Quote Originally Posted by tdkask View Post
hate to run my larger noisy compressor
Welcome, David! Thank you for thinking of your neighbors- maybe the answer is to turn it around a little and invite the neighbor over to show him the new machine, try it out, debug, troubleshoot, whatever. That way he'll never even notice the compressor. The women folk will giggle and say things like "the boys will play with their toys" or "they're having a play date" but they're going to say that anyway, aren't they?

I'm always careful to NOT make a lot of noise when neighbors may be sleeping or have guests or something, and I always give the one neighbor close enough to be bothered a heads up if I'm going to do something too unusual. But we're close enough friends that they don't mind, and I've helped them out of a jam or two, or just had the right tool at the right time, that they're willing to cut me some slack.