Hands Paradox

[JesseK]

I love my opposable thumbs, I really do.

Yet each year they seem to get beaten up, moreso than the rest of my hand combined. At least this year I used gloves when sanding aluminum on the belt sander so there's no burns. I still seem to wind up with 8-10 scrapes on the inside/outside of my thumbs while the rest of my hand looks fairly ok. And I can't exactly use gloves when working on tiny parts or in small cramped spaces; my hands are too big as it is.

Anyone else have this problem?

[Tom Line]

I usually advise against using gloves when working.

Nearly every tool you use will have a rotary action of some kind. If a portion of your glove was pulled into the rotary action, you're in real danger of losing fingers.

Drill presses, drills, lathes, rundown spindles... etc.

It's happened here, not to the FIRST team but to the factory workers, 3 times in the last 5 years. People used gloves and were not supposed to. Women especially tend to fall victim to this because they don't want to mess up their nails/hands. Most gloves are made of durable nylon or even worse, kevlar. It doesn't tear or rip - it just tightens around whatever it happens to be around until it pulls it off.

Just grin and bear the scrapes and aluminum slivers - it could be a lot worse

[MrForbes]

We're all getting very good at clamping aluminum parts in a vice and using a file to make the corners rounded and smooth.

And our thumbs are all intact.

[rangersteve]

Yep, I have the exact same problem. I have no idea where any of the scrapes come from. No matter what im working on( cars, robots, planes, anything) i get the same scrapes. Its crazy. and only thumbs!