Pedestal vise to reduce noise?

[Tristan]

We're moving shop and a main workbench will be bolted to a wooden frame interior wall shared with a neighbor. I'm concerned about noise and vibration from the vise (currently bolted to this bench) transferring into the next tenancy.

Would a pedestal mounted vise bolted to the concrete floor reduce impact on them?

Alternatively could I bring the bench away from the wall by 10mm and bolt it to the floor?

[Andrew R Stewart]

Shop location is a many leveled thing and noise is up there. You are right to be concerned. Anything you can do to remove the vibration from the adjoining wall will be good. But the noises produced by frame building are both loud and often of a penetrating nature. If you are full time building the negotiations about this really should have been done before signing on a lease/purchase. Andy (who has had over 10 frame building shop locations and learned about scheduled noise allowances).

[Eric Estlund]

I love my pedestal mounted vices. They are bolted to the floor, and between the noise reduction and movement reduction, they are a joy to use. Plus you can walk all around them as needed.

[abbeyQ]

Our tool shop is in a building with 4 suites. We are in the middle and one of our neighbors makes baseball bats. At some point during his process he puts the end of the bat on the floor and wacks it with a hammer, the noise resonates through the entire building. He's on one end and you can hear it clear as day in the opposite corner of the building. We are on a tension slab, not sure if that makes a difference or not. Point is, putting the vibration into the floor might be worse than putting it through the wall. We are in an industrial park and it's par for the course, he doesn't complain about our CNC, cold saw or tumblers and I'm sure as hell not worried about him hitting his fancy bats against the floor. If you're in an office park I'd say it's something to worry about. If you're in a more industrial location, noise is standard.

[devlin]

If you are going to bolt it to the floor put some rubber between the base plate and floor. Something like the meter square floor mats mad from recycled rubber etc. Then also put the big square washers under the heads/nuts with more rubber under them This way you reduce the noise through the floor as much as possible.

If it's a timber framed wall noise will still travel through the cladding into the frame and back out the other side. You can put noise reducing Gyprock/dry wall up, but it's not cheap to sound proof. You have to double frame with insulation to be really effective.

Have a discussion with the neighbours. Explain the noise, demonstrate to them what you are doing and ask if it's intrusive and what they are happy to live with.

It has been my biggest concern when finding somewhere new to live and setup a workshop. Hammers, files and die grinders and machining are not the quietest of tools. Especially in residential areas.