Gloves and Grinders – UNSAFE OSHA

Never operate any rotating tool with gloves.

"If there is a worse combination than grinders and gloves, I don't know what it is..."

I can think of a few; milling machines, lathes...

How about a lathe starting up when you have both hands on the chuck key. I was rather lucky that day.

Beards should not be worn when operating large hand drills, as testified by my friend "Patchy".

I can't think of any activity where wearing gloves would not be a hazard. Maybe driving a race car.

I can't think of any activity where wearing gloves would not be a hazard. Maybe driving a race car

ronseto.

Driving a race car with gloves has its hazards also, during an ARCA race at Atlanta Motor Speedway a driver was killed because of his gloves.

At the start of the race going into turn one the strap at the top of his gauntlet style of glove caught on the single connector latch on his seat belts, as he turned left it pulled the latch releasing his seat belts.

Well if that wasn't bad enough the tragedy unfolding was a wreck in turn two, the driver without seat-belts and his left glove strap hung on the seatbelt release couldn't control his car as he entered the wreck sending him head-on into the turn two wall.

You have probably figured it out by now, the head-on impact with no seat-belts to hold the driver allowed his body to continue as the car stopped, it wasn't a pretty site. This took place before the invention of the HAUNS DEVICE but it would have been of no help in this incidence.

Since this time I have past this on to any driver I see with gauntlet style driving gloves.

Not to be too anal, but NASCAR, and most professional racecar drivers, are required to wear fire retardant gloves, shoes, head cover, underwear and fire suit.

And, it's HANS device. (Head And Neck Safety) device. HANS device

I wear gloves when driving, doing yard work, mowing, weed whacking, digging, shoveling and even running a chain saw.

I can't think of any rotating power tools I use with gloves.

Well Lynn, now that you have beaten me up I'll be glade to add the information not pertaining to the point.

The Race was at Atlanta Motor Speedway during the mid nineties, this was before Dale Seniors wreck at Daytona and the HANS was not a required piece of equipment. You are 100% correct on the fire resistant Drivers Suit, Gloves, Shoes, etc..

There was several choices at the time on the style of gloves worn, you had the high top gauntlet style that came mid way up the arm and you had the more common wrist style of glove.

You had two styles of seat belts being used, the American style that latches at the waist level and the English style that latches at mid chest (this was before the Camlock and may have had something to do with the development of it ).

It was unfortunate for this young driver the combination he chose to use, and I'm sure the stars had to be aligned just right or maybe just wrong.

Lynn, I was there, my car developed engine problems so I worked as a right front tire changer for Norm Benning.

Thanks for that.

Wasn't intending to beat you up.

Yes. No gloves and a grinder- specifically a 5" angle grinder with a typical abrasive wheel. I still have scars on one knuckle where it was tagged when I wasn't wearing a glove. I've also thrown out many gloves that have been hit by the wheel, and occasionally cut through- all those healed up. Not to mention that I still have fingerprints because the leather stopped me from burning my hands on hot metal (especially after welding).

You're obviously talking about larger, stationary equipment but the sensationalist heading doesn't help. This is an engineering forum, not a tabloid. And please quantify which is more dangerous on a 6" bench grinder with the toolrest set a proper 1/8" maximum from the wheel- gloves or no gloves?

I have less scars on my hand because I had gloves on a 4-1/2 grinder. But I lost a thumb nail when I was 16 wearing gloves on a bench grinder

Redundant post removed. Milo

I know this is an engineering forum, I have been posting here since 2006.

The title is factual and quite frankly, comes up on page one of Google whether one searches for Gloves and Grinders, Gloves unsafe OSHA, or Grinders unsafe OSHA. Or the whole doggone title. That's pretty good results for a single line of typing.

I have hundreds of such page one topics on Google. I'll continue to title my blog posts to drive reader interest, search engine optimization and knowledge retention.

No one is arguing about suitability of leather gloves for welding.

But if one is grinding a tool this blog is focused on precision machining) and the tool gets too hot to hold, the temper has already been ruined and perhaps the microstructure.

From your experiences, I would say that you are one lucky dude.

And had I seen any of those occurrences when I was lab foreman by one of my crew, I would have sent them home. Retraining on their next scheduled day of work.

Safety is serious.

Lack of safety is deadly.

No appeal in Darwin's court.

Milo

Neckties would be worse.

long hair also.. (excessively long hair).

^{some of us that are follicle challenged don't have that problem...}

I recall an employer telling me about a guy with long hair who years earlier had a large part of his scalp ripped off because he neglected to tie his hair back back while working near the belt driven equipment.

It may have been the birth of OSHA.

-Ralph

I have cut off some fingertips.. but they grow back. I've hit many of my bones with a blade at one point... On one frightening occasion had the stitching removed from my left hand leather glove in a millisecond by the huge pneumatically actuated (it came towards me when I pressed the button) table saw I was using to to cut down truck loads of rough cut oak planks. I didn't realize the damage until my glove just flapped open leaving only the wrist band in tact... It was better than a double shot of espresso.

I don't wear gloves near grinders, drills or lathes but I do wear out a lot of gloves! Handling split wood, or rocks will wear through your skin in no time without them. I also wear them when I use my chain saw...there is no excuse for getting your hand gloved or not near a running blade! One of the first things our high school machine shop teacher told us was to never wear loose clothing, ties, etc. near roatating machines. He always wore a bow tie. He also lectured us on jewelry, which I never wear anywhere since I always seem to be doing something that it could get caught on.

Yep. I'm a manual laborer. No wedding ring, and I only wear a watch with the twistoflex band.

There are times when hard hats are absolutely essential.There's no telling how many of these guys would be dead without them.

In the proper environments the correct safety gear is very important.

Hard hats are great in environments where there is a lot of construction or other such activity above you were an object could fall and hit you in the head.

Standing in an open street holding a stop sign while directing traffic is just not one place noted for serious head injury incidences.

High visibility reflective clothing yes. Hard hat not so much.

RIght gear for the right conditions at hand is what I am saying.

Yeah, I was being sarcastic. I think there's a pretty slim chance of being on a road crew and having something fall on their heads.

Unfortunately I see far too many on the job injuries that come directly from our supposed safety gear and safety procedures

I can see that, back in the 70's and 80's and good example is a few table saw guard designs that come with the table saw. It solved one issue and created (2) more.

I am somewhat pleased that they addressed this with better designs.

My first week on the job in the blast furnace cast house as a high school senior a pipe wrench was dropped by some pipefitters working above me. Hard hat (fiberglass) took the blow. Had it hit my shoulder I would probably still be crippled up.

Milo

As far as our hard hats go don't get me started on those either. They are great for collecting our stickers on but to be honest I seriously doubt that thin piece of hard plastic is going to do anything against.....

The interesting thing from OSHA about having stickers on your hard had is that it's not allowed. You need to inspect the hard hat for cracks and such.

And I'll give you one guess, and one guess only on who the biggest offend of this is.

Oh wait a sec... I have to give you a hint since you are from South Dakota.

^{(South Dakota, do you need a passport when you visit that country?)}

Um...... One state off? I'm in NORTH Dakota. That lowest part of Canada as most americans know us.

BTW if there is a crack on the outside it's usually visible from the inside as well.

So you're saying you do need a passport... Right?

Only if you want to come in or leave from the North side.

When we design machinery we do a safety risk assessment and score each activity or process step on three criteria:

a - frequency of occurrence (of the action)

b - likely hood of some kind of safety failure

c - potential injury to the person(s) involved.

Level of risk = a*b*c, and a,b,c cannot = 0. The lowest I've seen is 0.03. The level where some corrective action is needed is usually around the middle of the range. The actual numbers are customer specific for us.

It's an standard approach used worldwide in all industries.

I see lots of instances where the rarity of something actually happening (a & b very small) is completely trumped by the potential injury (death, permanent disability or dismemberment). Note that losing a single minor appendage (finger) is not considered a very serious injury. Bumps and bruises barely register.

So if there was a fire where you work how high would you score the potential injury?

In my younger days, when working in the logging environment, I learned to wear suspenders to keep my pants up so I could step quickly, and to cut the seam off at my cuffs so the material would rip if caught. In 50 years in the trades the only times I've found gloves useful is when operating a 9" spade or wheelbarrow after being on sabbatical and having no callouses, or when welding. For everything else they prevent feeling, much like wearing a condom, there might be times when they are a good idea.

In my 50 years working in the shipbuilding business, my hardhat looks like it went through the war. I can imagine how my head would look like if I didn't wear a hardhat.

Regardless of what the notorious North Dakota tire burner says hard hat areas are a good thing. So are other types of personal safety devices. Very few are specified by MBAs.

It's ridiculous to think that a workman will say to himself, "I'm going to go back to my pickup truck and put my hard hat on now because I'm about to walk under that crane, that is inside the fenced-in hard-hat area where I work.

You can make fun of safety rules, but it's kinda like wearing a seat belt. Very few people get killed in a car wreck because they were wearing a seat belt.

Leave your macho at the fence.

I'm not saying safety all safety rules and regulations are dumb. What I am saying is that far too many are implemented wrongly for the wrong reason by the wrong people.

Personally I do my best to use the correct safety gear for the conditions at hand but I have a huge dislike fore being encumbered and outrightly hindered in my work by unnecessary safety gear that serves no practical purpose for the conditions at hand.

The thing is if you ask some desk jockey about work place safety they will say you can never be too safe. Now if you ask a person who actually spend his day out in the actual live working environment he will give you a very long list of where being too safe has caused more harm than it ever prevented.

to guard against all things unsafe is impossible.

What you can do is reduce injury occurrence that is satisfactory.

Now how do we measure satisfactory....

kind of like the political definition between a recession and a depression.

Recession is when your neighbor is out of work, and depression is when you're out of work.

I know. I don't doubt that you are a safe worker.

I'd lay the blame squarely at the feet of the ambulance chasers of the modern world, more so than the desk jockeys.

Lawyers would prosecute their own mother if there was a buck in it for them.

I'd say that the single most important piece of common safety gear are glasses.

I agree that lots of mandated safety equipment is safety neutral if not a liability.

Blame the lawyers.

Wearing leather gloves while welding is a good thing, although I still have some minor burn scars by my wrist where some tiny molten drops fell into the glove while trying to weld overhead. (Remember, I'm an electrical engineer, not a welder. But I hack at just about everything.)

Welding, I run left hand gloved, right free, as the left helps guide the torch head.

While welding in some enclosed spaces, I get more burns from wearing gloves than without, as you said, by molten sparks dropping in to the gloves and burning your wrists, in those times, I wear no gloves.