Be warned, Harbor Freight gloves are dangerous

[dnalot]

Be warned, Harbor Freight gloves are dangerous. This photo is one week since I burned my hand. I wore these gloves while working with hot metal. The heat did no damage to the leather but the liner was made of a fabric that melted at a fairly low temperature and stuck to my skin. Three pair for $16 was no bargain. And boy does it hurt.

Mark T

 

[chucketn]

You need to give us more info to help prevent this from happening to someone else.
What item # are the gloves? What was their marketed purpose? Were they marketed as welding gloves? Heat proof gloves?
What were you doing when you were burned?
Don't get me wrong, I am very sorry you were hurt, and I know from experience how painful burns are. I have welding equipment as well as a foundry where I melt and cast aluminum. I purchase a lot of tooling and safety equipment from Harbor Freight, as I'm sure many folks here do also.

Chuck

 

[kvom]

The only HF products I've ever bought were oil cans. Sorry about the hands.

 

[dnalot]

Hi

The gloves were sold as welding gloves, I don't know the item number. I did a little test in the kitchen oven and the liner material will turn sticky at under 150 degrees, at 180 it shrivels and at 200 it melts to nothing. The fingers were lined with a different material that was not damaged. I bought these gloves to replace an old pair that had gotten stiff from working around the forge. My feeling is the liner should not fail long before the outside of the glove. Was this a screw up on my part, you-bet, that's why its posted under mistakes and booboos.

Mark

 

[Silvergoose]

dnalot, sorry, for the injury, but I do not understand the test. You say the tests where done in the oven, were you hands in the gloves at the time of the test? If the interior of the gloves were as you say "sticky" at approx 150F why go higher? You say the finger material is different and held up to the heat. From my limited view of welding it is the fingers that need the higher degree of protection due to the position of the fingers during the welding pass. I can not remember having my entire hand exposed to such high heat for any length of time, by the way how long were the gloves in the oven?

While I have no attachment to HF, I feel that more information is needed.

I use Tillman gloves and I have had them pretty warm from time to time.

Take care of those wounds.

Good Luck

 

[10K Pete]

That's outrageous!! I would sue the a** right off those #T^&( s

I've been 45 years in hot metal of all sorts and can't conceive of a
hot-glove liner made of plastic. Holy crap. What idiot came up
with that?

I hope you are receiving good treatment for that burn. They are
painful as all get out and permanently debilitating sometimes.

Ouch. Been there done that.

Pete

 

[10K Pete]

.....From my limited view of welding it is the fingers that need the higher degree of protection due to the position of the fingers during the welding pass. I can not remember having my entire hand exposed to such high heat for any length of time,......

Good Luck

Ever run big MIG? The back of the supporting hand is protected by
that gauntlet. There's even aluminized kevlar units made just for that
purpose. I can testify that a glove gauntlet will get really hot from the
arc radiation!!!

All that aside (and I'm not trying to start anything with anyone) it's
my opinion that 'meltable' materials have no place around hot
operations. Ever. That's why we wear leather, wool or cotton. No
synthetics ever.

Ugh!

Sorry about the rant,
Pete

 

[Silvergoose]

10K Pete, not to beat this horse into the ground. I agree running big units(that you are getting paid to run) requires high end equipment and I am the first to reach for the best protection possible. These gloves from HF are, at the very best marginal, but the question still must be asked. If the gloves are starting to melt at 150f why put your hand into them.

I use a tig and plasma cutters from time to time, but I am in no way a production user of this equipment, but I can say the metal does get very hot along with the torches.

Anyway, I am done with this. Dnalot get well fast. 10KPete, the best to you.

 

[10K Pete]

I guess that's what I was trying to say also. Stuff like that has no
business near a weldors skin.

Pete

 

[russ57]

Sounds to me like dnalot did some research AFTER the event, to work out what happened - and learned the linings melt way before the outer. I'm not a welder, but I do work hot metal and that seems unacceptable to me. What do the suppliers have to say?

 

[gus]

Thank you for posting the incident. Will watch out when buying gloves for pouring aluminum. take good care of the burnt.

 

[ddmckee54]

DNALOT:

Don't know if this will help or just confuse the matter, but after reading this I decided to test my Harbor Freight welding gloves - they look a lot like yours. After about an hour in the oven at 200 degrees F the linings were still in good shape, no wrinkling or warping or melting. Did you test your gloves to 200 degrees F or C?

I still had the tag on mine, they were:

Chicago Electric
14" Split Cowhide Welding Gloves
Item 97033
Flannel lined
Made in Pakistan

I think these gloves will be OK, but I'm going to test every pair of welding gloves that I get from HF from now on - maybe I just got lucky. Thanks for the warning.

Don

 

[werowance]

i am not a professional welder by trade or anything, but do have a Lincoln weld pro 175 mig and weld a lot on the farm and other projects, and yes the back of the hand to just past the wrist does often get very hot, enough that i often have to stop and quickly pull my gloves from my hands before it starts burning my skin, so no way should plastic or any substance like plastic that melts easily should be in welding gloves.

guess what i am saying is even if you aren't running the big machines in an all day welding work environment, you still don't want plastic in your welding gloves. not even for the little tiny welders that will barely stick 2 pieces of sheet metal together. even those can splatter a big gob of liquid goo metal on you, and it hurts. don't even wear synthetic shirts, pants or socks when welding.....oh man, the socks and shoes, they seem to be a magnet for for hot slag for me..

anyway off my soap box, and back to reading the forum

 

[dnalot]

Chicago Electric
14" Split Cowhide Welding Gloves
Item 97033
Flannel lined
Made in Pakistan

Hi

The gloves I have are labeled "China"

They are not flannel lined. At least not the gauntlet portion. The fingers are a knit cotton like material and the part that failed "the gauntlet" were lined with a very thin, wispy synthetic cloth with a very fine weave (blue in color). My little test was performed on glove parts that were cut from the gloves and placed on a cookie sheet. The leather and the finger material worked as expected but the gauntlet material failed quickly. The burn on my hand was mostly second degree with some third degree. I now have a tender layer of new skin. The good news is I only lost half a day in the shop. I just bit my lip and worked with the one good hand.

Mark

 

[Silvergoose]

Dnalot,

I hope the healing of your hand is moving quickly.

I have a few questions: The burns on your hands, in the pics, indicate the damage to the hand, now you say that the pieces of glove that was placed into the oven work as expected, except the gauntlet. So the question must be asked is the damage, to your hand, on the hand or on the wrist?

You say the cut pieces worked as expected with the exception of the gauntlet portion,correct? What were you working on? Most of the welders and other hot workers I know wear long, buttoned down sleeves. The sleeves would of course add a layer of protection,were you?

Are you a professional at working with hot items?

While I have no dog in the fight, I must say I find a few grey areas in your story.

If your point is do not buy HF gloves,so be it, buy gloves like Tillman or such.

I am ready for this story to pass into the vast wasteland of the net.

 

[dnalot]

I think the majority of the members of this forum understand the point I was making. I have no beef with Harbor Freight or China. I had an unfortunate experience and I wanted to spare anyone else a similar experience.

I am ready for this story to pass into the vast wasteland of the net.

So am I

Mark