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This page
http://metalshapers.org/101/video/mainmovie.html has absolutely wonderful
animations of tools used for shaping sheet metal. If you have any
interest, go look.
This page discusses choices in shop tools by name, with cross
references, to assist in buying, using and learning to use them. A home tools
suggested kit follows.
- Apron
- Depending on how you value your clothes, a work
apron in leather will save them from tiny burned holes
from sparks and spatter. And don't wear nylon clothing,
as I was reminded tonight (2001-03-08) when a brazing
torch held at arm's length melted the surface of my old
work jacket.
- Allen (drive)
- A six sided hole in a bolt or screw using an Allen wrench which is a
usually a simple L-shaped piece of hex rod but can be a bit
or a set of wrenches..
- Bench mount
- A tool or piece of equipment which is intended for use while placed on a
workbench, temporarily or permanently. Smaller than free standing
floor mount and
larger than hand held. Common bench mount tools include vises, small
drill presses, small lathes, grinders. Although usually bolted to a
bench or other work surface, usually light enough to be moved by one person.
May be mounted on a simple post base that is fastened down. 2006-01-17
- Bits
- Small pieces of metal held in a chuck for the purpose of
drilling holes (drill bits), cutting slots or shapes (router
or milling bits) or driving fasteners (screwdriver bits) Drill bits
are long and slender with sharp edges on one end used in
portable drills or drill presses. Router bits are short
and thick, with a reduced size stem to fit in the collet
style chuck and sharp edges on the sides and/or bottom.
Screwdriver bits are short slender rods usually with a
hex shape at one end for fitting in a similarly shaped
holder/handle or a chuck and a large variety of shapes at
the other for fitting hex, Phillips, slotted,
Allen, Torx, and many other shaped driving slots.
- Brake
- A tool for bending sheet metal on straight lines. Its primary feature is
a thin strong wedge edge that allows bending a crisp line, unlike the
rounded corner that simple hand bending. About $400 for a 48" unit.
Units normally have slots in the edge or it is made up adjustable pieces so
that when one bend has been made a second can be made at right angles by
sliding the first in the groove, thus allowing a tight corner. Without
a brake, bending can be done by clamping the sheet metal between wood or
metal angles and after forcing the bend, hammering it to square - much
cheaper for one-off operation, much more time consuming and ugly if needed
often. Most heating and air conditioning shops will have a large brake
and will bend a sheet or an edge if precisely told what is wanted.
2006-01-18
- Brooms
- A broom is a long handle with fairly bristles at the end, which may be
mounted straight from the handles or on a wooden crossbar in which case it is
commonly called a push broom. Ordinary brooms sweep a narrow space and
get into corners fairly well. Push brooms cover a much wider space but
are harder to maneuver. Although soft ordinary brooms are available,
usually they have stiff bristles and will stand on end. Push brooms come
in soft, medium, hard, and very hard bristles and materials ranging from nylon
of hair-like sizes to stainless steel wires. Stiffer bristles will remove
coarse material but leave fine dust behind while soft bristles pick up the
fine stuff but may be damaged by hard stuff and clogged with goopy stuff.
- Brushes
- Brushes are handles with bristles on the side or at the end. Bristles
may be hog hair (bristle), nylon, brass, or stainless steel. Wire bristles are
used on brushes for hard cleaning or scrubbing jobs almost always on the side of
the handle. Softer bristles on the side are used for cleaning and on the
end for cleaning, painting and applying oil, etc., in specific places. At least one heavy brush - I prefer stainless
steel - with a strong handle, are useful for cleaning the
surface and brushing off slag. For larger surfaces, a
wire brush wheel on a drill or a grinder setup is useful
and faster.
- Chisel
- A tool for cutting at one end by hitting or pushing on the other end.
Wood chisels are very sharp thin edged tools that can be maneuvered by hand
or hit with a mallet. Cold chisels have a blunter, much more hardened
edge and are used on stone, concrete, and steel - they are always struck.
Star chisels are cold chisels with several edges in a star pattern for
drilling holes. 2003-12-07
- Chuck
- A cylinder shaped device with two, three or four moveable
jaws inside so that when one part of the cylinder is turned
and the other held still, the jaws close to hold a bit.
Used on drills. A typical chuck will hold from 1/16"
to 3/8" Collet
- Clamps
Spring
C-clamps
Bar or Pipe
Quick Grip
- Clamps are used to temporarily hold things together, especially to hold with
more pressure or for a longer time than hand held will work, to provide
additional hand grips, and to maintain alignment. Spring clamps are
clothes pins or larger metal clips for material that is not too thick.
C-clamps are shaped like the letter C with a screw thread closing the opening
which are used for clamping wood or metal firmly with capacity from 1" to 6" in
common use and larger available; most will reach in nearly to the jaw capacity.
Bar and Pipe clamps mount a screw tightener on one end of a dedicated bar or a
piece of pipe with a sliding piece that moves along to hold wide material with
little reach - assembling panels or fastening sides to boxes; nice because of
potentially unlimited reach. Quick grip open and close quickly with a
reach like C-clamps but much less force except for Vice-Grip
versions - often made in plastic to hold wood for gluing without marring the
surface. 2010-11-03
- Collet
- A special kind of chuck that holds
the bit more completely around for greater precision, but with a more limited
range, for example 1/8" +/- 1/64" or 1/4"
+/-1/32" Most often used when bits are prepared in
specific shaft sizes and precision of holding is needed.
Router bits commonly come in 1/4" or 3/8" and a
router may be supplied with several matching collets or only one. Dremel-type
high speed tools use small collets.
Collets are also used on machine tool bits for precision.
- Compressor
- A device for taking a gas, most often air, and pumping it to take less
space at a higher pressure. Typical shop compressors have a tank
holding several gallons of air at 125-150 psi.
Pneumatic tools use air instead of electricity to spin gears or hammer.
Each tool is rated for volume and pressure of air needed. Too small a
compressor will lose pressure and delay further use of the tool.
Compressed air is also used for blowing for clean up and spraying paint and
for applying pressure as for a grease gun. 2005-01-18
- Drill, Portable or Hand
- A motor mounted with a handle, trigger switch, and chuck
for holding bits and intended for use in hand. Most today
come with a variable speed control and some have a
release clutch and hammer action choices. The motor is
usually geared down to move the chuck in the 600-2000 rpm
range. Common drills have a 3/8" chuck with much
heavier ones available for commercial use.
- Drill Press
- A drill press is a motor and chuck mounted so pulling a
lever lowers the drill bit in a straight line against a
metal platform. The motor is usually connected to the
spindle with V-belts and pulleys to change speed.
Having owned a variety of drill presses and finally
bought a 15" floor unit, I strongly recommend the
latter, which will cost about $300. The large floor mount
is better in the following ways: The table tilts side to
side, allowing angle drilling but also allowing bracing
long items for end drilling; The base is a long distance
down, allowing end drilling; the movement of the chuck is
much longer, allowing drilling holes the length of the
bit.
The smallest units actually mount a hand drill and are
useful for applying leverage when drilling tough narrow
materials, but aren't very precise. There are two common
sizes of bench units. The smaller one, which I bought
first, was rather limited to about 1 inch of chuck
movement and only about 4 inches between the end of bit
and the table and 6" when the table was swung aside.
The 12" unit I looked at buying had a tilting table,
but still had a relatively short distance bit to base.
- File
- A long narrow piece of steel which has grooves or teeth
cut in it before it is hardened, with the result that it
can be used to remove metal or wood by pushing the file
across the work piece. Files come in many shapes, round,
half-round, flat, triangular, square and rectangular, and
with many different groove patterns including single and
double cut which provide different degrees of cutting
action and of smoothness. Rasp
- Fire Extinguisher
- whether you work outside, as I do, or
have a nice shop, a readily available hose or commercial
fire extinguisher should be at hand. It is almost
impossible to weld for very long without putting heat or
sparks in the wrong place or dropping hot metal where it
shouldn't be. If welding inside, a thorough cleaning of
the area should be a first and last requirement of
working because paper, sawdust, and oil are all subject
to flare-ups. Obviously, if using arc welding, don't use
water for fires, have sand and/or a CO2 or dry powder
extinguisher (rated like 3A 40BC where C is for
electrical, B for oil/gasoline, A for wood/paper)
- Floor mount
- Equipment intended to sit on or be fastened to the floor with the
working surface at roughly waist height. Usually too heavy for one person to
move alone so if not sold with an integral base, stand is sold separately.
Very heavy equipment is not only floor mounted, but is given a separate
foundation in the shop to avoid passing vibrations to the building or
distorting it.
Bench Mount 2006-01-17
- Gloves, Heavy, Canvas, Rubber, Latex
- Heavy padded leather gloves that come well
up the arm are vital to welding and very useful for
glass working. When subjected to too much heat, the
leather becomes stiff. The gloves only cost $8-10 at
welding shops. One mistake in gripping near a recently
welded joint will more than pay for a pair, in pain and
medical costs.
- Hammer
- A hammer is a tool used to bang on things with a weighty
head and a light handle extending at right angles to the
head. It is used by holding the handle and swinging the weighted end and letting
the momentum of the head do the work that a stone held in
the hand could not. Hammers range in weight from a few
ounces in a jewelers hammer to many pounds in a full
sized sledge. A common size for daily use is 16 ounces. A
hammer may have two striking faces, which may be similar
or different, or it may have one striking face with the
other replaced with some other useful addition, such as
the claw hammer which has two curved blades with a V-shaped
groove that will catch on nails so they can be pulled out
using the lever action of the handle. Other relatively
common hammers include tack, bodywork, framing, and
sledge. Especially with arc welding, a slag hammer with a point side
and a chisel side is used to test the joint and knock off any slag. A ball
peen hammer has one face flat and the
other forming a half-dome shape. Used for forming metal,
including peening (mashing over) the ends of rivets and
pins. Mallet Images
- Hand held
- A tool or piece of powered equipment smaller than bench mount which is commonly
used by holding it with the hands to guide it across the work. Usually
not added to the definition of tools that are unpowered, like
hammers and screwdrivers. Hand held items include portable drills,
circular saws, routers. Portable
- Hydraulic
- Tools using liquid pressure for activation, most often for jacking or
pressure in the shop. The nature of fluids is that if pressure is
applied to a small area, the same pressure per unit area will be applied to
a large area - so 10 pounds applied to 1 square inch by means of a lever and
piston, will cause a 10 square inch piston to lift 100 pounds, the tradeoff
being it will move 1/10th the distance. Small bottle jacks with a pump
action input on a 1/2" diameter piston will lift 8-12 tons and cost under
$50. Wheeled jacks with longer arms will lift 4,000 pounds and are
used under automobiles. 2003-02-27 Cylinders may be long, such as those seen
on earth moving equipment and car lifts, and even very long such those under
some elevators which may be several stories in length The force is supplied
by pumps in these cases. 2009-08-30 Pressure &
Flow
- Jack
- A device for lifting taking advantage of leverage and hydraulic action
to allow a few tens of pounds to lift a few hundred to a few thousand
pounds. Types include screw jacks where a revolving screw raises a
platform, ratchet jacks where a long lever movement raises the object only a
half inch or so, but a ratchet keeps it from falling, and
hydraulic where pumping fluid with a small piston raises a lot of weight
with a large piston. All three types have been provided on cars for
changing tires. 2003-02-27
- Lathe
- A tool, usually free standing, for turning a piece while tools are held
against it. Typically several feet long and about a foot wide.
Different lathes are used for wood or metal or glass pieces. A lathe
commonly has a headstock that grips the piece and has gears and a motor
drive for turning the piece and a tailstock that guides the other end of
long pieces. Most lathes allow working a piece held only at the
headstock, as for making bowl shaped pieces. The tailstock is normally
mounted on rails (the bed) so it can be moved accurately to different
distances while remaining centered on the headstock. A wood lathe will
have a tool rest to help guide the handheld tools along the piece while a
metal lathe will have a solid tool holder with screw adjustments to
withstand the increased force. Glass lathes are used to join medium
and large diameter tubing for scientific glass work, keeping two tubes
aligned as heat is applied all around the joint. rev.2003-02-27
- Mallet
- A hammer with a non-metal head used for striking other tools such as
chisels and for shaping metal and wood. Mallet heads may be wood, rubber,
leather, brass, lead, or plastic. Chisel pounding mallets are often
cone or wedge shaped. 2003-12-07, 2006-01-17
- Mill
- A tool for carving metal using end bits, the metal being gripped on a
table driven sideways by motors while the head holding the bit is moved up
and down. 2006-01-18
- Phillips (drive)
- Drive bit used on fasteners with a + shaped hole that nicely fits #00,
#0, #1, #2
(most common) or #3 bits. Supposed to hold on bit, unlike slotted,
often does not. Several variations exist for better grip. (see Square,
Robertson and Torx) 2003-12-07
- Pliers
Slip Pivot
Slip Joint
Vice Grip
- A tool for gripping with two short jaws on one side of a pivot and two
longer handles for leverage on the other. Almost infinite variations,
with springs and locks added. The most common pliers include slip
pivot, which give two different openings for each angle of the handles,
and slip joint (Channel Lock) which give five or six positions, in each case
to get the most strength out of the hand by placing the handles at the right
distance while the jaws are close to parallel. Needle nose pliers taper down to a point for gripping small
objects or getting in small spaces. Vise Grip have
locking features 2003-03-27 Tongs are pliers for handling hot forge work.
- Pop rivets
- Rivets designed to be installed from
one side of sheet metal using a thin nail-like rod running through
the hollow rivet which snaps off at a thinner neck near the enlarged
head that does the bulging of the rivet. Much easier to use than hammered rivets.
Can be used to attach sheet metal or brackets to hollow
tubing or to do sheet metal corners. A special plier tool
is used to pull the rivets into shape. Some special
rivets are available that are fluid tight or are threaded
for bolts. Five standard sizes from 3/32", but three
middle sizes: 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4" are
much more commonly found. Materials are aluminum and
steel, although stainless steel is available. Most
hardware stores have common sized rivets and light and
medium weight popping tools. Heavy duty and pneumatic
tools are available.
- Portable
- Shop tools are often heavy requiring a floor or bench mount for use.
If a tool can be taken some place by a person with reasonable ease and used
there it is considered portable. All hand tools are portable, but
equipment like shapers, miter saws, contractors table saws, etc., will
normally say portable if they are intended for ease of movement - usually also
being smaller in table size and capacity and with power limited to plugging in
the wall.
- Pneumatic
- Tools run by air pressure. Advantages are safety in wet conditions and the much lower cost of certain
tools that are costly in electric high speed versions including die grinders
and air chisels. Disadvantages are the heavy hose which can be
alleviated with a short length of lighter softer hose and requires an air compressor, often a larger one than
home shops are likely to invest in. 2003-02-27
Pressure & Flow
- Rasp
- A form of file with sharp
individually raised teeth, used to remove wood rapidly.
- Rivets
- Small rods of metal with a bulging head on one end.
Installed through a drilled hole and hammered over,
normally using a shaped backer block and pounding tool.
Rarely used in ordinary shop work because of the
difficulty of applying the two tools and holding the work.
Pop rivets are much more widely
used by small shops. Large rivets used in construction are heated
first and set with pneumatic tools.
- Robertson (drive)
- The Canadian version of square drive, not licensed
in the U.S. because of inventor's pique. Holds fastener on bit.
2003-12-07
- Router
- A tool with a large motor and a collet chuck for holding
router bits, with a flat bottom for accurately guiding
the tool over wood to make grooves or carve shapes along
the edges. The similar product for metal is a mill which
is a heavy duty chunk of hardware to apply the forces
needed to cut metal accurately, usually with a gear driven moving
table.
- Saws, Hand
Wood Saw
Hacksaw
- Hand saws have a sharp toothed edge on one side and a handle on at least
one end. They come in many shapes with wider, thicker, self supporting blades
or narrow blades tensioned at both ends. Some cut on the push stroke and are
thicker than those that cut on the pull stroke. Metal cutting saws -
hack, coping and jewelers - cut on the pull stroke, have much finer teeth and
can be used on wood when a fine kerf is needed and slow cutting is not a
problem. Wood, plaster, and plastic saws have much larger teeth and come
in a variety of shapes and with teeth with different "sets" (the amount the
teeth are bent to the side to make a wider kerf for turning or to avoid
jamming.) I prefer thin Japanese style pull saws with little set, but I
find a western handle more comfortable than the straight Japanese style.
A rip saw is used to cut along the grain and has a wider set so the blade does
not get trapped by the usual expansion of the freshly cut wood while a
crosscut is used across the grain. Keyhole saws are long narrow blades
intended for cutting out from a hole punched or drilled in material. Bow
or frame saws hold the blade at the end of arms so the blade is under tension
and there is clear space around the blade for turning or cutting thick
material.
- Saws, Power
Band Saw
Circular Saw
Jig Saw
Reciprocating Saw
- Saws are edge cutting tools using hardened teeth on the edges of flat
metal or a disk or a thin band. The size and material of the teeth
will depend on the material to be cut and its thickness - thin material
requires smaller teeth, soft material requires larger to remove the chips.
Hand saws include hack saws for metal and coping, cross cut, rip and
mitering saws for wood. Power saws include circular (round blade) for
wood, glass, tile, and masonry, band (long thin loop) for wood and metal;
jig saws and reciprocating saws.
A circular saw may be hand held, mounted in a moveable head (chop saw) or
mounted beneath a flat surface in a way that lets the blade be adjust up or
down or angled (table saw). A band saw may be fixed upright,
usually with a tiltable table or may be pivoted to permit the blade to move
through the material gripped in a vise. A portable jig saw uses a short thin
blade moving up and down at right angles to the body of the saw to cut
curves in metal or wood. A fixed jig saw uses a very thin blade held
at both ends between arms that move together and is used for tight curves
like a jigsaw puzzle in thin wood or metal. A reciprocating saw uses a larger to much
larger blade moving in and out from the end of the tool for heavier cutting
and cutting through walls, pipes, etc. 2006-01-18
- Scissors
- See Shears
- Screwdriver
- Tool with a shaped rod mounted in a handle. The end of the rod
matches a slot or hole in a fastener. The most common and oldest is
the slotted fastener where the tool end is flattened and squared off at the end.
Other shapes have been developed, most often to increase production or to
reduce damage when the tool tears out of the slot or hole as force is
applied. Phillips, Torx,
square, Allen are other drives.
The rod may be driven by a motor, in which case it is usually a tube with a
1/4" width hex interior to take driver bits.2003-12-07
- Shear
- A large tool for making straight cuts in flat sheet metal. A
clamping action holds the metal precisely against an edge while a blade
comes down along the edge like a huge scissor blade. Allows cutting
large sheet for boxes and thin metal strips. Alternative is hand
shears or a power air chisel which will leave a more uneven edge.
Corner shears or notchers allow taking out an exact corner cut for bending a
box. 2006-01-18
- Shears, Tin snips, Aircraft snips, scissors.
- Shears (or scissors) are a plier action tool with
cutting edges instead of gripping. Scissors are lighter, have longer
blades and are normally used for paper, hair, etc. Shears are heavier and
most people see handheld versions although there are heavy mounted shears used
in metal shops as well as the long edge power shear tool.
Longer handled shears are needed for heavy material. Special versions with
twisted cutting edges are sold as right hand, left hand and straight aircraft
shears with the goal of not bending the sheet metal as may be required for
clearance with more ordinary straight blade tin snips. Technically, a shear must
have passing blades, but pliers like diagonal cutters and bolt cutters bring the
blades so the edges meet. 2009-08-30
- Socket Drive or Tool
- A hollow tool or fitting that goes over a nut or hex head bolt and matches
the shape of the nut/head inside. May be a separate (often cheap
accessory) tool or be designed to fit on a square drive
handle. Because each socket must match the nut size, in most cases sold in
sets often with one or more handles. Handles may have ratchets, be solid bars,
or have hinges for special uses. 2009-08-30
- Square Bit or Drive
- Fasteners with a square hole that fits a matching bit size. Square is
about 1/8" on side. Allows
fastener to be placed on bit with some assurance it won't fall off while being
positioned. 2003-12-07 May also refer to tools with matching
sockets where the drive size may be 1/4", 3/8", or
1/2" 2009-08-30
- Stand alone or floor mount
- A tool which has its own base or is otherwise large enough that it is
placed on the floor apart from other equipment and benches. Also
free-standing. Tools set up this way include table saws, drill
presses, grinders on stands, mills, power hammers, band saws.
Alternatives include table-top, portable and hand tools
- Tin Snips
- See shears
- Tongs
- Plier form tool for gripping metal while hot,
usually in a forging situation.
- Torx (Drive)
- Fastener with a star pointed hole so the bit will hold the fastener
during installation. Most often seen on cars and refrigerator hinges.
2003-12-07
- Vise
- A heavy duty holding device that is solidly mounted to keep work from
shifting while being worked on. Permanent vises are usually mounted on a
work bench, but vises are also mounted temporarily on
drill press and machining tables. A vise may be
made of wood or metal and has a screw thread with a handle for clamping the
material to be held. 2008-05-12
- Vise Grip pliers
-
 Vise
Grip (brand) pliers include adjustable size, a locking
feature and a release handle. Because of their strong grip and
hands-off locking, a number of variations have been created. The
original form is shown at the bottom - a bolt at the end of one handle
adjusts the opening, the extra lever on the other handle is the release.
Variations on this shape include straight jaws and long narrow jaws with and
without wire cutters.
Also shown are clamps which come in several sizes and lengths with welding
tips (shown here) and swivel pads, and sheet metal bending pliers which grip
with a bevel edge to allow sharp bending. The same mechanism mounted on a
stud is a hold down for a drill press 2003-02-27, 2008-05-12 See also
Pliers
- Work Table
- Work is safer and less of a strain on the body if it can be located in a
good working position which may mean raising it to about waist level.
Cutting and other activities are safer and waste less time and energy if the
item being worked on can be held steady in a convenient location. A
workbench provides a large flat surface on which to lay things and usually has
one or more vises and may have other stops or holding
methods. Most people think of a work bench as being higher -
roughly elbow level - but good purpose is served by a table at knee level so the
project top is at waist level and bending over it is easy. A flat surface also
allows assembling projects with square corners. Work benches for wood
workers often have vises flush with the top with pull up pegs that will clamp
long boards against stops that go into holes in the top, providing clear access
for sanding and planing No one doing serious
welding, especially arc welding, would fail to
have a metal work surface on which to clamp larger projects and weld them.
2008-05-12
- Wrenches
Allen
Open End
Adjustable
Pipe
Socket
- A wrench is a tool for gripping and turning metal objects which mostly have
flat surfaces to provide grip. A pipe wrench grips iron/steel threaded pipe to
turn it into fittings by having teeth and a structure that bites into the metal
when pressure is applied. Other wrenches have flat surfaces to slide over
or into the flat surface
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