Hi. It seems that gasoline and various solvents have become a health hazard. Maybe it also was when I started working with bikes (DIY/hobby). I see many of you wear gloves, which seems a clever thing to do. Which kind of glove is good? i.e. a reasonable compromise between protection, tear strength and actually being possible to work with for e.g. carburettor work.
I wear Nitrile 6mil gloves pretty much all the time when working on bikes. For me, good balance of feel, strength and chemical resistance. Even if I'm not working directly with chemicals, it's really nice to just peel them off and not have to clean grease and grime out of my nails, cuticles and skin. I usually wipe them off before removing (or sometimes actually wash my hands with them still on), peel them off, and lay them on my bench to dry. Then the next time, I return them to right-side-out and use them again until I get a tear.
jeez I hate wearing them working on anything that belongs to me. I wear them at work while working with resins and epoxies. I wear them when I make hamburgers or chicken breasts dressing them out and then dipping flour, egg, bread crumbs.
I should just get over the sweaty hands feel when wearing them for any length of time. There was a day when you could get some with powder inside. However, mostly I just use a barrier cream (liquid gloves), which you work into your skin and under your nails.... cleans up with soap and water later as it is water soluable. Another product for cleaning up is Tub-O-Towels.... surprisingly good at taking grease off.... it's citrus based.
When you get older and start loosing the elasticity of the skin on your hands, and develop deep and painful cracks on your digits, you will appreciate a decent pair of nitril gloves. I buy them by the box at the local tool store. I find them cheap enough that I find no need to try to clean them or use a pair repeatedly. I know powder is no longer used in the nitril gloves. Or at least, not on the ones I buy. But I don't find it difficult to put the gloves with out the powder, on. I find that by wearing gloves, including rubber coated cotton gloves when I an working with a lot of wood and sawdust, makes a remarkable difference in preventing those damned cracks in the skin at the tips of my fingers. And it is so nice to have fingers and nails already clean after working on the bike. Saves a lot of time when re-applying my nail polish.
I just use a good hand cleaner afterwords . I find that I cannot feel stuff correctly (small screws, nuts and bolts) to work efficiently with any kind of glove on. Just seems clumsy ? Detailing however, over 40 years of doing it everyday, I learned that I MUST use a thin protective glove! The waxes, polishes and other compounds would dry out skin incredibly !! At the age of 20 my hands looked 100 years old!!! There is a place in the garage for the use of gloves, I personally cannot work well on bikes (or cars really) with them on.
