HOLDING

TOOLS
 BENCH AND VICE
Before accurate work can be done with any
hand tool the work must be held steady. A
rigid bench is essential and the most
important fixture on it is the vice. The bench
vice is used to firmly grip the material or item
upon which work is being done in a
Vices are classified by the width of the
jaws. workshop. The body of the vice is provided
with detachable steel jaws. The screw is made
with a square or with a buttress thread.
The height of the top of the vice above the ground is important, and
should ideally, be level with the technician’s elbow when standing
adjacent to the vice. With the vice at the correct height, work will be less
tiring and correct control of the tools, such as files and saws, will be
achieved.
• ALWAYS
1. Keep the vice clean.
2. Oil the screw regularly.
• NEVER
1. Use the vice as an anvil for hammering on.
2. Use a hammer or wrench to tighten the jaws or the screw will be
strained.
HAND VICE
The most common pattern is the Lancashire
hand vice as shown, but it is relatively
inefficient because it gives a parallel grip only
in one position. It is tightened on the work by
means of a wing nut. It is used for holding
work for riveting, drilling, etc., with small
pieces of aluminium used between the jaws and
work to reduce the risk of damage.
DRILL PRESS VISE

Drill-press vises have a flat bottom

with slots which allow them to be
bolted to the table of a drill press.
 PLIERS

• Pliers are classified by type and overall length and usually

made from alloy steel, with an insulated handle. They are
designed for gripping, bending or moving small items that
cannot be easily handled with the fingers.
• NEVER use pliers to tighten or slacken nuts, bolts or
screws.
Needle nose pliers

Needle nose pliers have half round

jaws of varying lengths. They are
used to hold objects and make
adjustments in tight places.
Duckbill pliers

Duckbill pliers have long handles

and wide serrated jaws that hold
safety wire firmly while it is being
twisted.
Diagonal pliers
Diagonal pliers are usually referred to
as diagonals or “dikes.” The diagonal
is a short-jawed cutter with a blade set
at a slight angle on each jaw. This tool
can be used to cut wire, rivets, small
screws, and cotter pins, besides being
practically indispensable in removing
or installing safety wire.
Vise-Grip Plier
Vise-Grip Plier These patented locking
pliers have a knurled knob in the handle
that adjusts the opening of the jaws
When the handles are squeezed together,
a compound-lever action applies a
tremendous force to the jaws, and an
over-center feature holds them tightly
locked on the object between the jaws.
Water Pump Plier
Water Pump Plier Also called
adjustable-joint pliers. The long handles
are for applying force to the jaws and
torque to the object being turned.
Available with a slip-joint adjustment that
cannot slip, in lengths from 4-1/2 inches
with parallel jaws that open to ½ inch, to
16 inches with jaws that open to more than
4 inches.
Combination/Slip Joint Plier

Combination/Slip Joint Plier Standard

pliers that have serrated jaws for
gripping round objects and flat jaws
for holding flat materials. When the
jaws are open wide, the handle pivot may
be slipped from one pivot hole to other,
allowing the jaws to open wider to hold
larger objects.
 Safety Wire Twisting Tool

Safety Wire Twisting Tool grips wire

securely, and jaws lock on the wire; when
the knob in the handle is pulled out, the
tool twists the safety wire with a uniform
twist. Can be used to give wire a left –
hand or right –hand twist.
Circlip Pliers
Circlip Pliers which may be found in two,
basic forms (Internal and External). Both
types have pins on the ends of the jaws,
which are used to install and remove
circlips from around (and from within)
components. The mechanisms are designed
so that, squeezing the handles together,
either results in the jaw pins coming
together, (Internal), or spreading apart
(External).
NOTE:
• Two important rules for using pliers are:
1. Do not make pliers work beyond their capacity. The
long-nosed variety is especially delicate. It is easy to
spring or break them, or nick the edges. If this occurs,
they are practically useless.
2. Do not use pliers to turn nuts. In just a few seconds,
a pair of pliers can damage a nut more than years of
service.
CUTTING
TOOLS
HACKSAWS
• The hacksaw, is the most widely-used, metal-
cutting, hand saw. Hacksaws are used for
parting off, or for cutting materials
approximately to size. They are designed
primarily for cutting metal, but may be used on
other materials. The saw consists of a mild
steel frame, with a suitable handle and a
replaceable, serrated blade, which is made
from high-carbon or alloy steel.
 Choose a blade of the right type.
 Choose a blade of the right
length with the right TPI for the
material to be cut.
 Fit the blade in frame with the
teeth pointing away from the
handle.
 Precautions in the use of a Hand Hacksaw
•  Choose a blade of the right type.
•  Choose a blade of the right length with the right TPI for the material to
be cut.
•  Fit the blade in frame with the teeth pointing away from the handle.
•  Correctly tension the blade. Take up the slack on the wing nut and then
apply three full turns.
•  Ensure that the work is rigidly secured.
•  If the work is irregular in shape, arrange it in the vice so that sawing
does not start across a corner.
•  Arrange the work in the vice so that the sawing, if possible, is vertical.
•  Use long steady strokes, releasing the pressure on the back stroke.
When using High Speed Steel blades 50 strokes a minute is
recommended.
SHEET METAL SHEARS AND SNIPS
Shears are another type of cutting tool
used on aircraft sheet metal. Long,
straight cuts, across a piece of sheet metal,
are made on a guillotine, which may also
be referred to as “squaring shears”.
GREEN- right side cut
YELLOW- straight cut
RED- left cut
WIRE SNIPS
Wire Snips (which are also, often, called “Nippers‟
can be found with straight or diagonal jaws and are
both very useful for cutting and stripping wire. They
are also useful for removing split pins.
Care must be used, when cutting with wire snips, as
the cut-off pieces (locking wire and split pin legs in
particular) can fly off, causing injury or getting lost
within the aircraft structure or engine bays, which
could lead to corrosion or to the jamming of vital
control systems.
 THROATLESS SHEARS

THROATLESS SHEARS - have

two short cutting blades that can cut
much like a pair of scissors. The
lower blade is fixed to the base and
the upper blade is operated by a
long handle.
TIN SNIPS

TIN SNIPS used to cut sheets of

aluminum alloy up to about 0.032-
inch thick to roughly the size
needed to fabricate a part. Final
cutting and trimming is done with
other tools.
SCROLL SHEARS

SCROLL SHEARS – used to pierce of

sheet metal and cut irregular curves on
the inside of the sheet without having to
cut through to the edge. The upper blade
has a sharp point for piercing the metal and
is fixed to the frame of the shear; the lower
blade is raised against the upper by the
compound action of a hand-operated handle.
 SCREWDRIVERS
• The screwdriver can be classified by its shape, type of blade, and blade
length. It is made for only one purpose, i.e., for loosening or
tightening screws or screw head bolts.
• The correct engagement of the screwdriver blade in the slotted head of
the screw or bolt is most important. The end of the blade should never be
ground to a sharp chisel edge and a blade of the correct thickness and
width should always be chosen. Screwdrivers of the wrong size can
cause serious damage to fasteners, surrounding aircraft structure and to
the persons using them. If the screwdriver is the wrong size, it cuts and
burrs the screw slot, making it worthless. The damage may be so severe
that the use of screw extractor may be required. A screwdriver with the
wrong size blade may slip and damage adjacent parts of the structure.
• Screwdrivers are divided into two main groups, those suitable for
slotted screws and recessed screws.
Slotted Screws
Slot-head screws have limited use in
aircraft because they cannot be installed
or removed with power screwdrivers- the
blade slips out of the screw slot and can
damage the component. An example of a
fastener that requires the use of a
common screwdriver is the camlock
style fastener that is used to secure the
cowling on some aircraft.
Recessed-head Screwdrivers
• Power screwdrivers require a screw head that will
not allow the bit to slip out. Two types of recessed-
head, or cross point screws have been used in
aviation maintenance for decades:
• PHILLIPS- The point of the Phillips screwdriver is
blunt, and the sides of the point have a double taper.
• REED & PRINCE – has a sharp point and a single
taper
Screw Head Shapes
There is also a wide selection of other specialist screwdrivers, which have been made
to allow certain tasks to be accomplished. These can include:

 Offset (or Cranked) Screwdrivers: which can reach

screws with little clearance above their heads (and which
may, also, have a blade at one end and a cross-point at
the other)
 Reversible Tip Screwdrivers: with hexagonal shanks,
that allows the shank of the screwdriver to be reversed in
the handle to provide a different tip, with a blade at one
end and a cross-point at the other end of the hexagonal
shank
 Interchangeable Tip Screwdrivers: which have a
selection of socket-like tips that can be interchanged to
suit any particular type of screw head.
 DRILLS
• There are generally four types of portable
drills used in aviation for holding and
turning twist drills. Holes 1⁄4 inch in
diameter and under can be drilled using a
hand drill.
• This drill is commonly called an “egg
beater.” The breast drill is designed to hold
Pneumatic drills are preferred for use
larger size twist drills than the hand drill. In
around flammable materials, since addition, a breastplate is affixed at the upper
sparks from an electric drill are a fire
or explosion hazard.
end of the drill to permit the use of body
weight to increase the cutting power of the
drill.
 Twist Drills

• A twist drill is a pointed tool that is

rotated to cut holes in material. It is
made of a cylindrical hardened steel
bar having spiral flutes (grooves)
running the length of the body, and a
conical point with cutting edges
formed by the ends of the flutes.
• Twist drills are made of carbon steel or
high-speed alloy steel. Carbon steel twist
drills are satisfactory for the general run of
work and are relatively inexpensive.
• The more expensive high-speed twist drills
are used for the tough materials such as
stainless steels. Twist drills have from one
to four spiral flutes. Drills with two flutes
are used for most drilling; those with three
or four flutes are used principally to follow
smaller drills or to enlarge holes.
• The principal parts of a twist drill are the
shank, the body, and the heel. [Figure 9-
19] The drill shank is the end that fits into
the chuck of a hand or power drill. The two
shank shapes most commonly used in hand
drills are the straight shank and the square or
bit stock shank. The straight shank generally
is used in hand, breast, and portable electric
or pneumatic drills; the square shank is
made to fit into a carpenter’s brace. Tapered
shanks generally are used in machine shop
drill presses. [Figure 9-20]
Hole Saws – used to cut large-diameter
holes in thin sheet metal wood. A shank
fits into a drill press or a hand drill
motor, and the pilot drill has a short
section of flutes with a longer smooth
shank. This allow the drill to cut the
pilot, the when the saw reaches the
material, the shank of the pilot drill is in
the hole and therefore does not enlarge
the hole, yet holds the saw centered.
Fly Cutter – used to cut large holes in
thin sheet metal, but not limited to
specific size holes. A cutting tool is
mounted in the arm of the fly cutter, and
the arm is adjusted so the tip of the cutter
is exactly the radius of the desired hole
from the center of the pilot drill.
 Reamers

• Reamers are used to smooth

and enlarge holes to exact
size. Hand reamers have square
end shanks so that they can be
turned with a tap wrench or
similar handle.
The three most common types of hand-
operated reamers are the:
• Hand Parallel Reamer are fixed-size,
parallel-bodied reamers, possessing
either straight or spiral flutes. The
straight fluted reamer can be considered
to be the general-purpose reamer, whilst
the spiral fluted reamer is used for
reaming holes which have keyways or
grooves as the spiral flutes smoothly
bridge the edges of the gap in the metal
while the reamer rotates.
• Hand Expanding Reamer are used
where standard parallel reamers of
the required dimension are not
available. This type of reamer has
separate, replaceable blades that
slide, in tapering slots, and which
are held in position by a pair of
circular nuts. The reamer blades can
be adjusted to the required cutting
size by slackening one nut and
tightening the other.
• Hand Taper Reamer are used to produce a tapered
hole for the insertion of a standard taper pin
 Countersink
• A countersink is a tool that cuts a cone
shaped depression around the hole to allow a
rivet or screw to set flush with the surface of
the material. Countersinks are made with
various angles to correspond to the various
angles of the countersunk rivet and screw
heads. The angle of the standard countersink
shown in Figure 9-24 is 100°.
NOTE: When using a countersink, care must be taken not to remove an excessive
amount of material, since this reduces the strength of flush joints.
Stop, and Press (Dimpling), Countersinking
Tools
• Two special tools, used during the
riveting process, are the “Stop”
countersinking bit and the “Press”
countersinking, or (as it is more
commonly known), the Dimpling
tool. Both of these tools have
evolved as a result of the need for
flush skins on high-performance
aircraft.
• In order to have the rivet heads flush with the surface, the skin must be prepared by
either cutting away a portion of the metal to match the taper of the rivet head, or by
indenting (by pressing) the edges of the hole to accept the rivet head.
• If the top sheet of the metal, being joined, is thicker than the tapered portion of the
rivet head, then the material should be “cut” countersunk.
• Whilst the standard countersink bit (or a twist drill, twice the diameter of the rivet
hole) can be used, in a hand or power drill, to form a countersunk hole, the lack of
accuracy and consistency means they are only useful for small jobs and certainly they
should not be used where pressurised skins are concerned.
• Where a large number of holes need to be countersunk to a consistent depth, then the
Stop Countersink tool should be used (refer to Fig. 20). This tool can be adjusted to
cut an exact countersink repeatedly, regardless of the force applied to the drill/tool
combination.
• Where a large number of holes
need to be countersunk to a
consistent depth, then the Stop
Countersink tool should be used
(refer to Fig. 20). This tool can be
adjusted to cut an exact countersink
repeatedly, regardless of the force
applied to the drill/tool
combination.
• The pilots can be changed, depending on the size of holes in
the material, leaving the remainder of the tool to be used for
all jobs unchanged. The stop may be held rigidly, during
cutting, to prevent marking the surface.
• Press countersinking or “dimpling” is done where the
aircraft skin is too thin to countersink, and without the
attendant risk of enlarging the drilled hole. The edges of the
hole are formed, to accommodate the head of the rivet, by
using a set of dimpling dies, using either “coin dimpling”
or “radius dimpling” methods.
• Coin dimpling forces the sheets into the lower die, leaving a sharply defined and
parallel-sided hole. This process also allows a number of sheets to be „stacked‟
together at the expense of a complex pair of tools and leaves a neat, clean dimpled
hole with smooth sides (refer to Fig. 21).
• Radius dimpling uses a male die to drive the sheets into a female die. The
sides of the formed holes are not as smooth as the coin dimpling method,
but this less- precise operation is quicker and cheaper to achieve.
• With harder materials, such as magnesium and certain aluminium alloys, a
process called hot dimpling is used. This method involves pre-heating the
metal, so that it forms more easily and is less likely to crack when shaping
takes place.
 Taps and Dies
• A tap is used to cut threads on the inside of a hole, while a
die is for cutting external threads on round stock. They are
made of hard tempered steel and ground to an exact size.
There are four types of threads that can be cut with standard
taps and dies. They are:
• National Coarse,
• National Fine, National
• Extra Fine,
• and National Pipe.
• Hand taps are usually provided
in sets of three taps for each
diameter and thread series. Each
set contains a taper tap, a plug
tap, and a bottoming tap. The
taps in a set are identical in
diameter and cross section; the
only difference is the amount of
taper.
• The taper tap is used to begin the tapping process, because it is tapered
back for 6 to 7 threads. This tap cuts a complete thread when it is cutting
above the taper. It is the only tap needed when tapping holes that extend
through thin sections. The plug tap supplements the taper tap for tapping
holes in thick stock.
• The bottoming tap is not tapered. It is used to cut full threads to the
bottom of a blind hole.
• Dies may be classified as adjustable
round split die and plain round split
die. The adjustable split die has an
adjusting screw that can be tightened
so that the die is spread slightly. By
adjusting the die, the diameter and
fit of the thread can be controlled.
[Figure 9-26]
• Solid dies are not adjustable;
therefore, a variety of thread fits
cannot be obtained with this
type. There are many types of
wrenches for turning taps, as
well as turning dies. The T-
handle, the adjustable tap
wrench, and the diestock for
round split dies shown in Figure
9-27 are a few of the more
common types.