Welding Gloves (2026 Update)

I've never had any issues with the Tillman TIG gloves. They are thin and soft and they conform to your hands after a short while of use as well. They have become my standard work glove as well, when my TIG welding pair gets grungy I get new ones for the welding and the old pair goes into general work glove service. They aren't even very expensive.

What Pete said. McMaster has them at a sensible price.

I use them too, but prefer the kevlar gloves when i want to handle hot metal.

I use Tillmans, but I buy XL and put a pair of brown cotton gloves on first, then the Tillmans. Works pretty well for dealing with heat, yet allows me fine control

Gunner

Many “100% cotton” gloves are actually blends, which is why they melt; the solution is to source verified pure cotton gloves from industrial suppliers or switch to thin TIG leather gloves for better control, and for reliable protection you can consider Bison Life welding gloves.

Tillman , I like their 25BS gloves . Very thin for excellent tactile feel .

I like the Tillman bicep length gloves for heavy welding, or the Harbor Freight TIG gloves for decent feel. Both are leather.

I'd actually like a bicep length TIG glove for TIG welding, but I doubt anybody makes that.

I like the bicep length because I don't weld often, and for safety I always wear short sleeve shirts in the shop. The bicep length gloves prevent welding sunburn on my arms. I do have some canvas welding sleeves, but they just feel funny and bother me.

I have a heavy cotton long sleeve shirt that I use almost exclusively for welding . When it's hot I can wet it for evap cooling .

Thanks for explaining how you can weld in hot places. Damp your clothes and get evaporative cooling...

I was working in Cleveland, Ohio, 25 years ago, and the summers were about 35degC (90-high-something Farenheit?) and 90-something % humidity.

What onlookers didn't know seeing me working in that metal casting foundry is that as the temperature goes up the relative humidity must surely go down (same amount of water and the temperature has gone up, so the ability to hold water must go up - which means relative humidity lower?). For sure if you worked hard you got white salt stains on your T-shirt.

I spent a couple summers in the late 70s and early 80s not to far from Cleveland. (20 miles west in Avon) It was pretty miserable when the temps were in the 90s(F). I'm not so sure about your comments about temp and humidity. In a wet climate like Ohio you get a lot more evaporation from the standing water in higher temps, and in some cases I was told they would get was called a self feeding rain.

They don't heat air to dry it in an air drier. They refrigerate it and force it to condense. Heat at much higher temps closer to boiling ARE used for forcing moisture out of desiccant and welding rod, but those are not human habitable temperatures.

A dual desiccant chamber air dryer does use heat, but its much higher heat to evaporate moisture into the air from the desiccant in the inactive chamber, while the other chamber is absorbing moisture.

I think in a wet climate more heat, just means more evaporation into the air. Maybe you were just a lot tougher when you were younger.

Maybe there are breaking points where things change?

I learned that trick on a motorcycle forum ... I never thought it would get too hot to ride , but in The South it sure does !

They're not breaking "points" it's more gradual . You just wake up one day and realize that if you can get 3 or 4 hours of work in that's a good day .

LOL. That's not the kind of breaking point I was talking about but it also applies.

I spent a couple summers in the late 70s and early 80s not to far from Cleveland. (20 miles west in Avon) It was pretty miserable when the temps were in the 90s(F). I'm not so sure about your comments about temp and humidity. In a wet climate like Ohio you get a lot more evaporation from the standing water in higher temps, and in some cases I was told they would get was called a self feeding rain.

They don't heat air to dry it in an air drier. They refrigerate it and force it to condense. Heat at much higher temps closer to boiling ARE used for forcing moisture out of desiccant and welding rod, but those are not human habitable temperatures.

A dual desiccant chamber air dryer does use heat, but its much higher heat to evaporate moisture into the air from the desiccant in the inactive chamber, while the other chamber is absorbing moisture.

I think in a wet climate more heat, just means more evaporation into the air. Maybe you were just a lot tougher when you were younger.

Maybe there are breaking points where things change?

Hi there

I missed these responses with being

• busy around the garden
• volunteering contributions at the hobby mine (have Eimco 12b - need to dismantle it and get it down the shaft and some bolted connections have been welded-up)
• mind caught up on a line of thought about rock crushers.

What Jim describes about optimal - at night, open window or run A-C - is the concept I was trying to convey (and Jim conveys much better). How much moisture the air * could hold *.

In a foundry where there is a >locally< higher temperature with nothign else adjusted to create a new equilibrium, the hotter air * could * hold more moisture and when you perspire that perspiration * does * evaporate. So you get the cooling effect of perspiration. If you were to mist yourself and your clothes with water, that would presumably help

- and reduce the amount you are covered in salt encrustations from sweating ?! :-).

Hi there

I missed these responses with being

• busy around the garden
• volunteering contributions at the hobby mine (have Eimco 12b - need to dismantle it and get it down the shaft and some bolted connections have been welded-up)
• mind caught up on a line of thought about rock crushers.

What Jim describes about optimal - at night, open window or run A-C - is the concept I was trying to convey (and Jim conveys much better). How much moisture the air * could hold *.

In a foundry where there is a >locally< higher temperature with nothign else adjusted to create a new equilibrium, the hotter air * could * hold more moisture and when you perspire that perspiration * does * evaporate. So you get the cooling effect of perspiration. If you were to mist yourself and your clothes with water, that would presumably help

- and reduce the amount you are covered in salt encrustations from sweating ?! :-).

It is mind-boggling that it can get too hot to ride around on a motorcycle. That that occurs in Southern USA. We in England the opposite - when it is warm enough to ride as a delight. These days I wash the motorcycle and put it away when the salting the road starts.

Hi there

I missed these responses with being

• busy around the garden
• volunteering contributions at the hobby mine (have Eimco 12b - need to dismantle it and get it down the shaft and some bolted connections have been welded-up)
• mind caught up on a line of thought about rock crushers.

What Jim describes about optimal - at night, open window or run A-C - is the concept I was trying to convey (and Jim conveys much better). How much moisture the air * could hold *.

In a foundry where there is a >locally< higher temperature with nothign else adjusted to create a new equilibrium, the hotter air * could * hold more moisture and when you perspire that perspiration * does * evaporate. So you get the cooling effect of perspiration. If you were to mist yourself and your clothes with water, that would presumably help

- and reduce the amount you are covered in salt encrustations from sweating ?! :-).

--------------------------------

I used to ride all winter , our area uses very little salt and not everywhere . These days I actually ride very little , and haven't taken a "long" ride in several years . Partly because I seem to always have something else that takes priority , partly because I'm getting old .