Choose the right tool for the job. Otherwise you could damage the part you are working on, the tool, or yourself.
Wrenches are used to tighten and loosen nuts and bolts. There are three commonly used wrenches: the box, the open-end and the socket. Each one has special uses depending on the leverage needed and the tightness of the workspace. One other wrench, the adjustable or crescent wrench, should only be used if other wrenches aren’t available because it can slip off tight bolts or nuts.
Place a box wrench on a nut. The handle on a box wrench is longer than the open-end wrench. It is also bent, so you can get a full grip on the shank of the wrench. The head grips the nut at six points. This allows you to loosen very tight fasteners. Place an open-end wrench on a nut. Notice that the handle is shorter than a box wrench and that it grips the head at two points. This allows you easy access to fasteners. With its offset head, this a good wrench to use in very tight spaces.
The socket wrench is very popular because of its adaptability and ease of use. Place a socket wrench on a nut. You’ll notice that the socket has six or twelve internal teeth; the one with six is stronger. Socket wrenches always need an attachment to turn them. A range of these attachments is included in socket tool sets, making this the workshop’s most versatile wrench.
Examine a flat blade screwdriver. Make sure that the tip fits the slot of the screw correctly. The wrong screwdriver could slip, or damage the head of the screw. If the screwdriver is the correct size, it will fit neatly into the slot with the blade the same width. This will prevent the screwdriver from jumping out of the slot when pressure is applied.
A Phillips screwdriver has a cross on the end of the shaft that fits the star-shaped slot of the screw. A Phillips head can be pushed and twisted with more confidence because of the snug fit, but again the screwdriver must be the right size otherwise you strip the screw head.
The hammer you use depends on the part you’re striking. The hammer face MUST ALWAYS BE SOFTER than the part you’re hammering. This will prevent damage to the part. Hammers are a vital part of the workshop tool kit, and the ball-peen is used a great deal.
The ball-pein hammer gets its name from the ball on the rounded face. It’s usually used for flattening, or “
peening”, a rivet. If you can’t find a hammer that matches the size of the job, pick a larger hammer as a rule of thumb.
For certain hammering jobs you would choose a Plastic Hammer. A steel hammer might mark or damage a part especially if it’s made of a softer metal like aluminum. The softer heads will not damage metal parts, and will absorb some of the force of the blow. Some are very soft with rubber or plastic heads. Others will use brass or copper.
Pliers are used for grasping and cutting. Combination pliers are the mostly commonly used in a workshop. However, sometimes you’ll use channel lock pliers. They’re useful for a wider grip and a tighter squeeze on parts too big for conventional pliers.
Diagonal cutting pliers are used for cutting wire or cotter pins.
Long-nosed pliers are used for hard-to-get-at places.
And Snap ring pliers remove snap rings.
The most common hammer in an automotive workshop is the
ball pein or engineer's hammer.
Like most hammers its head is hardened steel. A punch or a chisel can be driven with the flat face. Its name comes from the ball pein or rounded face. It’s usually used for flattening, or peining, a rivet. The hammer should always match the size of the job and it's better to use one that's too big, rather than too small.
Hitting chisels with a steel hammer is fine, but sometimes you need just to tap a component, to position it. A steel hammer might mark or damage it, especially if it's made of a softer metal like aluminum. In such cases a
soft-face hammer should normally be used for the job. Some are very soft with rubber or plastic heads through to those using brass or copper.
When a large chisel needs a really strong blow, it's time to use the
lump hammer. It's like a small mallet, with two square faces made of high carbon steel. It's the heaviest type of hammer that can be used one-handed.
The most common
mallet in the workshop has a head made of
hard rubber. It's a special purpose tool, and is often used for moving things into place where it is important not to damage the item being moved.
This is a
dead blow hammer. It’s designed not to bounce back when it hits something. A rebounding hammer can be dangerous or destructive. Its head is either made of lead, or it’s hollow with lead shot inside. The lead absorbs the blow.
Chisels
When using hammers and chisels safety goggles should always be worn.
This is the most common kind of chisel - a flat chisel. It's made of high-quality steel, and the end is tempered and hardened because it has to be harder than any of the metals you're likely to want to cut with it. The head of the chisel needs to be softer so it won't chip when it's hit with a hammer.
This is a cross-cut chisel. It's called 'cross cut' because the sharpened edge is across the blade width. This chisel narrows down along the stock, so it's good for getting in grooves. It’s used for cleaning out or even making key-ways. The flying chips of metal should always be directed away from the user.
The gasket scraper is not a true chisel. It has a hardened, sharpened blade and it’s designed to remove a gasket without damaging the sealing face of the component. The scraper should be kept sharp to make it easy to remove all traces of the old gasket and sealing compound.
Saws
Hacksaws are a common workshop tool. The frames come in a range of shapes and sizes. For any given frame there’s a range of available hacksaw blades to cope with different materials and situations.
The hacksaw frame can be adjusted to take different blade lengths and when the blade is placed in the frame and it is tightened to the correct tension by a tensioning device such as a wing nut.
The
hacksaw blade must be of the right pitch which is determined by the number of teeth in an inch of blade. A blade with many teeth per inch has a fine pitch, one with few teeth per inch has a coarse pitch.
The saw blade should be inserted into the frame so that it only cuts on the forward stroke. This is because the teeth gather the metal being removed and can only get rid of it when they come clear of the cut. If a blade cutting through a thick section of metal has too many teeth, in other words the pitch is too fine, they can clog up and stop cutting.
On the other hand, when cutting a piece of sheet metal, if the blade is too coarse the saw teeth could be stripped off of the blade at it try's to cut.
As a rough guide you can determine the correct blade (and number of teeth) by laying the blade across the section being cut. Normally, at least 3 teeth should touch the metal at that point. This will ensure that the blade can do its job.
After the job is done, the tension on the blade should be loosened, to prevent the frame from distorting over time.
Cutting large holes in panel steel or thin sheet metal is done by a
hole saw. The drill in the center locates the saw accurately and leads it into the surface.
Repetitive cutting through thick sections of material can be hard work, unless you have an
abrasive cut-off saw.
These are rated in different sizes, usually from about 250 millimeters to 500 millimeters or 9 3⁄4 inches to 19 1⁄2 inches. That refers to the largest diameter cutting wheel that should be fitted to them.
This is a powerful tool and it demands every precaution. Wear protective clothing, with nothing hanging out or loose, especially long hair. You should cover long hair with a snood cap and of course, wear safety glasses or a full-face shield. The guard on the saw should be properly in place, and the power cord well away from the cutting wheel. Flying Sparks are normal when using this saw, the range of these should be limited by placing a safety screen around the job.
Screw-drivers
The correct screwdriver to use depends on the type of slot or recess in the head of the screw or bolt, and how accessible it is.
Most screwdrivers can't grip as securely as spanners, so it's very important to match the tip of the screwdriver exactly with the slot or recess in the head of a fastener. Otherwise the tool might slip, damaging the fastener, and worse still, you.
When using a screwdriver, always check where the screwdriver blade can end up if it slips off the head of the screw. A screwdriver can't tell the difference between a piece of steel, and a piece of you.
The most common screwdriver has a flat tip, or blade, which gives it the name,
blade screwdriver. It's easy to see the blade should be almost as wide as the slot in the fastener so that twisting force applied to the screwdriver is transferred right out to the edges of the head where it has most effect.
Not so easy to see, is that the blade should be a snug fit in the slot of the screw head. Then the twisting force is applied evenly along the sides of the slot. This guards against the screwdriver suddenly chewing a piece out of the slot, and slipping, just when most force is being exerted.
If viewed side-on , the blade should taper until the very end where the tip fits in the slot. If the tip of the blade isn't clean and square, it should be reshaped.
When you use a blade screwdriver, make sure you support the shaft with your free hand as you turn it. This helps keep the blade square on to the slot and centered. Slipping screwdrivers are a common source of damage and injury in workshops.
A screw or bolt with a
star-shaped recess needs a
Phillips or a Pozidrive screwdriver. The star-shaped slot holds the tip of the screwdriver securely on the head.
The Phillips tip fits a tapered recess while the pozidrive fits into slots with parallel sides in the head of the screw. Both a Phillips or Pozidrive head can be pushed and twisted with more confidence, but again the screwdriver must be the right size. This is simplified with these 2 types of screwdriver because 4 sizes are enough to fit almost all fasteners with this sort of screw head.
The
Allen key is designed to be a snug fit in screws with a socket head.
The socket and the key are hexagonal in shape, and there's a correct sized key for every socket, so Allen keys come in sets. They can come in either the metric or Imperial system, and are categorized in millimeters or fractions of an inch, according to the distance across opposite flats of the hexagon.They give the best grip on a screw or bolt of all the drivers, and their shape makes them good at getting into tight spots.
The
offset screwdriver fits into spaces where nothing else will, and where there's not much room to turn it. The two tips look identical but one's at 90 degrees to the other. This is because sometimes there's sometimes only room to make a quarter turn of the driver. That is why the driver has two blades on opposite ends so that offset ends of the screwdriver can be used alternately.
The
ratchet is a popular screwdriver handle that usually comes with a selection of flat and Phillips tips. It has a ratchet inside that turns the blade in only one direction depending on how the slider is set. When set, a screw can be undone without removing the tip of the blade from the head of the screw.
Equally, when set in the opposite direction screws can be inserted just as easily.
This is an
impact driver . A screw or a bolt that’s rusty or over tightened needs a tool that can apply more force than the other members of this family.
The impact driver takes a variety of tips. Choose the right one for the screw head, fit the tip in place, and then tension it in the direction it has to turn. A sharp blow with the hammer breaks the screw free, and it can be unscrewed.
Vices & clamps
The
bench vice is a useful tool for holding anything that can fit into the jaws and needs sawing, filing, or chiseling.
The jaws are serrated to give extra grip and they're also very hard, which means that when the vice is done up tightly, the jaws can mark whatever they’re gripping. To prevent this a pair of
soft jaws can be fitted whenever the danger of damage arises. They're usually made of aluminum or some other soft metal.
Some things can be awkward to grip vertically in a plain vice, so there’s another style called an
offset vice.
These slots in the work table of this drill are designed for a drill vice. To hold something firmly and drill it accurately, it has to be secured in the jaws of the vice. The vice can me moved on the bed until the precise drilling point is located, and then tightened down by bolts to fix the drill vice in place during drilling.
A
G-clamps name comes from its shape. It can hold parts together while they're being assembled, or maybe drilled or welded. It can reach around awkwardly shaped pieces that won't fit in a vice. And it’s portable so it can be taken to the work.
