Matter of opinion I guess on gloves, and I seldom wear them, I do however, wear bib overalls when working in my shop. Had a circular print scar on my chest/stomach area for several years before it finally faded away. Came from a 9"disc that hung and kicked back while grinding on a piece clamped in a vice. Came damn close to disemboweling myself Been wearing the bibs so long now that I wear them almost always, As I've gotten older my belly has gotten to where it's bigger than my butt and they are more comfortable than a tight belt Another thing I haven't seen mentioned is to never lay a disc grinder down with the disc down, especially if it's a hard disc. Way too easy to either step on it or drop/lay something on it and crack the disc. Then when you pick it back up to and pull the trigger it explodes into shrapnel!
I have a 3" long burn mark scare under my belly from a grinding wheel that exploded. A chunk of the spinning wheel tore through my sweatshirt, my pants, and a tee shirt before it got to my belly. Don't think I'd want to know what it would have looked like if those things wouldn't have slowed it down a bit. The one that scared me the most was when a cut off wheel blew up, a piece of it split the frame on my safety glasses in 1/2 between my nose and my left eye! I didn't have a mark on me! The safety glasses saved me. All I heard was the wheel break, felt the thud, and saw both sides of my safety glass fly away from my face. I had to sit down for a while after that one! The metal fabrication industry is a dangerous place. To survive, you really need to pay attention and have (and use) all the safety gear you can. There is a reason that stuff exists, and someone paid the price for it to be available to you. Gene
The Jalopy Journal
