How's your ear protection?
Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:14 am
Prior to the late 1960s and OSHA almost all machines were unsafe, or so they say. One of the personal safety/health issues was hearing protection. About that time, I was issued ear plugs. The rubber type, with two circular, fin-type baffles. These were to be worn when operating all small engines, and were also worn in aircraft. They came in a small plastic box with a bead chain to tie onto a buttonhole. That way the plugs (bright orange box) became part of our daily dress.
After years of use, I still have and sometimes use those plugs. I'll put them in when routing sometimes, depending on the added noise of the bit against the wood. You know - it just seems too loud without them. It seems as if I should have worn them more often, at least my wife rightfully complains about my asking to repeat things. (She really hates to hear - "WHAT?") Yes, I've lost a lot of high frequency hearing, but at age 74 it (hearing) still works most of the time.
This brings me to a new concern. Where is is the threshold of too much noise suppression? The other day as I was ripping, I decided to try a pair of those foam ear plugs. I have a dozen or so pair in case grandkids or someone else wants to spend some shop time with me. Well I'm here to tell you those foam plugs are really effective. Too effective for me. With them, I lost all of the saw to wood noise that tells how the cut is proceeding. I could hear the machine running in a muffled way, but the valuable hearing sense of the saw to wood was missing. That, to me was scary! After shi- canning the foam plugs, I tried the old reliables. They were effective in noise reduction, but allowed me to sense the working blade.
My conclusion is, too much noise suppression is more dangerous than too little. Without a reasonable amount of hearing, woodworking tools can be very dangerous to life and limb. Too much noise will eventually be very harmful to one's hearing.
How do the various muffs work? They even have those that allow you to listen to music and wearers are cautioned against turning the volume up too loud.
Without investing in one of those decibel meters (which won't work inside of muffs or plugs) how does one tell when noise is too loud? I don't know if my system is approved by anyone else, but my answer is "when it seems too loud". I now know that too much noise suppression can be dangerous!
After years of use, I still have and sometimes use those plugs. I'll put them in when routing sometimes, depending on the added noise of the bit against the wood. You know - it just seems too loud without them. It seems as if I should have worn them more often, at least my wife rightfully complains about my asking to repeat things. (She really hates to hear - "WHAT?") Yes, I've lost a lot of high frequency hearing, but at age 74 it (hearing) still works most of the time.
This brings me to a new concern. Where is is the threshold of too much noise suppression? The other day as I was ripping, I decided to try a pair of those foam ear plugs. I have a dozen or so pair in case grandkids or someone else wants to spend some shop time with me. Well I'm here to tell you those foam plugs are really effective. Too effective for me. With them, I lost all of the saw to wood noise that tells how the cut is proceeding. I could hear the machine running in a muffled way, but the valuable hearing sense of the saw to wood was missing. That, to me was scary! After shi- canning the foam plugs, I tried the old reliables. They were effective in noise reduction, but allowed me to sense the working blade.
My conclusion is, too much noise suppression is more dangerous than too little. Without a reasonable amount of hearing, woodworking tools can be very dangerous to life and limb. Too much noise will eventually be very harmful to one's hearing.
How do the various muffs work? They even have those that allow you to listen to music and wearers are cautioned against turning the volume up too loud.
Without investing in one of those decibel meters (which won't work inside of muffs or plugs) how does one tell when noise is too loud? I don't know if my system is approved by anyone else, but my answer is "when it seems too loud". I now know that too much noise suppression can be dangerous!
