I have a leather apron, hearing protection, face shield and glasses, dust mask and work boots but I was wondering about my hands. I was wondering if anyone wears gloves when woodworking. I have several pairs of Kevlar slash gloves that I use for work. But I was wondering if anyone has any preferences if any at all in protective wear for your hands.
Scott C. Frankland
“This all could have been prevented if their parents had just used birth control”
Replies
I never wear gloves, but I sometimes wrap my thumbs in duct tape when using a card scraper. The tape cuts down on the heat and prevents blisters.
I don't but I wish I did. Seems I'm always scraping or busting a knuckle or nicking myself somewhere and then bleeding on my work. I haven't found a pair of gloves that would protect my hands and allow me the dexterity I want. I sometimes tape up prior to scraping a surface but don't usually until I burn myself first. I anyone's got suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Kell
My Kevlar gloves are tight but not tight enough for woodworking. They are good against knives and will stop a needle if you just happen to stick yourself while doing a search but it will not stop it if you ram it in. I was looking at something with the fingers cut off to allow them to do finer work. Scott C. Frankland
"This all could have been prevented if their parents had just used birth control"
Scott,
I sometimes wear tight fitting deer or lambs skin gloves when I work with sliver prone woods. I buy them slightly small and let them stretch to fit.
Joe Phillips
Plastics pay the bills, Woodworking keeps me sane!
I do wear gloves only for cutting sheets of plywood on the TS, to avoid splinters (spelling??) I never, and I mean NEVER wear them for work near rotating tool, and I dont allow my employees do to so. If you can see the tip of your finger, then you are not going to put it in a rotating knife (jointer, router, shaper, table saw for fine work, etc...) But in my opinion, take the gloves that you feel most comfy with, and cut off the fingers if you wish.
I use gloves that people in the glass industry use, there is a slipery-free rubber on them
Bob in Sherbrooke, Province of Québec
Dad gave me two pair of kevlar gloves. Out of curiosity I put one on a 2x4 and touched it to my spinning tablesaw blade. The glove got caught in some gullets and because the fibres were cut proof, the wood got smashed into the slot and the wood fibres were crushed. The wood got more mangled up than if it had just been cut. I put the gloves away and don't use them in the shop.
Frank
You are completely rigth. The tip of my left little finger is gone since four years ago. It was lost planning a small board in my jointer. I was wearing gloves because I was handling wenge which is very prone to produce splinters. I didn't get any splinters; just several stitches at the end of my severed finger.
Like Frank, I have some concerns about catching a glove in a spinning or running blade or bit. However, also having concerns about my hands slipping on wood when pushing through the saw or jointer, I frequently don gardener's tacky gloves when ripping or jointing. Those are the gloves that are knit, fit snugly, and have a rubbery surface on the fingers and palms. Am just very, very careful not to get close enough to get snagged.
Those gloves, BTW, are strength-enhances -- the tacky surface makes it much, much easier to grip a sheet of plywood or other slick surface and carry.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I was never looking at using gloves with power tools I know way better than that. I was thinking more along the lines of working with hand tools, chisels, handsaws, handplanes, etc. I am a police officer and have several pairs kicking around that are still good but I have been reissued news ones. Several pairs have antibacterial substance in them to fight against bad guy germs (I have a much more graphic phrase I will not post here) and they only last for so long before the chemicals dry up or what ever it does. I have been thinking about using them for shop use but they don't feel right so I was wondering if anyone else has a pair of gloves they swear by for shop use. Scott C. Frankland
"This all could have been prevented if their parents had just used birth control"
wearing gloves is a good way to lose your hand around woodworking machines-
I have been using Ironclad gloves for two years and really like them! They fit skin tight and I don't have any concerns about getting caught in equipment. I don't have to worry about slivers or sore fingertips from long sessions on the jointer or other equipment. When using epoxy glues you don't have stains all over your hands. I've been a woodworker for 50 years and my tired hands enjoy the extra support! There are times when you can't wear them, but the gloves really save on your hands.
When using hand tools I have worn a pair of bicyclist's gloves. The fingers are cut off short so you don't lose all sense of touch. But the padding helps when repetitively using gouges and other hand tools.
Like everyone else, I'd be afraid to wear gloves with power tools.
William
I make something, sometimes twice, each year.
Well here is a crazy thought . . .
For working round woodworking tools- titanium gauntlets. Some of the late 16th century armour had wonderfully articulted fingers. There aught to be some way to do it.
Frank
Scott,
I have a series of Mechanix Wear Kevlar gloves that I use in my shop for loading/unloading/moving rough stock about, sheets of plywood, etc... They are very durable, are comfortable to wear for extended periods of time, highly protective, and have great dexterity at even the smallest task (I able to pick up and hold a 3/4" brad, and still drive it with a hammer.) I never use them while working with machinery! They help to reduce the buzz effect when using an ROS sander or palm sander.
The Mechanix Wear line also has a good fingerless product. http://www.mechanix.com You might be able to find them more cheaply from other online retailers.
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Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.
No one seems to have mentioned finishing. I wear disposable latex gloves when using finishing products, including stains and dyes. Makes cleanup at the end of the day really easy and your skin isn't absorbing all those chemicals.
A rule of thumb is any time you use some protective gear it only transfer the wear or danger to another part of your body. You will get hurt if you rely on the protective gear. This is borne out in sports and industrial situations.
"You will get hurt if you rely on the protective gear. This is borne out in sports and industrial situations."
Sorry jim, I don't buy that. There is a base level of protective gear that keeps you safer or healthier. I can't believe that wearing hearing protection or safety glasses means I've got a better chance to lose a limb. There have been far fewer injuries in contact sports as the protective gear has gotten better.
If you don't buy that, try warming up a little leaguer while not wearing a cup!
Kell
When I wear gloves in the shop, for whatever reason, I always put on a pair of baseball batting gloves. Theay are tight enough to give me the feeling required for working in the shop on certain tasks, and also help keep the fingers warm in the winter.
As far as safety goes, I have a hard time seeing how wearing gloves makes a person complacent around power equipment. I personally believe that if someone is going to get complacent, they are going to do it with or without gloves on. If a person no longer fears the consequences of improper protocall and use of power tools, it surely has to do with their overall attitude on not their attire.
I do agree, however, that no glove should be worn thats fit is prone to accidents such as a thick cold-weather glove or yard glove. There just isn't a glove out there designed in those categories that provide the sensitivety or fit required for shop work. They are just too big and bulky for all but their intended uses.
But as the saying goes, "Oppinions are like _______!"LazarusRemeber, "Wisdom is the toughest of teachers! She gives the test first and the lesson after."
I'll give you glasses and only partially hearing protection. With hearing protection it filters out some sounds that informs you what is happening with the equipment which could save you from injury.
My main thought were gloves, blade guards, wristsupports and such for the shop. I see people take their hands off the piece of wood totally on a table saw because they think the kick-back protection will keep them safe! As far as sports go, if you follow the history of ski injuries you will find that it traveled up the lag. First the ankle then the lower leg to the knee. All because the safty equipment protected the next higher body part. Same with football. There were actually few head injuries at first then came the helmet, concussions followed because they felt safe and smashed each other harder. Then the helmets included web subspensions, neck injuries became common. Then the neck collar introduced snapped necks. The list can continue.
You're right on the sound changes helping to give you constant feedback on a power tool, and the good ones block out out enough, 25 dB or so, to allow that.
Good analogy on the ski equipment and football.
People taking their hands off stock that's in a machine that's turned on and they are the hold down? Jeez...you really can't fix stupid.
Kell
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