In my job as a drilling instructor, there are few phrases I say more often than “watch your hands” —followed closely by, “Where are your gloves?” These phrases are not said exclusively to new apprentices and apprenticeship candidates. No, it seems some people are unaware or nonchalant about what could happen by having their hand in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still others choose not to protect their hands with gloves at all. Usually these workers will say, “I can’t feel things right” or, “I need more dexterity than I have with gloves.” Or simply, “I cannot stand wearing gloves.”
We have all done it: gotten busy with the task at hand and forgotten to don our gloves — or placed ourselves in the wrong spot. Just the other day, I was working on building a manifold in the shop using a pipe wrench to tighten a pipe onto a valve. I finished the connection and removed the piece from the vise to apply Teflon tape to the other end of the pipe. I turned the manifold over and, “Ouch!” A burr nicked me at the base of my middle finger. My partner, hearing this, took the opportunity to ask with great enthusiasm, “Where are your gloves?”