[Eddy Smiles]

Thomas (Thomp) brought up an excellent point on another thread concerning using a bandsaw for small carvings. He said that although he had used his saw to form out a 2" rooster, he wouldn't do it again.

I always wear a leather glove when using my Dremel tool, scroll saw,router, or my buddy's bandsaw and although it has saved me on occasion from getting a nasty scrape I wonder if I'm not already adding to the hazard when working with power tools. I guess that there is always the chance of getting even a leather glove hung up.

What are your thoughts and or suggestions on wearing a glove when using power equipment? Safe or unsafe?

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[Thomp]

Eddie,
i been misquoted here (or i told a lie) in the previous discussion you mentioned, where i commented about the cross grain situation in the bear is running from shoulder to shoulder in the carving.

the little rooster i carved 2" tall, the grain orientation was from left to right like the bear not top to bottom, and i wouldn't carve another like that for money!... i own scroll saws but not a band saw yet.

my scroll saws are slow and not very agressive, with blades that have more teeth than ahack saw, they produce dust, i done some bad things before but never used a bandsaw on a piece that small! im chicken of bandsaws with little things... ha...

Now addressing gloves and power tools,
Anybody can hurt them selves, the tools dont care if their cutting wood skin or bone, while we have a lot of choices to make i choose not to wear any gloves unless im unloading a truck full of splintery wood, or doing a lot of power carving, then i only wear the heavy mule skin heavy leather work gloves.

Kevlar gloves are fine to keep from having an accident while your knife or palm chisel carving, but still they are not CUTPROOF!

wearing them while doing rotary carving can get you really tangled up and if the bit gets inside the glove between you and the glove it can cause a lot of damage while you frantically hunt for the off switch.

sometimes you get to leaniant thinging your protected with all the safety gear on. letme tell you your definately not bullit proof,

today i was making some drawers for a tool cabinet, while cutting the slots for the bottom of the drawers to slide into on 20 pieces triple cut to get the wigth i needed, i got a little too comfortable doing the task and was thinking of the corner joints and how i was going to make them , and just about got cought up on the tablesaw blade

, sometimes its worth the risk of taking a cut or pinch for safety's sake, and to avoid gloves, long sleeves or baggy shirts around motorized tools where its possible to get in tangled it is a unsafe thing to do,

i never met a shop teacher with 100% of his fingers, left
but they teach no loose articles or jewelery around machine's, all of them dont practice what they preach.


its a scairy thing that night mares are made of and it happends so fast it will leave you counting the fingers on your hand when it happends to you for sure...

its just easier to wear bandaids and do things safely...

soap box mode off!

i hate to even ware them laytex painting gloves

sorry if i got windy but eddie you asked
thomas

[Eddy Smiles]

Thomp! Whoops! Insert foot in mouth and chew briskly! Ouch! Perhaps it was I that thinks that what I read is what I saw! My wife accuses me of getting the facts screwed up quite frequently!

Anyway, very good advice. And now that you mentioned it I do remember my freshman shop teacher, with less fingers than I had. Thanks for the memory! Ha! Ha!

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[mdallensr]

We have several power cut-off saws at work and we don't allow gloves when using a toothed blade. We had a young worker ignore our rule and got his glove caught in small circular blade that pulled the glove, then his hand, into the pinch point. It severed his little finger. It was re-attached, but he still has nerve damage. Gloves can be as dangerous as loose clothing or long hair when working with rotating equipment. Mike

[mark yundt]

I think you're adding to the danger. You loose your dexterity,,grip,,etc,,,they can make you "clumsier" at times,and lets face it,, a table saw won't even see a leather glove if you hit the blade,,it offers little if any protection,,I think it's a false sense of security.

[Lightningbolt]

Originally Posted by Thomp

Eddie,

i never met a shop teacher with 100% of his fingers, left
but they teach no loose articles or jewelery around machine's, all of them dont practice what they preach.


thomas

Hey, wait a minute there!! I know that you haven't met me personally but I've been teaching vocational woodshop for more than 12 years in addition to being around high powered machinery all my life(including my dad's backyard sawmill powered by a Buick straight-8) and believe it or not, I still have all ten digits. I fully credit my dad who role modeled an enormous respect for machinery and he also passed away in 1998 with ALL his digits.

Y'all are absolutely correct in that you shouldn't wear gloves or baggy clothing in the woodshop and that is clearly stated in the safety section of the text book. It's amazing how many kids that I have to correct when I catch them wearing a leather or kevlar glove while using power tools under the illusion of being safer. I'm always glad that they're thinking safety so I use those opportunities to teach.

In my opinion, to ensure the highest level of safety while using any kind of power equiptment the user must constantly be striving for the optimum balance of confidence. For example, the student who puts on a glove when using a power tool is only trying to protect himself, but that is also the sign of someone who hasn't gained a "balanced" level of confidence in using that machine which comes in time only from proper instruction and a lot of experience.

On the other side of this coin is, in my opinion, the most dangerous aspect of working with power tools (or carving knives too) is gaining too much confidence thus creating the illusion that it can't happen to you. As an extreme example, nearly 50,000 people continue to be killed in car accidents each year in the USA alone. The risky driving behavior that folks take every day thinking that they're completly safe surrounded in their 2 or so ton cocoon of steel amazes me. It's an illusion created from too much confidence and unfortunately thousands will continue to die.

Therefore I am constantly trying to teach my students that the best way to gain the highest level of safety in a woodshop is to always be striving for a well-balanced level of confidence. Ben Franklin once said that, "Too much education can be a dangerous thing." As a woodshop teacher I would say to replace the word "education" with "confidence".

It's been more than 5 years since one of my students had stitches and I still have all of my fingers so I'd like to think I'm doing something right. By the way, I've never had any serious injuries in my woodshop class caused from power tools and those stitches mentioned above came from a carving accident.

That's my two penny's worth.

[Alice in Wonderland]

You are sooo right , I use only powertools and I still have all my fingers ,but my husband ,who is a Tool and Diemaker taught me, do not get to confident with your tools ,"RESPECT" them for the power they have.I do not wear gloves either only when I use the chainsaw do I use some for the vibration ,I forgot what they were called .
Alice

[Thomp]

Sorry i didnt mean to run down all shop teachers.

but the two i had in high school couldnt count to 15 between them without taking off one shoe...

[Eddy Smiles]

You guys have made a believer out of me! In all these years the only time that I've ever been hurt is when I wasn't wearing a glove. I guess in my case the old axion "It's better to be lucky than good" applies. From now on...no more gloves. I'll ride em' bareback! Thanks for the input!

[Tarik]

I never use gloves when using power tools. If by any accident the tool touch the skin the reflects made retire the hand and in most of cases, damage is minor, but if you are using gloves and it get caught in the tool, it will keep doing more and more damage until you or something else is able to stop or unplug it... and by then, can be too late.