EsNred... the carpenters gloves you speak of are designed so that the user can hold a nail easier for hammering. Had I been wearing those, I still would have lost my thumb as there is no protection there. My hands are pretty thick with muscle (I AM a retired sideshow strongman act performer) and I fill a standard heavy duty leather workglove pretty well. I buy them cheap by the dozen... no sense spending extra money for something that, after providing necessary protection, will get thrown away. Gardening gloves? You gotta be kidding! I don't even use them for GARDENING! There's nothing better than getting your hands thick with earth. But for my shop, where I assume everything is a potential deadly weapon, I wear protection. And, Mickey (love the 'stache BTW), just imagine what your hands would look like if you didn't wear gloves while working with rough splintery wood! It took me a while to get used to certain things while wearing gloves. Holding a hammer, hitting switches, etc. It used to feel "unnatural", but I got used to it and love my gloves every time I use them. As a body piercer (16 years exp) putting gloves on is second nature, like breathing.

Nippulini- exactly. You were wearing the right gloves for the job. My carpenters gloves protect me from splinters, and minor scratches and cuts when I'm working on cabinetry- and I pull out the leather gloves as well when I work with metal.

Safety glasses and hearing protection are a must at all times. The face shield comes out for the dremel and the router, or any job where sparks or wood chunks start flying. Sanding or long stretches of cutting involve adding a N95 filter mask to the mix. (And I hook up all my tools to the shop vac anyway, since it makes cleanup easier.)

As you already said- know where the switches are, and where the first aid kit is, before you start. And always wear the right gear for the job.

-Erik

I'm a member of the no-glove school of thought when it comes to most power tools. In Nippulini's case, since he was holding the grinder and the workpiece was stationary, gloves were both advisable and prudent; had the grinder been stationary and the workpiece hand-held, however, gloves would certainly have been inappropriate.

In my experience, that's been a good rule of thumb (two thumbs in fact, since my are still attached): Do not approach large, rotating masses (grinding wheels, lathes, shapers, saws, drill bits, etc.) with loose or protruding clothing, hair, jewellery...or gloves.

FWIW,
Leland

Heavy work gloves are fine for use with many portable power tools, such as angle grinders, chainsaws, etc, but it is VERY important for anyone who has the slightest interest in working with STATIONARY power tools to know that wearing gloves while doing so is horribly dangerous. [a “stationary power tool” would be a drill press, milling machine, table saw, radial arm saw, lathe and any other typical free-standing wood- or metal-working machine]

No one has to take my word for it. This link will take the reader to a bulletin from the National Agricultural Safety Database, which reads (in part):

HERE [link] you can find a training sheet from the Occupational Health & Safety department of the University of Delaware, wherein they stress to NEVER wear gloves while using at table saw, radial arm saw or a band saw.

HERE [link], at a Shawano, Wisconsin school district “Safety Rules for SCHS Building Trades Program” they stress to ” Never wear gloves when operating a drill press”. All the competent drill press users I know follow this rule religiously, and now apparently this something that is even being taught to schoolchildren.

Finally, in their Small Business Safety and Health Management Bulletin Series, OSHA (the Occupational Safety & Health Administration division of the U.S. Department of Labor) has some very strong things to say against wearing gloves while using stationary power tools, such as:
They give the same instructions for band saws, milling machines, and other stationary power tools (again, don’t take my word for it; follow THIS link and run a search for the word “gloves”).

Those are just a few examples of what every safety-conscious user of stationary power tools knows (or should know):

Never, never, never wear gloves when operating stationary power tools. The machines weigh too much and their motors are too powerful for you to stop with your own strength, should one of your gloves get caught up in the blade or bit. This is safety advice that virtually ALL competent shop workers know and follow.

Just for fun, all you would-be prop builders should Google "glove caught in machinery" or "machinery caught accident". For specific OSHA stuff Google "OSHA caught accident". Let us know if you think “thegreatnippulini” is correct when he says I’m wrong about the dangers of wearing gloves while using stationary power tools.

Here, by the way, is a small sampling of what you will find in that Google search:

"A maintenance worker was busy scrubbing and spraying down the extruder intake hopper whenhis glove became caught in the rotating rolling pins (Photo 1). The rollers slowly sucked in his glove, fingers, hand, and eventually his arm, up to the mid-bicep. The wound was so grave his arm was ultimately amputated."

"A machine operator died when his glove caught in the wire that was being spooled onto a drum of a wire-drawing machine. The victim was pulled between the drum and the machine housing.”

"Drilling a pole, drill bit caught leather glove- fracture little finger."

"Using picking tool on sorting table, glove got caught in picker. Amputation right index finger."

"His hand got just a bit too close to the spinning wheel. His glove got caught and his hand got sucked into the chopper. There was no shut off switch close by. A fellow deckhand heard the scream and ran over to shut off the bait chopper. By that time, Brian had lost his thumb and about half of his hand."

"As the plate was fed in a razor sharp, needle pointed shear "spike" (Where the
shears took a double cut) about three inches long, lying close enough to the
edge to escape notice, caught the wrist band of the man's glove.
I watched from thirty feet away, and in the time it took me to react, and
cross the intervening distance, the plate pulled him in THROUGH the guard and
pulled his hand, his arm AND the crumpled remains of the guard and it's angle iron
frame inexorably into the zero gap between the roll and the plate.
I reached him and punched the "Big Red One" as his shoulder and chest started to
crunch and collapse. During all this time he didn't utter a sound and his mate,
around the other side of the plate was totally unaware of any problem until he
came around to see why the machine had stopped!
As I hit the stop I grabbed him to prevent him from falling as he lost
consciousness. My job, for the next 40 minutes, was to hold him upright as the
millwrights tore the machine apart to free him. For twenty of those minutes I
listened to the crackling, gurgling of his slowing breathing, in and out of his
half crushed chest. For the remaining twenty minutes I gently cradled a dead man to stop his face from getting all dirty."

‘Nuff said?

TW

So glad to see you back.

Thank you. I really only stepped in to make sure everyone understood the difference between stationary power tools and portable power tools

I always wear heavy leather gloves when using an angle grinder, chainsaw, or any number of other portable tools (though never with a 3hp router, and rarely with a 1/2hp drill or similar rotary-type tools). In many of those instances the use of heavy gloves is prudent and only makes good sense, but must always be weighed against the dangers of being pulled into the work [if a glove gets caught by a rotating tool].

Importantly, the myriad of inexperienced tool users who come to this forum for advice need to be made aware of the extreme danger in wearing gloves when using most stationary power tools. All expert advice available makes it clear that we should NEVER wear gloves while using a drill press, lathe, table saw, radial arm saw, milling machine, stationary grinder, stationary belt sander, or many other stationary tools. The potential consequences - as I noted earlier - are too grave to be offset by what little "protection" gloves could offer.

I've spent a lifetime using tools. In the early 70's I served an apprenticeship with an internationally known knife maker, and later owned a large cabinet shop. I've spent many, many hours in friends' blacksmith shops, machine shops, and automoive repair shops. My own shop has iterations of almost every tool known to man and I've made my living for more than three decades with machinery, my hands, and my imagination.

Before I started my first business (cabinet shop) I drove ambulance (EMT 3) for three years in a county whose industries were fishing, logging, sawmills and pulpmills. I've seen a disproportionate number of catastrophic injuries resulting from the use (and misuse) of tools and machinery, and I know for a fact that I don't ever want to have a personal experience of that nature.

TW

Excellent points and a ALWAYS appreciated reminders of safety guys!

Nippulini,
Backatca on the 'stache man!

Mick

Thanks for taking the issue seriously, Thomas. You may have just saved a few fingers around the globe.

John

I stand corrected and humbled. I guess I'm lucky the strap broke on my carpentry gloves so that I didn't wear them last time I was building something in my workshop.

I now know to not wear gloves when using stationary tools. I'll just need to be more careful so I don't get splinters when using my table saw to cut cheap plywood.

-Erik