Do you wear gloves doing mechanic work?

37chief · Dec 9, 2011

Sitting here looking at my hands, and counted 12 places where I have removed skin in the past or week or so, some small and healing good, others freshly made. Just today cleaning my shop I came home with two more leaks. My skin is about as tuff toilet paper, don't take much to remove it. I try to wear golves now, but there are times I forget, or can't find them. I found the gloves called mechanic golves are about the best for me. What do you use, if any. Stan

Bob Huntress · Dec 9, 2011

No, I don't. I don't like how when I'm trying to work small parts and pieces, the gloves just make the parts harder to handle with accuracy. Imagine trying to start small screws with gloves. Some people love them, but not me.

ben(tn) · Dec 9, 2011

if i put gloves on just as well blind fold me

Hobo,NC · Dec 9, 2011

Yes ,,, You never know were those cars have been... When its 70 are lower I ware latex,,, when its above I sweat to bad but use them on brake jobs and such year round... I still gets cuts with gloves on tho... Once I got use to them most of the time I work better with them...

Buster · Dec 9, 2011

I will wear gloves when using a die grinder or needle scaler but most of the time I don't, can't feel what I'm doing. Sometime when I go to the shop I think I should just grab the hammer and give my hand a lick and then go to work! Going to get hurt anyway.

Stephen Newell · Dec 9, 2011

Every time I use gloves for that purpose, I end up taking them off because they are too clumsy. I do use latex exam gloves to keep my hand cleaner.

LJD · Dec 9, 2011

I've never been able to work at anything wearing gloves . . . especially turning wrenches.

A few years back, I was helping a farmer-neighbor with post-emergence crop spraying (he's licensed, I'm not). He gave me a bunch of those thin surgical gloves and told me to wear about 6 layers on each hand. Then when contaminated, I could just peel one layer off at a time and have a fresh clean layer exposed. Well, first morning I guess I had drank too much coffee. Every time I had to take a leak I peeled of one layer (to be safe if you know what I mean). I ran out of gloves pretty d*m fast. I guess I'm never be a good spray technician.

NCWayne · Dec 9, 2011

Right now I can count about a dozen skint places on my hands varying from the fresh to the nearly healed. For that reason alone I've tried over the years to wear them but like another post said it's almost as bad as trying to work blindfolded. Even so I do tend to wear the brown jersey gloves or something similar during the winter when it's so cold I can't hardly feel my fingers, and I also wear the nitrile gloves on occasion for things like brake work, etc. In the end even though gloves are a great thing to protect your hands I will always preffer the benefits of the bare hand...but I wouldn't give up my comfortable boots and go barefoot for anything...LOL

Spook · Dec 9, 2011

I didn't use to, but 2 things changed my mind - one was that since I am on BP meds, any little cut means I bleed like a stuck pig. And I noticed that the pro mechanics that I know always wear them. They told me that the fluids in a vehicle are much different than the old days. A lot more additives, and none of that stuff is good for you.

Bob Bancroft · Dec 9, 2011

No. My joints aren't what they used to be, I can't hang on all the time bare handed!
I've only got one recent slice healing. Ironically it's on the same finger I smacked just before supper. Now my left index finger has blood gathered under the base of the finger nail. I didn't smack it hard enough so it's numb now- It's throbbing and I can't get to sleep!

dabees · Dec 9, 2011

I only wear gloves when small parts aren't involved and during oil changes. I have a bottle of liquid bandage in the truck,in the shop and in the house.

Bob Huntress · Dec 9, 2011

Okay, I wear glooves for welding and a few things, but I ain't one of those folks who are so scared of germs that I wear the tyvek suit to change some oil. Frankly, if someone is that big a germophobe, maybe they should stay out of the garage. Perhaps there is another New York Condo that needs an interior designer. Gloves are for Hollywood mechanics that spend their day changing radio fuses on high end Lexuses. Those of us who pull thorny stuff out of bush hogs or replace rotted boards on a manure spreader have manly hands that don't need lotion or gloves to help our hands look (and smell) girly. It's not as if I'll be showing my hands at some parade in the village. I have nicks, cuts, scratches, scars and burns, and surprisingly, it didn't stop me from scoring a cute wife.

37chief · Dec 9, 2011

I've done that. I use a very small drill in between my fingers and drill a hole in the finger nail. Another thing to do is heat a paper clip red hot and push it into the finger nail. This will relieve the pressure, and feel so much better. Stan

CenTex Farmall · Dec 9, 2011

What is this "work" thing that people speak of? It sounds dirty and possibly even hazardous!

big fred · Dec 10, 2011

Some people just can't avoid those 4-letter words.

rodgernbama · Dec 10, 2011

I'm 57 years old and a shade tree mechanic and didn't wear gloves up until a few years ago. They protect(especially when a wrench slips) and keep your hands cleaner.

Fawteen · Dec 10, 2011

What Spook said.

I now wear rubber/vinyl gloves for most mechanical tasks. I tried the high-dollar "mechanics" gloves but lost too much dexterity, couldn't deal with anything smaller than a 5/16ths nut at all.

I'll probably die of some nasty form of cancer due to all the solvents and petroleum based fluids I've handled bare-handed over the last 50 years. Carbon Tetrachloride and Tricloroethane used to be practically household cleaners, now you darn near need a license to buy them.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 10, 2011

Hot water with a touch of salt will take away the throbbing.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 10, 2011

Use them all the time, I buy a pack of garden gloves for next to nothing, but I have noticed I have a dozen left handers and a few right hand ones, unfortunately they don't sell just the right.

RBnSC · Dec 10, 2011

I have tried to use them but they are so clumsy.
Growing up we didn't use anything but gas to clean parts. Now I don't want it to touch my skin.
Ron

Dick L · Dec 10, 2011

Not being the brightest bulb in the pack I only wear sissy gloves when it is cold, hot or sharp. Dirt seems to wash or wear off in time. I find that skin removed from slipping wrenches grows back fairly quickly.

I do have to have several pair of gloves in each work place to be able to find them when I find something cold, hot or sharp. Never can remember where I shucked them.

tractorhead · Dec 10, 2011

gLOVES ARE LIKE LONG UNDERWERE, HARD TO GET USED TO THEM,BUT AFTER A WHILE YOU CAN'T DO WITHOUT.....JIMMY

kito 169 · Dec 10, 2011

If you can find them pilots gloves are great. In the late 1960's when I was in the Air Force, we had to load flares for nighttime gun ship practice. This required inserting 1/8" x 1/2" pin into a hole to secure the firing lanyard. In the winter you could not use regular gloves so they issued us pilot's gloves. you could pick up a dime off a flat smooth surface easily with them. We were only issued them once since they were not authorized for us. They lasted for years, even after I got discharged. I have looked at surplus stores ever since but haven't found them. They were really tough but supple.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 10, 2011

My techs all wear nitril gloves all day. I guess that I am getting old, I just can't work with gloves on. For welding, cutting, or grinding I do wear Mechanic's gloves.

fixerupper · Dec 10, 2011

Like Dick said, only if it's cold, hot or sharp, if I can even find the gloves. Jim

waltn · Dec 10, 2011

Because of age, the backs of my hands are very tender. I wear
fingerless gloves. The SUG brand are very inexpensive, wear well
and are washable. Walt

CenTex Farmall · Dec 10, 2011

And all the _work_ is at home. I have to go to my "Job" job to take a little vacation!

EX 450 Owner · Dec 10, 2011

About the only gloves that give me enough feel to be able to do mechanical work with are the cheap white knit gloves from Harbor Freight (they were on back order the last time I tried to buy some).

I tried their nitrile gloves for solvents but don’t like them they tear real easy but I will use them till I use them up.

Kent Petersen · Dec 10, 2011

shop i worked in many years ago they fired a mach for wareing gloves when putting engines together i have never worn cloves when working on engins ,tran or hyds gloves hold dirt and it gets in you work

johnald · Dec 10, 2011

I have started wearing the nitrile gloves. The dexterity is still good but they keep all the oil and grease off my hands. Every fluid in a motor can be absorbed through the skin and is a caricinogen. Plus they stay cleaner. Only time i wear heavy gloves is while welding.

Billy Shafer · Dec 10, 2011

I refuse to use gloves. Didn't need them at ten when I started working. Don't need them now at 61.

BigMarv1085 · Dec 10, 2011

Only when tieing barb wire together. At work we go through hundreds of pairs of nitrile gloves aday.

JayinNY · Dec 10, 2011

I can't wear gloves to work on things at all, just don't have the feel with gloves on, such as threading a bolt etc. When handling hay bales I will wear the thin yellow unlined leather gloves. I also rarely handle horses with gloves on, even at 12degrees out, I cant put on a halter or unclip the lead shank with bulky gloves on, or un hook the gate going in or out!

Genos · Dec 11, 2011

Son works for Cat in Lafayette in. they furnish them gloves and are required to wear them now, assembling engines, he also mechanics at home & complains that his hands are soft & blister & cut easy.

bison · Dec 11, 2011

Nope,not while wrenching,not even when grinding,cutting or welding.I can't stand the stupid things.
I Only wear gloves when handling rough lumber and steel siding, and in winter when feeding hay(just because of the cold,nothing else)

John_PA · Dec 12, 2011

Do you wear gloves doing mechanic work?

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