Sound Insulation Box

Hello Makers,

Here is my sound insulation box for reducing the noise coming from ultrasonicator machine. This box can be used for other kind of applications as well. In my case I used it for this purpose.

Please watch the videos before you begin to understand what is the end product going to be look like and how much noise is being cancelled.

What you need to put this sound insulation box together.

1) Acrylic bonder: Please watch the acrylic glueing video and be safe.

2) Hot glue gun

3) Acrylic sheets

(Dimensions up to you) My dimensions were: 0.236 inch thickness and 23 inch length and 14 inch width for left and right sides.

0.236 inch thickness, 14 inch length and 12 inch width for the top and bottom parts.

Also 0.236 inch thickness, 23 inch Length and 12 inch width for front and back sides. I used clear acrylic for the door.

4) Clamp and stand (for clamping ultrasonicator) This is standard clamp that an be found in chem-stores.

5) Sound insulation foam. I purchased it from mc-master part number: 9710T64 (Egg crate)

6) Hinges that really depends on you. I purchased mines from home depot. Part number: 202033900

7) Latches: I purchased it from mc-master part number: 6148A16

As a step one take the acrylic sheets. I ordered them from mc master however you can order them in the dimensions that you want from this website

Start gluing bottom part with one of the sides than wait for 5 minutes. Later glue the other sides one by one. Don't forget to support them while glue is drying. After that complete the box by gluing the top part. Use proper gloves and eye protection. In my design I have a small hole on the top part for cable connection with the ultrasonicator probe. You can open the same hole by using laser cutter. It is a hole in the center of the plate and it has a 3cm diameter.

Get your insulation foam. Make sure that you get enough surface area. So purchase more than you need because you may make a mistake. Also there are different isolation percentages. If you need more sound damping you can purchase different foam as well.

By the way only cover top and bottom. I made a mistake by covering one side and need to detach it. Do not repeat my mistake :)

It is time to arrange the hinges. For door connection I used two hinges. First arrange the places where you want to put your hinges and mark them. Then get the drill and open marked holes carefully on the door first. Be careful because the acrylic sheet is brittle. I open M3 holes. Then fasten the hinges into the door. Second open the holes into the box. Then connect the door into the box by using nuts and screws. Look at the pictures to see in detail.

Now it is time to connect the latches. Take your corner lathes and arrange the connection places. I pick the same height as hinges. Then mark the places that you want to drill holes. Again be careful while you are opening the holes into the acrylic sheet because it is brittle.

After you open the holes into the door, connect the first part of the corner latches. After that hold your lathes and find the estimate place of the connection point of the end parts of the corner latches, mark those places. Open holes and attach the second part of your latch that look like hook. Use appropriate screws and nuts. Since your latch has strings on it you need to make the connection tight enough. If you have a problem with that tightness use a plier to bend your second part that look like hook. See the pictures for details.

To attach inner rail for supporting clamp inside the box, you will need more acrylic pieces. In my design I came up with small plates that can connect the steel rail into the sound insulation box. If you want to build the same plate I can provide you the pdf file of the drawing for laser cutting the material. Please comment down below.

What you need to is prepare 4 inner plates and insert the rail from the holes on the plate. Later took the steel rail holder and place it inside the box and locate it in the middle back. After that cut the sound insulation material and by using hot glue gun stabilize the rail holder. Then insert the rail into rail holder and connect the plates with the rail holder. Stabilize everything in the center. Make sure that your plates are in close fit with the side of the box and they don't slide back. If they do use the hot glue to increase friction. See the pictures for details.

After you place the plates with the close fit, level them with the leveler. And then use hot glue gun to glue them from bottom. Use the chemical acrylic bonder to glue them from the top. Make sure that plates are fit well and glued to the sides. Wait at least 10 minutes for glue to dry before moving on to the next step.

Make the box upside down. For the four corners of the bottom plate use the extra acrylic and cut 8 10cm by 10 cm pieces. Heat up the hot glue gun and glue them as feet. Make sure that you heat the glue gun well otherwise you may face with in balanced feet due to the thickness of hot glue. Also you can simply use chemical bonder at this step as well.

First make a rough cut of the sound insulation foam as same dimensions as the side acrylic sheets have. Then place the foam inside the box look at the intersection of the foam with the inner plates and make a small cut with the scissors. Then make your foam fit on top of your side plate. Don't rush into gluing. See the place that don't fit and trim those corners or side to get a perfect fit. Then use hot glue gun to glue sound insulation foam inside the box. Follow the same procedure for the opposite side as well. Look at the pictures for details.

Right now it is time to attach sound insulation foam for the back side of our acrylic box. However with one difference. This time we will not place the foam as a one part. We will divide it into smaller parts as small as the distances between the inner plates that we glued. Check the pictures for details. After this step sound insulation foam coverage will be ready.

At this step you can use a sharp knife or tweezers to open a hole in the foam then insert your cables. After that connect the clamp on to the steel rod. You can slide your clamp into your desired height. It is ready for usage. Lets look at the sound reduction level of our insulation box.

Ready to go! With this box and preferred foam thickness sound is reduced by 20 decibels. You can reduce more noise by increasing the thickness of the foam. Watch the video down below for more detailed, and analyzed sound reduction results.