We have be round this issue before, all it takes is one oops and
you are severely damaged, possibly maimed for life. If that is what
you wish to do then fine but, it is totally irresponsible to
recommend the practice of wearing any kind of glove while
polishing. It is just too dangerous.
I can remember hearing that they once said the earth was flat! Do you
even understand about what type of glove I’m talking about? I don’t
think so. There are hundreds of items in a jewelry shop that can harm
somebody! Do you polish chains on a buffer? Let’s think about that! I
hope not!! But most of you probably do ! Or Watch bands? These gloves
were designed for polishing!! They are tight fitting and have saved
my fingertips MANY times from course grinding wheels. After you try
them, then come back and comment on how terrible they are.
Years ago, I made a dust collector out of an old buffet (a dining
room sideboard-type piece of furniture) someone was throwing out. I
cut a hole in the top and ran the exhaust duct down through it to the
shop vacuum. For the hoods, I used heavy duty cardboard and glued the
pieces together with a hot-glue gun. Then I applied two coats of
polyurethane to seal it. The cardboard was rigid and durable but not
so hard that, if something got caught in the wheel and thrown, it
would do much damage. The cardboard hoods lasted a long, long time.
I use my inverted drill like this all the time and find it
enormously useful. My question is, does anyone know where such
drill mounts can be purchased? Sometimes my students ask.
I haven’t looked recently, but Harbor Freight used to sell such, and
I wouldn’t be surprised if Home Depot or another good Hardware store
might not also have such a thing. Might check Sears too…
Rosamond–You are on the right track about dust. I always wear a
good light mask when polishing. I also use a vacuum device. 'What
leads me to go for the added expense (basically a shop vac vented
out doors) is that, without it, polishing “dust”, black stuff and
fiber from the wheel accumulate a on the wall behind the polishing
wheels. This black stuff gets on the floor and on my work bench. It
contains the grit from the compound and, on my work surfaces and can
lead to unwanted abrasion and scratches on otherwise polished metal.
I am continuously cleaning the work bench to avoid the problem. We
accept that polishing and sanding raise hazardous dust but seem to
forget them because we have a mask. Where do these particles go? On
our floor and work surfaces.
One other thing, I have never trusted so-called "nuisance dust"
disposable masks. On my face they don’t seal well enough to satisfy
me. I use a lightweight mask supplied for woodworking which has
replaceable filter cartridges. This kind of mask has a HEPA filter
but does not restrict breathing.
As to protecting my hands, I think it is to late for me to worry
about that. I wash them often with Gojo, a pumice-containing liquid
soap that mechanics often keep around to remove grease from hands. I
also use a moisturizing product my wife gives me my hands get too
dry and rough. I figure that callouses and rough hands come with the
territory.
Thanks Peter - a dust collection system is now on my wish list. I
know the cleaner that you are talking about. My hands are
ridiculously dry as it is (young kids in the house, forever washing
hands in a futile attempt to win the war on cold and other such
viruses). I was trying out some new separating discs on my dremel the
other day, and was unimpressed with their odd smell. Then I realized
that the smell was actually from burning/grinding of my finger nails.
No worries about ever having ‘fresh from a manicure’ hands in this
house.
I always hold items when using my polishing motor in my bare hands
and, like everyone else I get the usual black gunk on my fingers. It
is usually gone by the time I go through the process of cleaning
polishing compounds of my newly polished pieces with cloudy ammonia
(a mixture of ammonia and soap) in warm water. It cleans both the
pieces and my fingers at the same time. The stuff smells a bit and
can dry your skin but as long as I use a moisturiser cream on my
hands later I haven’t had any problems. Mind you I don’t spend a lot
of time polishing.
By the way, I happen to know of a LARGE retail jeweler in Ohio here,
that has at least 3 full time polishers and they order these gloves
50 pair at a time. But call me crazy! LOL Steve
Hoi all, don’t polish with long sleeves or personal jewelry, focus
on your work! Most accidents happen to pros who have lost respect for
the tool they are using! A foot pedal that only gives electricity to
the buffer when you are standing on it, improves the operating
safety. I use a electric drill (750W/3000rpm) as a buffer/jump ring
winder/wire twister as for other things as well, as long as you got
a drill mount,its as save as you can get. You also can get a drill
press for brand electric drills. So all in all its 1/2 of the price
of a mid range buffing machine and you get more toys to play with.And
yes i do polish chains on a buffer, just with low rpm and jig! Work
save ! Kiffer
By the way, I happen to know of a LARGE retail jeweler in Ohio
here, that has at least 3 full time polishers and they order these
gloves 50 pair at a time. But call me crazy! LOL Steve
So because someone else does something incredibly dangerous that
makes it ok? Loose clothing, hair or gloves do not belong anywhere
near rotating equipment it is just too damn easy to amputate a finger
or worse. If you lose one or two fingers how are you going to
continue to make a living in this trade? Even if you could overcome
the loss how long would you be out of commission? Look I have respect
for you and the knowledge you share here on Orchid but gloves and
rotating machinery don’t safely mix.
Having almost lost fingers polishing a large heavy box chain a long
time ago, just lacerated my hands and had to scrap much of the
chain. I fitted up a push down for ‘ON’ foot switch so when I lift my
foot the polishing motor stops. I have found this invaluable not just
as a safety measure but also it is extremely practical when going
through several polishing operations with abrasive fingers and mops.
As to dust, I built a double box containing a large rotary extraction
fan above a filter system then venting through a wall. So the dust is
sucked through a grid, most falling to the base of the box, the fine
dust is then filtered out before the air is expelled.
David Cruickshank, Australia
jewellerydavidcruickshank.com.au
By the way, I happen to know of a LARGE retail jeweler in Ohio
here, that has at least 3 full time polishers and they order these
gloves 50 pair at a time. But call me crazy! LOL Steve
OK, if you insist. You’re crazy. So are they. Or at least, you’re
both taking a slightly greater risk when you polish than you would be
doing if you didn’t use a full glove. If you really like those
gloves, how about cutting off the fingers and just covering the outer
half of the finger with the cut off finger tips. Finger cot style may
not feel quite as good, but if something catches, the cots slip right
off without taking fingers along with. Remember that story I told not
far back about the young polisher who lost a finger in part due to
working with a glove (as I mentioned, there were a bunch of other
contributing factors, and I’m not certain he wouldn’t still have
sustained a major injury even without the glove.). The size of the
company has little to do with whether they’re being safe. That
company I was working for at the time was a manufacturing jeweler,
selling to shops all over the country. Something over a dozen
workers doing the manufacturing, two tool and die guys, 3 polishers,
Several designers, and more. Yet despite this large number of people
who should have known about safety and all, they still had accidents,
such as the one with the polisher with his gloved hand (and they did
not stop using those gloves after that incident. Old habits die
hard.)
Ignore safety precautions, including the many warnings in this
thread posted by highly experienced professionals about the use of
gloves around a polishing motor at your own risk. It is possible for
a nano-second long, one-time freak event to completely change your
life.
Polishing motors, even small ones, do possess the kind of power that
can cause one of those events. Show them the respect they are due.
A pedal switch is a good idea, but unless you have significantly
faster reaction times than a fighter pilot, any damage or injury is
going to happen long before you can take your foot off the pedal.
Even if you can react in less than a quarter turn of the motor, the
motor will continue to turn at least a few rotations at relatively
high speed before it slows and stops unless it is equipped with a
brake or some other means of stopping it very quickly, which Dremel
tools, flexshafts and drills do not have. It really only takes one
fast turn to tear things up pretty good, whether there is power
applied to the motor or not. Bad things can happen remarkably
quickly around a polishing motor, so don’t be lulled into a feeling
of safety because you have a pedal switch.
Dirty hands and lack of feeling in the fingertips due to constant
burning are among the costs of doing business when you work the
bench. Instead of avoiding it, embrace it. Wear those cracked,
calloused, permanently dirty fingers as a badge of honor; they show
the world just how serious you are about making jewelry.
Thanks for the respect and I return it, but may I ask how much
polishing you all actually do in a day? I polish 30 to 40 pieces per
day and have done so for the last 12yrs. I also have been
manufacturing for the past 28 yrs. and have seen and worked on
THOUSANDS of pieces of jewelry and I have NOT seen the horror stories
some of you tell, not to say they are not true, but I affirm that
most of those were due to CARELESSNESS and possibly inexperience. I
know what I’m talking about and I happen to be of the opinion that
these gloves are fine for jewelry polishing and have actually saved
me from injury. I have seen brass band manufacturers use similar
glove when polishing horned instruments also and no deaths or
maiming! Every industry has it’s share of hazards along with ours.
Now I have seen hand injuries before from polishing, it just so
happens they were WITHOUT gloves! So what data could be learned from
that? Not sure, you decide. GLOVES + POLISHING = NONINJURED, CLEAN,
LESS CRACKED AND BLEEDING HANDS. Steve P.S. Cars are dangerous, also,
so is football and drinking McDonalds Hot coffee! LOL
Yes Charles this is an old thread but I think you are the first
person to address the size and type of pieces being polished and
relevance to the use of gloves.
First a little bit of this “logic” being thrown around.“just because
a large number of people do things doesn’t make it safe”. large
number of people thought the earth was flat that didn’t make it
flat. It’s not the number of people that “believe” that decide if
something is true or not, such as the majority of people believing
the earth was the center of the universe or the large number of
people who were convinced that the year 2000 was going to wreck all
our computers.
Then There were the solar and lunar eclipse freaks who were certain
that they were are going to cause worldwide crises for hundreds of
years. (especially by the person whose chickens died the week of the
eclipse) Send me the name and address and picture of a 2 persons who
lost a finger polishing with gloves and I’ll send them each a $50
donation. For some reason there is a group of people who seem to find
fear and paranoia comforting to them. Maybe in their case while the
hands are frying from hot silver being polished it makes them feel
more noble “correct” and heroic I have been polishing large
silver/gold cuffs for decades and at last count all 10 fingers were
there.
the large leather gloves I use protect me from the heat and are
necessary. what is the worst that has happened? a wheel has snatched
the cuff, banged against the back of the machine and semi-destroyed
it A semi-firm and semi-loose grip has been taught for polishing
since wheels were invented.
If you’d like to see the cuffs that I polish feel free to contact me
off-line. So, Charles yes you are kind to these “fear of gloves
people”.with your guidance. take care you all, but v e r y careful
it’s going to be 2012 soon and we "all "know that’s going to be it
for the End of most all of us, which will and least put an end to
this silly glove debate Silly because for some of us gloves are not
only comfortable but necessary and have been safe our entire career,
and silly because others don’t really need full gloves are frightened
of spinning wheels with or without gloves and silly simply because of
the commonly accepted varied opinions that have not resulted in any
significantly crippled jewelers. I say “significantly” because I’m
sure someone has had a piece of metal sneak under the goggles and
damage their eye or the scar I have in my hand from being careless
while using any large stone cutting wheel. Almost every aspect of
jewelry making has some element of danger. The operative word in
regard to all these issues is careless.
David Phelps is dead right about about the false safety factor in a
foot switch.
Think about your car which has foot switches. Run the numbers and
compare between a 3640 RPM 6" buff and a car at 50 MPH for surface
speed. Lots of mangled cars out there and a few bodies
I agree, shortly after I switched from polishing with the flex shaft
to using my shiny new polishing cabinet I had one of those moments
that could have been life changing. I used to use surgeons gloves to
keep my hands clean when polishing. Good thing the tear strength on
them is less than the power required to rip my hand off. In a split
second my hand was bare and that glove was going
flup…flup…flup… Now I polish bare handed or use leather finger
cots. No gloves, no way!
