Wrenching Nortons - "A White Glove Affair"

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RennieK

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I've noticed on a few posts guys are wearing a thin disposable type of glove while wrenching. Is it now widely known that this grime causes health problems or is it just bad etiquette to have black road grime under your nails. What is the scoop? How many mechanics are now wearing gloves?

Funny story staring Ed Norton:
In the good old days I couldn't write a letter and seal it without getting big black finger prints all over it and believe me I tried to avoid it. One time at a dinner party with about 8 friends suddenly the women all ganged up on the host and demanded he do the dishes. Our hands get all chapped they cried because we always do them. We guys tried to support him but the gals had done their homework and were pushing a strong case. Then I recalled an episode of the Honeymooners with Jackie Gleason as Ralph, a NY city bus driver and his side kick Art Carney as Ed Norton, a sewer worker. In the show the gals, Alice and Trixie had gone away and left the guys alone to batch. After sharing their 1st meal when it came time to do dishes big bossy Ralph was trying everything to shove the responsibility onto his buddy Ed. After Ralph's long windy drawn out excuse Ed simply agreed saying "it's ok Ralph I don't mind, my hands get wet all day in the sewers anyway, I'll gladly wash the dishes". With that, Ralph quickly jumped in and started washing the dishes. This gave me the idea to say to the gals, "I'd rather have my hands in soapy dishwater than in gasoline and transmission fluid all day". It worked like a charm, the hosts wife had nothing but sympathy for her poor transmission rebuilder husband and the gals sheepishly hustled off in the kitchen to do the dishes. I was pretty popular.
 
I always wear disposable non-latex gloves when working on my bikes.
 
That's a joke, right Pelican?

:D

Kind of like why wash your feet since they will get dirty eventually.
 
nah, I mean say you get oil on your glove or oil on your hand...anything you touch on the bike is still going to get oil on it. Only time I wear gloves now is if I need some extra grip
 
Disposable gloves are one of the great inventions of recent times.
 
When I first started wearing disposable gloves at an automotive shop about 15 years ago I was roughly 19 years old. And boy did I get my ass ragged for days from the other veterans in the shop! The next week every guy in the shop was wearing them right along with me. I just got tired of scrubbing my hands with tire bleach and a bristle brush! My hands would crack and bleed in the winter and the ladies didn't want my grubby paws anywhere near them - a solution was in order.

I have since up graded to nitrile for durability.
 
My God good man I am at a loss; it's not to keep the grease off the bike :cry: Pelican gloves are to protect your skin. Not to mention many of the chemicals are carcinogenic and potentially dangerous irritants.
 
I use nitrile gloves too, but they tear so bloody easily!

Make my hands sweat like crazy too.

Still, they do make clean up a bit easier, and anything that cuts exposure to carcinogens and brain/liver-killing chemicals is worth something.
 
I just picked up a box of 100 vinyl disposable gloves today, fit nice and snug and don't tear, $3 for the box.
Installed new rear chain this afternoon along with a lot of grunge cleaning of rear wheel.
Went through two pair in three hours, would not do that kind of work without these gloves.
 
I've worn latex surgical gloves when working with fiberglass. Your hands don't breath at all in those so you get the dish pan hands pretty bad. The ones I've noticed in photos don't look skin tight either so it must be difficult gripping small screws etc. I'll have get some to try for those dirty jobs.
 
latex disposable for me, just don't wear them that long. I usally change due to getting too much oil on them or they tear. Although good for your health, probably bad for the land fill. :)
 
Blue Gloves (nitrile) for me, not white gloves! I wear them whenever I can, although for some jobs they're a bit too clumsy.

A lot less hand scrubbing required, but more importantly many of these shop chemicals we work with are toxic and they will go through your skin like it's not even there. Do you really want gasoline, acetone, etc. getting absorbed into your body? I don't. I'd like to preserve what's left of my health as long as I can.

Debby
 
I thought the oil might be good for my arthritis.

...or is that the cause of it?
 
When I was a wee lad I laughed at a guy for wearing gloves. Took me a while but damn if that isn't the best idea ever. Nitriles are $7.99 at HF but I always wait until they go on sale for something like $5.99 and buy a couple boxes. Can they be found for less anywhere else?

Here's my happy hands all gloved up.

Wrenching Nortons - "A White Glove Affair"
 
I've been wearing them for the really grungy stuff since I built a Lotus Seven clone with a Doctor and he brought them along. I wasn't bothering tonight but I'm just planning where to mount components for wiring.
 
Dave, no carcinogens for you with those gloves, AND no rear wheel lockup at XX MPH with that POS layshaft bearing out of your gearbox!

You better take up some bad habits or you're gonna live forever, man! 8)
 
Cookie said:
I've been wearing them for the really grungy stuff since I built a Lotus Seven clone with a Doctor and he brought them along. I wasn't bothering tonight but I'm just planning where to mount components for wiring.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the problem. I have a set of grungy clothes for bike work. I put them on to dismount/mount a tire on my Eldo, then changed back. Took so little time, I figured, why not get the forks draining on my wife's Nightster so they can drip drip drip overnight? Easy job, just a couple bolts and screws. But of course, pulling the fork springs I got frickin' fork oil on my -not previously grungy - pants. TOTALLY PREDICTABLE. Why oh why do I never learn????!?!?
 
I started wearing latex -- and later, nitrile -- gloves when doing the greasy work shortly after I started wearing contact lenses...
 
I usually wear nitrile gloves when working with particularly toxic stuff like carb cleaner but find they tear easily. I wonder if wearing gloves can be worse than nothing at all sometimes when they leak because they hold chemicals IN against your skin. Maybe it's a matter of finding tougher gloves.
 
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