DIY faraday cage to help with RF interference

[groovemeister]

Has anyone actually used chicken wire, aluminum foil, or something similar in the wall construction to create a faraday cage around the studio? I am starting on the final layers of the interior leaf and would need to sandwich it in the final layer. Could I use the existing chicken wire in the stucco on the three exterior walls of the garage if I created something in the ceiling/attic and the wall behind the garage door? I know everything would need to be grounded well. Perhaps stapling chicken wire in the roof rafters and connecting via wires to the stucco chicken wire.
How about aluminum foil somehow in a wall layer carefully grounded? Has anyone actually done this?

[Sword9]

I'm pretty sure that you'd need a quite fine mesh (of copper or gold usually) to go in your walls to achieve this. It's very expensive and is often tuned to a specific frequency range, so you'd have to have multiple layers for broadband stopping. Kind of overkill for what good wiring and sturdy circuit designs can do 99% of the time anyways.

[groovemeister]

This is a problem we suspect is due to the garage's proximity to several power lines and transformers. It is being picked up by the pickups of all of my guitars. At first I suspected it may be a grounding issue, but we have a very good ground and all of the wiring is good, with every outlet on its own circuit tied to the same ground. The same problem exists in the house, but to a lesser degree.

[Sword9]

Do you have any CRT's nearby? If so, what happens when you turn them off?

[Sword9]

I think this would be really expensive.

[groovemeister]

Yes, I think using the high grade copper foil would be very expensive. I know of some copper mesh for the same purpose that is $1.65 psf in bulk but that would also be expensive as I would need about 900 sf. I am going to try an experiment as follows: I am going to construct a 3 sided box out of soundboard (I have some extra) big enough to fit my strat on a guitar stand. I will line the inside the box with heavy duty aluminum foil and attach the foil to a ground wire wired directly to ground in my sub panel. I will plug in my guitar and turn up the amp enough to hear the hum well. I will then put the box over the guitar and listen to see if there is a significant difference in the amount of hum. I will also try another layer on the outside of the box and see what happens. If this works on a small scale, it should work for the whole room, although I will also have to experiment to see to what extent my electrical outlets will affect this. If this works I will put a layer of tin foil under the last layer of drywall. I have also a couple of ways to connect the tin foil to a common ground wire at several points in the setup, and I will use a multimeter to check for continuity. I may have to experiment a little to find the best way of attaching this to the drywall without tearing the foil - some sort of adhesive. That may require yet one more experiment. Oh I almost forgot, since I am in the middle of constructing the studio, there are no CRT monitors nearby and I have learned how to cancel out most of that hum by moving my guitar to the right angle with the monitor.

[knightfly]

Went looking for a chart I used to have on mesh size vs frequency, musta gotten removed. Instead I found this

http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=30542

Might be of interest, be sure to find a comfortable chair...

[gitgrinder69]

When I lived in Seattle, I was only about 1/4 mile from some big honkin' radio relays. Every time I tried to record I would get RFI loud and clear, some right wing talk radio station, on all of my tracks. So, I went to home depot and got enough 2x2's and chicken wire (the kind with the square holes that are about 1/2"x1/2") to build a 10'x10' cage with four walls and a ceiling. Each wall, as well as the ceiling, was a separate panel which was connected to the others with L-braces. I then soldered connecting wire to each of the panels so that each panel was only directly connected to one other panel, and ran a single ground wire to the ground in a nearby wall socket. Used a meter to determine that the cage was truly grounded, and plugged in my gear. No more RFI!!! Well... a whole lot less, at least. It was barely audible only on silent tracks. Total cost? About $150

Gabriel Horn

[sharward]

That's so cool!

Kind of reminds me of this bizarre story (video or print) about a house just a couple of miles away from where we live. Prepare yourselves for a good laugh!