earmuffs

[peakbagger]

I used to work in power plants and near big gas turbines on occasion. I got the extra noise reduction type muffs that clips into a hard hat. Sometimes I wore a pair of the foam plugs inside the ear muffs. There was no hope of talking, just hand signals and find a spot that is bit quieter if we needed to talk. 

[barbender]

 Granite, that reminds me of a story. One of my neighbors was a real interesting cat. He'd grown up around junkyard and preferred to "assemble" vehicles out of several donor rigs. He had a Chevy S10, the body and frame weren't even from the same generation. I'd like to tell you that he was a master fabricator and seamlessly blended the parts together into a masterpiece, but that unfortunately wasn't the case😂 Actually, he probably had the ability but just didn't care that much.

 Well Fred ran his "one piece at a time" S10 for a while, and then he lost his muffler or something. V6 and man that thing was loud. Months went by with that nearly Detroit sound level S10 interrupting my peaceful thoughts. 

 One day, I saw Fred go by and the truck was noticeably quieter. Not factory quiet, I thought maybe he installed a glass pack or something. 

 Then Fred came up the driveway one day, he wanted me to go look at something with him. We jumped in the mighty S10. Fred grabbed the water pump pliers he used to twist the ignition switch and the V6 came to life. I don't know if I've ever experienced that level of sound pressure that I felt in that cab. 

 Apparently, rather then Fred fixing his exhaust, another piece must've fallen off so that it was exiting right under or into the cab. The cab was acting as an "attenuation  chamber" I think, we were literally sitting in the muffler😂

[thecfarm]

That will clean out your lungs. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Good Story BB. Made me think of my friend Bill's log truck. One evening, for some reason I found myself in it with him going to pick up a load of logs at one spot, and deliver then 25 miles away, all firewood stuff, but a full load. He had only had the truck for a short time and was working on the major stuff. Barge would classify it as 'clapped out' and nobody would argue. He had the mechanicals and engine pretty good, but the bunks were still ugly and followed various directions, but mostly it was the missing rear window and the religious (holey) exhaust system with the stack coming up on the passenger side. It was a 'tad loud' in the cab and the exhaust, leaky as it was seemed to get sucked in through the hole where the back window would normally be. 25 miles out and back is a short run but for once I really missed having some ear protection. SCBA would have been a big help also. That was a longer evening than I thought it would be. Since then all the new pipe has been welded it and the exhaust is tight. I haven't checked to see if it has a rear window yet (I doubt it) but at least he has a tight exhaust. It's still loud when he drives by, not sure ho it is in the cab...yet.

[Ianab]

Thing about noise from the OSH standpoint is How Loud, and for How Long. 

Guideline is that 85db is "safe" for 8 hours a day. Short term exposure to a LITTLE more is OK.

But what that means is that basic earmuffs / plugs will be OK for lawnmowers / chainsaws etc. If they make 90db, and your cheap muffs dull that down to 75, then fine. In a noisy factory at 100 db, then they are marginal, get the higher grade units. If you work with jet engines or guns, at ~120 db, then you NEED the good stuff.  

[mike dee]

https://www.3mcanada.ca/3M/en_CA/p/c/ppe/b/peltor/

Over-the-ear Peltor have the highest NRR rating

I have these, seem to work better than the in-ear style
https://www.3mcanada.ca/3M/en_CA/p/d/v000137089/

I've also been using the in-ear style along with the Bose QC35 over ear ANC headphones. I'd be interested in trying the Apple Ear Buds with ANC under the Peltors

[barbender]

Ah Fred.

He was a machinist by trade. He was a very sharp guy, but you only learned that by experience, it certainly wasn't something you picked up from a first impression.

Now that one piece at a time S10. Fred was a bit techy for the time. There was this new fangled thing called Ebay on the computer. Fred bought a massive milling machine on Ebay, it was up in Granite's neighborhood somewhere.

Fred decides he's going to go get it himself, all #10K of it. He rented a 14K equipment trailer. It was a beautiful, brand new trailer. It looked kinda funny hooked up to...the S10.

Now I've driven some sketchy rigs in my day. I'm from the rez😁 The S10, well to me it was the kind of rig you wouldn't drive anywhere you couldn't walk home from.

But not Fred. He hooked up to that trailer and headed for New Hampsire without even giving it a second thought.

Oh yeah, wanting to be well nourished for the long trip, he stopped at a local restaurant. When he came out after his meal, someone had backed into the S10 and knocked the entire front clip off. Fred got out some wire, cinched it back into place and he was off.

 He made it out and got the milling machine, and brought it home without issue🤷

[GRANITEstateMP]

Barbender,

Fred would fit in with my crowd, except most of the old S10's have rotted away around here. Probably would have given him the harry eyeball for havin a fancy trailer  Then we could have loaded it up using 4 different sized chains from a tractor that was more leak than dry.

I'm trying to remember how many trailer loads of "stuff" I hauled around in my younger days that was worth WAY more than the rig pulling it!

Back to hearing protection, most of those rigs required that too!  I wasn't trying for the Honda with the trashcan exhaust sound, more like the Corolla with many holes sound

[barbender]

 Granite, the S10's are but a memory here as well and for the same reason. My story took place probably 20 years ago😊

 Fred was one of those guys, where people either got along with him or absolutely hated him. I think it was mostly due to just luck of the draw for how your first interaction went with him. We had good interactions from the get go, Fred bought property up here. My Grandpa had a little excavating company and we did a good bit of work for Fred. 

 I think part of it was, once you established a bit of a relationship with Fred, he started to value you and didn't want to make you mad. Before that, he didn't care much. I know many that had that bad first experience and Fred would go well out of his way to offend and antagonize those folks. I'm glad he figured I was on his side😂

 

[SawyerTed]

We have a "Fred-like" neighbor.  If you give as much as he dishes, he can be a good friend.  If he gets under your skin, then he will continue to just for kicks.  He's liable to say just about anything.  

There was another one, he could build or fix any kind of farm implement you can imagine as long as it was pre-electronics.  Unfortunately he lived alone, died in bed and my BIL and wife's cousin found him at least a week or 10 days later.