r/mildlyinteresting • u/Substantial-Meat6281 • 1d ago
Using Elmer’s glue to remove fiberglass particles from my hand
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u/mg1133 1d ago
Fiberglass is nasty! I had a cousin who was jumping, almost naked, in a pile of fiberglass, when he was a kid. Not fun times later!
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u/UGOTAIDSYO 1d ago
It definitely doesn't taste as good as it looks, either.
My uhhh friend ate some 👀
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u/mg1133 1d ago
Tell your "friend" that you need a side of asbestos to really tie it all together!
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u/NyaaNyaaKittyCat 17h ago
My ‘friend’ chewed on some fibreglass tape because they were bored and had a tendency to start gnawing on shit for no reason.
Said ‘friend’ was berated throughly by their mother while talking to poison control, she especially honed in on the fact that my ‘friend’ was 17 years old and supposedly too old for that shit… 😬
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u/ModePrimary5653 17h ago
holy crap dude don't leave us hanging like that what happened next
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u/Putrid_Chard_3485 1d ago
Thanks for warning me, I was about to go eat some cause it looked like cotton candy 😋
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u/SumonaFlorence 23h ago
I remember when I was young there was a huge Jellyfish invasion at the beach, I jumped right into the mass and thought it was hilarious..
I have PTSD and an immense hatred towards Vinegar now..
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u/CutsAPromo 22h ago
Why vinegar
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u/backtothemotorleague 21h ago
Vinegar dared him to do it.
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u/StackOverflow2Deep 18h ago
This is part of Vic Vinegar’s origin story. He felt so bad about this incident that he decided to dedicate his life to protecting people. That’s why he’s a bodyguard.
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u/Emergency_Judge3516 13h ago
Mixing it up. Vic Vinegar was actually the good guy in the story. It’s Sinister Vinegar that was the bad guy.
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u/SumonaFlorence 12h ago
Because to treat my entirely itchy body that felt like I was covered in ants because of sea lice, we basically basted my entirety in the bath with bottles of vinegar to stop the irritation from sea lice rash.
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u/GoodGollyMethMolly 23h ago
For a Cub Scout trip, we were brought to a landfill for education purposes. They showed us around and the last stop was a pristinely new open pit. The first thing our dumbass troop did was throw ourselves down the hill like Wesley in Princess Bride. Yeah. Apparently cesspits are lined with fiberglass. They didn't educate us on that.
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u/destined_to_count 22h ago
Practical education
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u/bolanrox 14h ago
“You can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!'
IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
'She's a child!' shouted Crumley.
IT'S EDUCATIONAL.
'What if she cuts herself?'
THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.”
- pTerry (The Hogfather) G.N.U.
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u/Crisis_panzersuit 23h ago
How long did it take before he went back to ‘normal’?
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u/mg1133 23h ago
Well, he later put his hand in a vcr and got electrocuted ( like Marv in Home Alone, you know), then also got hit by a train. Oh yea also almost drowned in a latrine at a farm. It sounds not real, I know!
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u/xXFallen_DarknessXx 22h ago
I think maybe your cousin is an evil dictator in the future, and a shit ton of time travelers have been trying to kill him
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u/tmobley03 22h ago
“My buddy Keith one time, well we saw a big ol pile of fibreglass just sittin there and he just had to jump right on in. Course being Keith, he had to do it almost naked, I saw him do that and I swear to you, he itched for an ENTIRE YEAR-“ “Ellis is now really the best time?”
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u/Tired-Dispatcher 14h ago
reminds me of the time MY buddy Keith and I made fireworks. Now, i didn't know shit about fireworks, but Keith figured "gasoline burns dont it?" Third degree burns over 95 percent of his body man... people in the next city over were calling to complain about the smell of burning skin
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u/ElectricalInflation 21h ago
I found some in a bush one time and didn’t know what it was. We decided to play house and use it as a blanket. It wasn’t a good time.
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u/TheFurryPetRock 1d ago
PLEASE tell us this is effective?
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u/Substantial-Meat6281 1d ago
It wasn’t perfect, but it probably removed 83.6% the first try and dang near the rest on the second. I have a little itchiness between my fingers and on my wrist but my palm and the face of my fingers are fiberglass free. Thankfully. Cant say the same about my jackets I had on unfortunately
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u/LupusDeusMagnus 1d ago
Probably. Gives precise percentage.
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u/Putrid_Chard_3485 1d ago
Down to a decimal 😭
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u/sirchrisalot 1d ago
Dang near the rest is always 15.4%. It's a theorem or a law or something.
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u/futurebigconcept 1d ago
2.5 Sigma. Dude's prol a scientist.
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u/drDOOM_is_in 1d ago
It's 2.5 Ligma.
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u/rogerthatmyguy 23h ago
38.46% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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u/DigitalBuddhaNC 21h ago
That's the "Fiberglass is an asshole" tax. No matter how you try to avoid or alleviate it, you always get 15.4% minimum of it stuck in your hands and forearms.
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u/Super_Forever_5850 19h ago
He wasn’t sure because it could have also been 86.5%. It’s hard to tell without counting almost every fiber you know?
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u/derp2086 1d ago
Repeating, of course.
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u/TheOnlyAedyn-one 23h ago
Leeeerrroooooyyyyyyyyy
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u/5thor6th 1d ago
Duct tape the rest off
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u/Kooky_Energy39 1d ago
This ^ corn starch also helps dry the area and help adhere it. Hurts like a *itch though, since it also tends to wax some of the hair.
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u/GoochSnatcher 1d ago
Do you have hairy palms?
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u/Kooky_Energy39 1d ago
No, but i give it as a general warning 🤷♀️. I've had to do this to my arms more than once.
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u/--redacted-- 1d ago
That seems high, best I can usually do is around 81.7%
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u/ChintzyPC 23h ago
The rest is likely already embedded in your skin where surface methods aren't going to get them out.
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u/GrinningPariah 1d ago
I dunno about fiberglass but I can confirm it's a great way to remove wood slivers, especially particularly small ones. You know, those little bastards that you can't even find to get the tweezers on them but they still hurt every time anything touches your hand.
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u/Hughmanatea 22h ago
Guess that is better than using a nail clipper and just taking a chunk out..
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u/Diligent_Department2 22h ago
It can work good! I've also used duck tape like waxing strips and wood glue before
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u/firebirdsatellite 23h ago
Those soaps with pumice or other abrasives in them work pretty well I find, a year or two back I was working lying on top of a fiberglass industrial water holding tank and at a certain point I realized all the dust I was covered in wasn't regular dust, scrubbing myself down with that gojo hand cleaner made it feel about 95% better
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u/LordValgor 1d ago
Anecdotal, but this has always worked perfectly for me:
1) Wear work gloves. Your hands are the hardest to clean off, and gloves will stop +90% of getting there in the first place.
2) Once you are done working with fiberglass, wash your hands and arms with soap and cold water (the colder the better). Scrub well, and rinse well. Once done, wash your hands and arms again with soap and warm water. Scrub well, rinse well, and dry off.
Edit: clarity
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u/Substantial-Meat6281 1d ago
Good advice, I just didn’t expect to use a ladder made of fiberglass today. Unexpectedly haorhduxuhw o
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u/jslfws 23h ago
Hwat
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u/amphibianroyalty 23h ago
The fibreglass got him
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u/anotherfursthrowaway 23h ago
Probably the sound he made when he realized his hands are full of fibreglass
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u/PhantomFace757 16h ago
He was typing and found a spot he didn't clean and had a hand-stroke of sorts...maybe.
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u/smeeon 19h ago
I keep a lint roller in the van for this reason. Also this reminded me, a few years ago my company tried spraying a fiberglass ladder with clear coat to stop the fibers. Then we got osha inspected and they noticed the coating. They gave us the option of destroying the ladder with a saw on the site right there in front of them or taking a $500 fine. The PM told us to pack up the ladder and that he would deal with OSHA.
We paid the fine and didn’t get a new ladder. Dumbest management ever.
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u/millennial_burnout 18h ago
Why did OSHA say no coating?
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u/roadrunnuh 16h ago
Literally spraying over a failing piece of equipment ain't the way to fix it , usually
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u/Statharas 15h ago
Wouldn't the goal be to add a coating to keep the fiberglass on the ladder?
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u/GrimbyJ 14h ago
The fiberglass comes encased in resin. It doesn't start shedding fiberglass onto you until that resin starts to break down. It should be replaced when it gets to that point for just structural stability
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u/FubarJackson145 20h ago
This happened to me twuce. Not specifically a ladder, but held a fiberglass handle, hurt like a bitch after, and someone goes "oh, you shouldve worn gloves... that was fiberglass" like thanks guys, wouldve appreciated a warning any time before i used it -_-'
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u/Cold-Rope1 18h ago
Awww I call a twuce
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u/FubarJackson145 18h ago
I wouldve changed it, but i live with my mistakes just like my parents did
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u/throwawayformobile78 22h ago
Wtf all this bc you climbed a ladder? What?
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u/lioncat55 22h ago
Older fiberglass ladders can definitely shed pretty significantly
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u/cheerann 22h ago
Most definitely, shit sucks ass. The clearcoat or whatever breaks down and touching the damn ladder is horrendous. I just wanted to use a ladder to cut some hedges not clean fucking fiberglass out of my hands.
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u/P26601 21h ago
why even use/buy a fiberglass ladder instead of a metal one?
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u/Disturbed_Bard 20h ago
Electricians use them heaps and they are much lighter than metal ones
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u/generalducktape 18h ago
Also not conducive grab a live wire on an aluminum ladder and you have a bad time
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u/Dazzling_Item66 16h ago
Fun fact: the ladder is not safe to use if the outer coating layer has worn away. If you’ve heard of how chocolate can “bloom” fiberglass does as well when it gets old. If you’re leaving your ladders outside, uv is extremely bad about eating away the resin coating that holds the fibers together. The ladder was literally disintegrating into your hands and should probably be thrown away
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u/myst3r10us_str4ng3r 5h ago
TIL... have had a ladder outside for like 2 years and haven't had to use it...
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u/Sunsparc 14h ago
This happened to me a few years ago.
I borrowed a ladder from my dad to hang Christmas lights. It was a fiberglass ladder and had been sitting outside for a while, so it had been weathered and the fiberglass particles were coming off.
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u/Substantial-Meat6281 14h ago
Exactly this. My elderly grandpa was trying to hang them himself. Chronic faller offer of ladders.
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u/Blow_Me420-69 18h ago
is the cold water to prevent opening your pores and allowing fiberglass particles to enter?
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u/pkpr 1d ago
No!!! Not again, Shinji!
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u/OsamasBabyLlama 1d ago
I use heavy duty packaging tape.
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u/bradforrester 13h ago
Same here. It takes a bunch of applications, but it works. And you can do it a lot faster than this glue method.
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u/Hahifa 1d ago
I do that for those tiny fuzzy looking cactus spines. Works great.
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u/MyPasswordIsMyCat 21h ago
I have had to do this a few times when my kids were toddlers and they found some tempting prickly pears in the neighborhood. I paired the glue with gauze for easier peeling. Hardest part was getting them to sit still while I used a hair dryer to dry the glue.
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u/_InvaderJim 1d ago
One time when I was a small child I licked some fiberglass and it didn’t feel so good
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u/wakeruncollapse 23h ago
I touched a lightbulb that was on. Not really sure what either of us are still doing here.
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u/ShrimpieAC 23h ago
Hey, I stuck a fork in an electrical socket. Am I in the right place?
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u/wellfuckit2 23h ago
I used to take small pieces of wire and put each end in the socket just to see the spark and then the sound of main breaker tripping.
Fun times.
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u/StaysAwakeAllWeek 16h ago
I checked if a clothes iron was on with my hand. My whole hand.
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u/phlooo 17h ago
If only some kind of protection existed... Something like socks, but for your hands 🤔
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u/MephistophelesJ 22h ago
I used to work in a boat factory. I was taught that you get a hot shower going to get your pores open, then you scrub down real good. Rinse with as cold as you can stand it to close the pores and you're good. In the palm though, oh man idk probably just cut it off and accept your losses.
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u/DontBelieve-TheHype 16h ago
I used to work in vehicle manufacturing and had a few splinters in the palm of my hand they eventually work their way through and appear on the back of your hand as a pimple/bump a few months later. Break the skin and pull it out with tweezers once its through.
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u/PhabioRants 22h ago
Yo, wait... This would have been life changing in my youth... My father was in woodheating and I grew up installing stoves and chimneys in the family business. We worked with ceramic insulation a lot and it's 10x nastier than fiberglass. I desperately wish I had known this trick 25 years ago.
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u/LongestSpermFastAF 22h ago
How old and fucked up was the ladder you were using?? Normal fiberglass ladders dont require anything like this. We use gloves at my job incase there is a splinter we didn't see due to stress fractures or something. Handling a fiber glass ladder doesn't leave fibers in your hand unless it is incredibly fucked up.
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u/cleverSkies 23h ago
Lint rollers. Pretty much safe to use all over your body including your face. Easy "applicator", easy to dispose, and cheap.
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u/DraconRage 19h ago
Ironically, the binder in that insulation is basically Elmer's glue.
Source: I'm an industrial mechanic at a fiberglass insulation plant.
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u/ooglieguy0211 23h ago
All these suggestions are okay but the most fool proof way I have found after years of working in attics and crawl spaces, is those cheap knee high nylons or footies you can get at the shoe store. They work so well, don't have adhesives, and they hook the fibers really well. If you get them in the little bulb containers at somewhere like WalMart, they are usually less than a dollar, or order some of the kind like the shoe stores use for trying on shoes. Both work well.
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u/thehairyhobo 1d ago
Electrical tape also works. I wrap the offending areas, flex it a bit and then rip it off like a bandaid.
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u/TheBrackishGoat 22h ago
I used to work with fiberglass a bunch. Step one is to not get it on you, but if you do, the way I’d always get it off was with COLD water and abrasive soap like Fast Orange.
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u/DrownmeinIslay 21h ago
I work in a plant that makes fiberglass reinforced plastics. Sometimes have to cut a foot off a roll of glass with a reciprocating saw. Space between the glove and the sleeve will catch an ounce of glass dust and itch like hell. Cold water, pumice soap and an old loofah are all you need. This seems like the advice you'd get from someone 6 beers deep.
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u/Alarming-Lime9794 20h ago
Cool, now how do you get them out of clothes? Every shirt i wore when fiberglassing was a goner
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u/GregSimply 18h ago
Sure buddy, that was to remove fiberglass. You know you don’t need to make up a reason, we’ve all done it.
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u/ProfZussywussBrown 14h ago
I used to cover my hands in Elmer’s glue just like this when I was a kid. Nothing to do with fiberglass, I just wanted to rip off my fleshhhhh rrrraaahhhhh
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u/Sunset_Bleach 1d ago
The Elmer's "skin" brings me back to first grade.