wearing gloves

[EastTexFrank]

I must admit that when I was younger I thought that only a wuss wore gloves. Now that I'm older and wiser, I wear gloves for many, if not most, things. I have them in every vehicle and tractor, in every shape and size from kevlar, through deerskin to triple heavy weight leather. I just got tired of going to the emergency to have wood splinters and shards of metal dug out of my hands and fingers. I can usually do a pretty good job digging them out on my own but sometimes you just need outside help and when you go there, they always want to shoot you full of all kinds of stuff.

In fact, this past Christmas, a friend said he was so tired of seeing me all scratched up all the time, (I was clearing brush and vines at the time), that he gave me some kevlar forearm covers that work great when swinging the chain saw or getting into the thick stuff. No, when the bury me, my body may be all worn and broken but my hands and fingers are going to be as soft as a baby's bottom.

[psj12]

When I was in the Coast Guard and worked on a coastal bouy tender in Hawaii we were not allowed to wear gloves. The chains and bouys were covered with coral and shredded our hands. Eventually our hands became very callused and scarred. The thought, at the time, was that if the glove got caught in something like a chain or cable it would drag you overboard and down under.
As recent as March 07 I caught a glove in my metal lathe while turning a rifle barrel. It sucked my hand into the work up to my knuckles and wrapped my fingers, backwads, around the barrel barrel breaking all my fingers backwards and splitting the fingers open on the palm side of my fingers. It was just like breaking a chicken wing backward. Luckly for me the gloves were mostly fabric and it tore off of my hand before sucking me in any further. I actually posted a rather grizzly photo of my hand after the first surgery, on this, and maybe another chinese tractor site. After two surgerys and 4 mounths of PT I still cannot make a fist or straighten my fingers fully. I thank god for the talent of the surgeon that saved my fingers.
I cannot weigh in on the gloves or no gloves argument but believe me I give some deep thought as to wether I should or should not wear gloves on any particular project. As important is what type of glove is called for.

[TwinWillows]

I wear gloves for everything but using the drill press or lathe & have/leave many pairs laying around the house/shop/vehicles/barn etc so I don't have any excuse not to wear them. Even with this I recently was using a wire wheel on a 4 1/2" angle grinder & had a piece of wire shoot into my wrist just behind the cuff of my glove - so for that kind of thing I now use a pair of golves w/a longer gauntlet.

I also take my wedding ring off & put it in by mechanic chest when working in the shop on heavy stuff.

@ work, one of the top 5 construction companies in the US, the safety innitiative this year is hand safety - something like 80% of our medical treatment cases are hand injuries so now everyone must have gloves with them @ all times. They project this will save many hundred thousand $'s a year not to mention having workers go home the way they came to work.

[davitk]

Originally Posted by TwinWillows

I also take my wedding ring off & put it in by mechanic chest when working in the shop on heavy stuff.

I wear my wedding ring probably three times a year and tell the wife it's so I can hit on the hot chicks at the lumber yard (I am a carpenter by trade and proudly sport ten complete digits)

[Deere Hunter]

I wear gloves for the most part as well. I recently bought a pair of the Mechanix-type gloves with the leather padded palm, and rubber padding at the knucles. Being the type that when I touch a wrench, my knuckles will bleed, I love these things. Of course, they are extremely tight-fitting, as I buy the proper size, but unlike my leather work gloves, I can actually work with nuts and bolts, button my jacket/shirt, etc. Very nice gloves, but sorta expensive.

And, the Stihl and I did this over the past two evenings, five 16' trailers of branches along with a truckload of firewood, with the Mechanix gloves on.



The only parts of me that aren't scratched to pieces are my hands. Durn a live oak branch. I can now cut the grass under them with the finish mower.

[Beavis]

Originally Posted by PaulChristenson

Gloves will not protect against a Hydraulic Injection Injury
Finger that has been lanced in attempt to save the finger and the hand. The injury was caused by a high - pressure injection of hydraulic fluid. If there is a pinhole leak in the hydraulic line and someone runs there hand along it, at 2000 psi, they can easily incur and injection of hydraulic fluid and may not even be aware that it happened until gangrene begins to set in. Use cardboard held above the line to check for leaks.

OMG...I didn't need to see that.