Product Review: DIY Custom Ear Plugs
Irradiated by Stingray
After several friends, most recent of whom being the delightfully a-tactical Phlegmmy sang the praises of custom-molded earplugs for shooting purposes, I decided to look into them.
Then I discovered the price tag, and that it required making an appointment with someone to futz around with my ears and laser micromodel each hair in my ears and so on and so forth and long story short (too late!) giant dick-dance to get it done if you don’t luck into a guy with a booth at a convention or some such. Already having perfectly cromulent electronic muffs, I gave it a miss and broadly said screw it.
Then while nosing around further because I am curious by nature, I found out Radians DIY version for less than I’ve paid for dinner out, and was intrigued. I decided at that price point it was worth trying, even if they turned out to suck.
They do not suck.
The process on paper is basically the same as mixing a two-part epoxy, only more of a gel than a goo. You wash your ears, split two components into two portions each, mix, and mash into your ear in such a way as to make a good sound-tight fit, then sit still for fifteen minutes or so.
In practice it’s still basically that, but they don’t warn you it’ll sound like you poured an entire box of rice crispies into your ear canal with all the crackling and popping noises this stuff gives off as it cures. Or that the chemical reaction gives off more heat than you’d expect, which also warms the air inside your ear, which expands and makes the plug feel like it’s crawling out as it hardens. They also don’t mention the part where “Hey, you molded a nice smooth exterior. Good luck getting a grab on it to pull it back out!” and I spent the better part of a couple minutes with arms wrapped at various angles around my head trying to tug my ear into some mutilated tangle so I could lever the damned things out. But if you hold still and just give the odd gentle press during the curing process, they come out fine. No, seriously. Hold still. Grab a book or something and chill, you hyperactive spaz.
Anyway, once cast, I was a bit dubious about the performance. I’m accustomed to the you-know-it-when-you-hit-it seal of the various flavors of cheap disposable plugs, and these do not provide that. I gave them a test drive at the movies, and while LabRat left with her ears slightly ringing (The Avengers), I came out happy as a clam, and the sound the whole way through was quieted, but without that “I’m listening through a pillow” quality normal plugs provide. Encouraged, but still dubious, I finally got around to trying them at the range.
Honestly, I was shocked at how well they did. I expected the lack of that seal feeling from cheap plugs to translate to “Fine for cutting ambient ongoing noise, but crap for a sharp overpressure like a rifle report.” Instead even cracking off .30-06 was perfectly comfortable, on par with or even slightly better than some Peltor 6-S muffs I picked up on sale, and without the bulk of big ‘ol cans on my head.
The obvious drawback is they’re not electronic so everything is muffled, including conversation and range commands, but for twelve bucks, holy shit they deliver, and you don’t have to make an appointment for Tony Stark’s non-union Mexican equivalent to shoot lasers into your ear. Nerd ranch approved.
August 24th, 2012 at 4:10 pm
Ordered. We shall see, sir.
We shall see.
August 24th, 2012 at 4:25 pm
I like the molded plugs, and I’m gonna have to do a set of these as a spare! Thanks for the review!!!
August 24th, 2012 at 6:27 pm
I wonder, what would happen if you inserted a penny or a dime into the outside of the goop? Would it form a convenient pull-tab, or would it just come out with your first pull?
August 24th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
‘Bout ten years ago or so, I guess, I ran into a booth doing the goo version at a Tanner show in Denver. What they did was insert two wooden plugs which were connected by a cord, one in each gooed up ear while the goo was still soft. The plug going in the right side ear was colored red. “Red for right,” she told me, and they helped pull the molded plugs just fine. Still do today, in fact, and with the cord I can hang em ’round my neck.
So there’ygo Erin, wood will bond with the stuff at any rate. If metal does as well, you might try a couple reasonably short screws, with enough of the head poking out to get a hold of. That’d probably do better than coins ! (And if you wanted to mimic the ones I’ve got they’d be easy to tie some kinda slim cord to as well.) It’s not a bad idea to mark at least one of them since the inside of one ear looks pretty much like the inside of the other ear.
That’s all I got. Ciao!
August 25th, 2012 at 12:40 am
My very first “real job” was receptionist for a small hearing aid company (5 people total for the whole business). Between scheduling appointments and sending out invoices I’d also direct the walk-ins who were having trouble with their custom hearing aids. Since it was far less annoying to teach me to troubleshoot hearing aids than interrupt the audiologist or fabricators I spent an entire summer plugging a small jack into customer’s hearing aids and fixing minor problems.
The device used to “listen” using someone else’s hearing aid is nothing more than custom-molded ear plugs (the exact same kind being discussed here) with a hole bored through and a tiny diameter hose that connects to the hearing aid’s speaker. The custom fit ear plugs are so effective at both blocking and channeling noise that it gives you the effect of a custom hearing aid with ambient noise reduction.
Oh, and fiddling with the settings on someone else’s hearing aid being piped into your ear is a billion times easier than asking the deaf elderly person if it sounds any better.
August 25th, 2012 at 1:49 am
I have made something similar with my headphones using Sugru. Worked fine and that stuff is great for diy and repairing stuff. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to keep very long so when I last needed it, all I had was small packets of dry silicone turds.
August 25th, 2012 at 9:53 am
While getting them out the first time was a little weird, after you figure out how/where to pull and which way to lever on ‘em (grab at the back and pull forward like opening a cupboard with the hinge at the front of your head), a handle or grip isn’t really necessary. One of those “Find the trick and you’re set” things.
August 25th, 2012 at 10:13 am
Radians sells a little lanyard with blue and red plastic barbs that are designed to be molded into the earmolds, so you can pull them.
Also, it’s pretty trivial to mold in a pair of in ear canal headphones, for use with an external mic/amp/cutout. In fact I think there are some smartphone apps for that. Or you could just mold in one of the sets of cutout circuit amplifier earplugs.
August 25th, 2012 at 10:15 am
Oh and while I was in the Air Force, I had a full on custom set of poured earmolds, with a high end ambient sound amplifier with cutoff circuit, and communications headset built in…. FRIKKEN AWESOME… When I got out, I went looking for the same product and found out they were $3000 on the commercial market.
August 25th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
A step by step of the earbud variant
http://www.howtogeek.com/57481/how-to-make-custom-silicone-ear-molds-for-your-in-ear-monitors/
August 25th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
And here’s an android app that’s a hearing amplifier… not sure how its cutoff circuit is.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ix.com.android.VirtualAmp
August 26th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
It sure beats the type I saw once; the country version of DIY earplugs. This fellow forgot his hearing protection and ran back to his truck. He then proceeded to pull out the two part epoxy you knead together to fix leaking stock tanks.
Knead, knead, then shove into the ears. Help, it burnssss! Damn me if I didn’t stare in wonder.
August 27th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Two part epoxy? Pshaw! Everybody knows that foam-in-a-can is the only way to go!
September 5th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
Heheh, Great Stuff is obviously superior to JB weld!
I had a pair made at a SASS shoot about 8 years ago, and they’re awesome. They’ve been sadly neglected since I got a pair of those electric noise canceling ones, but they’re still perfect for running a rifle where muffs would be and annoyance.
Oh, and you can where any sort of hat you want with plugs as opposed to the muffs . Big deal when doing the old cowboy dress-up thing.
September 6th, 2012 at 3:15 am
I’m a-tactical?
*beaming*
hyuk.