The November/December 2001 issue of Fine Woodworking had an article on hearing protection. It said that using safety glasses or even a face shield will compromise the efficacy of muff-style hearing protectors. I always wear safety glasses (after all, I use my eyes just about every day), so are ear plugs my only option?
Leight makes good ear plugs but their effectiveness depends on inserting them properly. Sometimes it’s tricky to position them, so once they’re in, I avoid removing them until I stop working. But then when people talk to me, I’m always shouting, “What? I CAN’T HEAR YOU—EARPLUGS!” and pointing to my ears.
Fine Woodworking briefly mentioned having a hearing specialist create custom-fitted ear plugs. If any of you have gone this route, I’d appreciate it if you could tell me more, e.g., cost, comfort, how to find somebody who does this, etc.
Janet
Replies
There are also earmuffs available that have safety glasses attached to them (lenses are replaceable) and both MSC and Grainger carry them.
Now that's a great idea: http://www.howardleight.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/HLSite.woa/wa/product?key=optimuff
Thanks, Tom!
No problem :)Tom
I have the Optimuff and it has for the most part served me well. However, they can be cumbersome. It took a little practice at first to slip them over my head without tangling the goggles. The glasses don't fit over my eyes as snuggly as I would have liked. Also, it's hard to put them on while wearing my baseball cap. If I want to slip them off and hang them around my neck, the glasses pretty much prevents that, or at least makes it uncomfortable. And one time, I dropped a pair and one of the connectors that attach the glasses to the earmuffs snapped, rendering the glasses useless. Fortunately, it was only a back-up pair, bought at Home Depot for an unbelievable $1 when they were closing them out. The main pair I use has been dropped several times with no damage.
Ricky, do you mean that other brands of glasses can attach to the Optimuff?
Janet
Janet,
No, other brands of glasses do not fit the Optimuff, but the eye shields are replaceable with Optimuff brand shields. The glasses do not have earpieces but instead have connectors that are articulated and attached by way of a ball-and-socket joint to the earmuffs. Also there are two versions--the standard version and another version with bigger eye shields to accomodate eyeglass wearers.
I used ear plugs for a while but found them to be very uncomfortable after an hour or so, especially if they were place slightly crooked. The ones I had were attached to a plastic necklace and they kept breaking off. My wife bought me ear muffs for my birthday and I threw away those nasty ear plugs.
Marcello
Your family doctor should be able to refer you to someone who can custom-make earplugs for you.
I wear the muff style protectors over my safety glasses and the hearing protectors work just fine. My tablesaw and old giant Craftsman vac are the noisiest tools I use, and they are quite subdued. If there was a problem, I'd notice -- I get ringing of the ears very easily without ear protection. A full face shield might be a different matter.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
For exactly the same reason as you, I looked into custom earplugs a couple years ago. The shops I talked to didn't encourage me. They said that custom plugs are primarily used by musicians. Those plugs are designed to have a flat frequency response so that the musician hears the the music undistorted. In contrast, non-custom earplugs are designed to give maximum attenuation of all frequencies, even though that means that they are not flat. That is, the non-custom plugs give better noise reduction than custom, and they're less expensive to boot. The only exception they gave to this general rule is people who ears don't accept the production-line plugs.
Me, I gave up on earplugs. I selected safety glasses whose temples fit close to my head, and use Peltor earmuffs with very compliant seals. I think it works pretty well.
I am a shooter as well as wordworker and I got custom made ear plugs made at a gun show for the large sum of $12.00, they made them on the spot and molded to my ears, very comfortable.
Scott T.
I had a pair of custom ear plugs made about 8 years ago. I bought what was called a vented plug which I'm told cuts out damaging levels of noise while allowing you to hear things like someone talking to you. These types are used by professional sport teams to allow them to hear calls over the noise of large crowds. They came right to my shop to take the mold and two weeks later I received the ear plugs. Cost around $75 Cdn.
My wife is an Audiologist and she made me a couple of custom ear plugs. I'm a professional firefighter and have to sleep in a room with 10 other guys. Some of them snore louder than any machine. She also made me a set for working in the shop. If you get a set ask for the softer material used in sleep plugs and have them vented. I sleep with the sleep plugs for up to 8 hrs. without discomfort. They can even have a string so you can wear them around your neck when not in use.
You can find an Audiologist at an Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) doctor or in the yellow pages under hearing aids. They cost $65-$75 US. Just to let you know if you gain or lose a large amount of weight you'll probably have to get new ones made to fit right.
I can't add a lot to what has already been posted but my experience with hearing protection is what ever you are comfortable with is what you will end up using. Back in the early 70's when OSHA was enforcing work safety pretty strong I was a frontline supervisor at The Houston Chronicle in the pressroom. If someone was in an area that hearing protection was needed I had to make sure they were protected some way. If they weren't wearing hearing protection I was the one going to Jail, not the foreman, not the publisher, but me.
We offered muffs, foam plugs, and the custom molded ear plugs. I can't say which ones were used the most often, probably the most effective was the muffs. The highest noise level 110db was on the folder, this is where the newspaper all comes together, those guys wore muffs most often. The foam plugs probably over a period of time will be the most expensive, used once discard. The custom molded plugs were about $50.00 a pair. to make them you put a wad of bubblegum looking material in the ear and could not talk or swallow for 15 minutes. Time yourself sometime see how long you can go without swallowing.
I personally use muffs but I also offer my employees foam plugs, I don't offer the custom plugs but if someone wants them I will do my best to see they will have their choice. I wish OSHA would have been around when I started out, I probably wouldn't be wearing a hearing aid today.
God Bless
les
>> ... safety glasses or even a face shield will compromise the efficacy of
>> muff-style hearing protectors.
I wear glasses, and like another poster said, the glasses don't seem to reduce the effectiveness of the muffs too much for normal shop type tasks. I spent two days scything my lawn with a weed whacker last year with just the muffs over my glasses for hearing protection, and didn't notice any ringing afterwards. (Should have used dust protection too, and regretted the omission.)
At the pistol range I use plugs and muffs both. That way, I figure even if the muffs aren't perfectly sealed, or the plugs aren't perfectly inserted, I'm still covered.
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