ShopBot Desktop router up for the challenge?

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by Monochron

The biggest thing holding me back from getting a Velox is the potential noise. Using our chopsaw to cut wood is loud enough to stop all conversation in our shop and I can't get a good feel for how loud the heavy duty 3.5HP router on the Velox's is going to be. Upgrading to a powerful spindle would help, but not at Velox's prices, and I don't know enough about spindles to find a reliable one from China.
Do you have a gauge for the level of noise produced by this machine?

We will all wear either ear plugs or earmuffs in the shop while doing part runs on our router(we do have the 3.5 HP router) and I can carry on a conversation with people in the shop while everyone is wearing plugs. It is loud, sure, but it is not unreasonably so. You will only find yourself close to yelling when right next to the router during heavy cuts, everywhere else you only need to raise your voice to be heard through ear plugs. We have cubicle dividers around our router to help attenuate some of the noise.

If you got the water cooled 220V spindle, they are WAY quieter. I will gladly help you find a source from China for a spindle if you desire as they are WAY cheaper(even if you need a VFD to get the voltage). I want to change out our router for a spindle because it is much nicer to work with because you can control your speed via code.

My offer goes for everyone by the way, machines are one of the biggest things I do on 1678 and I love talking about it and helping others with what I know.