Tools Flashcards
Round File
Long Nose Pliers
The downdraft sanding table can be best defined as a soft surfaced, perforated table for finish sanding with vacuum suction below to minimize airborne dust. The dust collects in a drawer at the bottom of the machine and must be emptied periodically. The table has a pneumatic purging system that forces a blast of air to clear the vacuum filter from acrrued sawdust build-up.
This table should only be used for sanding individual parts or moderately sized pre-assembled units like doors or small three dimensional projects. This downdraft table is not to be used for supporting larger projects like cabinets when finish sanding because the table’s special non-slip rubber coating will tear if the cabinet is dropped or dragged across its surface. This sanding table is never to be used as a bench at any time. Glue adheres to its coated surface and renders it unfit for sanding finished parts.
The disc sander is designed to sand end grain on straight, narrow stock, and convex curved edges for most size radii. The arrow on the sanding disc in the Illustration above shoes that ours turns in a counter-clockwise direction. This is the first fearure an operator must pay attention to when using an unfamiliar disc sander for the first time. They don’t all rotate in the same direction. The direction of rotation is important on disc sanders because it determines which side of the sanding wheel the work piece must be placed on for sanding. The size of the sander is predicated on the diameter of the sanding wheel; ours is a 20” disc sander.
Coping Saw
Plumb Bob
Gouge
The pocket hole machine has steadily gained popularity over the last several years and become a quick and efficient alternative to milling joinery for webbed frame and face frame construction. Its unique method of routing a lateral pocket and boring a hole all in one quick cycle for the preperation of frame assemblies, has increased production for the cabinet and furniture making industried substantially. Rather than drilling dowel holes in both stile and rail counterparts, just the rail gets drilled in pocket hole construction and screws can immediately join the two together. Pocket hole technology can also be applied to join drawer-box components as the screws are easily hidden when the applied drawer front is attached at a later time.
Center Punch
Router Collet
Slip Joint Pliers
Rabbet Plane
Spade Bit
Line Level
Dove Tail Saw
Router Wrench
Vix Bit
Nail Set
Hole Saw Bit
The mini press is a multi-functional machine that is designed entirely with the 32mm European cabinet system in mind. It bores 3 holes simultaneously for a single hing, (2-10mm & 1-35mm) and pressed it into a cabinet door all in a matter of seconds. The mini press also has an interchangeable spindle head for “line-boring” that will bore seven 5mm holes in one quick process.
Typically European-style cabinets, referred to as “32mm cabinets,” have evolved from the tradtional style of cabinetmaking. They have adopted a very rigid construction “system” having a series of specifications that were designed to expedite the construction prcoess and accomodate strategically-designed hardware.
Basically, the system is as follows: 32mm cabinets are modular constructed boxes; they have a single loose base to accomadate an entire run of cabinets; they have no face frame; their exposed edges get banded and their exposed ends get laminated if necessary; there is no joinery to speak of to accomodate assembly other than grooving for a 1/4” back; and finally, four rows of 5mm “system” holes are drilled 32mm apart with a 37mm set back from the cabinet’s front edge. The specificity of these “line-bored” holes allows for easy installation of door hinges, drawer slides, drawer slide spacers, shelf pins, cabinet connectors, and a vast host of accessory hardware.
The band saw is designed with a continous blade and can cut almost any shape in a vast number of assorted materials. Most woodworkers associate band saws with cutting curved shapes like arcs and circles. While this is certainly true, they also play an indispensible role in quickly and efficiently milling complex objects that would normally be difficult and maybe impossible to cut using other woodworking machines. A few examples for these are 3-dimensional sign letters, irregularly-shaped furniture parts, wood shingles, and wood patterns used as templates. Band saws are equipped with removable fences for ripping operations, tilting tables for compound angle cuts, and a unique height cutting capacity permitting them to re-saw lumber and cut through very thick materials.
Band saws easily cut through other diverse materials such as styrofoam, plexiglas, plastics, most metals, plastic laminates, and very dense composites like solid surface material used in the fabrication of counter-tops. Even grocery store butchers use specialized band saws to cut through meat and bone. To accomodate each of the specialized materials, there are specific blades tailored and manufactured for cutting each of them.
Magnetic Bit Holder
Philips Screwdriver
Protable circular saws have taken on a generic name over the last several decades. I think you’ll find that most woodworkers refer to them as “skill saws” even though they may or may not be manufactured by Skil Power Tools (not mispelled). As can be seen in the photo above, portable saws are designed differently to satisfy diverse job requirements. Although a saw may be suitable for framing, it wouldn’t necessarily be the saw of choice for a cabinet installer when scribing a cabinet’s finished end to a wall.
The framing saw is egronomically designed with its handle placed behind the saw to cut thicker stock more comfortably and with less effort. The saw on the left has its handle on top, making it easier to follow a precise line when trimming thinner materials like plywood or melamine that don’t require as much force. Additionally, some manufacturers offer their consumers the option as to which side of the saw they would prefer the blade being on.
Adjustable Wrench
A smooth-jawed wrench used for turning nuts, bolts, and pipe fittings. Often referred to as a Crescent wrench.
Wood Chisel
Architect’s Scale
A speciialized ruler used in making or measuing reduced scale drawings. It is marked with a range of calibrated ratios used for laying out distances, with scales indicating feet, inches, and fractions of inches.
Sliding T-Bevel
Putty Knife
Pry Bar
The router may be the most versatile power tool used in the woodworking industry. Its unmatched ability for creating joinery, shaping designer profiles, flush-trimming plastic laminates or veneers, and cutting out parts from sheet stock are just a few of its many attributes. It can be hand-held or mounted beneath a table and used as a small scale shaper. Over the years it has been incorporated into numerous machinery applications including panel routers, router lathes, duplicating carvers, pocket hole machines, and of course CNC (computer numerical control) technology.
As illustrated above, routers come in a variety of horse powers to accomodate any task a serious woodworker might encounter. Industrial CNC routers like the one in our lab are commonly manufactured with spindles up to 20 HP. All routers have collets for securing router bits to the ends of their armature. The laminate trimmer and the 7/8 hp router above have 1/4” collets while the 1 3/4 hp and 3 1/4 hp routers both have interchangeable collets to accept 1/4” or 1/2” router bits.
Pipe Wrench
A planer is designed for one purpose; to surface the face of solid wood stock to a required thickness. It’s important to understand that a planer does not straighten the face of a board; it only surfaces it to a lesser thickness. If a board is bowed before it enters the planer, the bow remains after it exits but the thickness will be consisten thoughout the board’s length. In order for a board to be milled straight, one face must first be straightened by the use of a jointer.
Planers can, to some extent, be equated to a Xerox copier. The surface of the board being machines is duplicated or “copied” from the opposing surface that is fed face down on the planer’s infeed table. Essentially, if a board is planed with one bowed surface, it comes out with two bowed surfaces! If a board is planed with one straight surface, it comes out two straight surfaces, each being parallel to the other!
The width of the planer’s cutter-head determines the wides board that can be surfaced. It also defines the planer’s size. We have two planers here in our lab at LATTC at 16” and 24”.
In the array of finishing sanders shown above, each is designed for smoothing the surfaces of various wood materials. Three of the styles shown are electric and one is pneumatic. As labled above, finishing sanders are designed to sand with varying patterns of rotational motion in an attempt to minimize sanding scratches. Some sand exclusively in a undirectional orbital pattern while the random orbital changes rotational direction repeatedly throughout a sanding session.
Their abrasive discs and sheets come in a variety of grit selections to accomodate all required sanding applications. Essentially, they are attached to the sanders by three varying methods: some have spring-loaded clamps for holding loose sandpaper tightly to a felt or rubber platen; other with a PSA design (pressure sensitive adhesive) have sanding pads with a smooth, vinyl surface that allow for the application of self-adhering sanding discs; and still others have sanding pads with a “hook & loop” design similar to Velcro enabling their sanding discs to be changed quickly from one gri to another. Manufactured discs with concentric holes are designed to be used with finishing sanders that have dust collection bags to minimize dust inhalation. Be sure to align these holes and only use discs with the same number of holes that the finishing sander was designed for.
Scribe
Rawhide Mallet
Channel Locks
Scratch Awl
Utility Knife
Whether it’s a bench grinder or a stationary grinder, woodworking lab facilities will always have at least one or the other in their arsenal of tools. It’s important to use sharp hand tools because they’re the safest to use. As mention earlier a dull tools requires more force to be applied. Therefore, a user’s chances for slipping are increased, making them more prone to injury. For this reason woodworkers learn to sharpen their own hand tools. The pedestal grinder (left) turns approximately 3450 rpm, necessitating safety shields to safeguard the operator’s eyes from sparks and metallic debris. The very slow turning Tormek bench grinder (shown right) only turns about 90 rpm and therefore doesn’t require safety shields.
Trammel Points
The oscillating spindle sander makes easy work of sanding concave and convex cuves on edge grain, end grain, and face grain. Its slow-moving, oscillating strokes help prevent burning due to excessive friction as does the oscillating edge sander mentioned previously. There is a variety of on-board spindle diameters to select from when sanding various radii. The proper throat plate must be installed each time a new spindle size is selected. The table-top is designed with a tilting feature to support the stock if a difficult or compound angle needs to be sanded.
End Nips
Flat File
Screw Gun
The stationary drill press is by far, the best tool in our lab facility for precision vertical drilling. Holes can be drilled ranging from 1/16” - 5” in diameter. Five inches is the largest hole-saw we have. What makes the drill press so valucable is as follows: it bores all holes at a precise 90 degre angle; it has an adjustable stop for duplicating fixed depths in multiple holes; its smooth pinion handle rotation easily allows for controlled feed speed when plunging; its adjustable spindle speed accomadates all drill-bit diameters; the adjustable table accepts most height sizes for stock; and an attached fence allows linear holes to be drilled precisely.
Carpenters Level
The belt sander is a very aggressive, abrasive-cutting power tool. It is designed to cut and remove material very quickly. It is not a tool that’s typically considered for smoothing applications, although it is a better choice than a finishing sander for sanding narrow edges. A finishing sander has the tendency to round or distort a material’s edge. The belt sander, on the other hand, is an excellent power tool for flattening stock and for sanding slightly, misaligned surfaces that have been laminated together. It can also be used laterally in a vertical position for sanding edges on stock with subtle curves or for situations like touching up the edge of a counter-top that has been scribed to a wall with a circular saw.
Ball Peen Hammer
A hammer with a flat face that is used to strike cold chisels and punches. The rounded end - the peen - is used to bend and shape soft metal.
Keyhole Saw
Wide belt sanders are primarily designed to sand face grain on any board or panel that has previously been surfaced. Edge grain may be sanded if multiple pieces are tightly held together and fed through the sanders as one unit on a very slight diagonal. Unlike their predecessor, the drum sander, wide belt sanders allow abrasive belts various grits to be changed quickly and easily from one to another. A wide belt sander’s size is determined by its belt width capacity. LATTC’s lab facility has two, a 42” and a 16”. All students are welcome to use our 16” wide belt sander providing they follow all operating instructions posted on the machine precisely. Students are allowed to use our 42” wide belt sander with the instructors supervision.
There are pneumatic nailing guns or staple guns for almost any type mof fastener you can think of. A pneumatic power tools is one that is powered by compressed air. The nailing guns show above are the ones we use here in LATTC. As you can see, each gun will shoot a variety of nail sizes. We keep our air pressure regulated to appoximately 90 psi to prevent their seals from bursting. None of our guns require lubrication. Many that do, however, still exist so it’s important to note which type a particular lab facility may have. All modern nailers have safety devices incorporated into their design to keep them from shotting until their nozzle’s spring-loaded safety released is depressed.
Box Wrench
A wrench, usually double-ended, that has a closed socket that fits over the head of a bolt.
Open End Wrench
Curved Claw Hammer
Framing Square
A flat, steel square commonly used in carpentry.
The scroll saw is some extenet, similar to a band saw but instead of its blade being a continous loop, it reciprocates. Its blade can be heavier for thicker stock or super fine for cutting very detailed and ornamental designs in wood veneers. Owing to its ability to make very delicate cuts, all types of small, elaborate and complicated shapes can be machines on a scroll saw. These can range from portraits to puzzles or from inlays to marquetry and parquetry.
Generally, a paper pattern is adhered temporarily to a piece of wood stock using a spray adhesive. Holes are then drilled in one corner for each pocket needing to be cut out, allowing the scroll saw to perform its magic with its exceedingly fine blade. This isn’t particularly a machine of high priority to most woodworkers because it is a very specialized piece of equipment. For extremely intricate work however, it remains unsurprassed in its field.
Expansive Bit
Drill
Dikes
Slotted Screwdriver
Lathes are unique in contrast to other woodworking machines in that their design allows round or cylindrical shapes to be created with precision. Essentially, the stock spins or rotates against a selected lathe tool held by the operator and supported all the tool rest (see the illustration above). This unique style of woodworking alows a work piece to be forged into a variery of shapes that are unmatched by any traditional means of woodworking.
The two most common methods for lathe turning are between centers and faceplate turning. In the former method, turning between centers, the stock is held firmly between two types of shafts, a “live” and “dead” center (see the illustration above), enabling longer objects like baseball bats, stock is either attached to a faceplate by screws or chucked into an adapter allowing nearly 360 degrees tool access for products like bowls, pedastals, finials, and capitals.
Plastic Laminate Trimmer
The router table is a counter top with an inverted router and an adjustable fence for conveniently guiding material across its cutter. On a smaller scale the router table can justifiably be likened to the shaper. Its oversized table provides support for stock pieces large and small enabling them to easily be milled in one quick pass. As a result of this support, router bits with larger diameters as well as “stacked” cutters with multiple profiles can now be utilized. This allows woodworkers who may not have a shaper in their arsenal of machinery to marnufacture parts that previously could onkly have been achieved by means of traditional equipment.
Compass
The shaper is designed to machine or “shape” a myriad of profiles and detials for various ornamental and architectural applications. Some of these, just to name a few, are moldings, staircase handrails, raised panels, “stick & cope” configurations for stiles & rails at panel doors, rabbets, bevels, chamfers, tongues, grooves, tenons, roundovers, coves, the list is endless. Many cutter-heads are designed to be stacked, allowing multple profiles to be machines in a single pass.
The stock to be shaped is supported by a fence and pushed against the rotation of the spindle’s selected cutter-head. The stock can be fed manually or by using a power feed. Curved or irregularly shaped perimeters can also be shaped by removing the supporting fence and trading it for a sleeve bearing placed on the spindle just above or below the cutter. This bearing follows a template that supports the attached work piece and guides it across the cutter.
This machine requires instructor supervision at all times! Students may at no time turn on this machine, even for set-up purposes, without the instructor being present!
Half Hatchet
Plate Joiner
The jointer is primarily used to straighten face grain and edge grain on solid wood stock. A rouch board is jointed first, by straightening or flattening one of its faces. This is followed by repositioning and firmly holding that jointed face against the fence and jointing one edge. This both straightens and squares that edge to its jointed face. Now the board is ready to plane to a required thickness and rip to a desired width by the use of other machines.
Rabbeting, beveling, and tapering can also be achieved on a jointer but only with the instructor’s permission. The width of a jointer’s cutter-head determinez the widest board that can be surfaced. The width of the cutter-head also determines a jointers size. We have two jointers here in our lab at LATTC; both are 12” jointers.
The jig saw, sometimes referred to as a sabre saw, has many of the same properties as do the band saw and scroll saw but it has one major advantage over both; its convenient transportability. Its versatility allows it to be used on any jobsite for cutting shapes from curves to rectangular cutouts, and some are cordless, making them even more versatile.
The features on this specific jig saw include: a variable speed control to adjust for dissimilar densities of materials; an orbital blade action control for changing the reciprocating blade motion to an adjustable orbital blade motion; and a dust blower control for keeping sawdust and debris from obscurring the cutting line during a procedure.
The radial arm saw in our lab facility should be used for one purpose only; cutting long boards and pieces of stock to rough lengths from rough or surface lumber. In no way do the blades on these saws produce a fine cut because their teeth are designed to cruss-cut very quickly and aggressively through solid lumber. Although the radial arm saws were initially squared to the fence when they were installed, we should never trust their cuts to be exactly square. Square-ness is of no particular importance anyway when cross-cutting to rough lengths. Rough lengths are always cut 1” - 1 1/2” longer than their net lengths. They’ll be squared later when they get cut to exact lengths on the chop saw if they’re narrow enough, or with the cross-cut sled on the table saw if they’re not. The adjustable fence stop is convenient way to gauge the rough lengths to which we cut our material. Although in our lab facility we only make 90 degree cuts on the radial arm saw, it’s important to note that they’re designed to swivel to accomadate a range of angles from 45 degrees - 90 degrees.
Cat’s Paw
A straight steel rod with a curved claw at one end that is used to pull nails that have been driven flush with the surface of the wood or slightly below it.
Vise Grip Pliers
Speed Square
The oscillating edge sander is designed for sanding a stock’s edger grain or end grain providing there is a long enough or wide enough surface to be pressed up against the abrasive belt safely. It’s also an indeal machine to sand edges on pre-assembled cabinet or furniture components like doors, face frames, and webbed frames. The machine’s “oscillation,” or repetitive up and down motion, helps to keep the belt’s friction to a minimum providing a cleaner and cooler abrasive surface for sanding various types of material.
Fuller Combo
Counter Sink
Back Saw
Straight Claw Hammer
Combination Wrench
Hand Saw
Cold Chisel
Block Plane
Combination Square
The hollow-chisel mortiser is a machine that magically drills square holes. Essentially, an auger bit bores the hole as a surrounding hollow chisel squares out the corners, resulting in a square hole. The machine’s traversing table allows these holes to be elongated both laterally and from front-to rear, producing precision “mortises” for matching “tenons” in mortise and tenon construction. Mortise and tenon construction is one of the strongest methods used to join end grain to edge grain and face grain. Today this type of joinery is primarily used in the furniture industry. Most of the cabinet and architechtural door manufacturers have substituted mortise and tenon joinery with dowel construction because it’s faster and cheaper. Think of a dowel as a loose or floaing tenon.
Try Square
The horizontal boring machine is designed to quickly and efficiently bore holes for wood dowels that aid in the assembly and construction of various wood products. These products can range from architechtural doors to sub-assemblies like face frames and webbed framed for cabinets or furniture.
The material is indexed firmly against a fixed fence while being held down flat to an adjustable table by eccentric cam-lever hold down. The horizontal hole depth is governed by means of an adjustable stop at the rear of the machine.
Twist Drill Bits
The table saw is probably the most widely used machine in woodworking. Its primary application is for ripping stock to width, crosscutting stock to length, and re-sawing stock to a reduced thickness. Common joinery such as grooves, dadoes, rabbets, and tenons are also often milled on the table saw. In addition, the blade can be tilted, enabling bevels and miters to be machined. The size of a table saw is predicated on the maximum diameter blade that the saw will allow. Most of the table saws in our lab at LATTC are 10”.
Although the table saw is one of the most useful machines in any woodworking lab, it’s important to understand that if it’s not used correctly, it may also be the most dangerous. For a novice. the table saw probably claims more accidents than any other woodworking machine. For this reason, it’s absolutely essential that each and every student understands the dynamics of a “kickback” and what causes them to happen! Once this is understood, a student can use this machine with total cofidence and feel completely comfortable performing all milling operations.
The power miter-box saw, commonly referred to as the “chop saw”, is a very convenient power tool for squaring and cross-cutting narrow stock to shorter lengths and is absolutely indespensable for mitering moldings. Carpenters, finish carpenters, cabinetmakers, and furniture makers alike rely on this tool immensely for many of their challenging tasks. They use it for cutting things like wall studs, rough sills, cripples, blocking, door jambs, window jambs, drawer fonts, cleat stock, stiles & rails for framed and doors, and all types of straight and curved moldings.
Our miter saws swivel from 0 degrees - 50 degrees. Miters can be cross across the face of a board, the edge of a board, or across both, the face and the edge at the same time. The latter cut defines a compound miter. Almost all crown moldings are cut with compound miters. Our chop saw stations are equipped with convenient extension tables complete with fence assemblies, full-length measuring tapes, and adjustable stops for accurate cuts. Students are not to be tempted to use these extension tables for any reason other than that which they were intended for.
Marking Guage
Hammer Tacker
Hacksaw
Hand Router
Forstner Bit
File Card
Auger Bit
A tool with a sprial cutting edge for boring holes in wood and other materials.
