A lot of mechanics don’t wear gloves. A lot do wear gloves. For most it’s a personal preference. I prefer wearing them instead of having to wash my hands frequently, and definitely wear them when working with various automotive chemicals. Sometimes they can be dangerous though. If you’ve ever read an instruction manual for any type of power tool with spinning or moving parts, you may have noticed that it says not to wear loose clothing or have long hair hanging loose, and probably says not to wear gloves. This is all because you don’t want to get grabbed by the tool, which can lead to some pretty bad injury.

If you want to keep your hands clean while working with a power tool, don’t wear any kind of leather or cloth glove, because those are likely to take your hand with them when they get caught. Latex or nitrile gloves, however, usually break very easily. I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten them torn off by my air wrench, or in this picture, my die grinder. I wasn’t hurt at all, but I can’t say it would go as well if the gloves didn’t break so quick.

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-Dan