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Thread: wearing gloves when using machinery

  1. #16
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    I wear gloves during cold weather in my shop without issues (so far, cross my fingers) because I don't like numbness, which is worse than wearing gloves. Gloves provide a level of protection but you guys sticking your fingers into a saw blade, with it or without gloves, are going to get hurt.

  2. #17
    My rationale has always been that if I am wearing thin, tight gloves then if my hand is close enough to the ouchie spinny to be a problem with the gloves then that is the problem--not the gloves I am wearing. Gloves are not a substitute for push sticks, push blocks, and common sense.

    It's interesting to me that there is a plurality of opinion. I was afraid I was violating some cardinal rule and just did not understand how.

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Günter VögelBerg View Post
    ...there is a plurality of opinion. I was afraid I was violating some cardinal rule...
    You are breaking a cardinal rule, but you have company.
    "Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're doing."

  4. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by andy bessette View Post
    You are breaking a cardinal rule, but you have company.
    The thing is, though, with safety there are rules that you just follow. You wear eye protection. You wear ear protection. You use push sticks. To me, after that it is about common sense. I just needed a smell test on my common sense.

  5. #20
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    I am not "generally" in favor of wearing gloves while woodworking and around machinery. I do occasionally make an exception when I'm face jointing certain rough boards where I need to protect my hands from splinters while pushing things through but I exercise extreme caution when doing so. These are always wide boards, too...not something narrow and my hands are only on top of the board; never hanging over. (These are boards where push blocks are just not doing the job)
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  6. #21
    Perhaps there is a slightly increased risk of a pull-into-the-tool injury with gloves on (versus without). That seems indisputable.

    Perhaps there is also an unintentional risk compensation element (ie - when you're wearing gloves, you feel a little "protected" and less careful). I, personally, am much more worried about this.

  7. #22
    I wear gloves running my big buffer that has wire wheels on it. Didn't use to, but that thing takes skin off fast.

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darcy Warner View Post
    I wear gloves running my big buffer that has wire wheels on it. Didn't use to, but that thing takes skin off fast.
    Same thing with edge sanders. Dave

  9. #24
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    Many opinions. I’m a no-glove guy.
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  10. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by David Kumm View Post
    Same thing with edge sanders. Dave
    Nothing will help you on my 37" disc sander.

  11. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Günter VögelBerg View Post
    The thing is, though, with safety there are rules that you just follow. You wear eye protection. You wear ear protection. You use push sticks. To me, after that it is about common sense. I just needed a smell test on my common sense.
    Hand injuries are my (big) company's number one cause of lost time incidents. A relatively new policy requires anyone on our job/work sites to wear approved impact-resistant gloves. Period. (No gloves? Don't get out of the truck.) You can remove them for short duration IF and where a fine tactile action is required (i.e. pencil/keypad/touchscreen), then they go back on. I did the typical "never-a-glove-on-my-hand-to-pull-me-in" cringe when they announced the policy, but you can't argue with the results. Hand injuries are down - both severity and count.

    Typical injuries are crush or severe abrasions. The gloves are surprisingly resistant. I haven't seen any studies of why they help, but abrasions seems obvious, and I suspect the glove gives a few extra microseconds to withdraw a hand - maybe sliding inside the glove for a crush type incident?

    That said, we are not in the woodworking business, and maybe this is not a fair comparison with no whirling 10" open-faced carbides. If we did need to get as close to a spinning blade as a table saw requires, the Safety Dept would go bananas and we'd probably have something other than a table saw delivered in 20 minutes. Even processes that involve rotating equipment have been amended to get people out of the line of fire and/or hands off the equipment. (Good example is lifting a piece of equipment: Never put a hand on it, gloved or otherwise - - only contact allowed is via tagline.)

    In my workshop I don't typically wear gloves, but the next time a KD Red Oak splinter goes into the web between my thumb and fore-finger, stopping just 1/16" from my heart, I'm thinking I'll wear gloves from then on. The reality is if a glove can worsen the injury, I had the wrong tooling setup. The setup should have prevented ANY injury. (For the business owners here, who'd allow an employee to free-hand a cut on a Bridgeport?? But we do it on a drill-press w/o a 2nd thought.)

    Food for thought. ....Soapbox is now on the burn pile. Carry on.

  12. #27
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    The one exception could be when using the belt, disc, or other exposed sander, but otherwise do not wear gloves. I also never wear long sleeves when working around machinery.

  13. #28
    This is hard to believe, but it is true....... I know a good machinist who was fired because he got injured and was NOT wearing gloves. He'd been with the company 20 years. A few months before his accident a large firm bought the company. It was their policy that gloves were required for what he was doing and they had zero tolerance when they found he wasnt wearing them. The day he came back to work after healing, they fired him for not complying. He appealed but was unsuccessful.

    (It didnt sound like age discrimination or that he was paid too much.)
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  14. #29
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    According to OSHA, no:

    From- Guide for Protecting Workers from Woodworking Hazards

    Protective gloves are the primary means available for direct hand protection. Extra-long gauntlets or sleeves attached to the gloves can extend protection up the arm. However, the appropriateness of glove use in the woodworking workplace should be carefully reviewed on a task-by-task basis. Gloves should not be worn when operating woodworking equipment due to the potential for getting caught in moving parts.

  15. #30
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    May 2013
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Friedrichs View Post
    Interesting. I always wear tight fitting gloves (not nitrile - more like Ansell Hyflex) when machining, but I'm extremely careful to not have my hands anywhere near the cutters. Is that poor practice?

    I am the same. my hands are always far away from blade/cutterblock, if I am very very close to the blade, I dont wear gloves.

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