An experience with blue tooth ear phones

[Robert Engel]

During some table saw tasks, I thought I’d turned the machine off and as I was clearing some scrap off cuts, let just say my hand came so close the blade I could feel the wind.

So yes I made a mistake but the ear phones could had made it a catastrophe.

Just thought I’d tell you all this as a warning too much ear protection can be a bad thing!!

[Robert Hayward]

Worked with a guy years ago wearing headphones back then. Was cutting hundreds of small shims on a contractor saw in his garage on a weekend. Did not hear the saw running and put his hand on the saw table as he leaned back drinking a can of soda. Lost all of two fingers and half of the other two.

[glenn bradley]

Great safety reminder. Sounds like we need some review of basic safety habits. You never leave the operator position of a machine unless that machine has been shut down. I'm sure we all have done this a time or two. Folks who leave their DC running for hours at a time have a noise field situation and must be more rigid than others in the steps performed to approach, use and leave a machine. It is too easy to get jaded in our comfy little home shops.

[johnny means]

Best to develop a habit of looking at any cutter before venturing near. There are just to many noises in a shop. I just assume that every blade is always spinning. Relaxing on a cabinet saw just seems foolishly cavalier to me.

[Brian Tymchak]

You mention your head phones are blue tooth. Did you have music on at the time? That's something I will not do in a shop. I know some listen to music in their headphones while working with power tools but I consider it a distraction. I want to hear my tools with my ear muffs on

[Jim Becker]

Double edged sword here, unfortunately...we need hearing protection while using many of our power tools because of the noise levels they produce while the noise they make is also valuable feedback to us for what's going on. Those that have commented about developing good habits relative to how we move around our whirling blades, etc., are spot-on in this respect.

I do listen to music in the shop, but it's from a room level source. When I put on hearing protection, the music is muted pretty hard.

Relative to sound/noise reduction in the shop, I've added another dimension to this in that I have to turn the volume to "0" on my hearing aids before donning my over-the-ear muffs because they are "smart" and automagically increase the volume otherwise. LOL

[Chris Fournier]

I bought a blue tooth set up for my iPhone this winter. I listen to music in my shop but from an iPhone dock. I have brought the headphones to the shop but will only use them when I'm NOT working on machinery. Sanding, bench work, cleaning up and organising sure. We've all forgotten to respect the coasting down blade, table saw and band saw!

[Mark Bolton]

From the business side, this is why, as crappy as it is, there are no headphones/music/or otherwise, allowed in the shop and as even crappier as it may sound other than on very rare occasions there is no music either. Its a hotly debated subject in the commercial world as to whether a more pleasant work environment allowing people to listen to whatever they want on their headphones especially for people doing mundane/repetitive tasks is wise or if no distractions and focus on your work is best.

I have yet to have anyone be able to be sustantially productive, effective, thoughtful, safe, in the shop when they are dead focused on the task at hand much less distracted by a cool tune on the radio or wanting to hear the last bit of an interview or something on talk radio. Myself included.

Add in that now headphones/earbuds for many will include a notification for a text or DM from social media, a phone call from whomever, email, and so on. All of which are distractions, and for business, a time sucking distraction. Not only from a safety standpoint but when your in the shop watching (business) and you start adding up the seconds, that turn into minutes, that add up to hours, per week, that are lost to pulling out the phone for this and that... no dice. The latest is when you start cracking down on checking phones in the shop you notice serious increases in bathroom trips and the time spent in the bathroom (because there was no need its a place to go text).

Safety and productivity I'd imagine will eventually lead to more and more places having a no phones/headphones in the shop period. Leave them in your locker and deal with them on your break/lunch.

[Robert Hayward]

Safety and productivity I'd imagine will eventually lead to more and more places having a no phones/headphones in the shop period. Leave them in your locker and deal with them on your break/lunch.

I agree with this approach as I have always felt that these phones we carry in our pockets are a problem in the workplace. Have watched employees stop talking to their supervisor while they respond to something on their phone. However, banning them in a workplace will most likely earn that shop a one way ticket to the next meeting at the worst place to work in America convention. Would be a tough sell in a good economy.

[John Heavill]

How about something like this as a warning signal?

https://www.crmagnetics.com/GetImage.ashx?Path=%7e%2fAssets%2fProductImages%2f Remote-Current-Indicator-2550.gif&maintainAspectRatio=true&maxHeight=300&maxWidth=300

https://www.crmagnetics.com/remote/cr2550?gclid=CjwKCAjw8pH3BRAXEiwA1pvMsYJK5Am4bKIJX 6wLJsNsGA2fq2QQDQ__MSykhhU0omhtp9uRqgNFoBoCb2AQAvD _BwE

[Bradley Gray]

I don't like any audio in the shop or on a job site if I have help. The guy that helps with my installs is a husky dude (knickname "Bear") when we're doing an install he shuts down the jobsite boom box and no one objects.

When I'm working alone (75% of the time) I listen to audio books from the library. I have for over 30 years. Music doesn't work but the books keep me focused somehow and I can go way longer between breaks. I think, if I have a helper, thinking about what they should do next serves the same purpose.

I have found that formula detective stories and adventure stories are predictable enough to not cause too much distraction. If a story is too compelling I save it for later.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I listen to music or audiobooks or radio on my earmuffs most of the time when I'm working alone, though not when I'm in a space with other people(which happens very rarely). I don't like to let a machine run when I'm not standing in front of it and using it, I figure that with my band saws I am wearing out the blade, and I am wasting electricity with any tool that is unnecessarily still running. My worry has been tools that are still spinning down, especially router bits and bandsaw blades, so I try to be extra conscious of them. Many days I am wearing earmuffs for 8 or 10 hours, so I value being able to listen to audiobooks especially. I get most of mine from Librivox, they are free and in the public domain, and I have been able to catch up on all the older classic books that I had read years ago and later forgotten.

[johnny means]

From the business side, this is why, as crappy as it is, there are no headphones/music/or otherwise, allowed in the shop and as even crappier as it may sound other than on very rare occasions there is no music either. Its a hotly debated subject in the commercial world as to whether a more pleasant work environment allowing people to listen to whatever they want on their headphones especially for people doing mundane/repetitive tasks is wise or if no distractions and focus on your work is best.

I have yet to have anyone be able to be sustantially productive, effective, thoughtful, safe, in the shop when they are dead focused on the task at hand much less distracted by a cool tune on the radio or wanting to hear the last bit of an interview or something on talk radio. Myself included.

Add in that now headphones/earbuds for many will include a notification for a text or DM from social media, a phone call from whomever, email, and so on. All of which are distractions, and for business, a time sucking distraction. Not only from a safety standpoint but when your in the shop watching (business) and you start adding up the seconds, that turn into minutes, that add up to hours, per week, that are lost to pulling out the phone for this and that... no dice. The latest is when you start cracking down on checking phones in the shop you notice serious increases in bathroom trips and the time spent in the bathroom (because there was no need its a place to go text).

Safety and productivity I'd imagine will eventually lead to more and more places having a no phones/headphones in the shop period. Leave them in your locker and deal with them on your break/lunch.
I've never worked in a shop that didn't allow music or talk radio. I've never seen it be a problem. That other stuff is a work ethic thing and phones aren't the problem, the employees are.

[Bradley Gray]

I have a really simple solution to the cell phone problem in my shop - they don't work here.

[Alan Lightstone]

Double edged sword here, unfortunately...we need hearing protection while using many of our power tools because of the noise levels they produce while the noise they make is also valuable feedback to us for what's going on. Those that have commented about developing good habits relative to how we move around our whirling blades, etc., are spot-on in this respect.

I do listen to music in my headphones in the shop, but it's from a room level source. When I put on hearing protection, the music is muted pretty hard.

Relative to sound/noise reduction in the shop, I've added another dimension to this in that I have to turn the volume to "0" on my hearing aids before donning my over-the-ear muffs because they are "smart" and automagically increase the volume otherwise. LOL

Jim:

I use the exact same approach, including with the hearing aids. My smart ones also would increase the volume when wearing headphones, which defeats the purpose.

Hearing protection really is mandatory in a workshop with loud tools. If not used, your hearing will eventually be damaged. And those of us who wear hearing aids know how bad that is in life.

I also don't play music in my headphones in my shop, and don't have a TV. I don't want the distraction, and want to hear the tools when I am using them. But I play music and podcasts in the workshop, but not so loud that I can't hear the tool

Getting into the habit of looking at the blade until it stops is a tremendously useful habit to prevent accidents.

[Bradley Gray]

I use the "every gun is a loaded gun" approach - I keep my hands away from blades moving or not.

[Mark Bolton]

That other stuff is a work ethic thing and phones aren't the problem, the employees are.

Its never the fault of an inanimate object (no different than lopping a few fingers off on a saw) but there are enough responsibilities in business to stay afloat that having to be a babysitter, enforcer, or educator of "work ethic", in situations like these are much more easily dealt with via simple policy implementation.

I cant say I recall being on many jobsites that didnt have a radio and virtually every site visit I go on now has one. That said, companies now are dealing with a completely different and changing workforce, so running things the way you always have often times doesnt work, or will leave you broke, or with no help. Companies large and small are working their butt's off nowadays to adapt to managing the new workforce along with the new technology they come attached to.

I know for a fact when I apprenticed in the trade if I had shown up in the 80's with a walkman on and headphones on all day my employer would have told me to leave them in the truck or hit the road and find another job.

There have long been crystal clear statistics of things like for instance how much a smoker costs you on a job, sneaking out for a smoke, the pause on the way to the dumpster to light up and get a few drags, then the pause to put it out, set it aside to save it, on the way back in, on and on. Adds up to hours of lost time per month that the non-smoking employee doesnt enjoy.

The same goes for the phones/headphone. The time spent checking, the time lost to distraction, the danger.. Agreed that personal accountability should reign supreme but this is the real world.

[Robert Engel]

I do listen to music in the shop, but it's from a room level source. When I put on hearing protection, the music is muted pretty hard.


This is what I've gone to. I save the blue tooth earphones for mowing, use them as regular ear protection.

I've had this same issue with my jointer. Even without ear protection, when the DC is running, you can't hear it.

[Alan Lightstone]

My issue with bluetooth headphones, is that with decent noise suppression of the tool, adding the music makes the tool very difficult if not impossible to hear. It is not the same situation with music in a shop. In that case it is in the background and the tool can be heard - even with 30dB good earphones.

I think Bradley's approach of every gun being a loaded gun analogy is very well said.