Did you know May is national construction worker hand safety month? I didn't think so. I was planning on talking about the benefits of using gloves while on the job, when I read about hand safety month over at Toologics. They also list a number of interesting hand safety facts, like: a third of all injuries in the construction field happen to the hands, and 76% of those are cuts and abrasions.

Those stats indicate that a good number of those injuries probably could have been prevented buy wearing a good work glove. This is something I know first hand after a fluke cut on my thumb with a very sharp putty knife, which resulted in a trip to urgent care and 6 stitches. A work glove might not have prevented my injury entirely, but it probably would have reduced the cut size.

Of coarse there are some situations where you can not wear gloves, but it is a good idea to at least have a pair handy for every other instance. I recommend that everyone go out and buy a pair of work gloves, your hands will thank you. I like to use knit gloves with a rubber type coating, but I suggest you try some on and see what you like. Northern Safety has a huge selection of gloves for just about every task.

Work Gloves - Amazon

If you are doing any type of work with power or hand tools, one thing you should always be wearing is your safety glasses. But what about people that are working near you. They can just as easily send projectiles in your direction, as you can. So you really sould wear your safety glasses 100% of the time you are on a jobsite. The first thing I do on a job is put my safety glasses on, and for the most part I do not take them off until the workday is over.

The problem for most people is finding a pair of safety glasses that are comfortable enough to wear for 8 hours or more. For each person this is going to be different, and really depends on the shape of your head. Here are a couple examples of glasses that I really like.

Photochromic Safety Glasses EXPO V UV400. These are my go to glasses, and the only ones I will buy anymore. They are very comfortable, and I can easily go 8+ hours in a day wearing these. The best part about these glasses is that they transition from clear to dark when you go outside. When you go from the bright outdoors to the dark indoors, it takes your eyes a few minutes to adjust, but these glasses cut that adjustment time in half. The bad thing is that Amazon has stopped selling these, but you can find them at Duluth Trading.

Duluth Trading also has some very nice cheaters safety glasses. If your eyes are not what they used to be, these cheaters are just what you need to be able read your tape measure again. These are the same glasses my father uses.

You dont need expensive glasses to be safe, your local hardware store should have a good selection. Just try a few of them out until you find one that your like. Before I found the EXPO V glasses I used a pair of AO Safety Professional Safety Glasses.

Just the other day while I was draining the rusty water from the tank of my air compressor, I was wondering why I haven't seen any aluminum air compressors on the market. They don't rust, and they would be much lighter then the steel tanks. After I made it home from work that day, I decided to search and see if there are any aluminum compressors. It turns out that there are a couple options. One is from Maxus Tools, and the other is from Ridgid.

Here is a quick tip on how I keep my cords and air hoses tied up after I am finished with them.

I take a piece of flexible rope and tie it around my extension cord or air hose using a clove hitch knot, I then tie a knot on both ends of the rope to keep the rope from fraying. The idea is that the rope will always be on the cord, so it is there when you need it. The reason I use a clove hitch knot is because it will stay on the cord or hose, is easy to position, and still provides access to both ends of the rope. I make sure to tie it around the male end of the plug or air hose so it is always out of the way, and for the most part will stay off the ground. I then simply coil up my cord or hose, use an overhand knot to keep the coils together, and then tie a quick release knot as a final touch.

I have been using the same method, and rope for a few years now with absolutly zero problems. If you like this tip, or have a tip of your own, let us know in the comments.

Since Bosch, Dremel, Rockwell, and and few other no name brands started making oscillating tools, do you think it has had an impact on Fein? If so, what should Fein do to stay competitive?

If it wasn't bad enough that everybody and their mother is now making an oscillating tool of some kind or another. Now that they have become affordable to the average user, everybody and their mother wants to own one. Not only that, but Rockwell has gone one step further and is trying to win in Fein's own territory, infomercials.

Head on over to Amazon and you can see a list of their top 100 bestsellers in any category (updated hourly). From the top 100 Power Tools Category, the Rockwell SoniCrafter is #3 and #5 with 2 different kits, and the Fein MultiMaster is #10. Further down the list another Rockwell SoniCrafter is listed #60 the Bosch Max Multi-X is #82 and the Dremel Multi-Max #83. So Fein is going up against 5 other tools just in the top 100 alone, which also means they are all selling very well. With two of the Rockwell kits out selling the Fein MultiMaster. This doesn't mean that everyone buying the other brands would have bought the Fein if they didn't exist, but you know a number of them probably would have.