When should I not wear gloves?

Gloves are the one item of protective equipment with a genuine downside. They reduce dexterity and feel, they can catch in machinery, and a glove chosen for the wrong hazard can be worse than none — a fabric glove soaked in solvent holds the chemical against the skin far longer than an unprotected hand would.

Safety

Step by step

1. Take gloves off for anything that rotates.Drills and pillar drills, lathes, bench grinders, wire wheels, buffing wheels, mixing paddles and any spinning chuck. A snagged glove wraps and pulls the hand in, and there is no reaction time. This overrides every other consideration.
2. Think about it for reciprocating and moving tools too.Bandsaws, routers and jigsaws are less prone to catching a glove but a glove still reduces the feel that keeps your hands where you meant them. Judge each case; the rotating rule is absolute, this one is a judgement.
3. Match the glove to the hazard, one hazard at a time.There is no glove that is cut-resistant, chemical-resistant, heat-resistant and dexterous. Choose for the dominant hazard of the job in front of you, and change gloves when the job changes.
4. Use nitrile for anything chemical, and check the chemical.Nitrile covers most common DIY chemicals for short contact. Some solvents pass through thin disposables quickly, so for prolonged work or aggressive products use a thicker glove and check the manufacturer's resistance information.
5. Take gloves off before they are saturated.A fabric or leather glove soaked in solvent, oil or wet cement holds the substance against the skin for as long as you wear it. This is worse than no glove, and it is the mechanism behind many cement burns.
6. Wear gauntlets for cement and strong chemicals.Wet cement, mortar and concrete cause alkaline burns that develop over hours with little pain at the time. Long-cuffed waterproof gloves, and keeping the cuff outside the sleeve so nothing runs in, is the control that works.
7. Take them off for fine work.Fitting small fixings, feeding material accurately, judging a joint. Reduced feel causes its own accidents, and a glove that makes you grip harder or slip is not protecting anything.
8. Check them before use.Holes, tears, worn palms and hardened fingertips. A damaged chemical glove provides a direct path to the skin at exactly the point of contact.
9. Deal with a cut properly rather than gloving over it.A glove over a wound keeps it warm, wet and dirty. Clean and dress it, then decide whether the job can continue.

Tips

• Keep several types where the work happens: a box of nitrile disposables, a pair of general handling gloves and a pair of gauntlets covers almost everything.
• A barrier cream is a reasonable supplement for hands that get repeated brief chemical contact, and it is not a substitute for gloves.
• Loose cuffs, rings, watches, bracelets, ties, lanyards and long sleeves are the same hazard as gloves around rotating machinery. Remove or secure all of them.
• Long hair is in the same category and is one of the most frequently overlooked entanglement risks with a pillar drill or a lathe.

Common mistakes

• Wearing gloves at a pillar drill or a bench grinder — The classic and most serious glove injury. The glove catches, wraps, and the hand follows the machine's speed and torque rather than yours.
• Using one pair of gloves for every job — A cut-resistant glove offers no chemical protection, a fabric glove soaks up solvent, and a disposable nitrile offers no cut protection at all. The wrong glove often makes things worse.
• Working in wet cement without waterproof gauntlets — Cement burns are alkaline, deep, and slow to make themselves felt, so the exposure continues long after the damage has started.
• Keeping saturated gloves on to finish the job — The glove becomes a poultice holding the chemical against the skin, which is worse than the same chemical splashing a bare hand and being washed off.

Alternatives

• General handling gloves: Coated palm, breathable back. For carrying timber, handling sheet materials, gardening, moving rubble and preventing splinters. Not cut-resistant, not chemical-resistant, and not for anything rotating.
• Cut-resistant gloves: Made with high-performance fibres and rated for cut resistance on a defined scale. For handling glass, sheet metal, blades and knives. They resist slicing, not stabbing or a moving power tool blade.
• Disposable nitrile gloves: For paint, solvent, adhesive, resin, oil and cleaning chemicals. Nitrile resists a wider range of chemicals than latex, and disposable ones are for short contact — check the manufacturer's chemical resistance data for anything aggressive or prolonged.
• Chemical-resistant gauntlets: Thicker nitrile, neoprene or butyl gloves with a long cuff, for cement, brick acid, paint stripper, drain products and strong cleaners. Cement in particular causes serious alkaline burns that develop slowly and painlessly.
• Heat-resistant gloves: For hot work, heat guns, soldering and hot metal. Ordinary work gloves melt or conduct, and a synthetic glove that melts onto the skin makes a burn considerably worse.
• No gloves at all: The correct answer around rotating machinery, and often the better answer for fine work where feel matters more than protection. Bare hands with good technique beat gloved hands with poor control.

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