How does a guy keep his digits from freezing in winter? I don't know what's going on but I seriously couldn't last more than 5 minutes outdoors today at -2C with TWO pairs of gloves on. I couldn't even feel my fingers!!! I'm no stranger to -35C (only worked out in those temps the last 8 or 9 winters lol) but that -2C felt colder than -35C. I'm actually considering turning in my service truck and becoming a shop guy if it keeps being this unbearable. Any suggestions?
I used to have about 50 head of cattle and would be outside every day looking after them. I tried all sorts of gloves and even battery operated heated ones. Never did find anything I loved. Froze my hands so damn bad the one day I was almost puking when they warmed up. Ever since then it doesn't take anything for them to get cold. I dont do many service calls, but when I do a run a second set of gloves on the defrost vents. Allows you to swap out every 5 mins or so to a piping hot pair of gloves.
Once you let them get frostbite, or close to it, it is just gonna suck forever. Poor circulation is another cause. Pushbroom hit the nail on the head, keep gloves warm and dry and in rotation. Where mittens when you can.
I learned years ago, mittens keep your hands warmer. Don't do us wrenchers much good, but when operating in cold weather, a always use fur lined leather mittens, MMMMM warmth!
I take a torpedo space heater with me when the temps are super cold. I hate having to run the welder for it but its worth it to me. I also will leave my truck idling on the job so I can take warm up breaks. The brown jersey gloves (100% cotton) have been the best gloves I have used and they are cheap.
I don’t know what it is but my hands go through phases in any given winter. One day it’s like they’re impervious to cold and the next it could be 60 and they’d be sensitive to it. We have some gloves that are warm, not too thick and have some rubber on them to help grip stuff. I’ve gotten pretty good at doing things with them on. I also stick the little warming packs in them when it’s bitter cold. Another trick is to stick a couple larger heating packs in the pocket of my hoodie under my coveralls. Seems like when you’re trunk is warm everything else handles the cold better. It seems like once they’ve gotten bad cold on a particular day that’s it for the day. You just can’t seem to get them warmed back up. I’ll take any advantage I can get, extra gloves warming up in the truck, a heater when I can find a way to direct some warm air into the area I’m working. The older I get the less I like cold and the more sensitive I seem to be. Anybody hiring in Hawaii or the Caribbean? Haha
I'm going to try and dress a little warmer today. Going to wear my winter overalls and a jacket and see if keeping my core warmer keeps my hands from freezing up as fast.
Eat enough calories, keep active enough to keep your core temp up. You're still young, right? It only gets worse, and I'm not nearly as old as a lot of the guys here. Kinda like how a finger tears easier and doesn't heal as fast, after many decades and many tears.
Here are the gloves I like. There are similar ones available almost anywhere. These seem to be the right thickness etc.
I have the same problem on the other end of the spectrum. I have had heat stroke and heat exhaustion too many times. I can do very little in hot weather now. This is particularly unfortunate as I live in FL. It was low 90's yesterday.
There is work in the Caribbean right now after those hurricanes. I know a couple crane operators from Michigan are down in St. John right now and loving it.
I've had good luck wearing cotton glove liners under XL Nitrile gloves, also keep disposable hand warmers in my pockets for when my hands do start to get cold. Keep your head and core warm and keep your blood pumping. Luckily my mother knits me super warm Wool touques and socks and I've got different degrees of insulated coveralls, some are good to -10c, next pair to -20c, and my heavy Helly Hansen pair that I only wear below -20c, they've kept me cozy even at -45c. Of course long underwear, multiple layers, multiple wool socks. Winter is the reason I have an enclosed heated service body, all my tools, parts, oils are warm, I can remove parts from a machine and take them into my mobile shop to thaw out while I clean/swap fittings/reseal etc. Stay safe
Good idea, ever seen how ice cold screwdrivers snap the tips off?
Has anybody used the Webasto style cab/bunk heaters? I have been thinking about rigging one up to be portable and blow heat on where I’m working. Haven’t been around one to see how well they work.
We have the cheap propane heaters on the older rigs, the kind that screw on to a bottle. They do a fair job of taking the bite out of the heat. A couple years ago I had to dig into a Cummins motor when it was around zero. I rigged a tarp up, a small heater near the engine enclosure and a nipco setting on the ground under with a 90 degree turning the heat up. Guys chuckled at me....that will never get warm you’re wasting time blah blah. Guess where they all were a couple hours later....can I grab something for you? Need any help? Haha
I use a weed burner into a 4” pipe with holes in the sides that works pretty good with tarps over you.
When those things are working, they are incredible for how small they are. Only downside I see is the btu's aren't there to heat a large or open area. But in a dinky cab , you'll be sweating in short order.
My X boss walked up and saw one of those. Exclaimed that is a real work stopper. Not enough heat to work just enough to stop everyone at it.
Kinco Cold Weather. Get the ones with the knitted wrist. I've never been able to figure out who the hell wears the ones with open cuff, completely useless to me. Keep gloves dry at all cost. Once they get wet, you might as well throw them away, they're never the same. Another option, plenty pricey and not the best for wear and tear are snowmobile gloves. Here are the Kinco. https:// www.kinco.com/product/1927kw
Been reading this with interest and re-read it this morning looking for enlightenment. Yesterday I was out looking at a dozer with the temps in the twenties. Got out of the truck, put on the heavy coveralls with an extra sweat shirt and sock hat and then started checking fluids. Was opening a latch to get to the transmission dipstick and noticed my hand slipping off the latch. Basically I couldn't feel the latch with the fingers on my left hand. I pull the heavy glove off and shoved my hand in my pants pocket and felt the heat draining away from my leg. The shiver ran up my back and I decided it was time to get the engine running on the dozer and wrap my gloved hands on the exhaust stack. I do a lot of writing on a clip board when going through a machine and I've never been able to read my scratchings when wearing heavy gloves. I'd look at a few things and then pull the glove off and do some scratching, then put the glove back on and hold both hands on the exhaust pipe to get feeling back in them. I believe that if I were pulling heavy wrenches it would have gotten the blood flow going and my hands might have been warmer but holding a clipboard and pushing a pencil is probably the worst thing I've had to do in the cold. I think I'll try the two glove solution next time. A thin pair under a thick pair. This age thing really sucks!
I find the dry air up here in winter just kills my hands. If I don't lotion them up at least once a day they just crack all to hell. Same with my lips. Chapstick at least twice a day.
I think that is the same everywhere. Around here it usually gets dry and cold before the rains come in. Lotion next to the sinks in the house for every time you wash your hands. The worst during this time is when I forget to wear mechanics gloves and my hands get covered with black oil and filth. Then come home and scrub them in the laundry sink with all manner of heavy soaps and brushes, the skin is like dry paper/leather after that.
Maybe my boys are onto something when they don’t want to wash up......?
I think there's a lot to be said for the old-fashioned way of using a bucket of diesel to get the heavy filth off before starting with the soap. You don't have to scrub at all.
Quite a few of our drill rigs use a food grade hydraulic oil. I don’t know what’s different about it but it’ll pull the grease and grime out pretty good where a light wash is all you need for clean hands.
Kind of like eating fried chicken with greasy hands your fingertips are always clean for some reason
Liquid on your hands is absorbed through the skin. Fatty-acid esters like bio-diesel; frying oils LOL Keeping my hands warm I use Jersey gloves (a.k.a hand shoes) as liners; leather work gloves /with or without welding gloves. Thicker layers help absorb vibrations from pneumatic impact hammers and needle scalers. Cannot tolerate rubber-ish protective types of gloves. Under the Easy-Up before finishing up small line boring job the area flooded to about 3 inches depth.
Fried chicken smells better
Hydraulic oil always used to leave my hands soft and easy to cut. The wife complained about diesel fuel smell. Dish soap used to dry skin and make it crack in all the bad places. Waterless hand cleaner leaves a film that you have to take off with water and the pumice stuff feels like you can't get the sand out. I can handle all that until my hands get really cold. At that point they go next to a muffler or rest on the top of a warm radiator.
depends on who cooked it
True!
In the years i have been working i worked 2 winters were i wasnt cold one was in a factory and the other was driveing a dump truck.One winter i ate my lunch out side alot of days. It was so cold i couldnt hold a popcan with out gloves. We were runing equipment with out cabs and would often get to far from are pickups by noon to walk back to them to eat.I worked 4 years in a big shop that had a wood stove were there would be ice on the floor around it. Guys would come in and worm up ice and snow would melt off there coveralls then re freeze on the floor. the shop i work at dosent have hot water its not a big deal in the summer but in the winter its very tuff to get your hands clean. What is bad about winter is pulling something in a shop its a big ice cube. You have to start working on it wright away and its covered in ice and snow. You walk 3 feet from it and its 60 degrees but it wount be dry or thawed out until its repaired. When you have to lay under something theres no way to keep dry theres water driping every were makeing a inch deep lake thats the right depth to get your lose multible winter layers soaked.
Lived that "dream" for 20 years. Slush and road grime melting into your eyes and ears. Soak your sleeves and pant legs. Yeah, dont miss that a bit. With equipment, the only big difference is, its usually not melting, just freezing. Lol.
The freezing time used to be good times in the coal mines as the mud just cracked off the machines with a hammer. The shops had no doors let alone heat. If the mud was frozen too hard you got to get out the weed burner for awhile. We used to put kerosene heaters under the steel tables to warm them and the parts up so they wouldn't stick to your bare skin when you put them back together. I hate cold fingers, hands and feet. There should be a country western hit song in there somewhere.
Already is, my friend...
Last winter up in Fort Nelson.Insulated coveralls and as said earlier dry gloves , pickup running all the time and a couple of frost fighters running into tarps over the machines. -30 in the dark makes it hard to get out of the pickup 1st thing in the morning.I just put a big oil furnace in my shop, not going anywhere this winter.
I think all of us have been there got the scars from cold/wet weather!!! here in my area it seems like it don't snow anymore it is just 34 degrees & rains!!! which is just down right miserable!!!
The cold here on the west coast seems to really cut. I think it is the dampness. Worse I have experienced is sleet. Give me real cold. It is easier to deal with. I found that rotating gloves works the best. For wet, cotton liners over weatherproof (rubber or similar) works well. I remove my glove if I require more dexterity than the glove allows but always put it back on before picking up a cold tool. Keeping the core warm helps. Sweaters, insulated jeans or long Johns are a must if it is damp and around freezing. Cam
Agree on that. My home area climate is basically a maritime one with onshore winds and high humidity pretty much year-round. The temperature doesn't even have to be below freezing for it to be downright miserable to work outside. Like camshawn I'd much prefer it to be dry and cold.
It will only hit mid 50's here today. I'll be in a sweater, long pants, and a beaver hat.
At night here its geting close to the single digits.It seems way to cold for this time of the year. Also i heat my house with wood and i dont know what the deal is but its been hard to get it up to 70 and i havent seen it over 70 this winter. On top of that i have a cold. I realy miss summer.
That’s no fun at all. Will your stove burn coal? Around here is $67 a ton. Might build a little more heat and save a few arm loads of wood each day.
I dont know if it has something to do with that weather or the wood i have. My brother loged some white oak about 2 years ago and i have been cuting up the tops. In the past i burned alot of dead elm red and **** elm. I have never burnt coal other than in a forge i dont know if my stove has coal grates or not. Next winter i may get setup to burn more propane i will be under the mans thumb then.
If the summer you had was anything like mine then you have wet wood. I have ash that has been cut split and stacked in the sun and wind for two summers and it still sizzles when put in the stove. Even my dead standing elm is wet.
I have hard wood trees on 60 properties I own that I wish were gone. I can't cut them all down myself. I get the worst offenders as in which may cause me trouble, but have more firewood than I can burn in a year....
Just get set up to use all heat sources, wood, propane, or electric. Then you can use what is the best deal. I use propane on a programmable thermostat that warms the place up in the morning before I wake up. Then I don't have to wait for the wood stove to heat the place up. But the wood stove heats the place in the day and then the propane furnace doesn't run any more until the wood fire goes out.
Coldest I ever had my hands get was on a 6L71 Detroit in a OLD Hook and Ladder Fire Truck in transit to another state. Was parked behind a local fire station where they had spent the night after fighting the machine across two states suffering along changing fuel filters and not gaining any on power problems then it just died would not restart. My boss KNEW it was a fuel transfer pump, 19 degrees out, sent me to swap pumps and replace fuel filters then add Miracle Power Service to get it running again. Of course Could NOT manage the nuts and fittings wearing gloves, hands drowned in fuel, engine still would just start and die, ended up re-installing Old fuel pump and after being so cold as to stop shivering the local firemen dragged my sorry butt into the fire hall in front of a Salamander Heater. Hands had gone numb but had not frost bit as yet. Was just 25 at the time, bulletproof until then only wore light jackets and was chilled straight thru. Finally got mad, was gonna hang a electric pump on it and run it to the shop but the damn fuel tank was at absolute truck butt end, finally the light relit in my head, followed the fuel lines from engine back to the tank, crawling thru the ladder storage chute, found the broken crossmember laying on partially collapsing the COPPER fuel line, cut in a splice of rubber line and got the machine out of there, over four hours on it in 19 degree weather in the dark after 6 at night, did not finish until almost midnite. Still manage cold better than heat where still do without gloves while working, just make certain I stop and get blood flowing and heat on them ever so often.
Reminds me of a time back in the 80's Great lakes naval base was having base housing built. We were working for a contractor doing the infrastructure. Called us out saying, " too cold for our guys, how bout y'all knock out this list of repairs and maintenance? " We had the trucks running, the diesel couldn't maintain heat, the gas job was struggling. Changing water pumps and doing tune ups in mid 80s gas vans. I spent more time trying to feel my fingers and toes than turning wrenches. That was a bad week. 14 hour days to accomplish what should have been 5 or 6 .
The coldest i ever got my hands was when i was still in school.It was the coolest winter i can remember i had a 1956 Jeep pickup it was still 6volt and was one of the only things that would start. I took my parents and boss to work for the first 3 days of the cooled snap. I was out one morning about 2 miles from town and got stuck in a drift. I walked to a buddys hose i had warm clothes but my gloves were some very heavy all cotton ones. His dads pickup wouldnt pull it so we went back to my house and got my dads pickup. By then i had been outside and handled alot of cold logchains. My hands were numb and hurt so bad i was about to cry. I got my hands wormed and my pickup pulled out. That was a ruff winter we lived in a big old house it was cooled we didnt have any heated buildings. It snowed alot that winter are tractor wouldnt start we tryed to pull start it but even on the hwy it wouldnt get enough traction the tires just slid so with my jeep pickup we took it up to the school and pulled it up the sidewalk it started.
That's t-shirt weather and I'm as far south as you can go and still be 'north.'
I am with you hvy 1ton, just around 50 here and was thinking of a quick scooter ride!!! Been out and around the yard catching up before weather sets in, in a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes NO SOCKS, too warm!!
We are leaving out of St. Pete FL Thurs. morning on a sailboat. We will spend 10 days going to the Dry Tortugas and back, doing some scuba, etc... The worst overnight low forcasted for our trip is 68
Don't catch a chill!!!! Should be a fun trip!
I feel for ya' must feel like winter when it gets down to 68... Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Would be lucky if it ever does get up to 68 degrees all year around here on Olympic Peninsula.
Cold and usually wet there year round as I remember.
When we're tiling our hands are wet all day long, along with most of the rest of our bodies, if you think you have it bad with damp hands, try taking off your gloves in sub zero weather and sticking them in ice cold water to do hook ups and fittings, then pat them dry and put your gloves back on, dozens of times per day, often kneeling into water and having you coveralls frozen so badly they no longer bend, but doing it anyway, then sit all day long on a platform with no heat sitting in the wind all day long, to end up at the end of day, digging mud or frozen mud out of tracks so you can go home to warm up, usually shivering so badly you can hardly hang onto the steering wheel as you drive home, only to start the next day over and do the same thing. Now we have heated cabs at least to get into to warm back up in for a while during the day. But to answer your question as to what gloves, I tend to wear whatever is cheap, usually have many pairs along during the day to change out for dry one's, usually keep mittens on hand as well, to wear over the gloves and my house is heated 24/7 to near 80 degrees to try to warm us back up again, most nights we shiver for hours before we're warm again. As for my hands, those can warm back up and get cold many times a day, I can live with that, change gloves or mittens, put them up against an exhaust pipe, whatever, but once my feet are cold, the day's over for me, I'm done and headed somewhere warm and I don't care about anything else for that day, as they say game over, once they are cold, the shivering starts and within an hour or so, I won't be able to hang onto a steering wheel from shivering. As the boss and owner, its my job to make sure everyone is safe, weather is the biggest challenge there is for anyone, the harsher the weather, usually the work that needs doing, needs doing at any cost, so as stupid as it sounds, I'm usually dressed the worst, so I'm the person who's coldest first, so once I get cold, its time to quit before anyone gets so bad off its dangerous to anyone's health, so when I get cold, nobody argues when I say we're quitting and headed home. As for today and being 60 below, there's a better day coming and it can wait till it warms up, if anyone's not happy, tough and that's final.
Like the label says Better than nothing
I am a little annoyed that it is only supposed to be 61 for a high today... I'll have to wear my wind breaker during my round of golf. When I played yesterday, I had the wind breaker and a sweater.
Haha I bought a pair of these a few months ago, couldn't resist, they're actually not a bad glove, I think I only paid about $6 a pair, can't complain!
Insulated leather gloves for general non detail work, mechanic's gloves with nitrile gloves underneath when possible, and just plain ol' suffering when you need to use your digits. Truck's always running with a spare set of gloves over the defrost vents, little zippo heater in the sweatshirt under the bibs (also a good spot for when the gloves are off). Finally bought a diesel torpedo heater, and wish I had years ago. Last gig I was working was maintaining cell tower site generators and HVACs, which equated to hours of tearing down and pressure washing HVAC coils in temps just above or at freezing. That was rough on the hands.
They coulda picked a better name for those gloves!! Almost porno!