Noise, care or not?

[ChrisBailey]

Agreed, Im going to try a few of the simple options first and see if its bearable.
I may end up with a thread on a sound insulation enclosure if not.

 

[Bravheart]

Agreed, Im going to try a few of the simple options first and see if its bearable.
I may end up with a thread on a sound insulation enclosure if not.

It's not a case of being bearable you only get one chance with hearing once it's gone it's gone
Follow the h+s advice given earlier and cut down the noise, even for hobby time, as much as possible.
Take it from me I wish I'd paid more attention to noise earlier in life it's too late now

 

[RWD3M]

That's a good point a couple of people have mentioned regarding the mounting if you fix it to the floor. I have mine rubber mounted to a couple of 4 x 2 battens (for want of a better description!) and they in turn rubber mounted to the floor. Huge difference. Still wear ear def's or for some activities (lengthy periods of disc cutting for example) ear plugs AND ear def's.

P.S. I also find the ear plugs invaluable at night to mute the wife's snoring!

 

[Submariner1]

I've been in the hearing health industry for over 20 years so I thought I'd chip in and put some figures out there for you to think about.

Mikes is right, noise works on a dosing principal, so the longer you are exposed to it the more damaging it is, but not many people realise how soon it gets to be a problem.

Health and Safety at work rules state that in noise levels above 80dB hearing protection should be available on request. In levels over 85dB hearing protection must be work by law. Now, what you do in your own time in your own garage is up to you, but from these figures we can infer that 80dB or lower is safe for an 8hr working day. If you double the noise level you must half the time exposed, but here's the real kicker; dB SPL (sound pressure level) is a logarithmic scale, so to double the noise level you only need to go up by 3dB.

So, 83dB for 4 hours, 86dB for 2 hours, 89dB for 1 hour, on so on. As you can see, it really doesn't take too many extra dBs to get very dangerous.

Lots of modern power tools have the dB SPL rating on a label somewhere or in the tech spec so with the above figures you can work out approximately how long you should be exposing yourself to that noise without protection. If in doubt and in possession of a smart phone you can download a dB SPL meter app and take a snapshot. I use DeciBel X Pro which seems to be very good (no affiliation), but there are plenty of free ones out there.

Hmmm the tech spec delivered with the machine says 76 dB (A) and I have to say one can live with it. It is quieter than one of those £16 tyre pumps off eBay. And a lot quieter than my friends direct drive.
Except when it cuts out and vents. Pssshhhht! That can give you a shock
is this the figure that must be under 80 dB?
.... but on vendors website it says 96 dB(A)! So which to believe?

 

[Longhorn6120]

dB-A is a bit different to dB-SPL. I’m not really trained in the science, I think this would be more up Malcolm’s alley. Personally I doubt it’s as low as 76dB, that’s pretty quiet for a compressor. 96dB sounds more plausible.