We have a lot of noisy machines. How do you protect your hearing? Manufacturer, model, protection, price. How do you decide?
What are best practices?
Thanks.
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bright orange foam in a tub. Not to downplay it, but it’s not that loud (in my opinion). Pretty much any hearing protection you buy from a big box store will be adequate. I don’t recommend ear-pods though-the noise cancelling just can’t handle it.
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I work in heavy industry. I let my ears decide how much noise level to put plugs in or not. Im not a huge ear muff fan, I typically use these ear plugs, even when driving.
If I am going to be grinding a little, I won’t wear them. If I spend more than a few minutes grinding, I would put them in.
When I walk into many of the facilities I work in, I will put them in as well. It’s pretty common to have between 85-95 DB in the facilities I work in.
If you have an Apple Watch, it can notify you when it’s too loud. I cant speak to the other brands, because I dont know them.
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Food for thought.
Foam earplugs, electronic earplugs and molded silicone plugs can provide up to 31-33 dBA of sound protection and I use the foamies a lot. However, they do not protect against sound conducted through the skull. Angle grinders typically produce noise levels ranging from 90 to 115 dBA. Hence, foam plugs and earmuffs. The big, ugly domed earmuffs like Peltor 3M wire Optime 101s behind the neck wire reflect sound away from the skull and don’t rub the top of your head with prolonged use. They are rated at 101dBA (not really). Electronic muffs are rated at 20-23 dBA, are expensive, heavy and fail in a metalworking environment. 3M Peltor H6B/V Optime 95 Low Profile behind the neck wire muffs offer up to 21 dBA and will fit under some welding helmets and most face shields. All ear muffs are improved by ordering them with gel ear pads but that adds cost and weight. YMMV.
Posted by a hack with chronic ringing and hearing loss.
Best,
Jim
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That’s exactly what I want to guard against. Thanks for the details.
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Say again??
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I’ve been working in a manufacturing environment (Welder) for 7 years now. I always, always wear hearing protection any time I’m in any shop environment, and thankfully because of that I still have better than average hearing (just went in for my annual audiologist appointment). I also have prescription glasses that are ANZI Z81+ rated since I don’t like wearing two pairs of glasses.
The short answer is that you should always be wearing PPE any time you walk into a workshop. It’s not all that hard to throw on a pair of glasses and earplugs. NORMAL EYEWEAR AND EARBUDS ARE NOT SAFETY EQUIPMENT AND WILL GET YOU HURT SOONER RATHER THAN LATER!!
I really really don’t like the fact that most earplugs are single use and disposable, It’s just unnecessary extra plastic waste. So I’d definitely invest in at least a five dollar pair of reusable silicone earplugs.
Hearing damage can happen at around 85 Db. For comparison, normal human speech is around 55-65 Db, so not a lot of wiggle room there.
I’ve tried the 3M work tunes earmuffs and Milwaukee jobsite Earbuds since they’re both Bluetooth compatible, I find that in a dusty environment the pads of the earmuffs get dirty quickly and needs replacing/cleaning regularly.
I don’t really recommend the Milwaukee earbuds, They’re poorly designed, uncomfortable for long term wear, and the foam pieces are poorly made. However I did enjoy the additional pass through noise cancelation that allows you to hear people clearly while still canceling out any louder sounds.
In a pinch I normally wear regular foam earplugs since I can’t wear ear muffs under a welding helmet or face shield properly. However, I’ve rather small ear canals so wearing them for 10+ hours a day, 6 days a week causes some pain for me. I ended up getting custom molded earplugs from a hearing aid company. They were expensive as all get out!
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Great real world post on the industrial welding environment. Thanks!
Best,
Jim
Any experiences with Isotunes? They pop up in searches quite a bit.
No, but the issue with the Milwaukee earbuds was that the weight of the electronic portion of the bud was enough to cause it to fall out, especially if you’ve got smaller ears like me. They attempted to counteract this by having a small silicone/rubber piece that you’d wedge into a crevace towards the front of your ear, however that’s what caused them to be the most uncomfortable for me personally.
If I were to purchase another set of Bluetooth compatible ones, I’d probably go for some earmuffs or ones similar to the picture below. That way the actual weight of the earbud isn’t causing it too fall out every thirty minutes or so. it’s instead just resting around your neck. I can’t speak to the audio quality of something like this though. Typically work earbuds don’t have the greatest audio quality, but it’s good enough to listen to your tunes or audiobooks without needing a super loud speaker. You’re moreso paying for the fact that they have a noise reduction rating (NRR) than for the audio quality or fancy features like you are with normal audio equipment.
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What about Bluetooth? For someone primarily using the gear at the 'Space, is music welcome or a distraction? Is it more electronics to hassle with? Are simple non-Bluetooth PPE better?
I really appreciate the advice and opinions in this thread.
Eh, depends on how you look at it. From an industry standpoint, it’s a distraction. Heavy machinery that can kill/maim you and distractions tend not to be good a good mixture. Personally, I still use bluetooth enabled ear protection when possible. I’d prefer not to stand around for hours on end without any stimulation other than the hum of machinery.
For use at the makerspace, if you’re alone in the metal shop, have a speaker going if you can’t immediately afford hearing protection with buetooth (at a reasonable volume of course, remember to be respectful). Spending hundreds of dollars to find a good bluetooth set of hearing protection isn’t feasible for everyone.
I will admit that half the time I need to actually focus on what I’m doing so I’ll pause what I’m listening to so I can pay attention and I’ll just forget that I’ve turned it off (ie. turning down the volume so I can see better).
The only thing I will not recommend is just not using hearing protection at all or mistaking regular bluetooth headphones, or regular noise canceling headphones, with hearing protection. Other than that, do what works best for you and your body and makes you most comfortable at the makerspace.
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Agreed. I’m in the search for something that I put on every time my feet hit the shop floor.
With the level of experience at DMS, I knew this was the right place to take a poll.
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I have a custom pair of earplugs I got made a few years ago. When I’m working on a project, it’s safety glasses with my Rx and my Earplugs all the time: they’re ‘tuned’ so that they’ll knock out the loud noises but still let enough speech in so I can hear folks.
It was about $50 for the ear impressions and $100 for the earplugs, but, they’ve paid for themselves over and over again: I use them for football/baseball games, theaters, and concerts.
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@Garfield, where did you find the earplugs? Is it a brand name or was it an audiologist?
I got the earplugs from JH Audio (Where I also got my earbuds, but I don’t wear those around the space for safety issues)
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Had tinnitus since I was 27 (2009). Not sure if environment was a factor. But my family used Curvd earplugs, mostly because Loop was crazy expensive, though prices have since come down. If you don’t want to buy them off the internet, Target sells Loop and Barnes and Nobel sells Curvd.
These are a life changer! I have slept with those orange foam earplugs since 2009, but ever since getting the Curvd a year ago, I don’t leave home without them! Foam is garbage in comparison, though better than nothing at all. For metal work at home, earplugs AND ear muffs together do wonders!
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I’ve gathered informally that combining well-fitting plugs + muffs results in a net noise reduction of the greater of the two plus 5dB.
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Obviously this discussion provides insight into the better options available. I agree (and have) better protection for myself. But I’m pretty sure I’ve seen disposable foam ones available in the Space. I’m thinking I saw them by the medicine cabinet near laser. I could be wrong though. I don’t want to waste money or create more trash. That said, they are beter than none at all. Use them.
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