34 Different Benchwork Hand Tools and Their Uses

A workbench is a sturdy table designed for manual work and there are several benchwork hand tools used on them. They range from simple flat surfaces to very complex designs that may be considered tools in themselves. Workbenches vary in size from tiny jeweler benches to the huge benches used in woodworking and metalworking shops.

Benchwork allows very convenient operations in the engineering field with different hand tools and portable tools to be used. Benchwork offers greater work finish and a fairly good degree of accuracy. Though some work is expected to be performed on an automatic machine, the workbench still offers greater importance and is expected to be seen in every workshop.

Woodworking and metalworking workshops found great importance on the workbench as most hand operations are done on them to reach the desired accuracy. Hand operations carried out on the workbench include marking, chipping, sawing, drawing, filing, threading, and grinding.

Well, in this reading, we’ll explore the list of benchwork tools used in woodworking and metalworking.

Let’s Get Started!

Metalworking WorkBench Hand Tools

benchwork hand tools used in metalworking shops are filter vices, bench vises, surface plates, v-blocks, scribing blocks, try squares, bevel gauges, files, etc.

Bench vice

Bench vices are essential tools for holding materials securely in place while working on a workbench. They support different functions and are designed for specific materials. Common bench vice parts include the base, adjustable jaw base, static jaw, jaw plates, spindle, and handle.

The base moves backwards and forwards to grip the material, while the static jaw faces the adjustable jaw. The jaw plates are interchangeable faces made from hardened steel. The spindle or threaded screw provides motion to the vice’s adjustable jaw.

The handle, connected to the spindle, is hand-operated and turns the screw as you turn the handle, making the vice open or close. Understanding the different types of vices is crucial for safe and quality work.

Related: 16 Types of Measuring and Marking-out Tools and Their Uses  

Surface plates

A surface plate is a flat and plane surface that is used for dimensional measurement. It is used for inspection, toolmaking, gauging, spotting, marking, and layout and they are made out of metal, cast iron, glass, granite.

Precision inspection involves using a solid, flat surface plate as the main horizontal reference plane for workpiece measurements. This flat surface is often used as the baseline for all measurements, with tolerances below 11.5 μm.

Surface plates are common in the manufacturing industry and can be integrated into high-precision machines like coordinate-measuring machines or precision optical assemblies. They are typically square or rectangular, but can be cut to any shape.

V block

A v-block is used in metalworking to hold workpiece such as pipes or rod in place so that operations like milling, drilling, or bending can be performed. Other operations like cutting, and inspecting can be carried out.

V-Blocks are precision metalworking jigs used for drilling or milling operations. They consist of a rectangular steel block with a 120-degree channel rotating 45-degrees from the sides, forming a V-shaped channel in the top. These jigs hold round metal rods or pipes, often with screw clamps or internal magnets for magnetic work-holding.

Scribing Block

A scribing block is a measuring instrument used for indicating and measuring quantity of an item such as thinkness of a material or even the level of fluid.

A scribing block locates round bar centers. An precise measurement instrument featuring a V-shaped groove on one end to hold round bars while marking or scribing them and a flat base with a reference edge on the other to determine the bar’s center.

Universal Surface Gauge

The Universal Surface Gauge is a precise tool for inspection work, used by machinists and toolmakers for scribing lines, transferring measurements, and probing surfaces. Its hardened base serves as an accurate reference surface, and its machined Vee groove allows for easy use on curved surfaces.

The scriber holder allows for the attachment of a dial indicator, and the two retractable pins allow easy location against the edge of a surface plate or T-slot. The well-tapered scriber tip is hardened to 55-60 HRC for durability. The compact size and lightweight design make it easy to carry and use.

Try Square

Metalworking and Woodworking is a skill that requires the use of essential tools like the try square, which is a crucial tool for marking and checking 90° angles on wooden squares. The try square is a crucial tool for ensuring the straightness, flatness, and squareness of the edges and faces of the workpiece.

It consists of two key parts: the blade, typically made of wood or steel, and the stock, typically made of wood, metal, or plastic. Both the stock and the tongue have parallel edges, and the blade and stock are typically rectangular in profile.

Some steel blades also have ruler markings for measuring. The top of the stock often doesn’t cover the full width of the blade, allowing space for planed, filed, or sanded work. Overall, the try square is a vital tool in woodworking.

Bevel Gauge

A sliding T bevel, also known as a bevel gauge or false square, is an adjustable gauge used for setting and transferring angles. It is different from the fixed square, which can only set a 90° angle.

The bevel gauge consists of two elements connected with a thumbscrew or wing nut, allowing the blade to pivot and be locked at any angle. The bevel can be used to duplicate an existing angle or set to a desired angle using other measuring tools like protractors or framing squares.

Files

File tools are versatile tools used in various industries for shaping, smoothing, and finishing materials like wood and metal. With hardened cutting edges, they remove small amounts of material through abrasion, resulting in precise and smooth surfaces. Available in various shapes, sizes, and cuts, file tools cater to a wide range of applications, from intricate designs to removing material.

Scrapers

A scraper is a tool with exceptional accuracy, used in toolmaking to remove material from surfaces. It enhances the performance and longevity of mechanical systems by removing imperfections and high spots.

In metalworking, scraping ensures the flatness and straightness of metal parts, crucial for proper assembly and operation. In industries like aerospace and toolmaking, scraping meets stringent tolerances for high-performance components, demonstrating its utility in various fields.

Hammers

A hammer is a hand tool with a weighted head attached to a long handle, used for various applications such as driving nails into wood, shaping metal, or crushing rocks. Hammering is the use of a hammer in its strike capacity, unlike prying with a secondary claw or grappling with a secondary hook.

Carpentry and blacksmithing hammers are typically wielded from a stationary stance against a stationary target, with one arm gripped and propelled in a lengthy downward planar arc. The swing primarily pivots around the shoulder and elbow, with wrist rotations before impact. For extreme impact, concurrent motions of the torso and knee can lower the shoulder joint, increasing the length of the swing arc.

Hacksaw

Hacksaws are hand saws with a C-shaped walking frame that holds a blade under tension. They are primarily used for cutting metal, with a pistol grip handle and pins for attaching a narrow disposable blade.

The frames can be adjustable to accommodate different blade sizes, and a screw mechanism is used to put the thin blade under tension. Hacksaws can be mounted with teeth facing toward or away from the handle, allowing cutting action on either the push or pull stroke. In normal use, blades are set forwards.

Punch

A punch tool is a small metal rod with a narrow tip at one end and a broad flat “butt” at the other. It is used to indent or create holes through a hard surface. The narrower end is pointed against a target surface, while the broad end is struck with a hammer or mallet.

This causes the blunt force of the blow to be transmitted down the rod body and focused more sharply onto a small area.

Woodworkers typically use a ball-peen hammer to strike a punch. The tool’s sharp end cuts into the workpiece when struck with a hammer or mallet. Most punch tools use this basic design, requiring a separate tool like a hammer or mallet to “punch” a workpiece.

Calipers

Calipers are instruments used to measure the linear dimensions of an object or hole, including length, width, thickness, diameter, or depth. They can be ruled scales, dials, or electronic digital displays, with a sliding vernier scale being a common association.

Calipers can be simple compasses with inward or outward-facing points, or more complex ones with no scale. The tips are adjusted to fit across the points to be measured and then moved to a separate measuring device like a ruler. Calipers are used in various fields, including mechanical engineering, metalworking, forestry, woodworking, science, and medicine.

Screw Drivers

Manual screwdrivers are tools used for driving screws, either manually or powered. They consist of a handle and a shaft, with a tip that the user inserts into the screw head before turning the handle. These screwdrivers are often made of tough steel to resist bending or twisting, and can be hardened, dark-coated, or ridged for added grip. Handles are typically wood, metal, or plastic and can be hexagonal, square, or oval in cross-section.

Some manual screwdrivers have interchangeable tips that fit into a socket on the shaft and are held mechanically or magnetically. They often have a hollow handle with various tip types and sizes and a reversible ratchet action for multiple full turns without repositioning the tip or the user’s hand.

The screwdriver tip is shaped to fit the driving surfaces on the corresponding screw head, and proper use requires the tip to engage the head of a screw of the same size and type designation.

Drills

A drill is a power tool that uses a rotating drill bit to create holes in various materials, such as wood, metal, and plastic. They are commonly used in construction and carpentry work, as well as in plumbing and electrical work.
A drill is a versatile tool used in woodworking, construction, and machine tool fabrication. It is equipped with a driver chuck, a bit, for making round holes or driving fasteners. Cordless battery-powered drills are increasingly popular due to their increased efficiency and ease of use.

Taps and Dies

Threading is the process of creating screw threads using tools like taps and dies. These tools are used to cut or form the female or male portions of the mating pair, such as a nut or bolt. The process of cutting or forming threads is called tapping, while threading is the cutting or forming of threads.

Both tools can also be used for cleaning up a thread, known as chasing. However, ordinary taps or dies can result in looser, weaker threads. To clean threads, machinists use special taps and dies called chasers, which are made of softer materials and fit tighter than fasteners. Chasers are used in car mechanics to remove corrosion and carbon build-up on spark plug threads.

Related: What is Vernier Caliper? its Diagram & How to Read

Woodworking Benchwork Hand Tools

In woodworking shops, benchwork tools used include claw hammer, chisels, mortice chisels, mallets, hand saw, backsaws, coping saws, block planes, jack planes, etc.

Claw Hammer

A claw hammer is a versatile tool used in carpentry and general applications, primarily for driving nails into or pulling them from wood. Its metal head and handle, traditionally made of wood, can be made of steel, fiberglass, or other composite materials. The head has a poll with a smooth or textured surface for driving, while the other side has downward curving V-shaped claws for prying.

The claw’s curve and longer handle provide greater leverage, making it suitable for heavy hammering on metal surfaces like in machining work. The ball-peen hammer is more suitable for such metalwork.

Chisels

A chisel is a wedged hand tool with a shaped cutting edge for carving or cutting hard materials like wood, stone, or metal. It can be used by hand, struck with a mallet, or applied with mechanical power. Some types of chisels are made of metal or wood with a sharp edge.

Chiselling involves forcing the blade into the material to cut it, with driving force applied by hand, mallet, or hammer.

In industrial use, a hydraulic ram or falling weight (trip hammer) may be used to drive a chisel into the material. Gouges are used for carving small pieces from the material, producing concave surfaces and a U-shaped cross-section.

Mortice Chisels

Mortice chisels, strong chisels with a thick blade, are ideal for cutting mortise holes in tenon joints. These chisels are designed to withstand the rigorous demands of cutting through wood fibers, providing clean and precise mortices. The double hooped handles ensure durability, making them suitable for chopping out mortices and other joints.

Mallet

Wooden mallets are a versatile tool with a large head, often made of rubber or wood, used for imparting force on objects. These mallets are commonly used in various industries, such as upholstery work, and are preferred by wood workers due to their softened strike and positive drive.

Wooden mallets are used in carpentry to knock wooden pieces together, drive dowels, and apply pressure on joints. They also reduce the force driving the cutting edge of a chisel, providing better control. Copper, brass, and leaden mallets are used on machinery to apply force to parts with a reduced risk of damaging them and to avoid sparks.

These metals are softer than steel, allowing the mallet to be deformed by excessive force. Although their use has been reduced with the invention of cube steak machines and electric tenderisers, they are still readily available in cookery stores and professional use.

Handsaw

Woodworking involves the use of hand saws, also known as panel saws, to cut pieces of wood into various shapes. These saws operate by having a series of sharp points that are harder than the wood being cut. The modern handsaw, with its thin but wide steel blade, cuts on the push stroke, allowing downhand sawing on wood laid across the knee or on a stool.

This allows for superior operator control and greater accuracy due to the absence of undetached wood fibers or sawdust. Some tree-pruning saws have teeth raked to cut on the pull stroke, drawing the branch toward the operator.

Thin and narrow blades, like the coping saw or scroll saw, are pulled through the workpiece by a frame holding the blade. Electric reciprocating and sabre saws use narrow blades to prevent buckling. The carpenter’s pull saw for wood requires sitting on the floor and using one’s feet to stabilize the wood while sawing.

Backsaws

A backsaw is a hand saw with a stiffening rib on the edge opposite the cutting edge, allowing for better control and precise cutting. It is commonly used in woodworking for precise work, such as cutting dovetails, mitres, or tenons in cabinetry and joinery. Backsaws have a pistol grip style handle and can be open or closed at the bottom.

Different types of backsaws include the mitre saw, a large backsaw (20-30 inches or 60-90 cm), tenon saw, a midsized backsaw, and sash saw. Mitre saws are large backsaws used in mitre boxes or metal frames, while tenon saws are midsized backsaws used in mortise and tenon joinery. Tenon saws are commonly available with rip-filed teeth for rip cutting and cross-cut for cutting across the grain.

Sash saws are smaller tenon saws used in fabricating window sashes and are also used to free painted sashes. Overall, backsaws are essential tools for precise work in woodworking and cabinetry.

Coping Saw

A coping saw is a type of bow saw used in woodworking or carpentry to cut intricate external shapes and interior cut-outs. It is commonly used for moldings to create coped joints, but is not suitable for thin materials. The saw’s blade is thicker and coarser than typical fretsaw blades, but it can cut slight bends and circles if used carefully.

The saw consists of a thin, hardened steel blade stretched between the ends of a square, c-shaped, springy-iron frame with a handle. The blade can be easily removed from the frame to pass through a drilled hole in the middle of a piece of wood, and the cut starts from the middle.

Block Plane

A block plane is a small metal-bodied woodworking hand plane with a blade bedded at a lower angle than other planes. It is designed for cutting end grain and touchup or finish work, and is typically small enough to be used with one hand.

Block planes range in length from 3 to 7 inches (76 to 178 mm) and have blades angled at 20° or 12°. They are often used for paring end grain due to their shallow bed angle and holding the plane at an angle of up to 45 degrees to the direction of travel.

Jack Plane

A jack plane is a versatile woodworking bench plane used for dressing timber down to size for truing and edge jointing. It is typically the first plane used on rough stock, but can be preceded by the scrub plane for rougher work. The jack plane is typically 12-18 inches long and 2+1⁄2-3 inches wide, with wooden planes sometimes being slightly wider.

The blade is 1+2⁄4–2+1⁄4 inches wide. Historically, wooden jack planes in the United States were 15-18 inches long and 1+3⁄4–2+1⁄2 inches wide. The irons on jack planes are often ground with a slight camber, allowing more material to be removed without marring the work.

Saw Horse

A sawhorse is a useful trestle structure in woodworking, used to support a board or plank for sawing. It can be a pair of sawhorses or a rack for supporting logs. A sawhorse with a wide top is particularly useful for supporting a board or as a field workbench.

It can also be used as the base for a portable work table by placing a sheet of plywood or a door across two sawhorses. If the sawhorses are strong enough, the portable table can be used as a platform for tools like a table saw, although caution should be taken if the top is not secured to the sawhorses.

Workbench

A workbench is a specialized table used by woodworkers for holding material. It features a flat, solid surface and a woodworking vise for holding work. Woodworkers drill holes in line with the vise in 3-4″ intervals for stops or clamps.

There are various styles of woodworking benches, including Nicholson, Moravian, Scandinavian, and Roubo. These styles cater to different purposes and provide a comfortable workspace for woodworkers.

Router Table

A router table is a stationary woodworking machine with a vertically oriented spindle that can spin at speeds between 3000 and 24,000 rpm. Cutter heads (router bits) are mounted in the spindle chuck, and the cutters mold a profile into the workpiece. The machine features a vertical fence to control the horizontal depth of cut.

Router tables increase the versatility of hand-held routers, as each method is suited to specific applications. For example, large workpieces cannot be supported on a router table, and small workpieces require a router table with pushtool accessories.

Spirit Level

A spirit level is an instrument used to determine if a surface is horizontal or vertical. There are two basic designs: tubular (or linear) and bull’s eye (or circular). Early tubular spirit levels had slightly curved glass vials with constant inner diameter at each viewing point.

These vials were filled with a liquid, usually colored spirit or alcohol, leaving a bubble in the tube. The bubble naturally rests in the center, the highest point. At slight inclinations, the bubble moves away from the marked center position. When a spirit level must be usable upside-down or on its side, an uncurved barrel-shaped tube with a slightly larger diameter is used.

Combination Square

A combination square is a versatile tool used in metalworking, woodworking, and stonemasonry. It consists of a rule and one or more interchangeable heads, such as the standard head, protractor head, and centre finder head. The standard head is commonly used for marking 90° and 45° angles, while the protractor head is used for measuring and checking angles between surfaces, edges, and markings.

The standard head can be used as a square, mitre square, spirit level, depth gauge, or form of marking gauge. The protractor head can measure and check angles between surfaces, edges, and markings, directly transferring angles, and measuring and marking angles relative to the horizontal.

The centre finder head is used for marking lines through the center of circular or square objects, perpendicular to curved edges, and bisecting square corners to mark a 45° angle.

Marking Knife 

A marking knife or striking knife is a crucial tool in woodworking layout, used to accurately mark workpieces and guide handsaws, chisels, or planes during joint and other operations. These knives are made of tool steel with skewed or spear point blades, and are suited for left-handed or right-handed use.

Some marking knives have a marking knife blade and a scratch awl tip, but are considered dangerous. They can be made from a single piece of steel or have a handle made of wood or plastic. Marking knives are held like a pencil and guided using a straightedge or square. They can be sharpened using sharpening stones, files, or sandpaper, similar to other bladed tools.

Pencil

 

Marking Gauge

A marking gauge is a crucial tool in woodworking and metalworking, used to mark lines parallel to a reference edge or surface. It consists of a beam, headstock, and a marking implement, typically a pin, knife, pen, or wheel. The headstock slides along the beam and is secured by a locking screw, cam lever, or wedge.

The marking implement is chosen based on the operation, with steel pins used for grain scribing and steel knives for grain scribing. Pens or pencils are used when the surface is not marred. The pin and knife yield more accurate marking than the pen or pencil.

Calipers

Related: 5 Types of Precision Measuring Instruments and Their Uses

Share with others!

Leave a Comment