Anti-vibration mats

[Pete W]

Anyone have any thoughts/experience of rubber mats as a means of reducing machine vibration?

I've just made a small cupboard/bench to take my drill press and although the construction is as rugged and heavy as I could make it (lots of construction lumber, ply and MDF) I'm still a little concerned about vibration.

Would a rubber mat under the table help? If so, of what kind of thickness?

I've Googled extensively but turned up little useful info. I know that there are companies who sell anti-vibration mats, but could one make do with a less-expensive-albeit-non-engineered-rubber-mat?

 

[RogerS]

What is your concern about any vibration? Shaking the work? Transmission through the base to the floor and elsewhere? Never heard of anti-vibration on a drill, hence the questions.

When I bolted down my Hegner lathe I used some offcuts from the 1" thick heavy density (sorbo?) rubber mat that SWMBO bought to do sit-ups on. :wink: So that might be a potential source for you. I think that it needs to be pretty dense but I'm no expert.

Roger

 

[Pete W]

What is your concern about any vibration? Shaking the work? Transmission through the base to the floor and elsewhere?

All of the above, to start with

I was delighted with the ruggedness of the bench - until I put the drill press on it. With so much weight up high, the bench moves slightly under sideways load (haven't tried running it yet; I'm waiting on a delivery of appropriate hardware to bolt it to the benchtop). The garage floor is ropey old concrete and the bench will probably require wedging to get it on a solid footing.

Basically, I don't want the work to bounce around on the DP table, and I don't want the bench to waltz about the shop. Bolting the bench to the wall remains an option.

 

[WellsWood]

Hmm.. I'm inclined to think if you have a drill press that vibrates enough to need a solution there's almost certainly something wrong with it. The worst thing a healthy one is going to produce is possibly a bit of a light rumble from the belt and pulleys, nothing dramatic enough to make "the work bounce around" and it certainly shouldn't "waltz around the shop".

You should probably try investigating the source of the problem rather than isolating it, you say though that you haven't run it yet so perhaps you're worrying needlessly.

What drill is it? Perhaps a picture of it on it's bench would help others spot any posible shortcomings in it's design - not that there likely are any of course :wink:

 

[OLD]

Check the speed setting of the drill the first or second speed will be fine for wood work and cause minimal vibration. Also check belt alignment and firmness of drive train mounting over tight belts etc.

 

[TheTiddles]

Vibration is almost always a bad thing, check it out piece by piece till you find the problem, for instance, has a bolt come off a pulley? Is there something majorly not straight? Vibration isolation is not an easy thing to do and get it just right, the easiest mathod if applicable is to hunt down the cause of it.

Aidan

 

[big soft moose]

the bottom line with rubber blocks or mats and vibration is that the rubber is quite effective at stopping the machine transmitting the vibration to whatever its mounted on (as with a car engine where the rubber blocks stop the viration being transmitted to the bodywork)

but it doesnt do anything to stop the machine vibrating and in fact may make it worse by isolating it from its mount.

therefore if machine/workpiece vibration is the issue you should forgoe the rubber mat and bolt the machine to the bigest solidest mass possible - as massive mass damps vibration. - normally this will be the shop floor or a purpose made bech full of block work or oil soaked sand.

this is a common problem in spinny world as out of balance work pieces frequently cause a lathe to vibrate - however with a drill press this should be an issue and a DP ought to not be vibrating that much in the first place.

 

[Grinding One]

It sounds to me that the floor needs to be fixed,hard to work on uneven floors or sloped floors.Now to the heaviest drill being placed onto a table(Bench) on it s causing the bench to move,yes it needs to be bolted down,but not on one end...I am thinking that the bench is not big enough for your monster drill.Mine stands on one end of my bench,but it doesn`t move about,it stays in one place even running....it has bolts to mount but I didn`t need them to keep it in one place.But thats a bench type model,big bertha is out in the Garage for the deeper drilling

 

[Pete W]

Well, I got the necessary bolts today and duly mounted the DP to the benchtop and switched it on. No vibration, so it looks like the bench is doing its job.

Thanks for all the comments, advice and observations.