Baldor 1/2hp 8" 3 phase bench grinder, but as soon as the steel contacts the wheel, the quiet is done with.
Noise now bothers me as well. I have always been sensitive to noise, but could do construction work with miter saws and nailguns without ear pro. I also have some high frequency hearing loss, and the sensitivity can come with it. I think the 17 years of construction work has caused part of my loss, plus music that was louder than it should have been, car races, concerts, etc. My right ear has more loss, and I am right handed. I think my cordless impact drivers may have done some damage as they can be pretty noisy, and nail guns surely didn't help.
Quieter tools are good, but hearing protection is needed more than people think. My Miller 375 extreme plasma cutter is silent until you make a cut, and the fan will cycle. The air stream from the plasma is loud. The fan on demand is very nice. My mig and tig welder have fans that run whenever the power is on. It isn't really loud, but more annoying. My brother has the Miller 252 mig welder and the fan only runs when needed.
The bench top mill is quiet when drilling with twist bits, but with other operations it can get up there in noise. I had a craftsman 60 gallon 5hp oil less compressor. I gave it to my brother when I got a Sanborn oil bath type of the same size for free. The sanborn is pretty loud too (the motor may be bent a tad as I had to weld the base back on the motor when I got it), but it lives outside and is a lower pitch sound rather than the raped ape sound of the oil free type.
Power tools have to make a certain amount of noise to do the job, so I wouldn't expect to find any that are exceptionally quiet, but I am all ears, if there are some.
