The Home Machinist!

How do you deal with splinters?

Milling steel I always end up with micro splinter in my finger that I have to painfully dig out with a needle.

I hate oily hands but after working 10 minutes I am all greasy and have to wash my hands. Oily tools pick up the fine swarf that turns into splinters. Is a constant battle.

I find that fingernail clippers work well for gripping splinters and pulling them out. They can cut through a bit of epidermis if necessary to get a grip on a splinter that doesn't stick out.

This is a constant problem. I have cats that distribute splinters to every corner of the universe. It is also the reason that people unwisely use gloves around machines. I use surgical gloves that tear away but my soft skin is a splinter magnet. Walgreens had some sharpened tweezers under the name 'splinter picker'. They come in a little tube and are quite sharp and can dive into the skin and get that one hairlike splinter, if you can see it. I had one at work and one in the tool box at home, now lost to time. If you use a blow gun, you have to use glasses, and a carpet scrap on the floor is a help at catching shards and splinters before they migrate on your shoes to the rest of the world. A set of loafers that slip on for the shop is a good answer, and just change when you enter or leave. Slip, zip, done. I have machines downstairs so that is a problem.

I have some of those sharpened tweezers Big Dave refers to. They are a must-have in the tool box.

I also have a set of those small lenses that clip on the side of your eyeglasses (picture the "Fixer" in "Toy Story"). That's the only way I can see the splinters.

My technique when I can't see the splinter is to run the side of the tweezers over the spot where the splinter is until I feel the pain and then look closer at that spot.

Steve

I have some of those tweezers too, in several of my tool boxes.
I am a splinter magnet. If there's a sharpie around....I'll find it. I also have one of those lighted magnifiers, which also a must.

I'm with Big Dave. I will wear gloves to pick up and move pieces and things onto the table, or into the lathe, but shed 'em before anything starts spinning. Same with long sleeves.
Splinters are better than getting tangled up in a chuck.....by far!

Bill

Tweezerman brand tweezers or something similar will be helpful, along with heavy duty magnifiers. If you haven't bought new tweezers in the last 15 years, you will be surprised how much better they are now.

If you're brave, you can use nitrile gloves. They fit snugly, so they won't flap around and insert themselves in machinery. Tough enough to block most splinters, but weak enough to tear quickly if they get caught.

I have used tape to remove invisible splinters. Figure out which way the splinter points, apply duct tape, and rip the tape off in the desired direction. Of course, if you do it the wrong way, you can drive splinters farther in.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HDFZNN4?aa ... 4700320401

Splinters are always more sensitive when brushed in the direction forcing them into you, I find that and then use a razor to shave the skin in the opposite direction, picking up and dragging out the splinter in the process.

I bought Tweerman and it works if the splinter sticks out enough to grab.
Usually by the time it starts to bother they are buried.
Will try the razor with tight sphincters.

Gotta love autocorrect.

I scrape across the skin with a sharp stanley knife blade for metal splinters; just because I have a box of them in the tool box. the sharp edge grabs and pulls.

when they're deep, small surgery with surgical tweezers; they're kept in the house.

A couple of years ago I had a tiny wooden thorn end beak off against the cartilage in my finger.
That took a 3 person surgical team 45 minutes in the OR with full anesthesia [doc didn't trust me to keep really still].

For 45 years I had no medical insurance, happily I do now.