Do you wear gloves?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

This guy does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wngBr-seHaI&feature=related

Toward the end of the process he hits the lathe and is wearing heavy knit gloves.

I can sort of understand the reason: splinters in the event of a shattered bowl might cause one to consider hand protection.

What about getting caught in the spinning object.
I know of one guy (a surgeon) who lost fingers because the table saw blade caught the leather gloves he wore to protect his delicate skin.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Cliff,

A lot of turners wear a fingerless glove primarily if they are turning dry hard wood. The chips/curls/dust that comes off of dry hard wood can be hot and burn/irritate the back of one's hand.

But generally, it is not recommended.

[Richard Madison]

All gloves are not created equal. In general gloves for shop work should be thin, smooth, and tight fitting. They should give some protection while being little more than an extra layer of skin, unlikely to catch or be caught. Most gloves do not meet these requirements, and their use for turning would be ill advised.

[Mike Spanbauer]

Yes, ANY loose clothing around ww'ing machinery is a big no-no. The only types I use for some operations are the newer "mechanics" style that fit very snugly. There are NO loose flaps, or extra material to get caught.

mike

[ROY DICK]

I wear fingerless leathers gloves while turning in the shop.
Some do and some don't.

Roy

[Bernie Weishapl]

I do wear gloves. I use fingerless weight lifting gloves when turning. Never had a problem.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Wear tight buckskin gloves; left hand only for regular turning, both gloves when hollowing.

[Dave Schell]

I wear full finger tight fitting mechanics gloves too. Don't really see the point of fingerless gloves since it's the fingers that I think are most vulnerable to injury. But I definately wouldn't recommend the kind of gloves the fellow is wearing in the video - those are pretty bulky and meant for handling chemicals I believe.

By the way, a surgeon using a table saw? Talk about messing with your livelihood! Seems like the ultimate justification for purchasing a SawStop.

[Reed Gray]

One reason I use scrapers for roughing out bowls is because the shavings are sent more up and over the top of my hands rather than across the top when I use a gouge. I asked Stewart Batty about that, and he said, instead of using a top grip with your left hand, use an underhanded grip. It works, but I still prefer scrapers. I had thought about gloves, but never needed them for anything other than bowls.

robo hippy

[alex carey]

I never wear gloves and I don't think I ever will, if they ever get stuck thats pretty much the end right there.

[Kim Ford]

Tight fitting brown cotton jersey gloves for everything I do working with wood. Grew up doing it that way because my Dad did the same thing and I feel naked without them. I've never had a problem.

[Yitah Wu]

I wear blue nitrile gloves. The kind the doctors use, though I think mine were for food service or janitors. HF sells them but I go through so many I got a case from Ebay. I think the case was $40 including shipping (for approx 1000 gloves)

They give you really good grip on smooth wood, protect against splinters and you don't feel them at all. Also good for applying finishes with a rag. Also keep your hands warm (warmer than nothing) in the garage.

Also used for pulling poison ivy, cleaning bicycle chains, scrubbing toilets, polishing metal, staining the deck, and the occasional prostate exam.

[Ken Glass]

I wear gloves every time I turn. I use tight fitting deer skin gloves on both hands for protection and grip.

[Paul Engle]

Bob's got the right idea, especally around chemicals. I use 'em also ,but not for turning. The tool rest hand most likely could use the most protection though and maybe a good idea, but generally all the time you are working you would really have to train your self to be conscious of the " catch and grab " problem they could present if you were not focused ...

[Wally Dickerman]

When turning dry wood for a bowl or HF I use golf gloves. You don't buy them in a pair because golfers just use them on one hand..some are lefties though.

The under handed grip works well but that doesn't help when the tool gets too hot to hold.

When bowl turning, your hand should never get past the tool rest. Even a bare hand can get pinched between the rest and the wood. That's a major owie.

Wally

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I never use a glove when turning, though at times those bark pieces can sting pretty good.

Still it hurts less than a hand pulled in or under by a careless move of your hand where the wood can grab it a hook onto it, and the "never had a problem before" is what the guy says they are carrying into the emergency at Hospital, goes right with the "Me get hurt ?, I done this a thousand times before, and goes out on a stretcher"

Hope you never had or will have the experience I had, where the emery cloth just doubled and almost ripped my right hand thumb off of my hand, as I picked the cloth back up after this happened a glanced at my thumb, and only then realized the seriousness of what happened, it took 11 stitches and I was just lucky it didn't rip my thumb right off, oh I was lapping a shaft end at a tannery when this did happen.

The point I try to make is that it happens so fast you don't even realize it, and it hurts a lot more than the stinging wood shavings, guaranteed :rolleyes: :(

[curtis rosche]

i dont wear gloves. i find that if the wood is making hot enough chips to burn my hand, that i cant push hard on the tool anyways, so i just use a couple fingers holding it from below

[neil mackay]

I am primarily a right handed turner, although I do swap hands as when its needed.So I wear glove on my left hand with the first two finger joints exposed.Mainly for heat protection as I do a fair bit of dry wood turning especially burls. Dry burls will produce very hot chips etc and a steady stream will produce burns.

[Jeff Nicol]

I wear the leather palmed mechanics gloves when turning hard dry wood and I use some that I get at HF that are a knitted gray cotton/poly elastisized with a yellow rubber palm. These breath well and the palms with the rubber on it absorb some vibration and when turning wet wood they don't get slippery. They fit very snug to the hand so no problems there. But most of the time I wear none as I like to feel the wood as soon as the lathe is stopped.

Jeff

[Eugene Wigley]

+1 for mechanics gloves. They work great for me. I only use them when rough turning.

[John King]

I wear blue nitrile gloves. The kind the doctors use, though I think mine were for food service or janitors. HF sells them but I go through so many I got a case from Ebay. I think the case was $40 including shipping (for approx 1000 gloves)

They give you really good grip on smooth wood, protect against splinters and you don't feel them at all. Also good for applying finishes with a rag. Also keep your hands warm (warmer than nothing) in the garage.

Also used for pulling poison ivy, cleaning bicycle chains, scrubbing toilets, polishing metal, staining the deck, and the occasional prostate exam.

Bob - My experience is that the nitrile gloves are by far the worst at catching and grabbing fingers when turning. The soft nitrile just seems to almost get stuck to the wood. In my opinion, nitrile gloves should never be used around any rotating equipment. - John

[Cody Colston]

When I first started turning, I bought a pair of fingerless gloves because the chips coming off the gouge were really doing a number on the edge/meaty part of my left hand. They were hot and sometimes felt like bb's hitting my hand.

Now, though, when that happens I just sharpen the gouge, cool it with water and get back at it. I still have the gloves but don't ever wear either of them.

[Mark Patoka]

I use the tighter fitting mechanics gloves also to protect from the hot shavings. Just need to be extra careful like anything else when around the spinny stuff.

[Cyril Griesbach]

Tight golf glove, left hand only for me.

[scott schmidt grasshopper]

I wear a velcroed mechanic's glove on the left hand when turning but only for roughing out blanks removing bark and green wood in large portions and also all the water in the wood makes my hands painful without the glove, I can also shield/redirect the chips/shavings away from my face and body. I wear a latexglove under the mechanics when turning black walnut and other high tannin woods to keep from staining or worse yet sensatizing myself to the wood. For the last cuts of a more delicate nature I remove the glove. I make sure I never touch the turning wood with it and remove it when I gauge thickness while inside turning. good luck scott

[Steve Trauthwein]

The caveat for rotating machinery is no material that can be caught and bring your body with it. Having said that, finish turning a dry piece can burn your skin when the shavings hit just right.

Except for hot shavings I don't see any reason to wear gloves, unless maybe you are a hand model. I did see a pro, at a demo, totally defeat hot shavings with a piece of gum. He stuck it in the groove of his gouge and it deflected the shavings from his hand. A piece of tape would work also.

Still not wearing gloves in Missouri, Steve

[Frank Kobilsek]

Like Wally I wear golf glove on left hand for most of my turning. Cheapest golf glove they sell at Wal Mart works fine and last me 6 to 8 months.

Back when I was a woodcarver I ran a skew gouge threw my left index finger. Yep threw, in one side and out the other. It recovered functionally but some nerv damage makes it feel like a million biting ants are attacking that finger when I turn with out the glove.

Frank

[Anthony Penchetta]

I wear a tight left hand leather glove only, been wearing it so long, it feels akward to turn without it.

[Keith Albertson]

While I'm a newbie to woodturning and read this forum daily, I'm excited to finally have something constructive to add to a thread. Unfortunately, I've had lots of experience with woodworking injuries. I'm an orthopaedic surgeon, and have spent many hours piecing together other woodworkers' mistakes. Two common remarks, no matter what the injury or tool involved:
1. "It happened so fast......"
2. "That's never happened before..."

While table saw accidents can be horrible, the worst accidents in my experience are caused by spinning tools. For example, drill bits love to catch tendons. More to the point, I've seen a machinist end up with a worthless arm after getting his hand caught in his lathe. He was wearing gloves, they got snagged, and his life changed in a second. Last year I pinned three shattered fingers that got spun around a drill press inside a glove.

If you are lucky, the glove will rip if it catches before your fingers sustain the machine's full torque. But most gloves are strong. Stronger than your tissue. In the two examples above, both patients would have sustained a bad injury no matter what, but the gloves made things substantially worse by pulling the whole hand into the machine.

As a woodworker who has treated lots of shop injuries,I strongly recommend against gloves, long sleeves, jewelry (I take off my watch and wedding ring), hoodie sweatshirts with dangling drawstrings, long hair, i-pod ear-buds, reading glasses hanging on croakies, wallets attached to belts with a dangling chain, and anything else that can get snagged in a heartbeat. Now, as an orthopaedic surgeon trying to pay his kids' college tuitions, maybe I shouldn't be discouraging business!!!

PS: My Sawstop is on order...

[Mac Carlton]

I don't wear gloves, I would rather have splinters , scares and all of my fingers ,hands and arms.
accidents are going to happen; no need to cause one, if you don't need to.