Gloves in the Workshop

[raynerd]

Hi guys
I`ve watched a number of videos now where engineers have been wearing gloves. I presume this can only be to keep their hands clean? I`ve never bothered with them and remember reading somewhere that it can be dangerous if they catch or snag in machinery and drag your hand into the machine.

I`ve tried barrier cream but forget to put it on as I often don`t think it is going to be a messy job before its too late!

I`m pretty sure this has come up before but what gloves do you guys wear?

My job isn`t engineering and often have to point at work and use my hands quite close up in front of others and have to admit, that oily hands can be pretty minging and impossible to properly clean!!!

Chris

[NeoTech]

I use thin mechanics gloves of reinforced cotton (the type with rubberiziation on your hands) but not when im operating the lathe, more for plasma cutting, abrasive sawing, etc etc, i use heavy welders glows when tig or mig welding.

When running the lathe i use nitril glove if i need gloves. Mainly cuz they keep the sharp shards out of my hands.. And they rip easily if they are snagged on something. When running the mill i tend to use a thick cream on my hands mainly cuz the coolant irritatets the hell out of my hands otherwise but i dont dare to use any type of gloves running that machine.. Its way to easy to get snagged on something.

And when running a beltgrinder - NEEVER use gloves, holy crap it went south very fast.. Finger tip snagged onto the belt, ripped the glove of my hand and forced it between the table of the grinder and the belt in a split second i didnt have time to react even.. Im just glad my hand wasnt dragged into the belt. (homemade beltgrinder, no safety stops or covers or anything to prevent injuries)

In the end i think i have about 5-6 pairs of specialized gloves and one pair of "generic" ones. Mainly cuz im tired to pick out sharp steel needles or aluminium needles out of my fingertips in the end of the day.

[awemawson]

Chris,

I wear four different types of gloves in the workshop!

1/ Nitrile (unpowdered) 'surgeons gloves for general use using machines. I took to using these when I was still doing consultancy work and had to be 'presentable' when meeting clients which general workshop activity tends to work against!

2/ 'PU' gloves when dismantling / re-assembling stuff - particularly biggish nuts & bolts where the Nitrile gloves get torn:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24-Pairs-Of-Brand-New-Black-Nylon-PU-Safety-Work-Gloves-Builders-Grip-Gardening-/181035416873?pt=UK_BOI_ProtectiveGear_RL&var=&hash=item2a268d3d29

3/ 'Rigger Gloves' when moving heavy stuff around - saves bruised knuckles

4/ Welding gloves for (obviously) welding !


I find increasingly that I tend to use the PU gloves more and more outside the workshop - driving the tractor for instance, as the occasional greasy linkage tweak is needed.

[NeoTech]

Its the PU ones i use as well (didnt know their name) for handling most stuff that usually custs straight through your hand or ordinary gloves.. you get palm sweat from those though 

[doubleboost]

DO NOT WEAR GLOVES WHILE MACHINING
My mate was only drilling a 1/4 inch hole when his glove got stuck in the drill
It pulled the end of his index finger off just leaving the bone poking out






A bit graphic i must admit
But this is what happens and it happens very fast
This lad has worked with machinery for 40 years
He just forgot to take his gloves off
I hope this post has not offended any one but on the other hand i hope it stops you from wearing gloves with machine tools

[garym]

Hi Chris,

I use blue nitrile gloves like these http://www.broschdirect.com/pdfs/Gloves/AQL15/gl890-spec.pdf for general machining work to keep oil off which tends to irritate my skin. They are a bit dearer than latex but I think slightly stronger. I find that like awemawson I wear them more and more now, even for things like washing the car (yes I'm one of those strange individuals that still washes the car by hand with a bucket of water). For heavier work I use DeWalt Gripper gloves which I really like. I take the gloves off for using the bench grinder (safety) and hacksawing (ripping).

Gary

[ChrisC]

Gloves and rotating machinery are normally not a good idea.  I do wear the thin Nitrile ones when using the lathe or mill, on the basis that they are weak enough to tear rather than drag your finger into the rotating work.  Having said that I had a narrow escape when a drill caught on a nitrile glove a few years ago.  The glove did tear, but there was enough of a tug on my finger to make me stop using them anywhere near anything rotating, and I certainly wouldn't use them on the drill press anymore.

The other problem with Nitrile gloves is that they tend to "wind up" when you turn the handles on the lathe or mill.  You can avoid that by lightly oiling the outside of the gloves once you have put them on... it doesn't need much, just a trace of oil prevents them from sticking to the handles.

Chris

[DavidA]

The only time I wear gloves is if I am going to be using a solvent of some kind.  Then I wear them to prevent the solvent (paraffin,  IPA, Methanol) from causing my skin to de-grease and crack.  Methanol is also a neuro toxin,  so it isn't advisable to get it on your skin.

Also,  at work I wear rigger gloves when cleaning the swarf from around the machines.

Otherwise,  swarfega or tufanega make a good job of removing the grime.

Dave.

[daz]

Hi Chris,

I use blue nitrile gloves like these http://www.broschdirect.com/pdfs/Gloves/AQL15/gl890-spec.pdf for general machining work to keep oil off which tends to irritate my skin. They are a bit dearer than latex but I think slightly stronger.

Another reason for not wearing the latex is that some people can have severe allergic reactions to them and in severe cases can cause anaphylaxis.
I tend not to wear gloves unless I know my hands are going to be covered in oil or grease for long periods or if I am using solvents etc.  I never use them while machining for the same reason as the graphic pics above, but I do use thick leather gloves while welding or using an angle grinder. I wish I had been using them last year when I got by finger trapped in the log splitter with the bypassed two hand safety device Yup that was painful!
Other than that I tend to use barrier creams a lot

[S. Heslop]

I've found that welding gauntlets won't do anything to stop an angle grinder cutoff disc. I still wear one on my left hand to keep the sparks off my knuckles, but for the right hand I like having the tactility to operate the switch easier (and in a hurry).

I got lucky one time touching a cutoff disc when the grinder was slowing down. The guard rattled loose and was contacting the wheel, so I ended up touching it trying to pull the guard away after switching it off. Even going slow the thing cut instantly through the glove and came close enough to my finger to clean a spot of dirt off.

[daz]

I took the guard off my grinders
it helps to get in some tighter spots, which is why I always use gloves with them. They have saved my fingers a few times. One important piece of safety kit I got myself recently was flame retardent overalls. I was doing a lot of heavy grinding with a nine inch wheel and wasn't paying attention to where the sparks were going. As it happens they were concentrated on my left shin and I now have a boiler suit and a pair of jeans with a large burn right through them, not to mention a nice scar on my leg

[AdeV]

If I remember, I wear cheap blue or white vinyl gloves (like latex, only cheaper, I think they are the same as nitrile). They tear very easily, so the missing finger problem should never occur. For welding/grinding/holding hot things off the lathe - welding gloves.

Since I mostly forget to put my gloves on until I'm already covered oil, grease, swarf and general dirt, I rather rely on Swarfega Orange (the one with bits in), which I have in a wall mounted dispenser above the sink. 2 squirts of that & some elbow grease is usually enough to restore normality.

[raynerd]

Cheers guys, interesting discussion.

John - what type of gloves was your pal using when it pulled his finger off?

Chris

[doubleboost]

He was wearing Kevlar gloves
He has dermotitus and had just been using a hack saw
It was just a second of not thinking
John

[raynerd]

I think a lost finger out ways dirty hands in my case then!  :-(   

[sparky961]

This is always a heated topic and I probably don't need to add my own two cents, but I agree completely with one of the first posts from Awemason.  Wear a glove suited for the job!  At work and in my home shop I wear thin nitrile gloves for a few reasons:

1. Keep chemicals from contacting my skin (eg. coolant, solvents, protective oils, etc)
2. Keep most slivers from entering my skin (You'd be amazed how these can cut down those tiny ones you can hardly see let alone pick out)
3. Prevent some cuts - I generally gash a glove before it does in my skin.  Sometimes it does both if I have a lapse of attention
4. Keep my hands clean.  No, I'm not a wuss... I don't have a problem with dirty hands, but I can't count the number of times a day I switch from dirty shop jobs to using a computer and I prefer to use a clean keyboard, mouse, pen and telephone.  I can either wash my hands with the gloves on to save on waste if they're in good condition, or strip the gloves off and have immediately clean hands for clean work.  Especially in the winter this helps keep my skin in decent shape, which can start to dry and crack with too frequent hand washing.

Concerning safety, the way I see it the nitrile is weak enough that it just rips to pieces if caught on any sort of rotating shaft or the like.  But really, if your hand is that close to something rotating with any part that could grab your glove than you're doing something WAY wrong.  Keep your hands away dammit!  I will absolutely not wear any sort of "durable" or "strong" glove when working with mills and lathes due to the "pull your hand in" phenomenon.

[Pete.]

My job isn`t engineering and often have to point at work and use my hands quite close up in front of others and have to admit, that oily hands can be pretty minging and impossible to properly clean!!!

Chris

Chuck out your fancy washing machine and get an old twin-tub. Do your own washing on a Sunday evening - nice clean shiny hands for work tomorrow

[mechman48]

NEVER,NEVER ...        wear gloves, or jewellery, not even a watch, when using ANY form of rotating equipment...let common sense prevail,

George (Tech.IOSH).

[AdeV]

NEVER,NEVER ...        wear gloves, or jewellery, not even a watch, when using ANY form of rotating equipment...let common sense prevail,

George (Tech.IOSH).

I've taken worse injuries from the safety equipment on my  mill, than I ever took from the mill itself... I'd only put the guards on to stop wax swarf from spreading all over the workshop (you can really lay on fast cuts with wax - a 3" mill running at 2600rpm taking a 1/2" cut doesn't half throw some swarf about), gashed my arm on them twice reaching up to shut the mill off. So I took the buggers off and put them on the floor, I've tripped over them several times now, think they'll be going back on eBay, damn dangerous if you ask me.

My watch saved me from a broken wrist one time when I forgot to remove the the spanner from the mill drawbar. It's amazing how fast those things accelerate. The watch never did work again.


I'm not saying wearing watches, jewelry, long hair, floppy sleeves, etc. is advisable, most of the time it is not, but I cannot equate the blanket "never ever ever wear this stuff" to "common sense", because it just plain isn't. In fact, it's the opposite of common sense, it's ignoring common sense & just blindly taking precautions against risks that just aren't there.

The only time I ever came close to getting sucked into the lathe was when wearing  lab coat. Not the sleeves, it was the hem that got caught around the screwcutting/apron power shaft; fortunately, I felt it starting to tug, and was able to just pull back away from it without indicent. Could have easily lost a leg there.... (not).

[John Stevenson]

Gloves are fine on machines just don't get them in the bloody machine in the first place.
I read these "got grabbed by the gloves " post regularly, so don't wear gloves and would you ten put your pinkies in there ? 
Answer is no so just look what you are doing.

BTW thank you Mr Mawson, those PU gloves are far cheaper than the ones I'm buying at the moment, just ordered a bundle to check them out.

[awemawson]

  No problem John - just send a credit to my paypal account   

[NeoTech]

John i think the big issue here is that people are getting to comfortable around their machines and well "stop" tooling with their hands instead of just waiting for it to have stopped by itself.. and other common "im in a hurry" issues that would come up. =)

[Pete.]

The 'gloves getting caught' stories are horrendous, but thank fully few and far between so it's no guarantee. Gloves are mandatory in my work and I have worked with high-powered drilling equipment for more than 20 yrs and still have all my bits attached.

Let's face it, if someone invented crossing the road today it would likely be made illegal on safety grounds.

[NeoTech]

  Crossing the road..  

Well, we live in a over cautious society.. But sure accidents happen to some more often than others.. (personally 34 broken bones totally in my lifetime) 

[awemawson]

best give up the skiing then