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Leather rigger gloves that can handle the heat and last.
Abcast Foundry, Feilding – case study
“The stitching that holds them together, they”re not falling apart at the seams anymore because of this, And the Leather is a lot better, it seems to protect your hands from the heat more and your hands don”t dry out..”
We talk to Scott ” General Manager, at Abcast foundry about how they protect their hands, and why they use the Craftsman Leather Rigger 303 gloves with kevlar for handing high temperature casting right through to general engineering.
What type of work is Abcast Foundry doing with their gloves?
As a Foundry we”re using the gloves to handle high temperature castings, a then a lot of grinding and fettling to finish the castings. And also used for general engineering construction work as well. So Yeah, everything that”s nasty on gloves!
What was kind of glove was Abcast previously using before looking at the Craftsman Rigger 303 glove?
We were using a standard rigger glove – they were good, but they were falling apart. If we weren”t breaking through the tips of the fingers, then the stitching was ripping or we were finding that they were warping under heat. But with these new ones, that”s not the case.
When you looked at these new Craftsman 303 gloves, was there any particular test you put them through?
I gave 1 pair to one of the guys in the moulding area, they are the guys that deal with the high temperature casting, and 1 pair to one of the guys cleaning up the castings using them on the band saw, or angle grinding, and linishing. And both guys used their same pair of CRAFTSMAN 303 gloves for about 3 weeks, now ordinarily they would be going through 2 pairs a week.
So you’ve gone from 2 pairs a week to 1 pair every 3 weeks?
Yes, 1 pair every 3 weeks.
What would be the key features that you see now in using these gloves?
I think it”s the leather, and the stitching that holds them together, they”re not falling apart at the seams anymore because of this. There”s a lot of sharp edges on the castings that the rigger gloves catch or yanked on and these new gloves they”re not ripping on the castings, they actually stick to your hand instead! It”s really handy. And the Leather is a lot better, it seems to protect your hands from the heat more and your hands don”t dry out.
The biggest thing for me, is I”m walking around on Friday and I”m not collecting seven or eight left hand gloves anymore that have been binned and falling apart. The boys are actually keeping their gloves together and holding on to them.
Good. Is there anything you would suggest to someone that is looking at purchasing these leather gloves?
I would say buy the Craftsman 303 hands down, there”s less gloves being ordered, they”re gloves that guys are actually holding on to, they”re not saying “oh, stuff it, I”ll just get a new pair” cos they know these gloves actually last longer. The biggest thing is, hands down, there”s no left hand gloves hanging around. These guys actually want to keep their gloves together instead of going to get a new pair. These guys are competing at the moment at how long they can get these gloves to last.
The Science behind the result:
During the findings with Scott, it is well noticed that a well-stitched kevlar glove made the glove last that much longer, and also because of the true A-grade leather.
Now anyone can sew a glove, but were the good gloves shine is when there is “Quality control and trained sewers ensure that the leather is cut and sewn with Kevlar thread in the best place, so giving you a leather glove that will last the distance.
And then there is leather grades and thickness. There is grades of leather A, then A-B, B-C. most rigger gloves are make for A-B or B-C grade leather, and A-grade is for specialist products. Thickness range for 2mm to 0.6mm. Rig-max leather riggers gloves are only made with 1.1mm A-grade leather, to give you more protection against heat, and edges, but the extra flexiblilty for handing and feel.
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