RE: "how many ... have caught their wedding ring,THAT HURTS"
My father lost his ring finger at the knuckle in a fall from a ladder. Tried to catch himself. His ring caught and stayed along with half the finger, the rest of him fell.
I think of that every time I feel my ring touch the rungs of a ladder. However, I am more afraid of losing the ring, so I never take it off
I think good work gloves prevent many minor injuries at the cost of a slight increased chance in causing major injuries around large moving machinery like ag augers and tractor PTO's. Probably not a lot of benefit to wearing gloves around table saws. As posted, I agree that they are not a good idea while machining metal but ARE a very good idea in sheet metal fabrication.
I agree with the other poster who mentioned that the glove will pull you in to a big machine and not get pulled off your hand. As they get pulled, gloves tend to constrict around your hand and wrist. Instead of losing some skin, your whole hanbd or arm gets pulled in. Also, you might not notice you are touching the moving machinery as quickly, getting more involved with it before you jerk your hand back.
I tend to prefer fairly snug fitting deerskin gloves. They wear out faster than cowhide or pigskin, but they stretch more to fit better and are still useful after they get wet.
Checmicals are something to really take precautions with. The skin on my left thumb has never been the same after having come into contact with some vinyl floor remover (MEK, I think).
Here in MN, you learn to work on vehicles and equipment without taking your gloves off in the winter. It is amazing how cold your hands get holding onto a metal wrench or touching a 10 deg F engine block. I can easily deal with nuts and bolts down to #6 or so with leather gloves on without a problem.
I have had the thought that NASA should recruit astronauts for space-walk repairs who grew up in cold climates because they would be experts at doing things with gloves on.
- Rick
