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thougths on a shielded equipment cabinet idea????

post #1 of 25
1/24/04 at 2:55pm
Thread Starter 
I have what is possibly a stupid idea, but what the heck....

I am going to be building a cabinet for my gear soon and had the idea of lining it with steel or lead as both a quazi EM/RF shield and as a damping device. I have all Teac reference 500 gear which is very narrow and will be going with an RKV here soon, so a tall skinny stand with two drawers added for cans will suffice nicely. Here are a couple pictures of something similar to my design.




So what I am thinking of is using 1/4 inch cherry ply then a layer of 16 gauge steel or lead sheeting covered on the other side with a layer of 1/4 inch oak ply. The side walls and door would all be like this, while I would either have to do a cloth drape for the back or come up with some kind of removable panel of this construction (but that would add about 3 inches to the depth for IC plugs).

The reason this idea came about is because I have dimmer switches on every room light in the house (12 to be exact). When any of them is in the dimmed position, they create a huge about of RF noise. I can eliminate most of the noise my gear pics up by power conditioners and correct power wiring, but there is always a small amount that gets through.

Please give me your opinions, ideas, rude comments about this scheme...

Obrigado,
Mahkook
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post #2 of 25
1/24/04 at 3:09pm
Do a google search for "Faraday cage".

I think you will find that it is not a stupid idea.

Copper screen works wonders.
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post #3 of 25
1/24/04 at 3:20pm
Thread Starter 
cool... learn something new every day! I like the design element of the copper mesh, but for this particular application I need a fully enclosed cabinet that doesn't let light out... the reason for a cabinet in the first place is all the light the LEDs produce at night and keeps my wife awake. But for some future cabinet....
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post #4 of 25
1/24/04 at 8:41pm
Man, I like the looks of that cabinet. Would heat be a problem? I'm not even talking tubes here.

This talk of shielded reminds me of "Enemy of the State" movie
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post #5 of 25
1/26/04 at 6:11am
Great project! Please do post how this turns out.
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post #6 of 25
1/26/04 at 6:32am
BTW saw a good site that sells products for EMF that you could use in your project

http://www.lessemf.com/wiring.html

They also have hilarious personal products for EMF, like the:

SILVER LINING GARMENTS

Gain Control of Your Inner Environment

Very sheer, comfortable undergarments you can wear over your regular underwear to shield yourself from powerline and computer electric fields, and microwave, radar, and TV radiation. This silver-plated, stretchable, washable nylon mesh is electrically conductive. It provides EMF radiation protection by reflection.
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post #7 of 25
1/26/04 at 10:28am
Have you considered dedicated powerlines?

In any case what does your gear consist of and what kind of cables are you using? Have you tried raising your cables and making sure your interconnects and powercords touch nothing but air? (not that everyone ends up doing this but if you can it might make a huge difference).
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post #8 of 25
1/26/04 at 11:37am
Quote:
Originally posted by Howie
Have you tried raising your cables and making sure your interconnects and powercords touch nothing but air? (not that everyone ends up doing this but if you can it might make a huge difference).
Hi Howie, how is this done? Do you stick cable ties on the walls? What kind of difference did you experience with suspended cables & PS?

thanks
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post #9 of 25
1/26/04 at 1:23pm
Quote:
Originally posted by tortie
Hi Howie, how is this done? Do you stick cable ties on the walls? What kind of difference did you experience with suspended cables & PS?

thanks
Tortie, I keep meaning to ask....... is that you in the bath with the headphones on???

Mike.
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post #10 of 25
1/26/04 at 1:44pm
No way mike! Thats Rachael Leigh Cook, BTW im not shown because im under the bubbles

edit: sorry for the OT post
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post #11 of 25
1/26/04 at 4:33pm
Quote:
Originally posted by tortie
No way mike!

edit: sorry for the OT post
Ahhhh yes, that's obviously not you and appears to be a rather attractive female in the bath...... I really must buy some glasses
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post #12 of 25
1/26/04 at 4:40pm
you had better build that beast in place , it is gonna be heavy man
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post #13 of 25
1/26/04 at 10:27pm
In this instance, you would line the wood cabinet with the copper mesh. The door also would have mesh on the inside. Copper box inside a wood box, so to speak.
The mesh should be one continous piece, as much as is possible, or joined with good electrical connections along the sides were they meet. You can use other conductive materials for the mesh, besides copper. Pieces of sheet metal could also be used or foils. Aluminum foil would work, and is cheap, but it's hard to make a good electrical connection between pieces of aluminum foil. That would be the way to go if you want to give it a try, without alot of work and money being spent.

edit- Hey, yer in Coos Bay! next time I get down there we need to go have a beer! I'm in Portland.
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post #14 of 25
1/26/04 at 11:39pm
Quote:
Hi Howie, how is this done? Do you stick cable ties on the walls? What kind of difference did you experience with suspended cables & PS?
I personally have not gone around to doing it cause I'm just too lazy but I believe in the principle since it makes a lot of sense.

First of all, it's a lot easier when your interconnects are the right length if not this is obviously a try your best kind of thing but you CAN go crazy and anal over it such as purchasing something like this:

http://www.amusicdirect.com/products....asp?sku=AELEV

These Cable Elevators are highly regarded/much hype. It probably does do something but there are other things you can try doing first.

The first thing is to try to keep power cables away from your interconnects (speaker cable if you have it).

You can try using Porcelain coffee mugs or even paper cups to raise all your cables off the floor or table. You can also try having a rubber band where the cable contacts the glass shelf of your equipment rack for example.

Basically try to have your cables touch nothing.

Other things such as the length of your cable and your cables themselves (what do you have? Are they properly shielded) can go a long way to getting rid of your RF noice.
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post #15 of 25
1/27/04 at 12:41am
look, in my opinion, all this stuff, ESPECIALLY the cable rising thingies are not necessary. if you have good power conditioning/isolation and it still doesn't get rid of your noise problems, then forget it... this stuff ain't gonna help. dimmers cause dirty electricity... they don't leak radiation! if the cause is from dimmers, then this stuff won't help.

anyway... i dunno, it is possible one of you components might leak too much radiation into another.... so perhaps your closet idea might work. but besides that.......

do you realize that in recording studio with 1 mile + of cable they got stuff running around, ontop, below everything else? power cables are usually separated but not always. and if they don't have serious issues with their wiring, you ain't gonna have no problems with yours--or at least no problems that are gonna be cured by some silly cable risers.

look elsewhere for your cures. you can try the faraday cage... maybe it might help. but i think the best solution is just to find the offending piece and replace it, or move it somewhere farther away. no need to go crazy.
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