A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labor used in combination with hands tools. The most common types of power equipment use electrical motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed surroundings are also commonly used. Other power sources include steam engines, direct burning of fuels and propellants, such as for example in powder-actuated equipment, or even organic power sources such as wind or moving water. Tools straight driven by animal power are not generally considered power tools.

Power tools are used in industry, in construction, in the garden, for housework duties such as for example cooking, cleaning, and around the house for purposes of traveling (fasteners), drilling, slicing, shaping, sanding, grinding, routing, polishing, painting, heating and more.

Power tools are categorized as either stationary or portable, where portable means hand-held. Portable power equipment have obvious advantages in mobility. Stationary power equipment, however, often have advantages in velocity and accuracy. A typical table saw, for electric power tools instance, not only cuts faster when compared to a regular hand saw, but the cuts are smoother, straighter, and more sq . than what’s normally achievable with a hand-held power noticed. Some stationary power tools can produce objects that cannot be manufactured in any other method. Lathes, for instance, produce truly round objects.

Stationary power tools for metalworking are usually called machine tools. The word machine tool isn’t usually applied to stationary power tools for woodworking, although such use is from time to time heard, and perhaps, such as drill presses and bench grinders, exactly the same tool is used for both woodworking and metalworking.