A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and system apart from the solely manual labor used with hands tools. The most typical types of power electric power tools equipment use electric motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed air flow are also frequently 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 resources such as for example wind or moving drinking water. Tools straight driven by animal power are not generally considered power tools.

Power tools are found in industry, in structure, in the garden, for housework jobs such as cooking, cleaning, and throughout the house for purposes of driving (fasteners), drilling, slicing, shaping, sanding, grinding, routing, polishing, painting, heating system and more.

Power tools are classified as either stationary or portable, where portable means hand-held. Portable power tools have apparent advantages in mobility. Stationary power equipment, however, frequently have advantages in acceleration and accuracy. An average table saw, for instance, not only cuts faster than a regular hand saw, however the cuts are smoother, straighter, and more square than what’s normally achievable with a hand-held power noticed. Some stationary power equipment can produce items that cannot be made in any other method. Lathes, for example, produce truly round items.

Stationary power tools for metalworking are often called machine tools. The word machine tool isn’t usually put on stationary power equipment for woodworking, although such use is occasionally heard, and perhaps, such as for example drill presses and bench grinders, precisely the same tool can be used for both woodworking and metalworking.