Warning: Tried both foam and nitrile gloves for epoxy work. Not even close.

Used nitrile gloves for 5 years on resin projects. Switched to foam latex gloves last month on a river table. Zero tackiness, no glove sticking to the workpiece. Has anyone else made the switch and noticed the difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary_west2d ago

Wait, foam latex gloves? I thought those were only for molding work, not for handling sticky epoxy. Did the resin actually peel off clean from the glove surface?

hall.joel2d ago

That's exactly what I thought too until I tried it on accident. Had a mold release fail on me once and grabbed the first glove I could find which happened to be foam latex from a silicone molding kit. The epoxy did peel off clean but only if you catch it before it fully cures. Leave it on too long and it bonds like crazy.

the_taylor2d ago

Well, that's a fascinating little tip but I'm wondering about the timeline. So if you catch it before it fully cures, it peels off clean? How long is that window exactly? Because with epoxy you never really know how long it takes to set depending on the mix and temperature. I've had some batches that were tacky for hours and others that hardened up in thirty minutes. And what about the nitrile gloves everyone swears by for resin work - would foam latex actually hold up better against the chemicals or is there a risk of breakdown we're not talking about here?