POWER TOOLS

W.H.Wijayabanadara
NCIT (E&E Eng.)
ETC 02/11/2013

A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the
solely manual labor used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors. Internal
combustion engines and compressed air are also commonly used. Other power sources include steam
engines, direct burning of fuels and propellants or even natural power sources like wind or moving water.
Power tools are used in industry, in construction, in the garden, for housework tasks such
as cooking, cleaning, and around the house for purposes of driving (fasteners), drilling, cutting,
shaping, sanding, grinding, routing, polishing, painting, heating and more.
Power tools are classified as either stationary or portable, where portable means hand-held.
Portable power tools have obvious advantages in mobility. Stationary power tools however often
have advantages in speed and accuracy and some stationary power tools can produce objects that
cannot be made in any other way Stationary power tools for metalworking are usually
called machine tools. The term machine tool is not usually applied to stationary power tools
for woodworking, although such usage is occasionally heard, and in some cases, such as drill
presses and bench grinders, exactly the same tool is used for both woodworking and metalworking.

Power tools can be classified by power source:

Pneumatic

Electric

Fuel-powered

Hydraulic

Pneumatic Tools

Powered by compressed air

Includes nailers, staplers, chippers, drills & sanders
Main hazard - getting hit by a tool attachment or by a fastener the worker is using with
the tool

Electric Powered Tools

Powered by electric current

Includes sanders, drills, grinders etc.
Main hazard - getting hit by a tool attachment or by a fastener the worker is using with
the tool

Fuel Powered Tools

Powered by fuels like gas etc.

Includes sanders, drills, grinders etc.
Main hazard - getting hit by a tool attachment or by a fastener the worker is using with
the tool

Hydraulic Powered Tools

Uses liquid fluids to drive tools

Includes sanders, drills, grinders etc.
Main hazard - getting hit by a tool attachment or by a fastener the worker is using with
the tool

A list of power tools

Impact driver
Air compressor
Alligator shear
Angle grinder
Band saw
Belt sander
Biscuit joiner
Brush cutter
Ceramic tile cutter
Chainsaw
Circular saw
Concrete saw
Cold saw
Crusher
Diamond blade
Diamond tools
Disc sander
Drill
Floor sander
Food Processor
Grinding machine
Heat gun
Hedge cutter
Impact wrench
Iron
Jackhammer
Jointer
Jigsaw
Knitting Machine

Lathe
Lawn Mower
Leaf blower
Miter saw
Nail gun (electric and battery as well as powder actuated)
Needle scaler
Pneumatic torque wrench
Powder-actuated tools
Power wrench
Radial arm saw
Random orbital sander
Reciprocating saw
Rotary reciprocating saw
Rotary tool
Rotovator
Sabre saw
Sander
Scroll saw
Sewing Machine
Steel cut off saw
Strimmer
Table saw
Thickness planer
Vacuum Cleaner
Wall chaser
Washing machine
Wood router

And from next page, There are some examples in explain.

Impact drivers

An impact driver is a manual or power tool that delivers a strong, sudden rotational and downward
force. In conjunction with toughened screwdriver bits and socket sets, they are often used
by mechanics to loosen larger screws (bolts) and nuts that are corrosively "frozen" or over-torqued.
The direction can also be reversed for situations where screws have to be tightened with torque
greater than a screwdriver can reasonably provide.

Manual impact drivers consist of a heavy outer sleeve that surrounds an inner core that is splined to
it. The spline is curved so that when the user strikes the outer sleeve with a hammer, its downward
force works on the spline to produce turning force on the core and any socket or work bit attached to
it. The tool translates the heavy rotational inertia of the sleeve to the lighter core to generate large
amounts of torque. At the same time, the striking blow from the hammer forces the impact driver
down into the screw reducing or eliminating cam out. This attribute is most beneficial for Phillips
screws which normally cam out as part of their design. It is also excellent for use with
the Robertson square socket head screws that are in common use in Canada. It is less beneficial
for slot head screws and is not beneficial at all for most other types.

Chainsaw

A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable, mechanical saw which cuts with a set of teeth attached to
a rotating chain that runs along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as
tree felling, limbing, bucking, pruning, to fell snags and assist in cuttingfirebreaks in wildland fire
suppression, and to harvest firewood. Chainsaws with specially designed bar and chain
combinations have been developed as tools for use in chainsaw art and chainsaw mills. Specialist
chainsaws are used for cutting concrete. Chainsaws are sometimes used for cutting ice, for example
for ice sculpture and in Finland for winter swimming. Someone who uses a saw is a sawyer.

Drill

A drill is a tool fitted with a cutting tool attachment or driving tool attachment, usually a drill
bit or driver bit, used for boring holes in various materials or fastening various materials together with
the use of fasteners. The attachment is gripped by a chuck at one end of the drill and rotated while
pressed against the target material. The tip, and sometimes edges, of the cutting tool does the work
of cutting into the target material. This may be slicing off thin shavings (twist drills or auger bits),
grinding off small particles (oil drilling), crushing and removing pieces of the workpiece (SDS
masonry drill), countersinking, counterboring, or other operations.
Drills are commonly used in woodworking, metalworking, construction and do-it-yourself projects.
Specially designed drills are also used in medicine, space missions and other applications. Drills are
available with a wide variety of performance characteristics, such as power andcapacity.

Nail gun

A nail gun, nailgun or nailer is a type of tool used to drive nails into wood or some other kind of
material. It is usually driven byelectromagnetism, compressed air (pneumatic), highly flammable
gases such as butane or propane, or, for powder-actuated tools, a small explosive charge. Nail guns
have in many ways replaced hammers as tools of choice among builders.
The first nail gun used air pressure and was introduced to the market in 1950 to speed the
construction of housing floor sheathing and sub-floors. With the original nail gun the operator used it
while standing and could nail 40-60 nails a minute and had a capacity of 400-600 nails.

Pneumatic torque wrench

A pneumatic torque wrench is a planetary torque multiplier or a gearbox that is mated to a

pneumatic air motor. At the end of the gearbox is a reaction device that is used to absorb
the torque and allows the tool operator to use it with very little effort. The torque output is adjusted by
controlling the air pressure.
These planetary torque multiplier gearboxes have multiplication ratios up to 4000:1 and are primarily
used anywhere accurate torque is required on a nut and bolt, or where a stubborn nut needs to be
removed.
The pneumatic torque wrench is sometimes confused with a standard impact wrench, due to their
similar appearance. A pneumatic torque wrench is driven by continuous gearing, and not by the
Hammers of an impacting wrench. A pneumatic torque wrench has very little vibration, and excellent
repeatability and accuracy.
The pneumatic torque wrench was first invented in Germany in the early 1980s.
Torque capabilities of pneumatic torque wrenches range from 118Nm, up to a maximum of
47,600Nm.

Rotary tool

A rotary tool is a hand held power tool with a variety of rotating accessory bits and attachments that
can be used for cutting, carving, sanding, polishing and many other applications.
The smaller rotary tools use high RPMs to maintain the correct cutting conditions for the tool bits.
They have low torque which makes them safer for freehand use than the larger higher powered
models or similar power tools. A wide variety of accessories are available for applications such as
cutting, carving, sanding, polishing, and grinding. The carving (or cutting) bits are referred to
as burrs and are similar to those used by dentists.
Rotary tools are sometimes called "Dremels" because of the market strength of Dremel, a particular
brand. But the Dremel name is still protected and is far from legally genericized.

Sander

A sander is a power tool used to smooth surfaces by abrasion with sandpaper. Sanders have a
means to attach the sandpaper and a mechanism to move it rapidly contained within a housing with
means to hand-hold it or fix it to a workbench. Woodworking sanders are usually powered
electrically, and those used in auto-body repair work by compressed air. There are many different
types of sanders for different purposes. Multi-purpose power tools and electric drills may have
sander attachments.
Woodworking sanders include:

Flap sander or sanding flap wheel: A sanding attachment shaped like a Rolodex and used on a
hand-held drill or mounted on a bench grinder for finishing curved surfaces. Belt sander (handheld or stationary)

Disc sander: A disc sander is most commonly implemented as a stationary machine that
consists of a replaceable circular shaped sandpaper attached to a wheel turned by an electric
motor or compressed air. The usually wooden work piece, (although other materials can be
shaped and worked on such as plastics, metals and other soft materials), is sat on a front bench
that can be adjusted to various angles. It can be used for rough or fine sanding depending on
the sanding grit used.

Oscillating spindle sander: A sander mounted on a spindle that both rotates and oscillates in and
out or up and down along the axis of the spindle. Good for sanding curves and contours that
would be difficult with hand or orbital sanding.

Random orbital sander

Orbital sander: A hand-held sander that vibrates in small circles, or "orbits." Mostly used for fine
sanding or where little material needs to be removed.

Straight-line sander: A sander that vibrates in a straight line, instead of in circles. Good for
places where hand sanding is tedious or "blocking" is required. Most are air-powered, a few
electric. The first pneumatic straight line sander was patented by Otto Hendrickson in 1969.

Router

A router is a tool used to rout out (hollow out) an area in the face of a relatively hard workpiece,
typically of wood or plastic. The main application of routers is in woodworking, especially cabinetry.
The hand tool form of router is the original form. It is a specialized type of hand plane with a broad
base and a narrow blade projecting well beyond its base plate (gaining it the nickname old woman's
tooth). Today the power tool form of router, with an electric-motor-driven spindle, is the more
common form, and the hand tool is now often called a router plane. Although the hand tool has a few
advantages over the power tool and retains favour with some workers, it has been mostly replaced
by the modern spindle router, which was designed for the same work. Some workers consider it to
be the single most versatile woodworking power tool. Becoming more popular is the use of a CNC
wood router, which implements the advantages of CNC (Computer Numerical Control).
Related to the router is a smaller, lighter version designed specifically for trimming laminates. It can
be used for smaller general routing work. For example, with an appropriate jig it can be used for
recessing door hinges and recessing lock faceplates. Even rotary tools can be used as routers when
the right bits and accessories (such as a plastic router base) are attached.

Reference:- Internet