Hearing and Eye Protection - Less Painful

[Wood Borer]

I like to use safety gear but at times it is grossly inconvenient. The ear muffs are always out of reach and so are the safety glasses.

When routing I am constantly taking the earmuffs off and putting them back on if they are within reach.

If you wear safety glasses under your earmuffs the safety glasses are pressed hard against the side of your head and hurt somewhat.

In Summer the safety glasses tend to fog up or get dusty.

My solution is to wear my chainsaw helmet.

The helmet part doesn't really do much when using the router but it does keep my face shield and earmuffs always within reach. I can easily flip the face protection down or flip the earmuffs over my ears.

The wire mesh face guard stops most particles but more importantly it never fogs up and never becomes dusty.

You can pick these helmets up for $120 these days (mine was under $100 when I bought it) and although they might be a bit expensive just for woodwork, if you do a bit of chainsawing also, they are very convenient.

[RedShirtGuy]

I was contemplating getting something like this just yesterday but thought that surely there is a product made specifically for woodies that has ear/eye/lung protection. Something like a respirator with glasses/visor and ear muffs that just slid on with the muff head band.

I find with safety glasses and ear muffs on that the arms of the glasses lift the muffs off just a tad which decreases their effectiveness. Then throw in the dust mask (light cheapy ones) over the top and I have a tangle of arms and straps all over my head that make it a mess to take off and put on easily. Putting the mask also fogs up my glasses unless I move them around which also decreases the effectiveness of both.

I saw some nifty looking clear ski goggle type eye protectors while browsing and thought they might be good as their strap was thick (less easy to tangle), secure on the face and apparently had vents to stop fogging.

Anyone got thoughts/experience?

[justinmcf]

hi, i know triton have a hard hat/ earmuffs/ faceshield/ respirator system. it runs off 2 rechargeable ni-cd batteries.
the reason i have not bought it yet is because of this out of date battery type, they invented ni cad batteries around the same time as the wheel.

when a company comes out with lithium-ion respirator/ faceshield, count me in. hopefully a different company than mentioned above...

regards, justin.

[blackhole]

I use a chainsaw helmet but have a polycarbonate face shield.
It is much nicer than having earmuffs squash glasses against your face.

[Woodwould]

I agree with the discomfort of wearing large conventional ear goggles over eye goggles. I use one of those one-piece plastic ear goggles that hang around the neck when not in use - much like a Doctor's stethoscope - and then bung the ends of them in my ears when I need them.

[Wood Borer]

WW - I think the stethoscope was invented in 1816 by Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec.

Is wearing a stethoscope type hearing protection whilst making your wonderful pieces of furniture consistent with your favourite era?

[Woodwould]

WW - I think the stethoscope was invented in 1816 by Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec.

Is wearing a stethoscope type hearing protection whilst making your wonderful pieces of furniture consistent with your favourite era?

I don't favour much after the death of George III on the 29th of January 1820, so it just squeezes in alright!

[Wood Borer]

Thank goodness for that, otherwise you would have had to sacrifice your hearing.

[Woodwould]

Thank goodness for that, otherwise you would have had to sacrifice your hearing.

Pardon?

[Harry72]

Buy some safety glasses that have angle adjustable arms, they hook over the ear muffs.(less ingress of sound too)
You can get earplugs on a neckband, very easy to put on and dont interfere with glasses, but they are not effective as earmuffs.

[jmk89]

I use these - Zem by Sensguard. they are very light and you can easily wear them with eye protection.

The best thing about them is that they work to reduce volume to speach level so you can still hear someone coming into your shop.

I bought mine from a gun shop.

[BobL]

The problem with these muffs and a lot of others on Chainsaw operators helmets is they are only rated to 25 dB noise reduction. There are better muffs out there such as the peltor 10HB/A which are 30 dB. I recently bought Stihl Helmets are now available with these types of muffs.

The problem with any type of earplugs is that a lot of sound still creeps in via the skull bones around the ear and nothing save a diver's or space helmet beats the wrap around effect of good muffs. If you are really serious about protection then I recommend ear muffs and ear plugs - well that's what I do using my CS mill.

For face protection I like something solid between my face and bits of steel, wood and rocks bso I favour a full face polycarbonate mask.

The clear poly mask has an adjustment knob on the back and I find the around the neck muffs can be inverted and clip over the adjustment knob just nicely so.

I keep a set of muffs and mask in my van for milling and another set in the shed for tool making and ww.

[Mike_W]

I use very comfortable safety glasses and earplugs. I'm a Fitter and Turner by trade and there's no substitute for safety. In our industry, double eye protection is mandatory. Safety glasses and a face shield. With good fitting safety glasses you really don't notice your still wearing them while having lunch.

[joe greiner]

Hearing aids can cost up to US$6000 per pair. Is that loud enough for you?

Cheers,
Joe

[Mike_W]

I use the same safety gear when I'm in my own shed working with either steel or wood. Those who don't wear safety specs and have had no injuries when working with the tools have been very lucky so far. Your luck will run out eventually. Look after your eyes.