.
- skywatcher
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- From: The Prairies of Alberta
- Registered: 14-3-2013
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Re: Anti-noise mat material
Greetings from Canada
Another potential material that has become more available as of late, is Yoga mat. For under $20.00 Cdn. one can buy a 2 foot by 5 foot sheet of medium density foam. Even if you use 3 layers per pad, you'll still get quite a few pads from one mat. All the best,
Sky
We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
- beak
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- From: Qld Australia
- Registered: 24-3-2013
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Re: Anti-noise mat material
............... getting some felt for lining inside the few machines which have the most 'ringing' inside. I tried it already but need thicker felt ..............
Try looking in your hardware store or cheap 'we sell everything' shop for anti-slip self adhesive pads, and the sort of material intended to protect your antique walnut table from being scratched by the bottom of a lamp or what have you; Sometimes this stuff comes in sheet form (150mm to 300mm square) for you to cut up yourself, and this stuff would make excellent internal sund-proofing, I think. It's a fawn felt about 4 to 5mm thick, and you peel and stick.
Sincerely,
beak.
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Thread Starter- KatLondon
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- Registered: 11-10-2014
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Re: Anti-noise mat material
Thanks Beak, I'll have a look. Clever... I have some little circles of that stuff intended to go under the feet of a table or similar, but have never seen it in sheet form - but then I was never looking!
- SpokaneNostalgia
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Re: Anti-noise mat material
When in a pinch to reduce the noise, I've recently discovered that a folded receiving blanket cut the sounds down pretty well. It's not as effective as that mat must be, but it helps in the short term.
"[...] modern writing does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words that have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug." - George Orwell
- malole
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- Registered: 02-6-2014
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Re: Anti-noise mat material
I recently got some car/van vibration dampening material which comes with a very very self-adhesive side. I have stuck it to half a cheap doormat, (the kind that is basically a bit of thin carpet and thin rubber) and the combination really works. It's heavy stuff, so doesn't slip around on the table.
