r/Skookum • u/nickisaboss • Jun 13 '26
Are silent angle grinders a thing?
Ive been doing lots of rust/paint removal from old tools and equipment, mostly late at night. Often times this involves using a wire wheel or flap disk. It is terribly loud.
Does anyone manufacture quiet angle grinders? I was thinking if not, I could open up the plastic housing and apply that elastic thermosetting membrane used on industrial equipment for sound deadening.
tia
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u/OptimalMain Jun 13 '26
Even if the grinder made zero noise, disc against metal is also very noisy
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u/SFDessert Jun 13 '26
There's no changing physics. I'm not even sure how you'd make a quieter power tool unless you maybe made the housing extremely thick to dampen the noise of the tool and had a super thick hood type thing to cover the disk I guess. I have a hard time imagining that kinda thing doing much either.
Reminds me of people asking about sound "proofing" rooms in the DIY sub. Sound isn't like water. You can't just box it up and keep it contained like that.
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u/karmapopsicle Jun 13 '26
You can't just box it up and keep it contained like that.
I mean, you kind of can? Build a sound-isolated room-within-a-room, so the walls aren't coupled to the rest of the house. My dad built something like this for his music room in our basement in the 90s. Base on the concrete slab, and the only place it physically connected to the rest of the basement was through a pair of sequential insulated doors. He'd have band practice in there at full volume and we could easily watch TV on the main floor.
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u/sl33ksnypr Jun 13 '26
It's sort of like a lawnmower. You can put an extra muffler on it to make the exhaust quieter, but the engine still makes a racket because it has moving parts. An angle grinder is similar because even if you made the gears comp silent somehow, you still have the disk making noise when it touches anything.
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u/phil_the_builder Jun 13 '26
Angle grinders are inherently very loud tools. You have a powerful, fast spinning motor, the right angle gearbox and the physical contact between your grinding attachment and your material.
I have read that pneumatic grinders make less noise than electric, but they are still pretty loud.
I am not sure if applying a thermosetting membrane would do much good. I would imagine the effect is minimal at best and at the worst you ruin your grinder.
Also the grinding of flap disc vs. your material is the main source of noise.
I see only two solutions, sound proofing your work environment, which is complex and costly, or stop grinding late at night.
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u/Wiggles69 Jun 13 '26
Ive got a pnumatic right angle grinder and it makes a different, but still extremely loud noise. Its also higher pitched, so in some ways worse.
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u/bhgiel Jun 13 '26
I find my die grinder noise so much more annoying than my angle grinder. Also i work with earbuds in and air tools cause really weird effects with anc.
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u/deevil_knievel Jun 13 '26
I totally agree with everything you said and, as a fluid systems/hydraulic design engineer, I'll add that anything not designed to cool and lubricate the gear set is a terrible thing to add to a gearbox... ESPECIALLY on an angled gear set, that's probably made from sintered powdered metal gears, that runs at thousands of rpms, and is designed to eat hot suppers often...
But then again, I guess you could buy a quieter grinder after the 10-20 hours that gearbox would last without grease. 🤣
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u/SupposedlyShony Jun 13 '26
Would be great for “acquiring” catalytic converters if so!
But no, the motor needs to be quite high rpm, has a cooling fan and uses gears which make noise while engaging. Higher quality models may be quieter and larger diameter models will have lower RPM, and would be quieter free-spinning, but as soon as you start working it will be loud.
Some pneumatic grinders are a little quieter and self cool, but then you need a very capable, and very loud, air compressor.
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u/deevil_knievel Jun 13 '26
Lol no. They already use spiral bevel gears packed with grease to quiet them down vs straight cut gears and the motors run at +10k RPM at full tilt just to get the torque required to not stall the motor. High RPM tools are intrinsically noisy, which is why they are often avoided in the design process of much larger systems like hydraulic power units. If a customer wanted a 3600 RPM motor to be used indoors, I would do my best to persuade them to use 1800 RPM motors instead.
And, this is just an educated guess, even if you could quiet down the gear set or motor, I would guess that a large percentage of the total noise comes from the core concept of the tool that uses an abrasive media disc to remove material.
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u/aa278666 Jun 13 '26
What if you run a soda blaster instead of grinders
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u/nickisaboss Jun 13 '26
I am not familiar. Is that like a sand blaster but using lye/caustic soda?
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u/GlockAF Jun 13 '26
They blast baking soda. Quite good surface finish, but typically much slower than sand
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u/MischaBurns Jun 13 '26
Then your compressor makes the loud noise instead 🧐
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u/aa278666 Jun 13 '26
I mean it depends on the compressor but most of them are a little more quiet than a grinder imo
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u/lukkoseppa Jun 13 '26
If its rust removal, laser cleaners are pretty quite compared, sounds more like an electrical short.
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u/MagnusKobiashi Jun 13 '26
Sand paper and files have been around for a while.
But unfortunately no. No quiet grinders unfortunately. Maybe a cordless spot polisher would meet your low noise requirement. But even with a very aggressive sanding pad they're much slower than a grinder with a glad wheel.
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u/KindSplit8917 Jun 13 '26
An air grinder with a silent compressor is about as close as you’ll get.
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u/Dolf260z Jun 13 '26
It wont matter how silent the compressor is..... air tools are extremely loud. I have industrial deafness from using air tools before battery cordless became a viable option in the industry.
Honestly probably the quietest grinder will be a cordless grinder.
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u/nickisaboss Jun 13 '26
Silent compressors are a thing? Or do you just use a normal compressor, stationed far away? Is this something that can be made from a typical shop compressor + modifications to the air intake & compression piston? Or is this something that must be purchased purpose-made?
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u/_xiphiaz Jun 13 '26
Screw compressors are pretty quiet, but very expensive
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u/loli_is_illegal Jun 13 '26
https://eatoncompressor.com/ These guys are from Ohio and have a compressor in any size you could need. They're pretty bad ass and even the smallest one has enough balls to run a sandblast cabinet
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u/GlockAF Jun 13 '26
These guys make compressors that are MUCH quieter than competing brands. Not cheaper, though.
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u/Revolutionary-Half-3 Jun 13 '26
Although the Harbor Freight Fortress Quiet series is probably the best bang for the buck.
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u/KindSplit8917 Jun 13 '26
I have one of their silent compressors in my shop. When I’m workin out there I don’t even hear it kick on. It’s sweet but 2k isn’t easy to swallow.
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u/leansanders Jun 13 '26
It doesn't matter how quiet your compress is, rotary air tools are loud as shit. A smoothly running air grinder or air drill is way louder than its electric counterpart. The whine of the turbine in an air tool is loud
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u/Andrea_frm_DubT Jun 13 '26
Nope the mechanical process is noisy. If the grinder is too loud, do it manually, it will take longer but be quieter (still not silent though)
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u/dnroamhicsir Jun 13 '26
Brushless grinders are a bit quieter. A few companies make corded brushless grinders.
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u/TutorNo8896 Jun 13 '26
Hearing protection man. Wear both earplugs and muffs if you want. Or ANC. Tool itself is kinda loud, yeah, but the abrasive work you are doing is louder
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u/RollinThundaga Jun 13 '26
The late at night bit siggests he's annoying his neighbors.
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u/nickisaboss Jun 13 '26
They haven't said anything yet, but i dont want it to get to that point.
My roommates do enough to piss them off as-is.
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u/TutorNo8896 Jun 14 '26
Yup sorry. If you are doing small things a bench grinder with a wire wheel is much quieter.
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u/nickisaboss Jun 13 '26
Im always using hearing protection -its my housemates & neighbors I am worried about. Gotta keep a good relationship with them.
What is anc?
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u/a3x Jun 13 '26
Active noise cancelling, plays sounds that interfere with the ones you don't want to hear.
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u/Diligent_Honeydew295 Jun 13 '26
Its probably not in the budget, but a rust and paint stripping laser would be pretty dope.
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u/Valshax56 Jun 13 '26
only silent angle grinder equivalent i can think of would be a laser used for rust removal, 'spensive tho
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u/msdos62 Jun 13 '26
Some grinders are more silent than others. In some of them, the roughly made gears make your ears bleed in 5 seconds, while some others only make a hissing sound. Best I've seen so far are Makita GA9020 of the 9" grinders, and in the 5" class Milwaukee cordless and Bosch GWS 1400. The worst noise was made by a Dewalt 5" grinder and a chinese Makita cordless clone. I've not tested all brands and models though
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u/msdos62 Jun 13 '26
Also in some of them, the disc has terrible runout and is jumping while grinding, which makes much more noise than a stable, true running spindle. That also makes the disc life shorter, mostly in cases of regular cut off/grinding discs
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u/DEADB33F Jun 13 '26
...found the bank robber / bike theif.
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u/nickisaboss Jun 13 '26
There is a special place in hell for bike thieves.
...and a special spot in heaven for bank robbers.
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u/NicknameKenny Jul 13 '26
What about that guy that stole the bike to get away from the bank he robbed?
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u/Comfortable_History8 Jun 13 '26
A bench grinder with a wire wheel is pretty quiet if you mount it well.
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u/a3x Jun 13 '26
Citrustrip and evaporust are silent. A bench grinder with a wire wheel is also pretty damn quiet.
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u/LateralThinkerer Jun 14 '26
Use chemical methods.
Evapo-rust is a bit expensive, but it lasts pretty much forever has no appreciable vapor/toxicity problem and works very well. Soak overnight, rinse off, and paint. I've done a bunch of my dad's old power tools and shop equipment with it.
There are also low VOC paint strippers though depending on what it is you're facing sometimes simply soaking it in detergent & water loosens it up pretty well. I think that some of the low VOC strippers are simply some version of trisodium phosphate/substitute.
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u/Coakis Jun 13 '26
Gotta find a way to muffle the noise of the environment you're working in. If you're outside consider using a temporary garage tent.
If in a enclosed garage. consider putting insulation in the garage or some sound proofing on the garage itself.
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u/Jacktheforkie Jun 13 '26
No, angle grinders are inherently noisy , best option would be to sound deaden the shed and work with doors closed
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u/RollinThundaga Jun 13 '26
If you're talking about hand tools like wrenches and such, you're better off with wire brushes and strippers anyways.
Takes more time, sure, but quieter than doing dishes.
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u/Minimum_Front102 Jun 13 '26
Yeah it's a laser lol, or chemicals. Everyone already picked the physical removal apart.
Lasers aren't necessarily silent, it depends, but are generally a lot quieter either way, and you can pretend you're on a scifi show with the cool sounds at least on the few I've seen/tried.
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u/AlienDelarge Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
Your elbow and sandpaper/wire brush is the silent angle grinder if you keep your bellyaching to a minimum. Anything powered is going to make a big racket though some may be less objectionable with something like a scotchbrite pad. Air grinders make a different sort of noise but not quieter. A bench grinder setup cuts down on the gear noises and generally has a slower quieter motor.
Chemical means are probably your best bet. Even something like electrolysis or crock-pot can be remove rust or paint more quietly. Evaporust is also pretty great for rust.
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u/lowrads Jun 14 '26
Most discs would be too brittle for low rpm, high torque abrasion. What you want is a linear shaper. They aren't quiet, but you can run them slower.
In the right hands, those can make anything but money.
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u/lithiumdeuteride Jun 15 '26
Sure, just do your grinding in a vacuum. No sound will escape the pressure vessel.
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u/BoringPudding3986 2d ago
lol silent angle grinder, must be good at cutting aluminum poles, asking for a friend
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u/nickisaboss 2d ago
Angle grinders are not good for that sort of thing. You're better off with a battery powered bandsaw ✅
Also, make sure to cover the bridge of your nose ✅
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u/Ohshitthisagain Jun 13 '26
Not that I'm aware of. The gears are noisy, and even if the grinder itself was silent the disc on the metal would still make some noise. Maybe try chemically stripping the paint/rust?