Dryer Lint for Sound Damping?

[rob17]

I stumbled across Roger Russell's site the other day and found an interesting page on it about the NoTone speaker company. He describes some of the things that they did and one of them was using the finest dryer lint from prestigious neighborhoods. I was wondering if anyone has tried this, I think that it is a interesting concept. It is certainly cheaper then acustastuff.

Link to the Page

[Hdale85]

Acoustastuff is expensive? 3 bucks for a bag at wally world.

[Xander]

Acoustastuff is expensive? 3 bucks for a bag at wally world.

That's not acoustastuff, that's polyfill.

Acoustastuff isn't that expensive though anyway...

And dryer lint is very flammable... great for starting fires. Take some on your next camping trip. I wouldn't put it in a speaker.

[rob17]

Dryer lint is flammable but the chances of a speaker igniting it is next to none. You would have to short out the driver terminals and hope that enough amps are going through it in order to build up enough heat to ignition the dryer lint. Even in that case your amplifier would be killed before a fire even starts. If your driver terminals are shorted out you will have many other noticeable issues besides your noise dampening material catching fire. Also paper cone woofers can catch fire fairly easily as well.

[Johnloudb]

An amp of mine almost lit a speaker on fire when it went DC at the output. So, this is a concern. However, I did take a match to some acoustuff and it lit right up and sent toxic fumes into the air. Fiberglass is your best bet for fire safety. Dryer lint is less toxic than acoustuff though.

[bluewizard]

dryer lint = DUST.

Plus I don't think it will hold its shape. If you use if for loose fill, it will end up as one big wad on the bottom of your speaker.

If you try to line the walls, how do you hold the stuff in place.

I'll stick with fiberglass.

Steve/bluewizard

[davey_m]

I stumbled across Roger Russell's site the other day and found an interesting page on it about the NoTone speaker company. He describes some of the things that they did and one of them was using the finest dryer lint from prestigious neighborhoods. I was wondering if anyone has tried this, I think that it is a interesting concept. It is certainly cheaper then acustastuff.

Link to the Page

I liked his speaker enclosures much more.

But his ideas based on recycling are environmentally friendly and therefore a GOOD thing........

[dlr]

An amp of mine almost lit a speaker on fire when it went DC at the output. So, this is a concern. However, I did take a match to some acoustuff and it lit right up and sent toxic fumes into the air. Fiberglass is your best bet for fire safety. Dryer lint is less toxic than acoustuff though.

Don't think that a speaker can't burn.

I ran across a discarded pair of name brand speakers (can't recall which) some years ago that had burned, quite obviously from the woofer igniting. The polyfill was partially burned, the tweeter and front baffle damaged as well. Likely overheated, the voice coil froze so the only limit was Re. Short a winding somewhere and you can get a very small resistance with no back-emf and a suddenly high current though the shorted section.

As a boy I watched a local garage band playing for the neighborhood one evening. While playing, the bass player's speaker system suddenly had a light inside of it. He saw it, seemed amused, didn't stop. Then when the flames starting to come through the front, he put it out. No more music that day.

Dave

[Hdale85]

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?Partnumber=260-317

Now show me something that makes this any different then what you get at Walmart? It even says polyfill in the name.

[ThomasW]

Now show me something that makes this any different then what you get at Walmart? It even says polyfill in the name.

Acousta-Stuff is polyfill but it's not the generic stuff found at Wally-World.

Instead the individual poly fibers are 'crimped'. This keeps them more 'fluffed' (no pun intended) and prevents them from compacting.

[Hdale85]

Oh, hmm thanks for the description

[Face]

RR has been off his rocker for a long time.

[cjd]

Dryer lint at my house is mostly wool, cotton, and cat-hair. It definitely should make for decent speaker fill.

C

[impala454]

Acousta-Stuff is polyfill but it's not the generic stuff found at Wally-World.

Instead the individual poly fibers are 'crimped'. This keeps them more 'fluffed' (no pun intended) and prevents them from compacting.

Just curious, where did you find this information?

[ThomasW]

Google is your friend....

Damping material or stuffing is Acousta-Stuff, a nylon polyamide loose bulk fiber that is tri-lobal (instead of round) and multi-directionally crimped so that the strands interlock to form a very cohesive mass that does not require support and will not settle

http://www.highendpalace.com/HEP%20Speakers.htm

THis is a dacron fiber, but has been crumpled via machine, to make the fiber much more complex than the non-processed poly fibers. The resul is increased co-efficeint. That is, a given amount of the micro-crumpled dacron is more effiecient at converting acoustic energy into low leval thermal radiation thatn the same dacron, non-crumpled.

http://archive.audioreview.com/12/0EF9549E.php

FWIW, I prefer long fiber wool/high wool content felt for midrange/midwoofer/woofer use and fiberglass for subs...but bellybutton lint is exceptional for those wanting that 'less sterile/less analytical, warm, fuzzy, humanistic' sound..... :B

[impala454]

I did google it. I figured finding data from somewhere other than an audio site might provide an unbiased description of how the two products are produced. Looking at the polyfil website I don't see how the Acousta-Stuff is different.

[ThomasW]

That was all I could find a couple years ago when I decided to check it out.

I haven't bothered investigating Acousta-Stuff because 20+yrs ago I bought a 50lb bag of long fiber wool, and have barely put a dent in it... The wool is audibly better than generic poly when used for midrange damping. Wool probably isn't the best choice for those living in climates where moths are a problem...

[evilskillit]

Hrm, I wonder if anyone has given consideration to cigarette butts. If you're a smoker they're effectively free, flame retardant and probably have pretty good acoustical qualities, and best of all they don't contain any belly button or cat based byproduct.

[cjd]

Put some cedar shavings in with the wool! Or maybe even just mount your crossover to a cedar plank.

Of course, who knows what that might do to alter the sound...

C

[jdc0589]

Bamboo fiber stuffing is another great option, although it is a dollar or so more expensive than acousta stuff.

Honestly, your best three options are also your cheapest: fiberglass, polyfill, and acousta stuff.

[ThomasW]

Put some cedar shavings in with the wool! Or maybe even just mount your crossover to a cedar plank

I can imagine the sound of mothballs rattling in sync to the music....

[fjhuerta]

And I thought I was crazy for thinking about using plastiline.

[cjd]

I can imagine the sound of mothballs rattling in sync to the music....

Ohhhh boy, see... now I've just got this image in my mind of a moth that I just did NOT want. 8)

[Hdale85]

Well if your mid chamber is sealed moths shouldn't be an issue.

[wkhanna]

These are Lean Times!

This thread sounds like a true barometer of the lean times we are currently experiencing.

Here we are, the already frugal minded and cost-cutting OCD fringe of the audio community, and we are talking about using the lint from our clothes dryers to use as acoustic stuffing? :roflmao:


No disrespect intended, it’s just that I get a kick out of stepping back and looking at how crazy some of things I do may look like to others and then laughing at myself.

[Dennis H]

Dang, that has to be the best spoof of the audiophool boutique speaker sites I've ever seen. :T The only thing it's missing is I didn't see any mention of yak foreskins. Gotta have some of them in there somewhere in the driver design! :B