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My dad has been getting into wood working and spending most of his days in the shop without any ear protection. He knows he should be using it, but doesn’t, he’s thinking about other stuff. Is there something that’s really easy to take on and off that he’ll actually use? I’m thinking of getting him the big over ear earmuffs but is there something better? Any recs on getting him to wear something?
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These are great, listen to tunes, talk on the phone etc
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/cbgnawus1754/
I like my Plugphones, in ear NRR rated, but still have music and hands free.
Not a big over the ear guy as I always end up taking them off and leaving them somewhere. Plugphones stay wrapped around neck and into breast pocket, and if its really loud I have done plugphones and over the ears.
https://www.plugfones.com/product/liberate2/
Solid idea gents, maybe if his music is playing on them he’ll use them.
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I own a previous version of the inear version of these
https://isotunes.com/
which are pretty nice, but unless you are doing long shifts a pain because they cut sound so much (can’t hear other people speak). Over ear things are nice.
I had a pair of those, they weren't all that comfortable and the band that connects the two kept falling apart. I upgraded to the next model up. The muffs are significantly more comfortable and the "Situational Awareness" microphones are amazing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bronco
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/v101238226/
So true. I got radio muffs years ago. But use them mowing the lawn, which is not high db, but I like tunes more than the mower.Quote:
Originally Posted by PeachesNCream
Silence muffs suck.
If he’s not a Bluetooth guy, just having fm radio might make him more likely to wear muffs.
He’s said he doesn’t like the in ear style but I think these music muffs are the way to go. Also he’s a retired software engineer so he gets the whole Bluetooth thing
Any other recs tho? The 3M ones seem to have pretty poor reviews and one of the uses AA barely instead of rechargeable? He’s intentional about low waste so rechargeable would be better
Edit: are there any where you can hear someone talk but it cancels out the loud noises? I’m seeing some that either do music or you can talk with but not both
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The ones I posted above will do music and you can hear speech at the same time. As for the AA batteries, I probably replace them once a summer. Also, they do make rechargeable AA's.Quote:
Originally Posted by PeachesNCream
No tunes but I Ike these custom molded jobbers for long duration comfort. I wear em on ships for work, and in my little wood shop.
Attachment 442494
Isn't playing music directly into your ears in the name of hearing protection a little counterproductive?
I'd add that I have the lower version for mowing etc. and had no issues with them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Touring_Sedan
Hearing protection should be suited to mitigation of the db noise level to safe not vanity.
There are some excellent electronic ears for shooters that allow for easy talking comms but drop noise levels to safe when anyone fires a weapon.
In my working days i often used foamies and muffs at the same time and despite age i have pretty good hearing still.
NoQuote:
Originally Posted by wicked_sick
The decibel reduction is legit
The music is fun. Unless you go to eleven. In which case your hearing is toast.
The in-ear ones I have (isotunes pro) are nice, especially when I'm doing finish trim and making periodic cuts, but I greatly prefer a set of muffs when running a table saw, router, chainsaw, lawn mower or anything that will be running for a longer period of time.Better than cranking your ear buds to 11 to drown out the lawn mower/table saw/miter saw. Or not using hearing protection at all. Which was what I did when I was younger and dumber.Quote:
Originally Posted by wicked_sick
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The headphones that have NRR's are limited to playback at 85db. Which leads to a lot of review bombs of 'they're not very loud' Well, no shit sherlock.Quote:
Originally Posted by wicked_sick
That said, my family got be the 3M worktunes connect for xmas. Good sound, but I have a giant head and dumbo ears. The ear cups ended up being on ear, not over ear for me, which was a deal breaker. Sent those back for the ISOTunes air defender. Slightly better fit, but the sound was super-tinny which really sucked. Maybe I got a bad pair, who knows.
Finally went with the isotunes earbuds. I'm not a wireless earbud guy and initially wanted an over ear, but I can tell you why earbuds are the best option for a woodshop:
1. They don't interfere with safety glasses. This is a big deal for me as safety glasses have taken several shots for me in the past. Safety glasses get squished against your head hard by over ear protection and it makes you not want to wear one of them.
2. They're wireless. Cords near or around the neck and spinning machines is a hard no for me
3. They fit well and are comfortable regardless of my giant melon and dumbo ears
4. Better sound than both the 3m worktunes and the isotunes air defender
Added bonus, they only recharge inside of the case, so as long as you put them away, they'll be charged for next time, and hopefully not lost.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGMMGZ2N...roduct_details
Muffs provide better hearing protection than buds. I have no problem wearing muffs and safety glasses. You get used to it. I should wear dust protection but that's a bridge too far for me. I notice a lot of younger woodworkers do use dust protection; good on them. Besides hearing protection I've found that wearing the muffs with loud machinery is caming and lets me focus better on the work. I teach woodworking and I especially encourage people who are intimidated by the machines to use muffs.
As far as muffs that let you hear voices, people go into the shop because they want to be left alone. So no. And I hear voices all the time anyway.
And for those who didn't wear hearing protection--a Zvox sound bar works pretty well for listening to television.
I get all of that. When I'm working on a project, I'm not going to wear muffs + glasses for 5 hours straight, but I could wear the earpods + glasses and be fine. The annoyance of muffs leads to taking them off and putting them back on again, and then a person is faced with the 'it's just one cut, I'll be fine' which is asking for trouble.Quote:
Originally Posted by old goat
As far as hearing other people, I'd rather hear them calling for me at a distance, then have them creep up on me and startle me mid-cut. I've also shouted down family members that have tried to get my attention mid cut, so maybe locking the door is the only answer.
I do mask up when sanding, or doing a whole shitload of rips. I have the full face for spraying finish and paint as well because that shit will kill you for sure. But beyond that, no mask. I do have a hanging air filter unit as well as a shop vac + dust deputy and it does a fair job of keeping dust under control for everything else.
The over the ear ones are really effective but not comfy long term, so its nice to have several pairs each located right on top of the loud devices so it becomes part of the ritual of using the table saw or whatever.
Ear protection is for wimps the best thing about losing your hearing is not having to listen to people talk shit suppose to get hearing aids but I'm passing right now
My favorite lines
Stop talking so I can here them talk
Turn the music off
What
What did you say
Or just nod and smile like you heard them.
Maybe wear the buds and glasses all the time, put the muffs on over the buds when you're going to make a lot of loud cuts. My wife's favorite sport is blowing leaves and pine needles, for a long time with no ear protection. Her hearing aids don't seem to work well, when she can find then. She is miserable and frustrated about her bad hearing. So far my hearing loss is pretty mild and probably due more to rock and roll than tools.Quote:
Originally Posted by Not DJSapp
The isotunes buds I linked have the same NRR rating as muffs. I don't usually go for a belt and suspenders approach to life, but if you're really wanting to cut sound down go for it.
Past life I worked in a custom cabinet shop for several years. We also tempted fate with little regard to recommended, even required safety measures. Those big klunky over the ear muffs would be a no fucking way.. You're moving your head around a lot, sticking your head in odd poses looking at stuff. Sometimes it was hot as hell in there too.
When I was feeling safety conscious I wore my band rehearsal and gig high fidelity ear plugs. You can talk at normal volumes with others.. listen to the stereo blasting, and play with your Rockwell 5hp table saw while minimizing the damage to your hearing.
https://www.amazon.com/Eargasm-Music.../dp/B019M576XW
What’s your price range? Plenty of good shooting muffs with microphones that cut off at certain decibels. Some have headphone jacks, some have Bluetooth. Easy to hold a conversation until someone fires a gun.
Honestly, unless he's always working alone piped in tunes is a bad idea for shop ear gear..
This ^Quote:
Originally Posted by Conundrum
Buy shooting muffs. They amplify sounds below a certain db range, but muffle sounds above. These Howard Leight ones are ubiquitous on the range - 2 out of every 3 guys rock these - and there's a reason they are so popular: they work. I have two pairs.
https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight...8-7874768?th=1
50 bucks, but whats your hearing worth?
Well he came down for the weekend and told me he bought a pair and he's excited about them. They're a standard pair of 3M muffs, no bluetooth. Fingers crossed he actually uses them. Thanks for all the recs, might still get him a pair of one of what you recommended
Bump to share the isotune free aware: https://isotunes.com/products/isotunes-free-aware
Holy shit. They check a lot of (all?) boxes, but at a premium. Anybody use these? Anybody seen a lot of feedback on durability of the isotune in-ear stuff? What is the music sound quality like? What’s the “aware” transparency mode like? The volume control feature for transparency mode seems cool.
My typical use of ear protection is not for work but for using outdoor 2-stroke hand tools evenings and weekends, occasional woodworking power tools like saws, and driving t-stakes. Usually, I wear muffs while wearing my wired iPhone earbuds, if I want to listen to music, podcast, etc., but that system only sort of works because the earbuds sometimes fall out of my ears when putting on the muffs. I also use those earbuds for all the other shit that people usually wear music headphones. My 3rd or 4th pair of earbuds just shit the can.
My wife and teen have some cheaper (tozo brand) Bluetooth earbuds with a transparency mode. Apparently, music sound quality is pretty good but the transparency mode sucks (it took a while to figure out why our kid was sometimes talking so quietly to us). Those ear buds fit fine under muffs.
Been using my isotune free 2.0 since around xmas. No complaints, but they don't have any of the transparency stuff. The sound is good enough for the purpose. They're not studio monitor headphones, they're shop hearing protection and you can still listen to whatever (at an OHSA approved limited volume) and it sounds pretty good. If the extra fancy version keeps all of the music and build quality from the previous version, they're probably winners.Quote:
Originally Posted by bodywhomper
Get the red ones.
I only saw green
Thanks for the response. It’s a steep price. The whole transparency function with volume control seems dope.Quote:
Originally Posted by Not DJSapp
If I'm doing only slightly loud stuff (electric string trimmer, electric chainsaw, short-duration orbital sanding, one or two chopsaw cuts, etc) I just leave my Jabra 75t in and rely on the slight attenuation it provides. Maybe 10-15db of reduction is fine for those things.
If I'm going to be doing something loud (grinding, extended sanding, planing, etc) I put a pair of serious 3M muffs over them. If I kind of roll them onto my ears the Jabras stay in place nicely and I don't have to turn the volume up at all since the muffs are good for like -25db.
If I'm mostly doing hand tool stuff or staining or whatever, I'll play music through the shop stereo and use a pair of earplugs that are on a plastic band that stays on my neck. Then I can just pop it on for the occasional noisy thing and leave it dangling most of the time.
I really liked the sound quality and noise canceling feature of my JBL Live 650BTNC with bluetooth until the batteries died after a couple years. They were comfortable and I could wear them all day. I gave up looking, but changing out batteries is not straight forward and makes them 'OK shop muffs'. Before that (and now again) I used Elgin Ruckus wired earbuds which take care of moderately shop & mower noise. For louder sounds I add my chainsaw muffs. It'd be great to find something like the JBLs but with replaceable batteries.....except for brimmed hats.
Edit: WTF? Due to this thread I dusted off the JBls and tried them again and they are working??? The app says 90% charge. Sweet! For now, anyway.