I've been thinking about the idea of using gloves on the Tormek recently. I like both the added grip of nitrile coatings and the idea of cut resistance of something like an A4 ANSI rated glove just to add an extra safety measure. I'm currently using a set of very thin nitrile gloves which are mostly just a moisture/grit barrier and quite easily tear if pulled.
Speaking of safety, there is always the old adage of not using gloves around moving machines for fear of a glove getting caught and causing injury. I'm failing to see how that could really happen without being seriously careless but I also realize just one lapse of judgement or focus is all it takes. What are you thoughts on this?
These are the gloves I'd like to use if I can feel confident I won't have an injury caused by wearing them....
https://www.ansell.com/us/en/products/activarmr-97-505
Hmmmm. I don't understand the glove concept at all. Using a Tormek to sharpen stuff is slow, relatively risk free if you have half a brain and a modicum of common sense. Things don't fly off in an uncontrolled way.
Gloves will restrict your work assessment. Unless the gloves are incredibly thin allowing for tactile assessments they will hamper your work. If they are that thin they will offer no protection from sharp edges.
To illustrate this I give the following example.
I sharpened some knives for a customer and he then complained that the knives were too sharp and he and his family cut themselves on the newly sharpened knives.
That is user error, not my fault for producing the desired result.
As a sharpener you are dealing with sharp edges. Learn to treat them in the correct way and you will not cut yourself.
Wearing gloves will only add risk in my opinion, thinking you are safe and so ignoring basic safety. Just my opinion.
Quote from: Sir Amwell on September 11, 2023, 12:38:06 AMHmmmm. I don't understand the glove concept at all. Using a Tormek to sharpen stuff is slow, relatively risk free if you have half a brain and a modicum of common sense. Things don't fly off in an uncontrolled way.
Gloves will restrict your work assessment. Unless the gloves are incredibly thin allowing for tactile assessments they will hamper your work. If they are that thin they will offer no protection from sharp edges.
To illustrate this I give the following example.
I sharpened some knives for a customer and he then complained that the knives were too sharp and he and his family cut themselves on the newly sharpened knives.
That is user error, not my fault for producing the desired result.
As a sharpener you are dealing with sharp edges. Learn to treat them in the correct way and you will not cut yourself.
Wearing gloves will only add risk in my opinion, thinking you are safe and so ignoring basic safety. Just my opinion.
In short, accidents happen if you do something long enough. I grind on something just about every day whether my brain is fully engaged or not and it seems like it's an eventual reality at some point though I've been lucky on the Tormek. I have however had more than a few cuts using waterstones over the years and that's all it took was a bit of fatigue setting in and focus declining. It's not something that would really be expected to happen but mostly cheap insurance and the extra grip of the nitrile does seem to help when the blade gets wet/slippery and you're moving the blade/jig about in hand back and forth.
As you hinted at, I consider not using gloves around rotary tools part of the same set of rules as "never change the tooling with the tool plugged in", "never have your fingers move toward a saw blade or a router bit", "always wear safety glasses with an angle grinder", ...
Is there any way to crush your fingers around the shaft of the Tormek, probably not. Do we really want to find out, though ?
That being said, AFAIAC, the major inconvenience with wearing gloves would be the inability to feel for the burr which I do almost reflexively now. And it seems those gloves might get wet pretty quickly as they are not waterproofed all the way to the cuff.
I don't see any reason to use gloves, and a lot of reasons not to. Feel is important while sharpening, and it's essential to test for a burr. It would be super annoying (and a waste of time) to take a glove off and put it back on every time I tested for a burr.
Don't really have an opinion on the glove part, but you can detect a burr in other ways... a Q-Tip for example, or a Razor Edge Tester (https://shop.razoredgesystems.com/products/edge-tester) (or similar item.)
The only injury I've ever received from a tormek was when I was being a dingbat and somehow managed to get my index finger sucked into the gap between the stone and the body of the machine. Hurt like a [redacted] for a week or so but no permanent damage. I'd imagine gloves might make this slightly more likely to happen, but it really all comes down to don't be an idiot and you'll be fine.
Gloves are advised against in the safety instructions of the Tormek (top of page 6).