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Comment by EvanAnderson | Hacker News Reader

Lots of comments are talking about how loud rock tumbling is. I have an interest and space in my basement but I'm reticent to pull the trigger without knowing if it's going to be intolerably loud upstairs. Does anybody know how many dB the process actually generated?

Edit: Finally got to a PC to do some search-engine investigation and found this: https://rocktumbler.com/tips/how-much-noise-does-a-tumbler-m...

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I let Home Assistant turn it on once the house is empty, and then off once someone is home.

Neighbours hate this one trick

I got this one a few months ago and have been running it in my basement directly under my living room, separated only by the floor and a bit of insulation. Can't hear it at all. It's been working well and it's a fun low-investment hobby. I live on a glacial moraine so there are lots of unique rocks in my backyard, and my son enjoys digging for them. https://a.co/d/4HSnVVX

It's not that bad. Put a box over it with a blanket or two and you'll be fine.

Rock tumbler enclosure, soundproofing box.

I worry about heat dissipation, but maybe that's considered.

When I printed my "underground newspaper" on a dot matrix printer, back in high school, I thought I'd get away with so much printing without my dad knowing by putting a cardboard box over the printer to deaden the sound. It worked until it didn't. Luckily the printer had a thermistor on the printhead and just stopped versus continuing to brainlessly grind until seizing-up.

We had a largish cooler for fishing. I ended up putting a towel in the bottom of the cooler to absorb vibrations, closed the lid over the power cord. I checked the temperature a bunch at first to check for overheating, but it wasn't an issue.

We didn't keep at it long, but that kept the noise from being an issue. It was a slow, messy process and we were too busy to pay attention to it over long periods of time.

The motor has a power rating. Compare that to a similar light bulb. Done.

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