Protecting Your Hands

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JAshburne
Posts: 102
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2002 12:34 pm
Location: Connecticut

Protecting Your Hands

Post by JAshburne »

Hi Tom:

After reading your latest description about how easy it is to cut your hands while working on the upholstery, I wonder if wearing those tight fitting latex gloves would help?

They are tight and thin enough to still give you good feel and dexterity but the layer is actually fairly tough.

Just a thought.

John
Ruedi
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 4:02 am

Post by Ruedi »

I use fairly thin "Nitrile tough" surgical gloves a lot for working on the car. My experience is that they're OK for general work, but have limitations for anyting requiring a firm grip (as may be the case for tucking and pulling seat covers). I have a hunch that these gloves get thinner with use and start to break more easily after using them for 30 minutes, or so. I had several gloves break just from the friction of removing rusty nuts and bolts.

Obviously, the gloves will tear on sharp objects. But as John pointed out, it's better to damage a glove than the skin. In most cases, you'll feel immediately when the glove gets caught on something sharp because the pressure gets transferred from the surface of the glove to a larger area of the skin than when piercing the skin directly.

Another thing is that after an hour or so of working, my hands become completely sweaty and wet inside the glove. I don't think you would want to touch clean leather with sweaty hands. So, make sure you have a towel ready to wipe your hands when taking the gloves off.

They are worth a try.

Cheers,

Ruedi
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tyang
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Post by tyang »

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your concern on the welfare of my hands!

The glue that we use for the seats really makes using gloves impossible. It's a contact adhesive, and when it dries, it'll stick to itself like nothing in this world! Getting it on bare skin allows you to rub it off, but you can forget about getting it off of the glove. The sweating is another problem.

We joke about using gloves at work, saying "gloves are for wimps," but when I have to load a truck full of road cases, and audio gear, I won't allow peer pressure to ruin my hands! The same goes for working on my car, I'll wear them when I can, but rarely do I find them working for me!

Tom
Last edited by tyang on Sat Jul 12, 2003 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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330GT
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Post by 330GT »

I use either latex or nitrile gloves practically all of the time when working on cars. The latex ones are for good general purpose use but lousy if you are using any kind of solvents or degreasers. They fall apart under those conditions within a few minutes. Then I use the nitrile ones.

The main reason I use gloves is to keep my hands clean. My wife hates the smell of the grease and oil. No matter how much I clean, she still complains. So gloves keep the home life a little more mellow.

I agree that they do get in the way at times, but they work for me.
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