Gloves only protect your hands if you have them on. The Glove Guard operates on the (true) principle that if you don’t have your gloves with you, you’re not likely to go and find them to put them on. The ‘Guard consits of two plastic clips held together with a breakaway synthetic cord. The larger clip attaches to your jacket, shirt, belt etc, the smaller part clips to the gloves.

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During our recent trip to Maker Faire in Austin we witnessed quite a few people wearing gloves in various applications – everything from fire protection to general work gloves. What we didn’t see the entire time were fingerless gloves. We still see them on the shelves, and folks like Milwaukee still think they are useful for something around the jobsite.

What do you think? Are finger-free gloves still around for a reason, or are they only good cyclists and winchers on sailboats? Let us know in comments.

Fingerless Work Gloves [Milwaukee]
Street Pricing [Google Product Search]

Both Sean and I are stuck doing miscellaneous crap this weekend, which means we don’t get our beloved shop time.  And we get cranky when we don’t get shop time.  So here’s the deal: 

Remember glove week?  We do — mainly because we’re up to our ears in gloves.  We’ll make you a deal.  If you’ll post pictures of your latest project — no matter how small — to the Toolmonger photo pool, we’ll pick our favorite one on Monday and send the person who posted it a pair of gloves.

Simple enough, right?

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

As we wrap up glove week, we couldn’t help but include one pair of fingerless gloves: Milwaukee’s.  We suffered through our scary memories of 1980s fingerless driving gloves, reminding ourselves that these are work gloves — not something from 1983 that Eddie Murphy might wear — to bring you some quantitative test results.  Read on past the jump for our experiences and (of course) lots of photos. 

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Mac Tools’ M-PACT-2 heavy duty work gloves totally look like something Halo’s Master Chief would wear; they just bristles with extra hand “armor” and offer the coolest vibe of any glove we’ve seen this week.  But cool vibes don’t mean a thing if the gloves don’t perform.  Read on past the jump as we get busy with the M-PACTs and report back with our experiences and lots of photos.

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Our next contestant in glove week is Milwaukee’s Contractor glove. Unlike other tool-branded gloves, the Contractors don’t have any other logos adorning their stitch-work. It’s red and black all the way with these babies. Read on for the results as we run them through the Toolmonger “gauntlet.”

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It’s day two of glove week, and today we’re trying on Mac Tools’ Foose-branded work gloves.  One thing even the most casual observer will notice is that these gloves are stuffed full of logos.  Foose Designs, Mac Tools, and a little yellow tag on the edge seam that reads “Mechanix Wear” all fight for hand-space like NASCAR sponsors. 

We’d imagine that at least a few hardcore deals went down to bring these gloves to the public, but (as always) we ask only one question:  “Are they worth a crap in the shop?”  There’s only one way to find out, so we put ‘em to the test.  Read on past the jump for our experiences and lots of pics.

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We’ve in the shop all year round.  Since the shop isn’t heated, our fingers generally feel like icicles during the cold months.  Maybe this year we’ll try out Revco’s Cold Snap line of insulated mechanics gloves.

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If you haven’t checked out the comment thread on yesterday’s reader question post about latex gloves, you should.  There’s some great info there that’s made me re-think how I use gloves in the shop.

Specifically, while there’s been no sure-fire confirmation of the concept of petrolium causing latex allergies, it does seem obvious from comments that latex gloves are much more permeable than they might seem.  I use them to avoid grinding grit into my fingernails and skin, and they work fine for that.  But some readers have posted sources for nitrile gloves at about the same price, so I think I’ll switch.

Also, readers KMR and Stuey recommend this interesting site which sells a ton of different glove types and hosts a chart showing which type of gloves are resistant to which chemicals.  Good stuff!

TM reader Abe posted the following comment on our recent Tip: Close Off Fluid Lines With Latex Gloves post: “Please do not wear latex gloves in the shop. Petroleum products cause the latex to break down and may cause you to develop a latex allergy.  This is such a serious problem that hospitals will not let workers bring their own hand lotion from home because some lotions contain pertoleum products.   A latex allergy is something you do not want to go through life with.”

I’m going to do some research myself when I get a chance, because I’ve used latex gloves in the shop for years with no adverse effects.  But have any of you heard or seen anything relating to this? 

Let us know in comments.

After years of getting all my gloves dirty — then tearing my hands up moving furniture or other “clean” items bare-handed — I finally learned to buy a separate set to keep as “clean” gloves.

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These gloves provide big-time freedom of movement via cut outs and relief areas while still protecting your fingers and hands with good quality leather.  But bionic?  They don’t feature any of the super-cool gizmo tech I think of when I hear “bionic.”  Bummer.

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Are you more Terrell Owens than Jerry Rice when it comes to hanging on to crap around the jobsite?  These gloves’ tacky palms might help, though you’ll have to put up with “tacky palms” jokes from your co-workers.

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Most “women’s” tools leave much to be desired – passing up quality and good design for pretty colors and gimmicks.  Not Mechanix, though.  Their woman’s home and garden gloves look as tough as their shop gloves, they’re not even pink, and there’s not a flower to be found anywhere on ‘em.  They are, however, sized just right for smaller hands and feature sport-stitched webbing in the rear to provide a snug fit for slender wrists.

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Mike R. writes: “Gorgonz makes a cool glove that has a valve in the back that you breathe into to help warm your hands.  They seem well built and have a comfortable fit that allows for a lot more dexterity than a typical cold weather gloves.  The valve works great, and breathing warm air into the gloves definitely helps keep your hands warm.  There’s an easy-to-grab flap covering the valve, which keeps crap out of it.”

“Home Depot carries a couple sytles (the 650 and 475), though the 650 and 850 are the only ones with the valve.  The 650 has less insulation but allows for more control than the 850.  The 650s are cheaper at Home Depot — $29 around here – than on the Gorgonz website.”

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We’ve written about gloves with impact protection and even gloves with lights on the fingers, but they all seem kinda gimmicky to us.  Realizing that we — like you, probably — do more than just work on the car, what’s your favorite shop glove 

Maybe I should be a little more specific: by “shop glove,” I mean gloves other than the classic “work glove” — which is great, but doesn’t offer anywhere near enough dexterity for most smaller work. 

Right now, we seem to favor the one pictured above — Mechanix’ “original.”  We’ve worn out three pairs over the last few months, but I’m glad to say that it’s the gloves that are worn out and not our hands.  The Mechanix gloves seem to offer a nice balance between durability and dexterity, though they are a little pricey.

But we haven’t tried ‘em all.  I suppose what we should really do is put together a test.  Let us know your favorites in comments, and we’ll schedule a test of as many of ‘em as we can find.

A while back I posted about how great it is to have a few sets of “clean” work gloves around — gloves that you keep clean so you can use them for moving furniture and so on.  At the time, I mentioned that I found some for $1 each.

Well, here’s your opportunity.  Harbor Freight’s sellin the ones pictured above 3-for-$3 today.  That’s half price as they’re normally $6.

While you’re at it, pick up two sets.  You know you’re eventually going to end up getting some of ‘em dirty.

Work Gloves, 3-Pair [Harbor Freight]