Hand tools and shop orientation · Lesson 1 of 4

Hand tools and shop orientation: principles and terminology

The hand tools of a sheet metal shop (snips, seamers, tongs, crimpers, striking and turning tools), why a colour code is not enough, what a capacity rating names, who answers for a tool's condition, and orientation topics drawn from the OSHA rules.

You will be able to: Name the families of sheet metal hand tools, read a maker's cut-direction and capacity markings without assuming, say who is responsible for a tool's condition, and list orientation topics drawn from the OSHA rules on tools, housekeeping, air, PPE and guarding.

14 min · 11 slides · 11 questions

All lessons in this module

Slide 1 of 11

What this module covers

A shop orientation covers the layout, tools and rules of one particular shop.

This module teaches orientation topics drawn from OSHA's rules, and how to choose, check and care for sheet metal hand tools. It does not describe AFS's shop floor, tools or rules.

Your employer's orientation covers those, and this module certifies nobody.

Sources

29 CFR 1910.242 Hand and portable powered tools and equipment, general (CFR 2025 edition, revised as of July 1, 2025) - U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo), CFR 2025 edition

Videos for this lesson

What this video shows: Malco's own short video on its forged hand seamers: drop-forged jaws, compound leverage and a one-hand latch that leaves a free hand to steady the work. Checked against the video's description.

Video: Malco S2R, S3R and S6R Hand Seamers Video by The Malco Group, on YouTube. Chosen from the video's published description.

Glossary

Aviation snips: Compound-action hand snips for cutting sheet metal, sold by makers in left-cut, right-cut and straight or combination versions; some have offset blades that keep the hand away from the metal.
Hand seamer: A wide-jawed hand tool for bending, folding, flattening and straightening sheet metal. Malco's forged seamers have jaws marked in 1/4 in steps to show how deep the sheet is in the jaws.
Seamer tongs: Malco's seamer tongs have a beveled nose for 135-degree bends and a 1-1/2 in throat depth.
Capacity rating: The thickness of a named metal that a maker says its tool is rated for. Malco prints decimal inches for each metal; Klein and Crescent print a gauge of a named steel.
Mushroomed head: The spread, burred striking face of a chisel, drift pin or wedge. 29 CFR 1926.301(c), the construction standard, requires impact tools to be kept free of mushroomed heads.
Housekeeping: Keeping places of employment, passageways and floors clean, orderly and free of hazards such as sharp or protruding objects, as 29 CFR 1910.22(a) requires.