Yesterday I scraped up my forearm under the hood, and today I replicated the exact same injury, depth and length of cuts, 1 inch form the old injury, in exact parallel rows.

When it's too hot to wear a long-sleeve thick cotton long sleeve work shirt, I see these forearm protectors on the internet. They look like socks for your forearms.

I've never seen one of these on the forearm of any professional mechanic, so my questions are thus:

Have any of you ever used them successfully ?

If you have, what was the fabric used and what made it work for your specific application ?

I have been using a compression sock on my elbow for years. There have also been countless times I’ve slid it down to protect my forearms while working on vehicles. It works very well. My current sleeve is a thin neoprene I believe. Years ago I had sleeves that were more of a spandex blended fabric. Those did the job except that they were the color of a Band-Aid and sometimes didn’t come clean.

Different application, but I used them when canyoneering. They helped keep my forearms from getting really scraped up on the sandstone. They were thin neoprene.

There are lots of forearm protectors on Amazon. They come in different shapes, sizes and the material used.

Mine run from just above the elbow. They are a close woven fabric material and I would say reasonably thick. Mine have a thumb loop to keep them in place. I would say the protection level is about a "medium". They work well for me but there have been times I wish they were a little more protective. The problem is the denser they are means you give up some mobility to get that.

Leather welding sleeves may or may not be too bulky for working in tight areas under the hood, but for $20 delivered they might be worth a try. I've been using these from Amazon for the last 2 years as we clear out the overgrown mess of greenbriars and other prickly plants and vines from some property we bought. They work really well for this kind of work. No more bleeding on my desk at work on Mondays.

If it is too hot to wear a long sleeve shirt, how would a sleeve be that much cooler?

I used to use them when I build cabinets for a living. They protected the forearms from nasty woodchips when doing certain table saw and router applications. Easy to slip on when you need and then remove. Preferable to a long sleeve shirt when it was hot in the shop.

quote:

Originally posted by Stlhead:
If it is too hot to wear a long sleeve shirt, how would a sleeve be that much cooler?

I wear a moisture-wicking T-shirt while wearing the sleeves and gloves.

I use leather pruning gloves with the fingers cut off so there's just a strap of leather across the web of my thumb between it and my index fingers. Protects palms and back of hands too. I tried ones for forearm only, but they kept getting caught and pushed up. The modified gloves stay in place.

I work on a lot of running machinery. I come from the old school when it comes to safety around running mechanical things. This means bare skin and nothing that could get caught in the machinery, and "pull you in." No long hair, no clothing beyond what is necessary.

On the other hand, if the engine (machinery) is shut down and locked out, then I suppose the rules are different. Now that I think about it. this is probably what you meant since you are probably not doing a lot with the engine running .

Long sleeves all year round.
You can always roll them up when it's hot.
95% of the time my arms are covered with the cuff buttoned.

The sleeve I do have is for hot work, like when I find an exhaust pipe leaking during a regen and there's no time to let it cool down.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
I work on a lot of running machinery. I come from the old school when it comes to safety around running mechanical things. This means bare skin and nothing that could get caught in the machinery, and "pull you in." No long hair, no clothing beyond what is necessary.

On the other hand, if the engine (machinery) is shut down and locked out, then I suppose the rules are different. Now that I think about it. this is probably what you meant since you are probably not doing a lot with the engine running .

Exactly correct. When under the hood everything is shutdown, unless I'm running diagnostics on a running engine. And when running I'm not wearing anything, no medical necklace, wedding band, or long sleeves in the summer. And if I'm anywhere near anything spinning that could catch and draw me in, I'm bare armed only. I lost my wedding band many yeas ago and never replaced it for that reason. I saw an internet photo once of a wedding band that ripped the skin off a mechanics finger, it was not a pretty sight.

So I'm searching for sleeves on the internet, and so far I'm seeing lots of crap from china on amazon. It would be nice to try them on first to see if they fit and make sure they're snug enough and made of decent material enough to offer some cut protection from bolts, sheet metal edges, rough cast surfaces etc. For some reason my skin isn't very tough, it abrades and cuts very easily. It also may have something to do with a condition I have that prevents me from feeling much pain for injuries like that.

A sleeve would get snagged on the first zip tie and would need to be secured with tape on the ends to stay put for me.

I hold the cuff in my palm when I'm sticking my arm in places it don't really fit.
Otherwise it just moves back and bunches up and my arm gets shredded on the way out.
There are spots where you have no choice but to go in with a bare arm and it always looks like you got dragged through the Blackberry bushes.

I used to be a fulltime mechanic. I have and have used full length sleeves, although for a different reason. My sleeves have a thin nomex in them that protects you from heat injuries, catalytic convertors get hellish hot and everything is crammed together nowadays. I also have cut proof gloves for working on tree chipper blades.

quote:

Originally posted by iraIII:
I used to be a fulltime mechanic. I have and have used full length sleeves, although for a different reason. My sleeves have a thin nomex in them that protects you from heat injuries, catalytic convertors get hellish hot and everything is crammed together nowadays. I also have cut proof gloves for working on tree chipper blades.

As a pro mechanic, your nomex for heat recommendation is appreciated.

I don't know if these guys are better or worse than the generic models from china, but I trust the brand, so it looks like these should fit the bill:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

I used to work at a rubber molding factory (no, not that kind of rubber) making parts for the auto industry. It was very hot work and all the surfaces around the presses were, of course hot. We used long cotton tube socks and cut out two holes in the end, one for your fingers and another for your thumb. They worked pretty well and lasted a good long time. It might save you some money if you have them laying around. They're easy to get off and you can wear gloves over your hands with them on if you like.

We once designed a laser machine that cut strengthened gorilla glass that came in 6' sheets. When handling the glass we had gloves, face shields, aprons and kevlar arm sleeves.

https://www.uline.com/Product/...S-11432&gad_source=1

I don't recommend using them around running machinery, but they will help prevent cuts and scrapes when working on static machinery in tight spaces.

Tony.

Seriously, those forearm protectors look goofy, but after two identical scrapes... I'd try them. I've seen some made of aramid fiber (Kevlar-like stuff) that seemed pretty tough.

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
We once designed a laser machine that cut strengthened gorilla glass that came in 6' sheets. When handling the glass we had gloves, face shields, aprons and kevlar arm sleeves.

https://www.uline.com/Product/...S-11432&gad_source=1

I don't recommend using them around running machinery, but they will help prevent cuts and scrapes when working on static machinery in tight spaces.

Tony.

The quality on that guy looks pretty darn good. Thanks Tony.

Try making some sleeves from TexWax (waxed) sail cloth. You could line them with something softer and moisture wicking. It is basically the material used on brush pants for hunting. It's tough against things that cut and poke, and you can find colors that won't make you the brunt of too many jokes.

I second the caution about wearing anything on that is loose around rotating machinery. That is dangerous to life and limb.