Heat resistant glove for soldering

[Speakerguy]

OK, I'm the occasional butterfingers, and I do a lot of soldering at work. Are there any kind of thin insulative fabric gloves out there? Something that would resist the heat transfer from a brief touch with an iron or a blob of solder dropping on your hand? I've heard of the "Ove Glove" which is for ovens and whatnot, but it's too thick and I don't need something meant for that long of contact with hot objects. Thin with enough dexterity to handle components/tweezers/etc would be nice.

Thanks!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

If you do a lot of soldering you should be pretty expert by now?, and have no need for anything like that - think of pain as natures way of telling you to be more careful!

 

[Hero999]

A cotton glove?

The probelm is because you can't feel the pain you'll hold it for longer until it hurts.

 

[jpanhalt]

Welders use leather gloves. They are quite good for heat insulation. A good set of TIG gloves, sometimes known as white gloves, will retain a good part of your dexterity.

The amount of heat and temps in soldering is so much less, that good fitting, leather driving or golf gloves would probably work too and give even better dexterity. John

 

[moody07747]

Yea head on line or to a local welding shop and get some TIG welding gloves.
I use the white/tan ones when TIG welding..nice and thin but they work good.

If you do enough soldering you should not be burning yourself...

The TIG glove may keep some of the heat away from a blob of solder but I don't think it will do much at all from touching a hot soldering iron...
MIG welding gloves are the next step up but they are quite thick and make holding those wires/parts quite hard.

 

[Speakerguy]

I've gotten better about not burning myself, happens maybe once every two weeks now I guess at most. But a good sized solder blob on the hand is enough to make me want a glove for the left hand.

And my hands shake some days when I've missed my medication....

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I've gotten better about not burning myself, happens maybe once every two weeks now I guess at most. But a good sized solder blob on the hand is enough to make me want a glove for the left hand.

There shouldn't be any blobs of solder to splash you?.

And my hands shake some days when I've missed my medication....

Take more 'medication'

 

[Rolf]

Soldering aids & tools.....

I've gotten better about not burning myself, happens maybe once every two weeks now I guess at most. But a good sized solder blob on the hand is enough to make me want a glove for the left hand.

And my hands shake some days when I've missed my medication....

Here is some of my soldering aids, the clip and the sponge cover is most useful. I have a shorter long nose pliers (not in the picture) that I use most of the time. I find it useful to rest my wrists on the table edge to steady my hands.
**broken link removed**

 

[justDIY]

you don't need gloves, just more practice at using less solder.

I started the hobby ~20 yrs ago, when soldering I used too much solder and not enough flux, blobs went everywhere. now it's often too much flux but I got the solder part down pretty well - and flux washes off easy

 

[mneary]

For me, the best protection I can find is scar tissue.

 

[Sceadwian]

If you have specific fingers you're worrying about during your soldering a wood thimble is an easy sollution, but awkward to work with unless you train yourself to use it, which is just damn combersome. If you're slipping during soldering and losing control of the Iron tip you're likley using too much pressure. Soldering should require no pressure outside of casual contact otherwise the iron isn't 'wetted' enough. A quick dab of solder right on the tip might solve that.

 

[ericgibbs]

I've gotten better about not burning myself, happens maybe once every two weeks now I guess at most. But a good sized solder blob on the hand is enough to make me want a glove for the left hand.

And my hands shake some days when I've missed my medication....

I would look at your soldering technique rather that using protective gloves.

The solder splashes that don't hit you are probably landing on your work piece and as we all know a 'hairline' splash of solder
on a PCB can/will cause grief.

Rolf's setup looks a clean and efficient way of using the soldering iron.
Its important to keep the work piece steady, if it moves around while you are applying iron pressure,
most likely you will end up with a dry/bad joint.

And as Nigel's says, if you are blobbing, you are using far too much solder!.

What gauge of solder, what solder bit size and bit temperature are you using?

 

[Speakerguy]

The blobs happen when doing something like desoldering spliced wires that were twisted together, not PCB work. PCB work all I get is glancing contact with the tip of the iron with the other hand when reaching for stuff (not soldering) and occasionally holding a component in place and it getting uncomfortably hot.

Seriously guys, I'm not as terrible as soldering as it sounds like you guys think. Safety is just important, as is comfort. I can take some pictures of my soldering work if anyone doesn't believe me

 

[justDIY]

another case of too little information in the initial post

thank you for playing, please try again

 

[mneary]

The blobs happen when doing something like desoldering spliced wires that were twisted

I would worry less about my fingers and more about my eyes.

 

[Speakerguy]

Safety glasses always worn at the soldering station I use the stuff we have at work after hours (Weller MT 1500) and even after hours it's mandatory.

 

[Optikon]

Safety glasses always worn at the soldering station I use the stuff we have at work after hours (Weller MT 1500) and even after hours it's mandatory.

I wouldnt worry about a glove.. They would probably be more trouble than they're worth. Someone suggested welding gloves but I think even those are too cumbersome. Instead, each time you burn yourself(no matter how rare these days) examine what it was you did and find a better technique to perform what you just did to avoid the same mistake. If you get into that habit, you won't worry about gloves anymore.

 

[dknguyen]

Don't gloves just encumber you? If you just use any gloves, likes cotton ones or something that aren't burn resistant and a blob of solder does get to you, it's going to be worse than if the glove wasn't there at all. I think I read somewhere that it's hard to brush off right away and get out since now it's all gunked and blistered between the cotton and your skin.

If I really had to, I'd use a cardboard cone shield or something- similar to a rapier handle lol.

 

[HarveyH42]

I suppose you would eventually adjust to gloves. I'm sure the 'blobs' are more on the small bead size, and not the pidgeon-dropping size kids use to solder, so any thin fabric glove should work well enough. Those little beads will cool on contact, doubt they'll burn through or even get stuck on.

The best thing to do is catch yourself when you start getting fatigued or shakey, and put the iron down for a few minutes. If you are having such a problem with burns on your hands, what are you doing to your work? Wires, parts, pcb can't say ouch, but will complain with smoke and flame later on...

 

[Gayan Soyza]

Hi speakerguy79!

I think its time to change to a new SOLDERING IRON. Your soldering irons handle (grip) is getting hot I think.

Look closely is the grip is touching the metal soldering iron station? I got the same problem one time.

whats the power of your soldering iron?