A wide variety of tools and machinery is employed in the metalworking industry to create parts that are of a desired shape and size. These machines have evolved over the past hundreds of years and have made it possible to produce not only the most complex shapes but also in a way that involves very less human effort. This blog post will discuss the different types of metalworking tools and machinery.
The Grinding Machine: An abrasive wheel is made to rotate at relatively high speeds. The rotating wheel provides finishing to the workpiece by removing a small amount of material along its surface, making it smoother to touch.
Drilling Machines are one of the most common types of metalworking machines and easy to use. They can be used for various household repair works too. The tools are easy to install and replace. They can be used for making a hole in a wide range of materials which not only includes metals but also materials like cement and concrete.
Saw machines: There are three types of saw machines, hacksaw, circular saw and band saw. These machines are used to cut a metal piece in two. It uses a blade which is either rotating or reciprocating to make the cut.
A Drill Press is like a more efficient hand-held drill as they have better stability than them. The workbench allows the drills to be made continuously with good accuracy.
Hobbing Machines are used for making gears and splines. It’s a type of milling machine that uses a special type of cutting tool and is mostly used to produce spur gears.
Metalworking tools:
Soldering Iron
Use: Large soldering irons are used to solder joints in sheet metal objects. They are also used in soldering copper plumbing, joining heavy wires and keeping metal surfaces hot.
Tips:
- The metal surfaces must be clean and shiny. Cleaning ensures the metal won’t form another coating of oxide.
- Check the joints to be soldered must be mechanically strong before the solder is applied. Don’t depend on the solder to hold the pieces together.
- The iron tip should be coated with a thin film of solder.
- When soldering, the torch should be used to heat the pieces that form the joint until the metal is hot enough to melt the solder on contact. The heated metal then melts the solder as it is fed into the joint.
Calipers:
Use: Calipers come in various forms and are used also as a measurement tool. The outside caliper is one of the most commonly used in metalworking, measuring large distances and diameters.
Tips:
- Calipers provide high accuracy, repeatable measurement
- Each form of caliper is used for various situations. For example, outside calipers are used generally for measuring pipe.
Bench Grinders:
Use: Bench grinders are fixed atop a bench and featuring driving abrasive wheels. Depending on the grade of the grinding wheel, bench grinders can be used to sharpen tools to roughly shape metals
Tips:
- Fasten pedestal and bench grinders on a solid surface securely
- Ensure all the guards are in place and secure before using a grinder
- Maintain 6 mm (1/4 in.) wheel exposure with a tongue guard or a movable guard
- Check that wheels have blotters on each side