Gloves in the woodshop?

[andy brown]

Hi,
Same message from across the pond- No gloves.

Andy.

[David G Baker]

I never thought about wearing gloves while working with power equipment, it is just something that I have never done. I like to have good physical contact with my work so no gloves even if it is very cold in the shop. I do wear the nitrile or latex gloves when finishing, staining, greasing the tractor, etc. I wear the rubberized palm gloves when handling stock, working with things that will give me blisters or jobs that need a solid grip. I wear Army cold weather mittens when using the snow blower.

[J.R. Rutter]

In my production shop, we wear the dipped knit gloves - thin ones for general handling, thermals for sanding. These things allow me personally to grip repeatedly with minimal hand fatigue. I'm prone to carpal tunnel syndrome, and without these, I would probably not be woodworking. But my equipment is well guarded, and assisted with feeders wherever possible. Awareness of glove and sleeve hazards is part of safety training. The avatar shot of me at the jointer is quite out of date. There is a feeder and permanent bridge guard in place now. You would have to reach inside a narrow slot to hit the cutterhead...

[John Thompson]

I'll join J.R. on this issue and wear mesh gloves. I work with a lot of rough stock and wear gloves ripping on the TS. But.. my TS is set up so that my hands can never come closer than 10" to the blade. And I have it "red-lined" as a reminder at 10" marks on the infeed and out-feed side. I do dadoes on a dedicated slider and tenons on the BS.

My technique on the jointer never puts my hands within 8" of the cutter-head and it is also "red-lined". The planer should be self-explanatory.

But... I will not wear gloves on a DP, BS, SCMS ( I do all my cross-cutting on it ) etc. where I do have to move the hands closer to the blade in many cases.. I did get a glove caught on a spinning DP bit once, but forturnately the press was turned off and the bit had slowed to the point there was no major injury.

Sarge..

[Jim Becker]

I generally do not use gloves in the shop. The only exception is when I'm initially skip-jointing heavy rough boards, I have some latex coated gloves to avoid splinters. I don't recommend that anyone do this as gloves can be a safety issue round machinery, but it's a conscious risk choice I've made for a particular situation. And I take great care when I do this, too.

[Randal Stevenson]

I wear latex gloves around vehicle repairs (where the engine can be running), and for staining and glueups. I wear general purpose leather gloves for handling rough wood, brush, yardwork, etc. Mechanic's type for dealing with a hot engine (oil changes on a warm engine), hot brakes, etc.
I have wore gloves when using a circular saw, as both my hands are on it, and normally it is cutting up splintery stuff.

I know how easy the latex gloves tear and break away, and once considered using them when working with some splintery wood. I decided it wasn't worth testing. Now since I use the GCSS more, I can wear them with splintery stuff and my circular saw (see above).

[Simon Dupay]

I don't care who you are, or how careful you think you are. You never know when an accident is going to happen. What are few slivers or cuts compaired to your fingers? Please don't wear gloves when using any machine.

[Steve Trauthwein]

Anytime your hand comes in contact with spinning machinery you will,, of course loose body mass, one tends to pull away abruptly from such encounters. When wearing gloves, long sleeves, necklaces, ties, long hair and etc. the tendancy is for one to be pulled into the machinery, which is a very bad thing and can result in a loss of much more body mass.

When I first started working as a machinist all of these things were no-nos, and we were advised against wearing watches and wedding rings. I saw the results of a gentleman that was holding a couple of pieces of steel for a welder when a hot piece of slag attached to a wedding band, not a pretty sight, he had a permanent fleshless band that went to the bone, should have been wearing gloves.

Just my opinion and experience, regards, Steve

[John Durscher]

A year and a half ago I was working with pressure treated lumber. I was wearing some tight fitting fabric work gloves to prevent splinters. While working I brushed some shavings off the work piece while using the drill press (power on of course). The bit caught the index finger of the glove and proceeded to wrap my finger around the drill bit (not a natural position for an index finger). Of course my first reaction was to try to pull my hand out but the glove was too strong. It took a few seconds before I realized I could simply shut the drill press off. It took me some time to free my hand from the drill bit. My hand was a real mess.

Had I not been wearing gloves the worst thing that would of happened is I would of simply taken a little meat of my finger. More than likely I would of sensed the breeze created by the bit and not gotten near the bit.

I didn't lose the finger, but it still hurts and will probably never bend correctly again.

I was lucky, and will never wear gloves when using power tools again!

John

[Tim Marks]

A good pair of gloves will only 'fatten' your fingers by a fraction of an inch, probably a good deal less than 1/4". That being the case, why would anyone get their fingers within 1/4" of any power tool blade?

When your hand comes in contact with the blade or bit, it will slice a piece of skin off.

The glove material is stronger then your flesh and is less likely to just give way. When the glove comes in contact with the machine, the fibers (or leather) will get caught on the blade or bit and pull your hand in and wont let go.

Try feeding some string into your drill press and see what happens...

I use the high dexterity type of gloves you see at all the big box stores nowadays.

Maybe a bit OT, but I also enjoy metal working. I was using a brand new closefitting pair of what I thought were suede leather gloves while doing some brazing. The finger on the glove melted in a split second, and I was really lucky to escape without a large serious burn (synthetic materials melted into a nasty burn can be among the worst injuries you can imagine). Bottom line, it pays to read the fine print. The label on the gloves said "ALL PURPOSE" in large letters, but in small print on the back it said "synthetic". Nowhere were there any warnings that it was not suitable for hot work. HD owes me a new pair of gloves...

The real scary part was that I have made my 5yo wear a pair of those gloves (and a welding helmet of course) when he is helping me with welding or brazing just in case he gets excited and grabs something before it cools. I am glad that "just in case" never happened, because he would have melted a glove. I learned the hard way that just because you have thick leather gloves it doesn't mean you can grab something as soon as it starts glowing red, but the leather just slows the transfer of heat. With those synthetic gloves, there would have been no "slowing"... it would be instaneous melted flesh.

[Bill Bryant]

A man I know came to church services two days ago with a huge bandage on his hand. He's a very experienced woodworker--thirty years in a cabinet shop, makes his own furniture, built his own house from the dirt up including six-panel oak doors and amazing woodwork everywhere--but he put on a glove (just this once) to keep painful flying chips off his left hand while making raised panels on a shaper.

Shaper 1
My church buddy 0

Shaper takes finger

[John Twesten IV]

I'm not trying to steal this thread but does anybody wear those gloves that have a notepad on the back or a wrist notepad for writing down sizing ? They seem like they might be somewhat useful as I always seem to have scraps of paper or wood pieces with sizes written all over them. I have seen them online somewhere but can't seem to find them.

[Rob Bodenschatz]

I'm not trying to steal this thread but does anybody wear those gloves that have a notepad on the back or a wrist notepad for writing down sizing ? They seem like they might be somewhat useful as I always seem to have scraps of paper or wood pieces with sizes written all over them. I have seen them online somewhere but can't seem to find them.

No. I have scraps of paper or wood pieces with sizes written all over them

[Dan Barr]

John,

I'm sorry to learn of your injury. That sounds like a real bad time there. The worst ive done woodworking is knick my thumb on the tablesaw blad and put a 1 1/2" cut on my left index finger with my chisel.

I cringe at the thought of what a drill press would do with a glove on.

hope all is well.

v/r

dan

[Brian Henderson]

I do wear gloves in the winter because otherwise, I couldn't work out there until the heat gets going. That said, I never wear them when working with anything that has a blade. I will sand with them, but otherwise, they come off if I have to push wood past a blade, it's just not worth the risk.