Metalworking hand tool

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Metalworking hand tools are hand tools used in the metalworking field, powered entirely by the operator (hand tools). There are lots of tools, fit for different actions to the material, such as shrinking or modifying its surface.

Contents

Slapper

Both metal and wood slappers are used for metalworking. Generally wood slappers are covered with a leather-face. Slappers can be used to shrink, contour, and planish (smooth) the panel without leaving rough marks to clean up. The slapper controls more surface with each blow than a hammer can, and is very easy to use because it has the same angle of attack as a body hammer. This means the user does not need to change their arm and hand position when moving from hammer to slapper. The slapper can be far more effective than the hammer for shrinking metal, because its leverage gives greater mechanical advantage over the rough spots. The slapper is great for working metal over a T-stake, or for gouging and planishing. A good slapper can make radius bends and crowns quite well. A slapper works well with forming stakes and post dollies for lightly planishing and pulling cold shrinks. [1]

Spoons

Spring steel spoons are a type of finishing tool, with a variety of uses. They are fairly durable, and can be used in combination with other tools (such as dollies, spikes, etc.) to provide an accurate contoured surface. [1]

Dollies

Dollies can be handheld or mounted on a stake or post. Metal dollies come in a variety of sizes and shapes and are used for all types of hand-forming and planishing, shrinking, etc. [1]

Forming bags

Also referred to as "soft dollies." Forming bags are usually filled with sand or lead shot and sewn very tightly out of a top-grade canvas or leather. A forming bag will allow you to "shrink" the metal without marking it, if used correctly. [1]

Mallets

Mallets used for metalworking usually have either wood or plastic faces. These "faces" come in a variety of shapes, such as flat, torpedo, hemispheric, or square in shape. The different faces (and material the mallet is made of) allow you to work and/or shrink different metals. For instance, the flat face can be used for planishing and smoothing and for hand shrinking thicker soft metals. Whereas a large hickory "torpedo mallet's" striking weight makes it best suitable for shaping soft metals such as aluminum or copper, but a similar torpedo mallet made from heavy black rubber has a striking weight which is best used for shaping steel. [2]

Hammers

A wide range of body hammers are used in metalworking. Hammers range from small, lightweight "pick" hammers (that provide stubby pick point and high-crown peen-type faces that will ding out small dents in high fins), to specialty hammers and heavy-duty "bumping" hammers for heavy gauge truck fenders and panels. There are dozens of hammers that are designed for specific tasks or metal thicknesses. [2]

Files and rasps

These tools are used to provide a smooth finish for detail work, and are often used in metalwork done for the aircraft and aerospace industry. [2]

Snips or shears

Snips and shears are used for cutting metal. Various types of snips and shears are used for different metals and thicknesses. Some shears allow longer or shorter cuts depending on the shear's style. Certain types of snips and shears are recommended for aviation metalworking. [2]

Marking and layout tools

Marking and layout tools are essential to metalwork. A profile gauge is frequently used by metalworkers to copy curves. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hammer</span> Tool consisting of a shaft with a weighted head attached at a right angle

A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal, or to crush rock. Hammers are used for a wide range of driving, shaping, breaking and non-destructive striking applications. Traditional disciplines include carpentry, blacksmithing, warfare, and percussive musicianship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chisel</span> Tool for cutting and carving

A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end; for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, struck with a mallet, or mechanical power. The handle and blade of some types of chisel are made of metal or wood with a sharp edge in it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knapping</span> Shaping of conchoidal fracturing stone to manufacture stone tools

Knapping is the shaping of flint, chert, obsidian, or other conchoidal fracturing stone through the process of lithic reduction to manufacture stone tools, strikers for flintlock firearms, or to produce flat-faced stones for building or facing walls, and flushwork decoration. The original Germanic term knopp meant to strike, shape, or work, so it could theoretically have referred equally well to making statues or dice. Modern usage is more specific, referring almost exclusively to the hand-tool pressure-flaking process pictured. It is distinguished from the more general verb "chip" and is different from "carve", and "cleave".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blacksmith</span> Person who creates wrought iron or steel products by forging, hammering, bending, and cutting

A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut. Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils, and weapons. There was an historical distinction between the heavy work of the blacksmith and the more delicate operation of a whitesmith, who usually worked in gold, silver, pewter, or the finishing steps of fine steel. The place where a blacksmith works is called variously a smithy, a forge or a blacksmith's shop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marble sculpture</span> Three-dimensional art form from marble

Marble has been the preferred material for stone monumental sculpture since ancient times, with several advantages over its more common geological "parent" limestone, in particular the ability to absorb light a small distance into the surface before refracting it in subsurface scattering. This gives an attractive soft appearance that is especially good for representing human skin, which can also be polished.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metalworking</span> Process of making items from metal

Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale: from huge ships, buildings, and bridges down to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Repoussé and chasing</span> Metalworking technique

Repoussé or repoussage ( ) is a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is shaped by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. Chasing or embossing is a similar technique in which the piece is hammered on the front side, sinking the metal. The two techniques are often used in conjunction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plane (tool)</span> Tool for working with wood

A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood using muscle power to force the cutting blade over the wood surface. Some rotary power planers are motorized power tools used for the same types of larger tasks, but are unsuitable for fine-scale planing, where a miniature hand plane is used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">File (tool)</span> Tool used to remove fine amounts of material

A file is a tool used to remove fine amounts of material from a workpiece. It is common in woodworking, metalworking, and other similar trade and hobby tasks. Most are hand tools, made of a case hardened steel bar of rectangular, square, triangular, or round cross-section, with one or more surfaces cut with sharp, generally parallel teeth. A narrow, pointed tang is common at one end, to which a handle may be fitted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mallet</span> Tool for striking the workpiece or another tool with a relatively large head

A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lampworking</span>

Lampworking is a type of glasswork in which a torch or lamp is used to melt the glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the modern practice no longer uses oil-fueled lamps. Although lack of a precise definition for lampworking makes it difficult to determine when this technique was first developed, the earliest verifiable lampworked glass is probably a collection of beads thought to date to the fifth century BCE. Lampworking became widely practiced in Murano, Italy in the 14th century. As early as the 17th century, itinerant glassworkers demonstrated lampworking to the public. In the mid-19th century lampwork technique was extended to the production of paperweights, primarily in France, where it became a popular art form, still collected today. Lampworking differs from glassblowing in that glassblowing uses a furnace as the primary heat source, although torches are also used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tinsmith</span> Person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals

A tinsmith is a person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession may sometimes also be known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profession, though the same word may also refer to an unrelated specialty of iron-smithing. By extension it can also refer to the person who deals in tinware, or tin plate. Tinsmith was a common occupation in pre-industrial times.

Panel beater or panelbeater is a term used in some Commonwealth countries to describe a person who restores vehicle bodies back to their factory state after having been damaged. In the United States and Canada, the same job is done by an auto body mechanic.

A dolly is the name given to a category of tools used in shaping sheet metal. Typically a dolly is a solid piece of metal, small enough to hold in one hand, with a curved or shaped face. Generally a dolly will have more than one surface, each with its own radius of curvature, allowing the craftsman more flexibility in using the tool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English wheel</span> Metalworking tool for curving sheet metal

The English wheel, in Britain also known as a wheeling machine, is a metalworking tool that enables a craftsperson to form compound curves from flat sheets of metal such as aluminium or steel.

Snips, also known as shears, are hand tools used to cut sheet metal and other tough webs. It is a cutting tool. Workers use various types of snips, with the cutting edges being straight or curved to various degrees. The style of edge employed will depend if a straight sheer or some type of shapes cut is necessary. There are two broad categories: tinner's snips, which are similar to common scissors, and compound-action snips, which use a compound leverage handle system to increase the mechanical advantage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planishing</span>

Planishing is a metalworking technique that involves finishing the surface of sheet metal by finely shaping and smoothing it.

Ceramic tile cutters are used to cut tiles to a required size or shape. They come in a number of different forms, from basic manual devices to complex attachments for power tools.

There are many types of shears used to shear or cut sheet metal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metal spinning</span>

Metal spinning, also known as spin forming or spinning or metal turning most commonly, is a metalworking process by which a disc or tube of metal is rotated at high speed and formed into an axially symmetric part. Spinning can be performed by hand or by a CNC lathe.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 White, Kent. "The Slapper, Spoon, Spike and Forming Stump." Booklet, published by TM Technologies, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Fine Art of Metal Shaping," Part 2 by Bob Whittier. Experimenter Magazine, March 1999.