Thread: Jointing with Latex dipped gloves

I haven't tried power-jointing with gloves, yet, but I have nearly lost a digit while belt grinding and using a drill press with gloves - both extremely painful accidents that I was quick and strong enough to avoid involving any muscles or bones.
I think that the jointer blades are turning so fast and typically are sharp enough that whatever meat managed to get involved would be cleanly and rapidly removed. Kevlar stitched gloves may however be more complicated.

If it was me I would not joint just wearing gloves.

My approach to jointing is to NEVER let a hand cross the line of the cutters without the use of something significant between the wood and my hands i.e. push sticks or grippers.
I say this from the point of view of having taken 5mm off my left ring finger with a small jointer some 38 years ago

Grippers are probably the safest way for most stock although they become tricky to use for thin pieces.
I have several of the Timbecon grippers which use soft rubber foam, and a hulking home made one that uses 80 grit sandpaper.
All work really well.

I never try to push timber using a push stick on a flat surface through a blade.
The push sticks are either used to provide side or down pressure of the wood against fences or tables, or using notched push stick to push from the back of the work piece.

I was thinking you could cut the fingers off the gloves and attach these to the ends of push sticks for better grip.

I use the latex dipped gloves for everything. It does increase the risk of severe injury around tools like the jointer and drill press because the gloves are fairly tight fitting, they r not tight enough to just shear off as the jointer knives touch them. And they can get wrapped around a drill press easily. I use the gloves because it gives me the same level of grip or control over the workpiece for less effort.

Rule #1: if power is supplied to the machine, dont touch the parts which eat meat. When touching blades to change them, isolate the power first.

I wouldn't risk it.
Get yourself some of these
Push block.jpg

Two of those came with my jointer and hang off it to remind me to use them

Originally Posted by Chesand

Two of those came with my jointer and hang off it to remind me to use them

My jointer came with a pair of those. Is it a sign?

When I use the Jointer I try to use pads to lift my hands from the work piece or try to use a push block at the end of the piece. The push block has a small piece of wood glued on which acts like a hook for the piece being jointed.

The pads can built up with fine dust and this can slip if they are not cleaned before using the jointer. I have been meaning to make a few pads and glue on some sand paper to see how these go.

This video is pretty good viewing, though not specifically on topic of gloves/jointer. Note the two table saw incidents. The first guy using push sticks might get smacked with a piece of timber, the second guy using a push block almost loses a finger. The incident on the jointer is a similar thing that can happen when using gloves.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Yeah I have the full range of push blocks, however, with or without blocks I see no need to have your hands over the cutterhead at any point.

What I think is one of the big benefits of sticky gloves is being able to feed stock from the outfeed table, rather than having to push the end of a board through, as the blades will be exposed from the mutton chop guard being held open (see my crappy drawing below). It also gives better results, helping to avoid sniping.

jointer sketch.png

As for that video - thats why riving knives exist!

I use the latex gloves, however I do not treat them as safety device and follow all the safety requirements as though I were not using gloves, I use the gloves
for many things as timber tends to dry my hands and causes problems Latex dipped glove protect my hands while still affording a decent grip.

Also - I mean hands on the outfeed, body on the infeed - not standing and dragging from the outfeed!

sketch 2.png

Originally Posted by Kuffy

This video is pretty good viewing, though not specifically on topic of gloves/jointer. Note the two table saw incidents. The first guy using push sticks might get smacked with a piece of timber, the second guy using a push block almost loses a finger. The incident on the jointer is a similar thing that can happen when using gloves.

where's the cutter guard !!!

I use dipped gloves for handling and breaking down rough-sawn stock, but move to fingerless gloves for jointing unless I'm working with particularly heavy/slippery boards and need the extra grip.

I rarely use gloves in the shed - usually only when gluing or applying finish

as for the video - that last instance on the tablesaw was a chap deliberately demonstrating kickback and he was mighty surprised when he watched the video in slow motion as his hand went really really close to the blade - google saw kickback and you'll probably find the video