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Posted: 4/24/2014 5:34:40 AM EDT
Looking for recommendations. Not sure if there's even anything out there for what I'm looking for though. I deal with voltages up to 500V @ 5A max usually. Of course higher amps with lower voltages. You guys know of any gloves that still give you decent motor skills and can move wires among terminals?
The equipment I work on usually has several circuits coming into a 24" x 24" box, and sometimes I can't turn off all of the circuits, only the ones I'm working on. So I'd like to get some gloves that would allow me to still be able to move wiring from terminal to terminal. Most of the electrical gloves I've seen are loose and thick around the fingers, but I honestly haven't seen many so I don't know what's out there. Thanks |
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Don't go cheap.
Get electrical rated gloves with a thick rubber liner and outer leather cover. |
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Don't go cheap. Get electrical rated gloves with a thick rubber liner and outer leather cover. View Quote He said decent motor skills needed. I got a pair of old lineman's gloves with the leather outer gloves, rated something like 14K. Their out of test and only use them for 230v and below. About the only thing you can do wearing them is cut wire or turn a large screwdrivers. |
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Google Linemans Gloves, lot's to look at.
What you want is at loggerheads, good electrical protection and manual dexterity. You are probably going to have to settle for a compromise. |
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Good dexterity doesn't exist in a high voltage glove.
Don't scrimp. Inspect before every use. (Air test) elbow length at least, keeps sharps away from them. |
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All the rated gloves on the market are thick rubber liners with a leather outer for abrasion resistance. You can use the rubber liner alone for dexterity but they won’t last long.
All the osha rated stuff is dated and has to be tested or thrown out every 6 or 12 months. You can get kits that include the arc flash clothing, face shield and gloves for around 400 bucks, its also important to have arc rated tools. ( I buy from airgas safety but you can find 100 different companies that sell the stuff) Swing into your local welding / construction supply house and they should have stuff in stock for you to try on. Its an investment but if you ever witness what an arc flash can do to someone you'll never work on live panels without a space suit on again. |
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They are about 150 bucks , get one of those orange rubber mats three foot square they wrap around high voltage wires when they working around power lines . and use it to stand on.
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If you have to ask this question, you should not be doing that work
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=arc+flash |
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If you are asking this question here you probably shouldn't be doing the job.
The power company has a cart they use for demonstrations and it's an eye opener |
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Its an investment but if you ever witness what an arc flash can do to someone you'll never work on live panels without a space suit on again. View Quote I believe that a member on here got seriously injured by an arc flash a year or two ago. He posted pictures and explained how it happened. Very eye opening for sure. |
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If you have to ask this question, you should not be doing that work http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=arc+flash View Quote This is the answer you're looking for, OP. |
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That's not high voltage. Hell, that's not even medium voltage.
But like has been said, get some lineman's gloves. |
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I don't know your line of work, but I'm in the commercial construction industry. Outside of the actual power company working on things I have never seen nor would I ever allow my contractors to perform live work. We go to great lengths to ensure 100% lock out/tag out. Should there ever be an accident it would be everyone's ass if controls were not put in place or ignored. DOL/OSHA would conduct an investigation and then the lawyers would get involved.
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Quoted: If you are asking this question here you probably shouldn't be doing the job. The power company has a cart they use for demonstrations and it's an eye opener View Quote |
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Hey OP, just checking back in to see if we can help you avoid injury. Any legitimate employer has an interest in seeing that you are working safely, it is not time-consuming or expensive to get training. Just google "NFPA 70E training" to get started.
I am not a professional sparky, and readily admit to being nervous around a lot of amps. Yes it is ridiculous to put on a moon suit just to check that a panel is de-energized, nobody does that umm I mean I would never go against company policy . But all joking aside, the most important thing I have learned from arc flash training is to say "no" when necessary. That and to mock the corporate logo apparel that is all melt-into-your-skin fabric. |
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This is the answer you're looking for, OP. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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If you have to ask this question, you should not be doing that work http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=arc+flash This is the answer you're looking for, OP. what these guys said. I work with 14.4kva and rubber glove advice is not something I would get in GD |
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So you are working on 500V and it is live? Is this some sort of critical care hospital box? Turn the thing off and do it. If this is for personal work then it is stupid to work on that live. If it is for work it is stupid, dangerous and as wrong as you can get.
Either way this is as stupid as it can get. Hell it takes 200mA to kill you. |
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Edit to remove link. Not trying to be a dick.
As others have said, if you have to ask you shouldn't do it hot. Your employer should issue them, and any arc flash gear necessary to protect from exposure. Low voltage industrial applications are usually accompanied by huge fault currents. |
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Quoted: Class 0 gloves are what you seek, you also need the leather protectors. As others have said, if you have to ask you shouldn't do it hot. Your employer should issue them, and any arc flash gear necessary to protect from exposure. Low voltage industrial applications are usually accompanied by huge fault currents. View Quote You should have protectors(leathers) with those. They should be tested every six months. If you look you can find some horrific stuff on arc flash on Youtube. Not something to fuck around with. I know. |
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So you are working on 500V and it is live? Is this some sort of critical care hospital box? Turn the thing off and do it. If this is for personal work then it is stupid to work on that live. If it is for work it is stupid, dangerous and as wrong as you can get. Either way this is as stupid as it can get. Hell it takes 200mA to kill you. View Quote This. |
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All the rated gloves on the market are thick rubber liners with a leather outer for abrasion resistance. You can use the rubber liner alone for dexterity but they won’t last long. All the osha rated stuff is dated and has to be tested or thrown out every 6 or 12 months. You can get kits that include the arc flash clothing, face shield and gloves for around 400 bucks, its also important to have arc rated tools. ( I buy from airgas safety but you can find 100 different companies that sell the stuff) Swing into your local welding / construction supply house and they should have stuff in stock for you to try on. Its an investment but if you ever witness what an arc flash can do to someone you'll never work on live panels without a space suit on again. View Quote I had a 480v arc and blow up a 150amp fuse less than a foot from my face. Now, I don't even step foot in the electrical room at work. Fuck that room. |
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Don't F around. A single pin hole could be deadly. Our gloves are replaced frequently (annually?). They have an expiration date.
Air/pressure test before each use. The high voltage gloves are huge, black with yellow center layer. We have dexterity type gloves that are rated for 500V, I believe. The high dexterity gloves are red, IIRC. Been awhile since I was a plant operator. I'm working from memory. I used to work in cabinets up to 4160V frequently. 13.8 kv was uncommon. Switching on the yards went up to 345kv. ETA: Not live work. Mostly setting up for work. Worst thing was hanging shutter guards for protective tagging. |
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Quoted:
Don't F around. A single pin hole could be deadly. Our gloves are replaced frequently (annually?). They have an expiration date. Air/pressure test before each use. The high voltage gloves are huge, black with yellow center layer. We have dexterity type gloves that are rated for 500V, I believe. The high dexterity gloves are red, IIRC. Been awhile since I was a plant operator. I'm working from memory. I used to work in cabinets up to 4160V frequently. 13.8 kv was uncommon. Switching on the yards went up to 345kv. ETA: Not live work. Mostly setting up for work. Worst thing was hanging shutter guards for protective tagging. View Quote Those are the colors I remember also. Yard switching sucked, we had to put on flash suits, hoods, boots and gloves that were very heavy and thick. |
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I don't think I was exactly clear.
I'm working in control boxes for our equipment. There will be contactors, overloads, and VFDs in there that are live and usually have to keep them on, especially while troubleshooting. Sometimes I have to replace one of the VFDs but can't shut off power to the other VFDs. All of the terminals are covered so, so it's not like I'm grabbing live wires or terminals. Just wanted to see if there was a little extra protection I could use in the event I did rub against live voltage. |
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If there are contactors in the equipment, you are likely going to be exposed to more than 5A of 480. Any arc in the enclosure has the (small) possibility of creating an arc flash with the 480. If this happens in such a small enclosure there is a big chance for you to receive severe burns, the box will direct all the energy towards the opening (and your face). If you are going to do this kind of work hot, I would also recommend a set of insulated toolsin addition to your PPE. I have seen more contacts with tools to the grounded enclosures than I have burns caused by making physical contact with an energized surface.
Sometimes it is not possible to LOTO everything, but it should be your first choice. If that is not an option, doing it hot safely is not going to be cheap. I have done what you are describing as an electrician in the oilfield, both with the proper tools and with hope as a plan. Now that I have more experience, I will explore LOTO more completely instead of doing it hot because it is more conveniant to do it hot. For full disclosure, I am now a lineman and no longer an industrial electrician. |
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Sounds very similar to the type of stuff I work on. I would say you need to get some training on NFPA 70E, specifically the approach boundaries and table 130.4 (C)(a)
You should also be concerned with the arc flash boundaries, and consider the worst case if an arc flash study has not been completed. This would included the proper layers of clothing if your exposure is over something like 1 Cal/cm^2 ( check that I don't have my code book with me) I have pretty much gotten to the point that I flat out tell customers that I will not work in a cabinet until an electrically safe work condition has been established an has been LOTO. Seen way to many pictures and heard to many stories of shit going bad. |
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Had an electrician run a line for a dryer recently
This was off a existing sub panel I asked if he wanted to kill the power to the sub panel he said no need No reason not to since nothing on that panel was needed at the time, but he'd rather work on a hot panel He then showed me how it was safe with his leather gloves by grabbing hold of the hot leads I was like |
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I don't know your line of work, but I'm in the commercial construction industry. Outside of the actual power company working on things I have never seen nor would I ever allow my contractors to perform live work. We go to great lengths to ensure 100% lock out/tag out. Should there ever be an accident it would be everyone's ass if controls were not put in place or ignored. DOL/OSHA would conduct an investigation and then the lawyers would get involved. View Quote Yeah, this. I'd like to hear why it can't be isolated/LOTO to get you out of PPE. |
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If you need a set just buy a regular set of hot gloves, for 500 volts at 5 amps I would just use my regular work gloves. I've been an electrician for 20 years and work with 480/277v and 120/208v hot all the time.
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Quoted: Had an electrician run a line for a dryer recently View Quote This was off a existing sub panel I asked if he wanted to kill the power to the sub panel he said no need No reason not to since nothing on that panel was needed at the time, but he'd rather work on a hot panel He then showed me how it was safe with his leather gloves by grabbing hold of the hot leads I was like I just watched an electrician do that very thing. Changed out 4 breakers without killing the main. Leather gloves FTW, lol |
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Quoted: If you need a set just buy a regular set of hot gloves, for 500 volts at 5 amps I would just use my regular work gloves. I've been an electrician for 20 years and work with 480/277v and 120/208v hot all the time. View Quote Thanks. Finally got some good advice. GD goes overkill sometimes. I've just been using my Mechanix gloves, but will slip on some rubber palm/finger gloves too. |
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Not sure if you’re an independent contractor or an employee, but OSHA will not accept regular gloves for working on live panels.
Not trying to be a stick in the mud (I agree the OSHA standard is overkill) but if you are inspected by OSHA they will spank you for not having arc flash gear. The fine will probably be in the thousands of dollars. Arc flash is on their short list due to the severity of injury/death when it happens. It's guaranteed they will ask to see your hazardous energy control plan along with equipment and inspection records. Do what you want, but the first time you see someone whose hands turn black, from being cooked from the inside out, and fall off you may think differently. “I’m working one low voltage” is a misnomer; much of the arc flash risk comes from one or two steps downstream. Relying on a switch or breaker (that’s probably 20 years old) to save your live isn’t a good plan. |
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