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.
As you’ve seen in some of our how-to and hands-on posts, we’re probably the kings of welding in improper gear. It’s not that we’re not aware of that fact — or that we don’t have the scars to show for it — it’s just that here in Texas it gets so incredibly damn hot in the summertime that we often just wuss out and pass on the heavy leathers. That’s why we were thrilled when we came across these lightweight flame-retardant treated cotton options from Airgas.
Think of the Scrusher boot brush as a car wash for your boots. It knocks the mud off so you’ll be remembered by your sparkling personality as opposed to the tracks of mud you leave everywhere.
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.
I’m not sure whether this is John Popper cool or just an oversized pocket protector, but you too can simulate Blues Traveler’s early years by wearing the tools of your trade on your chest. From Woodcraft, this vest features pockets for everything from nails to your cell phone.
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.”
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]
We’ve got a drawer completely full of work gloves at the Toolmonger shop. We carry some in vehicles, and we use them endlessly in the shop to carry steel around, etc. The problem comes when you want to move something that you’d like to keep clean — like furniture or a big TV. Sure, you could just forego the gloves, but a good pair of work gloves can really lower the pain and suffering of moving.
Our solution: Shop the local dollar stores for “work gloves.” They’re poorly made and would disintigrate if you used them much in the shop, but they’re great if you just intend to keep them separate (as “clean gloves”) and only use them when you’re moving something nice. I’m way too cheap to buy a $7 set of gloves for this purpose, but at $1 each, I’ll take two.
I catch some hell for wearing these — my friends call ‘em “cop boots.” But what they really are is majorly comfortable. They’re called “tactical boots,” and they’re designed to feel like sneakers but give you the protection of boots.
So yeah, they’re “cop boots.”
I picked up a pair a while back when I was looking for general “kick around the shop and out in the boonies” boots. I have a pair of steel-toes, but you don’t always need steel-toe protection, and they’re awfully heavy. Since I’m not really much of a fashion guy — at least when it comes to work boots – I decided to pick a pair the same way I pick a musical instrument: by how they feel and work, not how they look. I ended up with these because they work exactly as advertised.
Brad writes: “These gloves are awesome. They’re made to use when its cold but you still have to manipulate small items such as aircraft controls. The Air Force issues them to pilots, and the Army infantry issues these to soldiers — they work much better than the standard issue leather. These gloves were the ‘thing’ before mechanic’s gloves came out. There are many varieties. This link is but one of them.”
Back in high school a friend of mine was always working on some car or another. He wasn’t that cool guy who always had some kind of uber-engine almost ready to go in his sweet-ass ‘rod, though. He just wanted transportation and was always trying to put together one of his parent’s rejected junkers from the front yard.
Laugh all you want — the man had transportation. And he also had an ugly-ass set of insulated coveralls that kept him warm while he rebuilt that stupid GM converted-diesel-350-powered Delta 88 together for the 13th time just before Christmas.
My friend’s pair was brown, which is an entirely more practical color than don’t-shoot-me-I’m-not-a-deer orange, but for some reason orange just seems cooler, um, nicer.
You can be cold all you want — or you can be smart and bundle up — but once your hands get cold and you can’t manipulate small items, you’re just wasting your time. Ringers Gloves makes a couple of different insulated mechanics gloves to keep your fingers warm and on the job.
Myself writes: “Police gloves face a daunting set of requirements: They have to provide good tactile feedback for frisking suspects (or for weapon use), but still remain cut and puncture resistant for the blades and needles encountered on the streets. They should be durable, but comfortable. They should also last a while, but be affordable. On top of all that, they have to look decent.
“Gall’s law enforcement supply catalog carries dozens of types of gloves, many of which would perform well in the shop or on the jobsite. Prices vary from under $20 to over $60 per pair, so read the reviews and caveat emptor.”
As scarred and bruised as my knuckles are, one might think I’m a prize fighter or some sort of perpetual bar-room brawler. One would be wrong. Really, I’ve just lost more than my fair share of rounds with cars I’m working on, which is why the padded M-Pact gloves from Mechanix look so attractive. They look like they’d help take the beating when the bolt I’m wrenching finally gives way and sends my knuckles flying into the nearest metal object.
Besides all the normal Mechanix glove features, the M-pact gloves have new flexible bonded TPR (Thermo-Plastic Rubber) knuckle and finger ribs that protect the top of your hand. They also feature Lycra finger panels, and a sensitive fingertip pattern that let you “feel” what you’re doing through the glove.
A good shop apron helps keep all your commonly-used tools ready at hand and also helps protect you from small flying objects and debris. The beautiful one pictures comes from the Woodworker Academy and is available in leather and acrylic — primarily designed for woodworking use, of course.
We keep a less-expensive leather apron around the shop for protective use during metal griding operations, as it seems that no matter how you approach the job you always end up throwing debris at your midsection with an angle grinder.
As I was reading the news this morning, I came across this bit in the Brockville Recorder & Times regarding $2,000 worth of hand tools stolen from a Brockville, Ontario Home Depot. About halfway through I came across the sentence, “The second male has a slender build and was wearing a toque.”
“What the hell is a toque?” I wondered, imagining some kind of ceremonial headdress. A quick bit of Google-education later, I realized that this bit of haberdashery is actually what we Southerners in the ‘States call a “sock hat” — and it’s something that’s worth mentioning this time of year.
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