Your job
Keep your senses sharp. The two senses that this operator is using most keenly are sight and touch. After that it's hearing – while he listens for unusual sounds. And if the saw really started to struggle, his sense of smell will tell him whether the wood was being burnt, or the motor was starting to burn out.
Hand-held tools are like extensions to your own body, so they give you a much better 'feel' for the material you're working with than fixed machines are able to. For example, the softness or hardness of timber, the direction of the grain, the springiness or stiffness of a piece, are all things that can be felt through your hands and arms while you're operating the tool.
Holding and working with a tool by hand also allows you to be more attuned to the way it's behaving. Sensations like vibration, resistance, or pull in a certain direction, can be signals that a blade or cutter is blunt, or there's a malfunction in the tool, or that you're simply pushing too hard. So you need to develop a sense of touch that allows the tool to tell you whether it's being worked at the right speed and operating happily.
There are two lessons in this section, one covering basic hand tools and the other covering some common power tools. These lessons will help to define the different types of hand-held tools used in the timber industry, and the power sources used to drive them.
Here's your job
- Have a look at the Task for this section to preview the questions you'll need to answer at the end.
- Work through the lessons for more detailed information on the concepts covered, and complete the learning activity at the end.
- Complete the Task. You can hear Paul's answers to these questions by going to the case study.
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