Welding Tips and Tricks

Well my TIG gloves have finally seen their last arc! I seem to weld and fabricate at the same time with mine.

What preferences do you have for gloves Brand, pigskin, goatskin, deerskin or cowhide?
What about gloves for the 150A plus welding...things get hot (yes, I have a TIG Finger)

...I'm looking at the Tillman 24C, 30 and 44 ... possibly driving gloves.
The Tillman 24C seem to be to nice/soft, unless I take them off as soon as I finish welding... and use some work gloves for the fab and sanding/grinding

I have tillman deerskin gloves and I really like them. They don't protect a very well if you touch something hot but I haven't felt much radiant heat through them. I use them for everything except stick welding and they hold up very well. I have used them for about 3 months now and they are still in good shape. I like about anything tillman.

Just bought a pair of Tillman 30 Pigskin to try... (This is only my 3rd pair of TIG gloves since '75 ...)
They look to be a little tougher and possibly better for radiant heat

What I would really like to see/try are some TIG gloves made with Yak or Kangaroo leather....

Kangaroo gloves make your hand bounce too much.

mcoe wrote:Kangaroo gloves make your hand bounce too much.

That is to counteract my shaky hand!

Perfect!!!

Thicker gloves for AC, thinner for everything else. I also have a set of heavy lined, stick welding gloves for material handling. I rarely wear gloves anymore because every time I get a new set of deer skins, some jamoke uses them for pot holders and 'shrinkles' them useless. I caught the last welder we had at our shop, wearing my new gloves and using them to wipe smoke off of his crappy welds. I threw both he, and the gloves away. He also roached band saw blades at the rate of one, or two per day and I am sure it was on purpose, so, he had to go.

My sister used her husbands brand new welding gloves to load wood into the wood stove and shrunk them. I try to hide all my new gloves to prevent such a thing.

I like the thinner gloves for feeding my fill rod...but anymore I don't like switching gloves for this or that...it just takes time that i could be getting stuff done...I started using the tillman drivers gloves with the double palm....but i got a pair of regular drivers gloves with the kevlar thread and absolutely love them!!! They are a bit thinner than the other drivers glove making feeding fill rod easier to feel and heavy enough to weld higher amperage and do most anything else involved with steel work. I love em...they aren't real expensive either

mcoe wrote:My sister used her husbands brand new welding gloves to load wood into the wood stove and shrunk them. I try to hide all my new gloves to prevent such a thing.

There is a better way to fix that, just keep a ton of gloves laying around the shop. Works for me anyway.
-Jonathan

I just fill a couple fingers of a glove with grease and lay them out as bait and wait for my prey.

mcoe wrote:I just fill a couple fingers of a glove with grease and lay them out as bait and wait for my prey.

That works until you forget yourself.
-Jonathan

That is why I never grab the obvious glove.

I use the leather work gloves from either of the two big club stores. I'm a bigger guy, and the XLs always seem to have enough finger room. I also don't prefer the cuffs on the vast majority of actual welding gloves. There's not much of a price difference per pair, so it always just came down to the fingers being long enough.

I wear long sleeve shirts and / or a fireproof sleeve bib from Tillman, so the cuffs just never seemed to have an upside for me.

Well, I finally managed to get the sewing machine out and customized my gloves....

Well, I finally managed to get the sewing machine out and customized my gloves....

WoW, yeah I guess you can not order gloves with one short finger. I am having a problem finding gloves that keep the heat from the torch out but at the same time are not big n bulky.

TwentyFourSeven wrote:WoW, yeah I guess you can not order gloves with one short finger. I am having a problem finding gloves that keep the heat from the torch out but at the same time are not big n bulky.

Do you have a TIG Finger? If not, you should consider investing.

Won't really change the gloves you wear, but will allow you to get more up-close-and-personal. Good TIG gloves with the TIG finger are very helpful, especially with aluminum.

Here's the link:
http://weldmongerstore.com/

Actually yes, first thing I did to help support the site was buy 2 Tig fingers. They do help a lot.

24/7,
Straighten out one of your Tig fingers and slip it over your air cooled torch, it keeps some of that heat out of your gloves.


I noticed you said that your going to awater cooler down the road, if I welded aluminum everyday that road would be very short. You'll weld all day at 140 amps with a #20 w/c torch and not even know you're holding it, well worth the investment.

Len

Braehill wrote:.....I noticed you said that your going to awater cooler down the road, if I welded aluminum everyday that road would be very short. You'll weld all day at 140 amps with a #20 w/c torch and not even know you're holding it, well worth the investment.

Len

I rarely weld aluminum, however, there are so many times my 17 and 9 just get too hot to hold... water cooled is in sight... just need to decide on 12 or 25 feet for the most part...

Braehill wrote:24/7,
Straighten out one of your Tig fingers and slip it over your air cooled torch, it keeps some of that heat out of your gloves.


I noticed you said that your going to awater cooler down the road, if I welded aluminum everyday that road would be very short. You'll weld all day at 140 amps with a #20 w/c torch and not even know you're holding it, well worth the investment.

Len

Great idea. That sucker gets hot.

Has anyone tried Superior Gloves? I've been thinking of buying some for our shop. http://serviceandsafety.com/ seems to have some good pricing but only on bulk orders.

GlenC wrote:

Braehill wrote:.....I noticed you said that your going to awater cooler down the road, if I welded aluminum everyday that road would be very short. You'll weld all day at 140 amps with a #20 w/c torch and not even know you're holding it, well worth the investment.

Len

I rarely weld aluminum, however, there are so many times my 17 and 9 just get too hot to hold... water cooled is in sight... just need to decide on 12 or 25 feet for the most part...

25 ft freedom of movement