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I must admit, when I first got into the trade a while ago I was not really concerned about safety. We get to a point though where we realize that our bodies are not “indestructible” and we only have one.
Our trade puts alot of strain on our bodies as it is, so to minimize other potential problems I practice the following habits:1. Safety glasses- sure they look dorky but it’s wise to wear them whenever you are in the shop. Even of your not working on something at the moment, the other guys in the shop can have a mishap and debris/a tool can go flying into your eyes. I always wear these, in fact I have at least 10 pairs in my toolbox for good measure.
2. Respirator- When dealing with things the potentially contain asbestos or lead, you want one of these. Self explanatory.
3. Gloves- I wear these with reserve, they lessen the feel as well as get in the way sometimes. On top of this, especially with the disposable ones, your hands get sweaty real quick underneath. These can come in handy though when dealing with rust and anything else that can destroy your hands. These can also help keep your hands clean so you don’t have to wash them before touching a customers interior or senstive transmission components.
4. Hats- As stupid as this sounds, hats have quite a few purposes.
a. They can protect your head from scrapes
b. They can prevent you from banging your head, due to the built in sensor called the brim that will hit an immovable object before your head does
c. They can protect your hair from getting chemicals, grease and oil in it
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Whenever I am dealing with greasing a truck, doing an oil change on a diesel, or handling a chemical that gets into my skin i try to wear the nitrile gloves. Whenever I handle something sharp, warm, or when I really swing a hammer I wear leather gloves. Whenever I handle something excessively hot I wear burning/welding gloves.
Whenever I clean battery wires, aftertreatment, or deal with a lot of brake dust I use a full mask respirator. Mind you big rig techs can have as much as 16 different batteries that is a lot of ends to clean and you wind up using an angle grinder with a cookie and you should always wear gloves and put on a hat and jacket or use a long sleeve shirt as the dry acid gets everywhere.
When you do aftertreatment it is concentrated soot. So it was deemed bad in small quantities now concentrate it in an area that makes it better right lol. The soot is also all through diesel oil and gets into your skin really easy.
Safety glasses go on and stay on unless they fog up then i clean them with anti-fog wipes and back on they go. I have been hit with too much stuff from other techs being stupid and had my eyes saved by the glasses enough times to warrant always using them and just dealing with the complications of doing so.
As for gloves all the time I cannot do it. My palms are a size large and my fingers a size medium no glove really fits them well for nitrile. Most companies do not want to buy the good gloves ie Midknights so using them becomes a situation by situation basis. Plus my hands sweat without gloves on. When I do have them on its like a faucet and they prune up in about 10-15 mins. The gloves also become slick inside it just twists around my finger or when i use force because of that they tear because cheap. I am not about to spend 18-36 dollars every week because of this so….
I always wore the nitrile gloves. They are thin enough that they don’t hinder me too much. My hands were always in chemicals or grease, this protection just seemed like common sense to me.
Hats I wore on and off, mostly depending on how hot it was.
My shop always pushed for safety glasses, but almost nobody wore them. I wore them anytime I was spraying something, drilling, cutting, etc… Basically, anytime there was an increased risk for eye injury. I didn’t otherwise because the darn things gave me a nasty headache, even high dollar ones.
I wore a mask when dealing with brakes or dust.
My big thing with PPE was always, wear it if it makes sense. My shop always pushed for “wear everything all the time so we can all be safe”, but it got in the way a lot of the time. In 12 years working as a tech I can count on one hand the number of injuries I saw, fortunately.
Working in a John Deere dealer shop, PPE is non optional. Safety glasses always. Safety boots ect. My company pays for PPE. If you have to wear prescription glasses, they provide safety glasses for work. They reimburse half, up to. 100 dollars for boots. Gloves, face shields ect are provided. Safety is first and foremost on our minds with every job. Sounds corny but that’s how we operate. We may even go so far as rehearse a risky job, one that may take more than one body to complete. When 2 or more tons of shit hits the fan it can get ugly quick. But to be honest, most of our incidents come from stupid shit. Lifting wrong, slips and falls, ect. Totally preventable incidents. Y’all be safe out there!
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Lol DaFrinz when i told people about the safety stuff at my old shop which was in a chain of dealerships I got looked at like I had 6 heads. The only places I have seen really beat safety in is places where there is hydraulics repaired a lot, a global franchise, or they work on hybrids constantly and are required to lockout tag out.
[quote=”MDK22″ post=153213]Whenever I clean battery wires, aftertreatment, or deal with a lot of brake dust I use a full mask respirator. Mind you big rig techs can have as much as 16 different batteries that is a lot of ends to clean and you wind up using an angle grinder with a cookie and you should always wear gloves and put on a hat and jacket or use a long sleeve shirt as the dry acid gets everywhere….[/quote]
I keep an empty jug in my service cart for servicing batteries. Fill her up with hot water and pour it over the corroded terminals. No more dry acid to deal with. A kettle is cheap, you can also make coffee or tea and make instant ramen with it.
Get the OTC Drainplug Pro, eliminates touching hot oil and getting your hands dirty. I have also made it a habit to poke the filter and let it drain before removing it with a shop rag. Shop has a hot water pressure washer so I try my best to hose down/power wash before I work on the vehicle.
Have you tried nitrile dipped spandex gloves? My favourite ones are from Home Depot, brand is called Gorilla Grip. Give them a try, they are very comfortable! Keeps the hands reasonably clean and no more sweats to deal with!
OTC Drainplug Pro lol diesel plug lol too much drag. I have used the Home Depot ones many a time I use it for cleaning household stuff, hands still get sweaty. As for the battery acid I would rather have dry then wet. Either way it will still get in your lungs. With dry i can at least blow some of it off with an air gun.
I find vinegar to work the best with batteries but, normally you are doing it in the parking lot. Jump boxes only work half the time on Big Rigs cause the starters are normally corroded to hell or they do not have the amperage if all the batteries or dead, or someone jumped one truck and it drained it too much. Hell I have had to hook up a jump pack and 2 chargers on start to get one to turn over before.
I appreciate the suggestions though never known when I might learn something new that will work.
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