Tiny Razor Blades Everywhere!

Jamespvill

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As all machinist know, chips and swarf are very sharp! I do lots of stainless steel and end up with little razor blades everywhere, thus it is almost inevitable that cuts are a regular occurrence.

I found out a few years ago that super glue is a machinists best friend when it comes to little cuts everywhere. The best part about super glue is once you seal up your little slice, the cut is virtually pain-free because there is no opening and closing of your wound. This also keeps all the gunk out of them.

A popular saying is to "rub some dirt and oil on it" if your a man. Well call me a women then because I prefer to be infection free! I've never done much in the way of scientific testing, but superglued cuts usually heal up in a day or two in my experience. Keep in mind, I'm talking about small cuts, bigger than paper cuts, smaller than giant lacerations.

Here is what I use. I keep two or three bottles of this around the shop, it's especially convenient because it has a little brush on it too. Although, I have used others that are a little more flexible when they dry up, but can't remember exactly what brand. Regardless, they both dry up in about 30 seconds and your off to machining again.
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Another problem that I am running into all-to-often is little stainless slivers. You know the type; the ones that catch every time your rub it up agains something and make you rethink your hobby.

Well I found that regular tweezers are usually no help to me, but found these guys while browsing amazon;
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They are called "Uncle Bill's Sliver Grippers". Here's a link, a tad bit spendy but worth every penny in my opinion.

They come to a super sharp point so it's easy to grab tiny slivers with them, and my favorite thing is that they come with a genius little clip that I keep on my keys so I never lose them.

Does anyone else have any tricks up their sleeves for tiny little death dealers?

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For chips and splinters I use a watchmaker loupe and a syringe needle.
It's amazing the quantity of chips you can find in the dead external layer of your skin, where you can't feel them, with a loupe (and a normal needle looks like a 2" pipe…).
Maybe you'll have to dig a bit inside your fingers, but you're sure nothing remains inside them.
The needle is also pretty good to remove the spines of our "tasty but nasty" artichokes from wifey's fingers:
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I always suggest her to use her reading glasses when she have to clean artichokes… :D

(Photo from Wikipedia)

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I find it best to try and avoid them in the first place. When I'm cleaning vises and machines, I wear heavy duty nitrile gloves. It's common to get a lot of slivers when tightening a vise as you press them through your skin under tightening pressure. -Simple... keep the vise wrench away from the messy areas. Be thoughtful about using the same shop towel for multiple purposes... When you un-chuck or un-clamp a fresh piece, wear gloves as you wipe it off and keep track of which rags or paper towels were used. In about the last 6 months, I've developed new habits on how I handle things, wipe things down etc -and I've been almost sliver free the whole time.


Ray
 
I stumbled on those tweezers some time back and liked them so much that I bought several and gave them to family members at Christmas time.
 
For those nasty little splinters you can't see but can feel, I have a disposable razor in my tool box. Drag the blade over the splinter & most of the time it will pull it out.

fixit
 
For fine, sharp tweezers just go to your local drug store and look in the cosmetic section. There's all kinds of tweezers there, some cheap, small ones you can easily sharpen to your preference.

I also keep a sewing needle in a pin vise because sometimes you need to dig them out or it's just easier.
 
For fine, sharp tweezers just go to your local drug store and look in the cosmetic section. There's all kinds of tweezers there, some cheap, small ones you can easily sharpen to your preference.

I also keep a sewing needle in a pin vise because sometimes you need to dig them out or it's just easier.
--

here is a neat way to remove metal splinters that r soooo small u can only feel them in ur hands but cannot see them . rub the affected area with say ''wet or dry''--sandpaper -i find 220 grit works for me. it will grab and remove metal splinters. thanks to keith fenner's web site on u--tube --for this tip.just my $$.02-- enjoy. re steve in mt.
 
Its probably bad to do but I find the nibs on my calibers work great as tweezers to get small chips out. I also have to use a loop to see them. Sucks getting old.

Jeff
 
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