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Discussion Forum

Gloves

Frankie | Posted in Tools for Home Building on July 20, 2009 04:00am

Okay, My head is about to explode. We have discussed this before but posting is therapy and I need a sanity check – okay, insanity check.

“Back in my day”… Gloves were a part of my tool box that I provided, not the Boss. The cheap rubber palm gloves did not exist so we used the heavy leather palm with canvas back gloves for unloading lumber and kid leather gloves when working with tools – usually chain sawing and shoveling.

If you wore gloves other than those times you were laughed at. How did one expect to develop calluses if you wore gloves?! Exactly!

So, now my crew wears these cheapo red rubber palm gloves. They cost $1/ pair. Company provides. I buy 3 dozen at a time and we go through them in short order – especially on hot days when the guys are sweating. Some guys will go through 2-3 pair/ day. That’s

! I am never told when someone takes the last one, but am asked where they are when they run out. If none are found they guys pout. That’s

!

I would like to begin a policy of – You want gloves, then you bring them. However, I’m willing buy decent gloves for everyone and they’ll get new ones when they return the worn out old ones. Those $10 gloves ($5.99 @ big box) will last much longer – a month or two. Still, it’ll be cheaper.

Now there is an exception – my masons. The red palm gloves are superior to any of the leather gloves for masonry work. For them I would like to give each (3) a pkg of gloves and tell them they have to last a month.

Now perspective – this costs the company $36/ week, $1,872/ year. That’s bonus money for 2 guys at xmas. Leather gloves would cost the co. $36/ month. So actually the savings is more like $1,440. Still bonus $$.

Any suggestions, comments or alternative ideas?

Flay your Suffolk bought-this-morning sole with organic hand-cracked pepper and blasted salt. Thrill each side for four minutes at torchmark haut. Interrogate a lemon. Embarrass any tough roots from the samphire. Then bamboozle till it’s al dente with that certain je ne sais quoi.

Arabella Weir as Minty Marchmont – Posh Nosh

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Replies

  1. catfish | Jul 20, 2009 04:08pm | #1

    I would call them hand tools and employee should provide.  I don't wear gloves for anything unless its cold.

  2. User avater
    artacoma | Jul 20, 2009 04:27pm | #2

    I've been through the same on a smaller scale and now buy the nice gloves for myself and have cheapy leather palms for the crew when they need them. Since changing most of th crew now supply there own nicer brand. I get can nice rubber palms for $15 doz. at fire and safety supply house.

    Rik

  3. Hiker | Jul 20, 2009 05:33pm | #3

    I buy each employee a nice pair of gloves.  As I hand them over to them, I say-"These are your gloves, you are responsible for them, If they wear out give them to me and I will replace them, if you lose them you are responsible for providing yourself new gloves. "

    I have never bought a second pair of good gloves for an employee.  They always drop them on the ground and lose them.  I keep the cheap cotton gloves in the truck box if needed.

    It is very frustrating, but one of the joys of being a boss.

    Bruce

  4. peteshlagor | Jul 20, 2009 06:11pm | #4

    Those $1 a pair gloves don't fit well.  I find myself having more slipages and accidents with them.

    Over the past several years, I've become a big fan of the spandex knit gloves that have been dipped in nitrile.  $4.76 at Lowes.  Repeatably washable to look like new again and again.  I've used them for handling split face concrete retaining wall blocks (lots of them -5 semi's worth) as well as for mortaring the same and/or stone.  The same pair.  Last over a year.  They'll wear out from the back before the front fails.  Vastly outperforms leather.  Commonly sold as "garden gloves."  Poor marketing.  Wells Lamont now at least will have on their packaging that they outperform leather.

    When I last sang about them, Grant mentioned he could never consider them for his metal working.  He's right, they'll cut.

    And they do get wet.  So's you don't wanna use them to hand wash with muriatic acid.  Or in the winter, unless something else is under or over them.

    But in Menard's a week ago, I saw a new display of Ansell gloves.  Oh MY!  My gloved heart lept!

    These boys have taken this dipping technology a couple of leaps forward.  AND the underlying material!  For instance, in a professional restaurant supply house, one can buy cut proof gloves made out of Kevlar for jittery cooks.  The Ansell boys have now introduced a Kevlar cut resistant dipped glove ($20) that looks so nimble that you could dial your cell phone with them on.  And that's not all.  There were about 5 different ones on display - each for a different trade's special needs.  Check this out:

    http://www.ansellconstruction.com/  or this:

    http://www.ansellconstruction.com/trade_masonry.php

    or this:   http://www.ansellconstruction.com/trade_electric.php

    or:  http://www.ansellconstruction.com/trade_carpentry.php

    http://www.ansellconstruction.com/trade_plumbing.php

    http://www.ansellconstruction.com/trade_hvac.php

    Looks like Fastenal, Grainger, Midatates, and Airgas are among the distributors  And as mentioned, Menards.  They have a "Where to buy" link on the top of the page's tabbed menu.

    Being so washable, these will probably end up costing your company less than a dollar a pair over time compared to those present ones you describe.

     

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