Do you need to wear gloves when using a hand grinder, a cordless drill, or a power hammer?

It is explicitly prohibited to wear gloves when using a hand grinder or a cordless drill.

Wear gloves when using a hand grinder, a cordless drill, or a power hammer.

Gloves are prohibited on rotating equipment; gloves must be worn for all tasks where it is not specified that gloves are forbidden. Rotating equipment refers to bench drills, bench grinders, bench saws, and similar devices. It does not include portable power tools, such as electric angle grinders, chainsaws, pistol drills, and other similar power tools.

It is best not to wear wired gloves with this type of equipment

It is best not to wear gloves when using such devices, but it is necessary to maintain their insulation.

Wearing gloves or not is indeed a troublesome issue: on the one hand, rotating machinery can easily entangle and injure the hands, while on the other hand, handling metal objects without gloves can easily cause punctures and injuries to the hands. Weigh the pros and cons; prioritize addressing the aspect that poses the greatest risk. Generally, it is preventing entanglement of hands, so gloves are not allowed. But in reality, there are too many violations!

Using hand grinders and cordless drills are common operations in engineering installation and renovation work. Yet there are two completely different opinions regarding whether it is necessary to wear protective gear or not, and to this day I have not found any argument that can convince me which view is correct. I have been working for over a decade now. Although several safety officers have told me not to wear gloves, as it’s a rotating tool, in practice I feel that wearing gloves is better than not wearing them, as it provides better protection for the hands. For example, when using a hand grinder for grinding or cutting, the sparks can cause the hands without gloves to heat up and move around, increasing the risk of accidents. Who can give a definite and convincing explanation? If there is a clear stipulation, then in which document is that stipulation stated, and what does it say?

For portable power tools, those in Category 1 require the use of insulating gloves, while for other, non-portable tools, gloves are not necessary. As for fixed installations where sparks are generated, it’s likely that the protective measures in place are insufficient; that’s my opinion

Given the conflicting opinions online and the inability to provide a definite, convincing answer, I went to consult our company’s safety officer just now. This individual has over a decade of experience working in oil refining and chemical plants on matters related to on-site safety and QHSE, making him a highly credible safety officer at the company level. His reply was quite satisfactory to me: it is not allowed to wear gloves when operating rotating equipment; there are **clear regulations on this matter. But there is no detailed information regarding which specific tools these are; after working for so long, he gave me a definite answer stating that there is no such detailed information available. He believes that safety work is people-oriented, aiming to prevent potential harm as much as possible; therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, it is necessary to wear gloves when using a hand grinder. The risk of being injured by flying debris, fragments, or sparks is greater than the risk of getting caught in the rotating mechanism of the equipment, and it’s basically difficult to get caught in such a mechanism with a hand grinder (since the rapidly rotating sharp grinding wheels make it hard to approach the central axis of rotation). As for bench grinders, it’s definitely not possible to wear gloves; he has seen people’s hands get caught in bench grinders with his own eyes. For things like drill guns, canvas gloves can be worn, but sand gloves cannot.