SpudFiles

What requires some valves to require hearing protection? This thought first occured the first time I read the Supah valve descrip. on Joel's site.

You mean, What makes some valves need hearing protection? The noise, Duh!

No I think he may have meant which valves require you to wear hearing protection. Well, Supah Valve for one you should wear heating protection if you're smart...but lots of people I know don't...

KIR

After reading the title of the post, my immeadit (sp) thoughts where, Ramzies, Trojen's, Life Styles. I think as long as your not standing rite beside the muzzel, or the pilot port, the noise isn't all that bad.

jrrdw wrote:After reading the title of the post, my immeadit (sp) thoughts where, Ramzies, Trojen's, Life Styles.

Haha so did i.

I know that just the simple ball valve on my pneumatic makes quite a crack when shooting a good fitting item, such as a Red Bull can filled with wet sand. Last weekend I allowed a family member to fire the thing while I stood at their normal perspective and found that the thing was a louder than a small caliber rifle at any point the tip of it's 17' barrel. I don't see where I'm at the point for wearing protection, but I'd be curious to see how many dB were involved.

Off topic, but how many fps does it take to make a 2" trailer ball hiss loud enough to be caught on video audio? Here's a shot at 500'.

http://www.xr650r.us/cannon/ball_hiss.wmv

E

The OSHA answer is anytime you will be exposed to high decibel levels for long periods of time. This can mean the continous fire of bullets at gun range or working in a machinery room where the noise is constant. If you think that your valve will hurt your ears, it probably will.

I wear hearing protection when I fire my Ruger, why not when firing your cannon?

General rule is, if you hear a ringing in your ears at all after you fire it, you should be wearing hearing protection.

Get a pair of earmuff style protectors like you'd use for large handguns. They're really easy to take on and off, unlike the foam plugs.

Peace,
Pete Zaria.

The Haymaker wrote:I know that just the simple ball valve on my pneumatic makes quite a crack when shooting a good fitting item, such as a Red Bull can filled with wet sand. Last weekend I allowed a family member to fire the thing while I stood at their normal perspective and found that the thing was a louder than a small caliber rifle at any point the tip of it's 17' barrel. I don't see where I'm at the point for wearing protection, but I'd be curious to see how many dB were involved.

Off topic, but how many fps does it take to make a 2" trailer ball hiss loud enough to be caught on video audio? Here's a shot at 500'.

http://www.xr650r.us/cannon/ball_hiss.wmv

E

how big are the airchamber(s) ? valve? I'm not sure, but I have made other objects, such as steel slugs and pipe hiss. did it do It anymore after that? try shooting at a car hood. great fun.

The reason why some valves need hearing protection is because they use a piston valve.

On firing the piston flies back with a fair bit of force to open an airway and thumps back against its fittings. The noise from that can be considerable with large air chambers at high pressure.

^^^Well, partially true, gasses under pressure when released at a very fast rate cause quite a bit of noise as they push other particles aside. That goes for any valve, not just piston.

The noise may also be related to barrel length. With a long barrel more energy goes to pushing the projectrile and less to making sound.

I use a piston valve, (made of wood) and the only noise i can here is a popping sound when i fire it. The spring i have on my piston keeps it from hitting anything, so it's not makeing the popping sound. I can hear the piston spring back into position after i fire.

I'm going to place a bet on the amount of air and the sudden expansion when the projectile leaves the barrel suddenly expanding. Maybe Joel can explain it better being that on is site it pretty much says that you MUST wear hearing protection.

That video.....the ending was really creepy...that weird song.
Ok on topic now.
If teh noise is loud enough to cause discomfort then hearing protection should be worn.