Don't Wear Sleeves vs. Burns From Hot Chips

[David2011]

Well honestly I never heard not to wear sleeves. I was told not to wear LOOSE or unbuttoned sleeves.

I wear a jacket in the shop when it’s cold. And I put up a lot of cardboard or lexan temporary guarding when the machine is going to be flinging stuff everywhere.

Come to think of it, not wearing LOOSE clothing is more likely what I have always read/been told. Definitely no gloves around rotating/cutting machinery, though. Fortunately my shop is air conditioned and heated. I vowed to have my machines in climate controlled conditions after having them in a metal building with no climate control in NE Texas. They were so cold all winter that it wasn't fun to touch them and in the summer, well, it was summer in Texas.

 

[SouthernChap]

Any sleeve you wear will likely have nylon in it

Wait, what?

None of the shirts or T Shirts I wear have plastics in; all are cotton. Where in God's name are you buying your clothes from?

 

[SouthernChap]

Definitely no gloves around rotating/cutting machinery, though.

And there's yer dogma right there.

I tend to wear medical exam nitrile gloves. They're completely skin tight and thin and fragile enough such that they'll rip and tear well before dragging my hand anywhere near anything nasty.

I do also have the thicker type of nitrile gloves used by motor mechanics for when I'm performing tasks not on any machine tool (benchwork type tasks or cleaning rust off used tooling, that sort of thing). I have welding gloves too.

I'd never wear anything thicker or more durable than the very thin medical exam gloves when operating any machine tool.

The no gloves thing is like the no sleeves thing. The underlying principles is really "No item of clothing should be worn that may get caught or snagged such that the clothing might cause part of the wearer to be dragged into harms way".

 

[ChazzC]

Wait, what?

None of the shirts or T Shirts I wear have plastics in; all are cotton. Where in God's name are you buying your clothes from?

Check the tags: they make nice soft cotton blends with recycled plastic bottles.

 

[ChazzC]

Only slightly OT: don’t forget wedding rings! I knew a guy who was on a ladder closing a valve - ladder slipped, ring caught on the hand wheel and nine fingers. I only wear my wedding (or any other rings) on special social occasions. And thanks to cell phones, same for watches.

 

[pontiac428]

I wear sleeves. Red Kap uniform shirts are my fave, but I rock quilted flannels cuffed mid forearm all winter. I sure appreciate the sleeves when the face mill comes out, those blue chips clank like empty shells all over the place. I don't reach in to live work, ever. A 17" lathe with 8 hp will kill you before it slows a beat, so my hands stay on the handwheels and controls until I stop the spindle. I don't like the sleeve argument, and here's why- you don't get your tallywhacker caught in the machine, do you? It's a floppy front-hanging appendage, but that's not a problem because you don't stick your donk in the machine, right? I bet you don't stick your fingers under the deck of a running lawnmower, for the same reason. Same goes with your paws/sleeves.

 

[Jake M]

...Any sleeve you wear will likely have nylon in it....

Sweatshirts are commonly cotton, or or fleece (most commonly cotton with polyester) with a good cotton content. Even at 50/50 the "melting onto your skin" thing is not an issue with chips. Heck, it's not an issue with welding spatter and slag. Of course it can "burn through" if you try hard enough, but unless you're actually trying to use a hand held propane torch to heat shrink the shirt to your arm, it's not an issue. Hot chips WILL stick to the shirt on occasion if they're good and hot, AND, kind of a "medium size", heavy enough to hold heat, light enough not to have much gravity to fall back off the shirt...). But burn through? Yeah, you can make holes if you try, but it doesn't stick to skin or hairs. Your arm will tell you it's time to move away long before you have an issue.

I just went and looked, and I can say that the sweatshirt I relegated to a beater ten or more years ago, that I have living in the workshop- That one is 80 percent cotton. The ones I wear as "standard" for work, they're two brands, (Thinner ones from Haynes, thicker ones from Guilden) one is 50/50, the other is 55/45. Neither one is a "melting" issue, and neither one is a "catching fire" issue, although the work ones are clearly less durable.

Wait, what?

None of the shirts or T Shirts I wear have plastics in; all are cotton. Where in God's name are you buying your clothes from?

Over here, mostly because of market forces (cheap......), one has to seek out "all cotton" if you want it in casual clothes. Everything that's readily available, anything that comes up first in a search, and anything cheap enough for brick and mortar retailers to stock it is a blend to some degree. Heck, they're even blue jeans and cotton duck work britches are showing up with "blends" in 'em. It's absolutely something that we've got to pay attention to when choosing work wear over here.

A 17" lathe with 8 hp will kill you before it slows a beat, so my hands stay on the handwheels and controls until I stop the spindle.

Quick story, something I got from my grandfather. He was a farmer, he literally cut the trees to build the house and barns by himself. And pulled the stumps out with horses. And built his retirement home the same way. Big old woodworking machines, the first of which (long gone by the time I came around) were flat belt driven from a stationary engine on a skid. By the time I came around the "big" stuff was gone, and the collection was reduced to a table saw, radial saw, planer, joiner from Craftsman, sixties and seventies vintage. And some big old bed sander.
Anyhow, his philosiphy was always to make the tools work for you. If it'll do it, it'll do it. If it's not how it's meant to be used, be careful. That was it. The ONLY time he'd raise his voice and intervene is if you broke his one hard and fast rule- Give BOTH hands something to do, because the empty hand is going to get cut off. Even if it was as simple as cutting a small piece on a table saw, where there's not room for two hands, this one took me some life experience long after he was gone before it sank in. Take that unused hand, and hold the corner of the table saw table with the other hand. Hold it tight, don't let that table move. Really? It's not gonna move, it's bolted down???? He wouldn't even let me hold that empty hand behind my back. No dice. That hand needs a JOB. That's hard for a ten year old to swallow, but in the end, it is absolutely an idle job for an idle hand, but that lesson (after some life experience and a few near misses) has served me well.

 

[SouthernChap]

Check the tags: they make nice soft cotton blends with recycled plastic bottles.

I always check the sewn in labels and anything that isn't 100% cotton gets put back on the rack.

 

[SouthernChap]

I don't reach in to live work, ever.

Yep, with my ADHD, I have to be at least a bit consciously fearful of any moving machine parts; it's become part of my survival instinct.

but that's not a problem because you don't stick your donk in the machine, right?

Given some of the members on here, I'm not sure that's a safe assumption.

 

[SouthernChap]

Over here, mostly because of market forces (cheap......), one has to seek out "all cotton" if you want it in casual clothes. Everything that's readily available, anything that comes up first in a search, and anything cheap enough for brick and mortar retailers to stock it is a blend to some degree. Heck, they're even blue jeans and cotton duck work britches are showing up with "blends" in 'em. It's absolutely something that we've got to pay attention to when choosing work wear over here.

Ah, in the UK, for mens clothes (women's clothes are quite another case), whilst polycotton blends are fairly common, 100% cotton tends to be at least as, if not more common. Or at least where I shop (Next, Fat Face, Marks and Spencer) that's the case.