Welding protection for your hands is not limited to just gloves. There is also a question of what type of gloves a welder should use. When you walk into a welding supply store or try to order gloves online, you may notice there are plenty of options to choose from. They range in material type, insulation, thickness, size, and color. The list goes on, and the first time you bought supplies for your first welding course this may have been a daunting task.

Gloves

When it comes to welding, the general rule is that we want to avoid fabrics that will burn if they get ignited, not melt. While no welder wants to catch fire, or catch sparks, the latter is an inevitable part of the trade. When a droplet of molten steel that was just 2800 degrees Fahrenheit drops off onto the top of your hand while welding a joint in the overhead position, you’re going to notice. If the fabric of your gloves is a natural fiber like leather or heavy cotton/wool, the gloves will smolder, and you can pat out the spark without much concern. However, if you are wearing neoprene-dipped gloves that have a maximum temperature of 482 degrees Fahrenheit, the glove will melt. Instead of that droplet being patted out without much fear or injury, the melted rubber will stick to your flesh and burn even more resulting in a potentially severe burn.

At the start of this section, there is an image of gloves Figure 3.10. It shows three different types of leather welding gloves. The blue gloves on the left, Tillman 1080, are thick gloves that extend down onto the forearm. These gauntlet gloves are excellent for welding processes such as SMAW, FCAW-S, and FCAW-G. Their insulation adds extra protection from spatter and heat that often occurs with these processes. They also make an excellent glove for GMAW.

The gloves in the middle and on the right are thin goatskin leather gloves. They do not offer the same protection against heat and spatter as the blue gloves. However, because of their thinner material, they do provide better dexterity and allow for finer movements with the fingers that a welder might need for GTAW. While you could use the blue Tillman’s for GTAW, it would give you similar motor control you’d find using an oven mitt.

The black and brown gloves in the middle are specifically designed for gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), with added padding and grip where a TIG (aka GTAW) welder would need it the most without limiting their hand mobility.

On the far right side of the image are general shop gloves. While they can be used for welding, they shouldn’t be. They offer a good range of motion for the fingers and hands, and are designed with the purpose of being an overall shop glove. There is no extra padding or support in the hands or fingers a welder will need. They also offer very little in the way of heat protection. There are also gloves made from wool, or cotton that may also provide decent control and heat protection. Figure 3.10 shows only a few very common in a welding shop or in the field. They also change color and number depending on the manufacturer and size than the ones shown.

Heat Shields

Heat shields are a product worn over the gloves during high-temperature welding. They come in varying shapes and sizes. Heat shields are typically a one-size-fits-all product. Some TIG welders will get a heat shield in the form of a finger guard. This is almost like a finger of another glove made out of leather and or aluminum fiberglass or another material with high resistance to heat, that fits over the finger(s) most susceptible to heat during welding. They also come in flat rectangles with straps that can be worn over the back of a gloved hand. They reflect and dissipate heat from the area so that a welder can spend a little more time completing a weld. They are not to be used instead of gloves but in addition to gloves.

Attributions

1. Figure 3.10: Three different gloves. by Stephanie Oostman, for WA Open ProfTech, © SBCTC, CC BY 4.0
2. Figure 3.11: Automotive Welder (Unsplash) by Igor Ovsyannykov is released under CC0