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Noise levels


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I don't use earplugs, how do you get on serving customers with them in?

I do wear goggles but only for cutting mortice keys, not for every day use.

This is one where if perhaps our friends at the larger multiples enforced the wearing of safety equipment they would become the norm?

 

Lee

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There is a number of practical ways to reduce noise on machines. The 75mm contact wheels running 24 grit bands are the normal culprits. Reducing the grit to 40 helps along with making sure that the contact wheels is free from small lumps of plastic and debris.

 

I appreciate that there will be a loss of performance but this is offset by a lower noise level.

 

The current noise levels are 85db reducing to 80db later this year. I'm sure that once these changes to legislation takes effect, you will be receiving a few calls from the local HSE officer to make sure you are aware of the changes.

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Thats an interesting comment on wheel abrasion. I will give that a go next month by buying in a band!

I have also just brought a decibel meter. So I will run some tests and let you all now the results once I have them.

 

Lee

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Over the coming months I am going to have an experiment on reducing the noise levels on a finisher. Standard have put in the post a couple of bands for me to use & I have also today ordered yes you guessed it a new dust bag!

I am going to experiment with sound deadening & bands to see how much if any volume can be silenced from a typical (such as mine) installment.

I have on order a decibel metre to conduct the "experiment" correctly.

Watch this space!

 

Lee

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Nice to see you being pro-active!! During my 25yrs in shoe repaing, I always thought I had all the answers for machine improvements, how wrong I was ! Now I'm the other side of the counter, so to speak, I have had my eyes opened to the engineering problems that rear their ugly heads when you try to improve them.

 

Sound deadening is quite a science and something we as a Company have looked at very closely over the last 2 years. In our development programme we have considered all sorts of ways to make machines quieter, however, for the machines to be practical and cost effective, is something that has proved very difficult. hence, the introduction of the 'City' range of machines now available.

 

It would seem an easy problem to solve by smothering the work areas in soundproof material and that should make the machine quieter. Most of the improvements can be obtained, in our opinion, by improving the area surrounding the machine, ie, special matting to fit under the machine and the walls and ceiling above. Quite often, the flooring that machines are placed on are not very sound absorbant,tiled or laminated are the most common, therefore creating a soundbox within, so that any noise eminating from inside the machine will be amplified.

 

From a practical perspective, only the matting is a real option, but can make a big difference. Whilst we can of course supply this material, lifting the machine onto it is quite another matter! :shock:

 

I wait with baited breath to see the conclusions you draw from your experiments :wink:

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Noise from the 24 grit band can be reduced by changing the front contact wheel.

 

A high proportion of the noise comes from Air displacement, changing the wheel to one with half inch diagonal slots allows for the better movement of trapped air, this solution can be applied to all bands but the larger wide bands give significant results.

 

Also you have a huge square steel box commonly called a Finisher or Band scourer that resonates of its own accord. big flat panels are not conductive to effective silencing, will we ever get a machine designed for rigidity without the use of flat panels therefore eliminating the drumming effect.

 

40 years or so ago I worked on goodyear stitchers none stop all day long and they were mounted on shock absorbing feet. Remove the feet and you increase the sound level so why dont todays machines have these. Seems like we are going backwords with H&S not forward.

 

Oh yes, and while i'm here why dont they put drop down "Jockey" wheels inside Finishers so we can move the damn things as we cant dimantle them any more like we could with the "A" frame finishers (anyone remember them?) dont tell me that you still work on one Lee :wink:

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I brought an A framer along with a singer 29K, it was a way to get the stitcher when I very first started in the trade. I only had about 6 months experience so a good craftsman never blames his tools....... But with my vast 6 months experience Christ I did some bad repairs on that thing (friends and family always suffer when we start out with something new, right? :roll: )

The poor old A framer had no extraction at all, nackered wheels and no guards!

 

 

:smt059 may it rust/rest in piece :smt059

 

Lee

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The one that I worked on was about 25 foot long with 2x 12" bottom scouring rolls and a Cyclone dust extraction, much better than todays crap bags. The only drawback was emptying the huge hopper outside once a week. It was so powerful that you had to be very careful when bending over if you had a Wig on. One bloke got his sucked down the miriad of pipework and the hopper had to be emptied to retrieve it.

 

They were brilliant to do your own maintenance on as all parts were easily accessible, plus you could dismantle frame by frame and move them to any room , upstairs or down in the Cellar. Cant do that now can yer, so much for progress Lee.

Changing the filter bags was a doddle when they caught fire scouring the stilettos. 4x5 foot tubular bags held by giant jubilee clips.

 

No dust extraction on yours eh!! must have been that treadle operated one that the museum were after in the 70s.

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maybe that's where all my hair went :oops:

and the odd ciggie when i was a trainee :(

i remember one being sucked in and the machine starting to smoke when i was 16, i immediately lit another and told the manager a spark musta started some smoldering! (last time i smoked near the machine) haha.

 

rick.

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I've borrowed a decibel meter from a mate & achieved the following results:

 

1. Ambient noise level in the shop with just the radio & any noise from outside is 65dB

2. Tests with the machine running, all motors & extraction on: at a distance of 1.5 m away, 1.2 m off the ground, sound level is 90dB. 1m away is 92dB. Right next to machine, as you'd be standing to work, reading is 104dB.

3. From the shop counter, where customers stand, (2.5 - 3 m away) the reading is 88dB.

 

All these readings were with the machine running, but not being worked on. I'll try & get some results for this later, if I can work out how to see the meter whilst I work!

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My decibel meter arrived this morning, my machine also with just a qucik play appears to run arround the 90db mark.

I will read the instructions for it tonight though! and probably find is twice that!!!!!!!

 

Keep me posted on your results steven I may be able to incorporate these in my article.

 

Lee

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StevenB I see you have a radio playing in the shop do you have a current Performing Rights Society(PRS) license?

The reason I ask is we do and we also play CDs in the shop when radios not good, I can buy ALL my CDs and they are tax deductable all for the price of a license.

If you get caught playing radio/music in your work premises, which the public can hear, you can be fined (heavily)

Thats why (I believe) Timpsons never allowed you to play music in the shop lots of money for licenses.

Thoughts

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Obviously, I'm soooo busy, the radio is always drowned out by the noise from the machine running 14 hours a day. Or is that my imagination?? :wink:

Perhaps it's all the ringing in my ears from all these loud noises. :?

Seriously though, any ideas where to obtain a PRS license, or what the cost is?

 

n.b. loudest reading so far is 115dB, from the dog barking.

Do I need a muzzle to mask the noise??

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Ta.

I've found a Health & safety noise regulations leaflet, read it at:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg362.pdf

It seems the dog barking is as loud as a riveting boiler shop...

 

Loudest level recorded on the machine so far is 106dB whilst working on the heel trimmer, from a distance of 50cm. (closest I could get the tripod, trying to replicate the noise at ear level)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been trying out some ear defenders this week.

First off, Big ear defenders (used when I used to go Drag racing) too big and bulky.

second little ear plugs, bloody annoying putting them in and out!

And third, these things brought from B&Q (they clip in your ears and the yellow bit sits under your chin.)

2_protectors_ear_1.jpg

 

Nice and easy to use, fully washable not TOO embarrassing! not as sound resistant as the other two, but practical in our environment & I can still hear the phone ring over my machine with them in.

 

Lee

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The reading from the meter should be with the machinery running, using the machines under load gives a different reading , sometimes higher sometimes lower acording to the machine and the task being performed.

 

What you should be lookin at is the maximimum noise obtained from whatever source as it is this noise that you will be working with spasmodically and the one that is liable to damage your hearing.

 

As for Radio's and CDs being played, forget about the licence and do not have music blarring out while serving customers, it is bad manners and if I was in a shop where the assistant or owner was playing music while serving me they would be asked to turn it off or to a level that was inaudable. The place for Radios is in the back room if you have one and at a level that cant be heard in the shop. Sorry to be a fuddy duddy but you should be paying attention to the customer and the job in hand not thinking what CD you can put on next, that's where accidents originate from.

 

Quiet relaxing background music is something different, but as you need to hear it above the noise of the machines this takes it to a level that can be offensive to customers. As soon as you switch off the machines then the volume is far too loud.

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