Gloves for grinding

R

Rookie7

Joined
Feb 17, 2006
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OK, a really basic question. What type of gloves do you guys suggest for belt grinding? I have gone through two pairs of decent leather gloves, as it seems I sometimes get too close to the belt. Is there such a thing as a glove being too thick to feel the heat? Any comments welcome.
 
Rookie7 said:
OK, a really basic question. What type of gloves do you guys suggest for belt grinding? I have gone through two pairs of decent leather gloves, as it seems I sometimes get too close to the belt. Is there such a thing as a glove being too thick to feel the heat? Any comments welcome.
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Just my $.02, but I would NEVER use gloves while grinding. The chance ot having a finger get pulled into a grinding wheel because the edge of a glove got caught is too great for me. The other reason I wouldn't do it is because I need to be able to feel when I'm overheating the steel. If it's too hot to hold, it needs a dunk in the water bucket next to the grinder.

-d
 
I use the cheapo buck a pair standard work gloves from harbor freight,they are probally seconds or thirds but are always serviceable,i burn up the expensive gloves as fast as burn up the cheap gloves-normally toss them after a week or so, but i only rough grind prior to heat treat wearing gloves. bb
 
I tried cotton glove but they cought on fire:confused:

Just use sharp belts and dunk the blades, you'll be less frustrated in the long run.
 
I have gloves for many purposes, but not for grinding. Deker has it right on, in my opinion.

Having a glove get snagged in between a belt and a wheel would be horrific, but a bare hand slipping and contacting the belt is not that bad.

I also like feeling how hot the metal is getting to know when to pause and cool it off.
 
Rookie7 said:
OK, a really basic question. What type of gloves do you guys suggest for belt grinding? I have gone through two pairs of decent leather gloves, as it seems I sometimes get too close to the belt. Is there such a thing as a glove being too thick to feel the heat? Any comments welcome.
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No gloves near rotary tools! No exceptions! Mangled fingers are the eventual result. There are tons of guys in machine shops who learned this lesson the hard way.
I know a few of them.

This practice is so frought with danger, there are companies that will actually write up an employee opperating a mill, drill, lathe, grinder or saw while wearing gloves.

Once you start using machinery with motors greater than 1 hp the motors don't bog down so easy and some not at all. I was wittness to on event where nobody was hurt. but could have been badly.

At a plant where I used to work There was a batch of about 6000 GM flywheel flexplates that got stamped with a burr on the diameter of the plate. The company decided to grind the burr off using a 16" or 18" disc grinder, 2hp motor. A female employee who probably had very little expierence with machine tools was assigned the job. I saw her wearing the white coton work gloves all employees were given to handle parts. I went over to tell her to remove the gloves for her safety but before I could get the words out one of her hands got too close to the disc and the disc snatched and ripped the glove right off her hand. The glove jammed between the disc and the table of the grinder. The disc slowed but never stopped. It just ground away coton till the pressure of the jam decreased.
Luckly she was not injured but think about what would have happened if that was a hand in that glove.
 
No gloves around my grinder!
Once you get above 120 grit it really doesn't even hurt you to skim your finger across the wheel lightly once in awhile. To be honest, I've usually got a shiny gray streak down both index fingers from holding so close to the wheel when I finish grind. As long as you don't push into the wheel hard, and your not wearing anything that will get caught, you won't get hurt. You get a lot better control because you can feel what you're doing, and you don't run nearly as much risk of getting hurt.
 
Yup, no gloves. Your work will suffer and the danger is very real. Your fingers will get a little hot here and there but they tuffen up fairly quick. I have a metal stand with a 5 gallon water bucker under my grinder. It is high enough to dip the blade in easy and it catches most of the grinder dust. When I'm on a roll and the blade is getting near complete I often dip it after every pass. Of course with the water, the heat and the ground metal your hands look like hell most of the time.
 
I know the dangers of wearing gloves also by being in a shop for 31 years. However when I am wearing gloves for whatever reason in the shop, I wear a pair of golf gloves. They are thin and fit tight to the hand. Don't wear the seude type. Wear the smooth skin gloves. Your hands will usually go into a pair of heavier gloves a little easier when you are forging. They are just like a little extra protection. They will help to keep the little burrs out of your hands if you use a milling machine. If the part is a little to warm to the naked hand they will act as a little bit of insulation against the heat.
 
I wear fine Italian sports car driving gloves. The same kind I use when I race my Farrari. The BMW gloves are too loose. :)
 
i wear rubber gloves....the really thin skin tight, cheap kind. i also do a lot of work on motors and fabbing offroad jeeps and my ol lady complained about the oily stained hands so thats when it started. those lil gloves are cheap and keep my hands pretty clean. i can still slide in and out of thicker gloves if needed and, i have had them hit a belt a few times and they just rip...so no danger of being pulled in. i still get plenty of feel for when a blade is getting warm.
 
I wear gloves until I do finish grinding on a heat treated blade. Once or twice a week I have to wrap the fingers with masking tape. A good pair of leather gloves will last me a couple of years done this way. In thirty plus years I have never even come close to being hurt from the wearing of gloves when using a grinder. I have had skin removed when not wearing them. A heavy grit belt eats flesh at the speed of light. Takes a long time to heal. I would not even consider rough grinding a blade with a 36 grit belt without gloves. It would take much too long to grind and keep the heat level tolerable by constant cooling of the blank. In thirty plus years of using a belt grinder, the only serious injury I've had was from getting off my stool in a hurry and slamming my knee into a still turning 36 grit belt. That took some serious stitching, but now I get on and off my stool very carefully. I take it that most of you guys do this as a hobby. I do not have that luxury. I have to suppliment a pretty poor retirement income if I want any playing around money. I simply have no concept of how any of you can see danger in the wearing of gloves while grinding. I see it just opposite. The wearing of rings, loose shirt sleeves, unguarded V belts, ect. and getting off my stool safely, those are what I am cautious about. A little off track, but here's a good one. I showed a friend the basics of grinding a few years back, and he got the bug. He bought a new Wilton Square wheel grinder with the cog type wheels on it. He had no problems until he put a thin light weight 220 grit on it to finish shapeing his point. He did not get far before a cog caught the point, snatched the blade out of his hands, and drove it through his foot into the wood floor. He had to wiggle the blade to get it unstuck in the floor, and remove it from his foot. He was on crutches for a month or more, but did not let it deter him. He replaced the cog wheels with smooth and went to the heavier weight belts. No more problems.
 
I don't use gloves when I use a work rest, but I believe you would be safe enough on anything else. Like was said, its really not the safety as much as the lack of feel for the work. When I am doing welding and fab work I almost always wear gloves, but we arent looking for as high a degree of precision either.
 
I do and I don't. I was trained in the government and the rull was also no gloves near moving machinery. Plenty of nasty pictures to prove the point.
I must confess to sometimes using gloves on my wire wheel. It is a little 6 inch wheel and no guts it stalls at the drop of a hat. I have stalled it a couple of times but lucky enough to not get hurt.

I have burnt my fingers grinding blades. SOme will say your getting it too hot
they are probably right however sometimes I just want to finish a run to keep it even. Ok so I wrap a layer or 2 of masking tape straight onto my finger nothing to get caught. I loose a bit of feel but it stops my finger burn getting worse.

Just keep in mind there have been a number of makers on this forum that have come on after years of doing things and said, Hey I got caught today doing ---------. You can not afford to loose concentration for half a second or it could have terrible results.

I use gloves for most everything else. I use the thin rigger gloves with the smooth skin out not the fury edge.
 
Unless you have really dumb fingers, they will learn very quickly that..."OUCH that hurt! I better not touch there anymore!" Like everyone else said also, if you feel it get hot with gloves, it's already too hot.
Matt Doyle
 
LRB I had a similar problem while using a serrated 8 inch wheel on my Wilton square wheel grinder about 20 years ago. I was working on getting a tip back into shape using a 220 grit. I should have been paying attention to the angle of the tip and the spinning wheel. Oh well I had it in my hand one second and then there was this big bang like gun going off. I felt this breeze between my legs just below my crotch. :eek: There was no knife in my hand, quickly I counted all ten fingers and toes, no blood! Thats a good sign. :thumbup: I looked at my crotch, yep the crown jooles are still there, yep no blood thats another good sign. :thumbup: I then found the knife burried one inch into the cedar pannelling 6 feet behind the grinder. Yes it was a very lucky day for me. No damage to me or the knife. :rolleyes: I was not wearing gloves at the time, and I learned from that to always pay attention to the work in relation to the machine. I believe holding my work without gloves gives me a better feel on the grinder. Since that day I have not had any serious close calls, just the usual small cuts and small skin grinder rash.:cool:
 
Thanks everybody for your thoughtful suggestions and experiences. I think I will try it without gloves for awhile and see how it goes. If I go back to gloves, I might as well use those golf gloves since I gave up golf for knife making. I'm not sure which is more frustrating...

Phil
 
Why are you worried about "over heating" on a blade that is not heat treated yet? You guys must take all day to do a blade. Grinding puts some stress in most steels, but that can be removed. You can keep the stresses kind of evened out by changing sides on the blade regularily.
 
LRB Why do I avoid overheating the blade prior to heat treatment? My experience has been to avoid overheating the blade during the grinding simply to avoid warpage problems later. I had blades warp badly after they came out of heat treatment. I learned that warpage can be avoided by keeping the steel as cool as possible. Using fresh belts and avoiding using pressure helps keep things cool, while dipping it in the water from time to time.
 
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