What do you wear? Keeping chips out of your non-machining life...

[Aaron_W]

Generally jeans and a T shirt, with an apron and boots, also a face shield for work that lobs lots of chips like turning cast iron. There are a variety of ways to deflect chips which can also help, as simple as a cheap paint brush or card board or making chip shields from polycarbonate sheets.

I have this apron which my wife got me. Not the cheapest but it has treated me well. I like that it crosses behind my back instead of looping over my neck. Seems like it would give me a little better chance to escape if it were to get caught up in a twirling death machine. It fits close to my body so getting it snagged in a machine would not be easy.

Duluth Trading Company Best Damn Fire Hose Apron

I have a pair of slip on boots I wear in the shop, very easy to slip them on or off, so I can leave them by the front door if I've been making chips, although by the time I walk from the back of the house where the shop door is around the house to the front door chips have had a good chance to get free anyway.

I have the non steel toe version, several years old and holding up well. Pretty comfortable as boots go.

Redback Easy Escape

 

[RJSakowski]

Jeans and a tee shirt for summer, sweatshirt for winter. Mostly, I wear moccasins with eleastomer soles. They have no signifuicant tread and working them back and forth in the concrete floor will usually dislodge any chips. I have two door mats, one at the bottom of the dtairs from the basement shop and one at the top. This usually clears any remaining chips. The first floor I cross has ceramic tile so I can usually tell if there is an embedded chip before I hit the wood floors.

 

[savarin]

T shirt, crocks, socks and shorts. If the chips start hitting my arms I wack a sheet of card in the way, sometimes hot ones will fall into the holes in the crocs but its very rare.
I'm always in the dog house when machining aluminium as those ultra fine swarf always finds its way indoors, she goes ballistic.
Sometimes wear a leather welding apron, nothing sticks to that.
Chips do stick into the soles of the crocs and sometimes all the way through, I sit down and manually pull them out when I feel them and before leaving the shed.

 

[Dan Krager]

A tall (close to neck) canvas apron down to knees is what I use in woodworking and it also sheds metal chips very well. Hat of some sort, no beard (can be dangerous if caught during a close up looksee) and close buttoned long sleeve smooth weave work shirts. Boots stay in mud room. I'm a fanatic about wife's sewing pins getting scattered about, so I'm extra cautious about metal chips from my play. But I'm just a metalworking beginner respecting 55 years of living together.

DanK

 

[pontiac428]

Carhartt bibs, suede skateboard sneakers, and a welding cap are my uniform these days. When I'm doing messy machine work, I wear a canvas apron. I am also fond of the mechanic's coveralls from Red Kap. Great fit for me. I wear Red Kap industrial shirts to work most days, they just fit. We have four cats, so no shiny metal is allowed in the house. I also am constantly and compulsively vacuuming up as I work in the shop.

 

[BGHansen]

Summer is shorts and a T-shirt. My wife would buy me Sketcher shoes every birthday (my everyday work shoes). The old pair became the shop shoes. I wear those through the year. Winter is jeans, sweatshirt and a hat.

My work clothes hang on a hook at the entry door to the shop. I walk down to the shop in whatever and change out shoes and clothes at the door. It really helps from chips making it back into the house.

Bruce

 

[wachuko]

I wear the same clothes since I was in high school…. Jeans, Polo shirt, Sperry boat shoes…. And I use it for everything… yard work, working on the cars or motorcycles, and now, when using the lathe and milling machine…

When I did the backplate, the suggestion of using a paint brush helped keep all the cutting dust out of my face and clothes… So now, if cutting something that just sends chips all over (in the lathe) I use the same technique.

For the mill, I still have some plexiglass that I need to make into removable shields. Another idea that I got from the forum. Later, I also want to install the heavy duty clear shower curtain liner some folks are using to contain were chips fly off to…

I recently also got a canvas/leather apron and a clear face shield.

When done, I vacuum what I can see… lathe, floor, under the shoes, apron, pants, etc. Shake my clothes as much as I can…

I take off the shoes before going into the house…

And I still manage to bring stuff in the house…

 

[Braeden P]

Jeans and a tee shirt all year even when it’s 20 degrees out. Also wear a face shield over safety glasses, save me from parts flying out of the chuck and after I got that one hardened steel chip up my nose on the lathe I always wear a face shield with safety glasses.

 

[finsruskw]

Heavy denim apron thanks to my dear wife!!
Cereal box cardboard mat'l fashioned in a way to keep chips from coming at you and off the ways fastened to the tool post however you can.
plastic water bottle cut open and slipped over the ways to keep the crud out.
Works for me!

 

[Braeden P]

I also wear a baseball hat to keep chips and oil out of my hair, burnt hair doesnt smell the best.