Thread: Personal Protective Equipment

Originally Posted by MatMann

i've been told off about making unsubstantiated claims so heres a few docum
of course remembering that a gun shot is vastly different than a chainsaw

Also the sound is right next to the shooters ear.

yes that's about right, dba rating@10m although i thought it was more like 8m but i'm unable to find their testing methodology, and if I'm correct its not at full throttle or under load.

On my Stihls it says 7 but 7 or 8 or 10 m is not going to be that different. The figure quoted is an average across felling and bucking. So it's mixed loads and saw positions.

A 3120 is a big saw and its frequencies are different to a 066sthill or 395Huski
I'd much prefer to be on a 3120 all day than a 395

I agree, see below

just looked at a 395's dba levels:
Sound pressure level at operators ear 102 dB(A)
Sound power level, guaranteed (LWA) 115 dB(A)
similar but it's a pity sound frequency isn't shown, but i'd bet they are vastly different

I agree they sound very different due to a combination of the size of the piston and exhaust and the fact that a 395 can rev much higher than the 3120 and the higher revs sound a whole lot worse than they really are. The human ear is nominally more sensitive to frequencies around 1000 Hz and the smaller the saw the more likely it is to output higher frequencies.

BTW the 441 is rated 104 dB and the 880 is rated @ 105 dB at operator ear. Even though my milling 880 has a muffler mod the fact that the exhaust is directed down and away from the operator makes it quieter than my mates 3120.

when doing our OHS retraining every year our trainer would bring out a dba meter and we measured over 120dba for a 395huski and over 130dba for a wood chipper, but i don't have any supporting documentation of that, merely 15 years of experience@5 days a week

Using a sound meter is not just a matter of facing it in the direction of the source. Proper sound tests need to be done under controlled conditions over a range of operations. Unless the 395 had some exhaust damage or mods I would say 120 and 115 db about the same when testing in field conditions.