KULLIYYAH OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURING & MATERIALS

WORKSHOP TECHNOLOGY
MME 1103

BENCHWORK
MANUFACTURING AND MATERIALS DEPARTMENT MME1103
Workshop Technology Manual
Benchwork

1. Objective
To identify various types of hand tools and its usage

2. Required Apparatus
Bench vise, marking out table, hand hammer, files, center punch, ruler, steel
file brush, scriber, high vernier caliper, hacksaw, angle plate, dividers

3. Required Materials
Cast Iron

4. Introduction

The workbench is the craftsman’s head quarters, where operations

involving the use of hand tools such as sawing, filing, chiseling and marking
out are appropriately carried out. In this section, students will be introduced
to the basic complement of hand tools commonly used in all branches of
mechanical technology such as bench vise, files, hacksaw and center punch,
and scriber.

4.1 Bench Vise

The bench vise is used to help grip the workpiece for filing,
hacksawing, chiseling and bending light metal. The bench vice mainly consist
of a fixed jaw, movable jaw and jaw plates (Figure 1). Most bench vises have
hardened insert jaws that are sharply serrated and will dig into finished
workpieces enough to mar them beyond repair. Hence, soft jaws made of
copper, other soft metals or wood are often slip over the vise jaws to protect
the workpiece’s finished surface.

Figure 1: Bench Vise (Workshop Manual)

Bench vise should be mounted correctly on the workbench where the top of
the vise jaws should be at elbow height. Inappropriately mounted bench vises
causes poor workpiece to be produced.

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Workshop Technology Manual
Benchwork

4.2 Filing
Filing involves the small scale removal of material from a surface, corner, or
hole, including the removal of burrs (Kalpakjian and Schmid, 2001). Files are
usually made of hardened steel and are available in a variety of cross sections
such as flat, round, half round, square and triangle (Figure 3).They are commonly
manufactured in four different cuts: single, double, curved tooth and rasp. Each
cut design has its own purpose. For instance, rasp files are frequently used with
wood while curved tooth files are used with soft materials such as aluminium,
brass, plastic, or lead. Files also vary in their coarseness; rough, coarse, bastard,
second cut, smooth and dead smooth (Kibbe et.al., 2002).

Figure 2: Basic components of a file (Workshop Manual)

Figure 3: Various file cross sections (Workshop Manual)

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MANUFACTURING AND MATERIALS DEPARTMENT MME1103
Workshop Technology Manual
Benchwork

In order to produce a flat surface, work should be held firmly in the vise with
the minimum amount of projecting and with the surface to be filed to be truly
horizontal. The right hand pushes and presses while the left hand only presses
with the same amount of pressure. Pressure should only be applied during
forward stroke only. The Figure 4 below illustrates the proper technique of hand
filing. Success in filing flat is dependant on hand control to keep the file
horizontal throughout its stroke and an equal distribution of pressure. In order to
test the surface of work during filing, a straightedge can be placed on it. If rays of
light can be seen between the two surfaces of the workpiece and the straightedge,
then the surface of the workpiece is not flat.

Figure 4: Hand movement during filing (Workshop Manual)

Care should be taken while filing to avoid dulling and breakage of its teeth. Teeth
on files will break if the tools lie on top of each other and if too much pressure is
applied while filing. Dulling of teeth is caused by the filing of hard materials or by
filing too fast. A good rule of thumb is the harder the material, the slower the strokes
should be; the softer the material, the coarser the file should be.

4.3 Sawing

The hacksaw is one of the more frequently used hand tools. It consists of the
frame, the handle and the saw blade (Figure 5). The spacing of the teeth on a hand
hacksaw blade is called the pitch. Standard pitches are 14, 18, 24 and 32 teeth per
inch, with the 18-pitch blade used as a general-purpose blade. The hardness and
thickness of a workpiece determine to a great extent which pitch blade to use (Kibbe
et.al., 2002). Generally, a coarse tooth blade should be use on soft materials and a
fine tooth blade on harder materials. There are a few points that should be noted in
order to obtain maximum performance from a blade:-
• Make long steady strokes using the full length of the blade

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MANUFACTURING AND MATERIALS DEPARTMENT MME1103
Workshop Technology Manual
Benchwork

• Maintained sufficient pressure on the forward stroke to keep the teeth

cutting. Too much pressure on the saw blade will cause its teeth to dull.
• Do not apply any pressure at the blade during return stroke since this will
also dull the teeth
• The sawing speed should be at the rate of 40~60 strokes per minute.
Cutting stroke that is too fast causes friction that will overheat the teeth
and dull it.

Figure 5: Main components of a hacksaw (Kibbe et.al., 2002)

A cut on a workpiece should be started with only light cutting pressure, with the
thumb or fingers on one hand acting as a guide for the blade (Kibbe et.al., 2002). A
small vee-notch could also be filed onto the material to help start a blade. In order to
avoid vibration and chatter, ensure that the cutting is done close to the vise jaws

4.4 Center Punch

The centre punch is used when circular dot marks are required. When job has
been marked out it is usual to follow along the lines with small dot marks in case the
line becomes obliterated. It is also used to mark the centre point of drilling holes for
the purpose of giving starts to the drill and to mark the centre of circles to provide a
point for placing the leg of the dividers to scribe the circle. Various types of center
punch are illustrated as below.

Figure 6: Types of center punch (Workshop Manual)

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MANUFACTURING AND MATERIALS DEPARTMENT MME1103
Workshop Technology Manual
Benchwork

4.6 Scriber

The scriber is a round steel piece of about 150mm to 300mm long and 3mm
to 5mm in diameter. Its one end is sharp and pointed and the other end is also
sharp but bent. The bent end is used to scratch lines in places where the straight
end cannot reach.

Figure: Scriber

Figure 7: Scriber (Workshop Manual)

5. Project Methodology

1. Use “L” square and appropriate file to obtain flat surface (180°)

2. Select another side of the work piece and file as previous step to obtain a flat
90˚ surface

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Workshop Technology Manual
Benchwork

3. Use engineering square to check the surfaces, if rays of light cannot be

viewed between the work piece and the engineering square, i.e. the surface is
already flat. Make sure that the workpiece is filed to the correct dimension.
4. Select the flat surface as the reference surface for marking process
5. Mark the workpiece using high vernier caliper and plate angle on the marking
table.
6. Create the rounded curve using divider based on given dimension.
7. In order to make the cross section point line more visible, use the center
punch. This to ensure the measurement is consistently correct.
8. Begin the removing process by cutting the unused material using hacksaw
only.
9. Smooth the edges of the workpiece through filing.
10. Perform the drilling work for counterbore according to the steps described
below:-
a. Center drill
b. Drill size Ø5.5 mm
c. Counterbore M10x5.5 mm with a depth of 5 mm
11. Do the drilling work for through hole accordingly as below:-
a. Center drill
b. Drill bit size Ø6 mm
c. Drill bit size Ø8 mm
d. Drill bit size Ø10 mm

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Workshop Technology Manual
Benchwork

Questions
1. List the tools used to produce the project.
2. Draw the end product of the project.
3. Name type of drilling tool used.
4. Write the function of Engineering “L” square.