Other Tools
This page covers the Shop Information tools for prying, breaking stubborn fasteners loose, supplying compressed air, testing electrical circuits, and clamping work in place.
| Tool | Used for |
|---|---|
| Pry bar | Removing nails, separating boards, lifting heavy objects, and demolition work. Its curved end is designed to pry apart or lift materials. |
| Breaker bar | Loosening stubborn or over-tightened nuts and bolts. The long handle increases leverage and torque. It turns either way, but it has no ratchet and no torque scale, so it can’t replace a torque wrench when a fastener must be tightened to a specified value. |
| Air compressor | Powering pneumatic tools, inflating tires, and cleaning surfaces with compressed air. It stores the compressed air under pressure. |
| Multimeter | Troubleshooting electrical circuits, testing batteries, and diagnosing electrical components. It is an electronic testing device that measures voltage, current, and resistance. |
Clamps
These tools hold parts firmly in place.
| Tool | Used for |
|---|---|
| Parallel clamp | Holding workpieces with even, parallel pressure across both jaws. Common in woodworking for glue-ups and joinery where uneven force could throw off alignment. |
| C-clamp | General-purpose clamping of wood, metal, or other materials to a workbench or to each other. Common in woodworking, metalworking, and welding setups; its screw tightens a swivel pad against the work. |
| Bar clamp | Clamping large or wide workpieces, such as panel glue-ups or furniture assembly, where the clamp needs to span a long distance. |
| Spring clamp | Quick, light-duty clamping and holding, such as securing thin materials, fabric, or parts temporarily while glue sets or during a quick assembly step. |
| Pipe clamp | Clamping wide panels or assemblies using a length of pipe as the bar, allowing the clamp’s reach to be adjusted or extended as needed. |
| Band clamp | Applying even pressure around irregular or curved objects, such as chair legs, barrels, or cylindrical assemblies, where standard clamps can’t get a grip. |
Telling the long clamps apart: A bar clamp’s jaw slides along a fixed-length steel bar, so the bar sets its reach. A pipe clamp uses the same sliding-jaw design on an ordinary pipe, so its reach depends on how long a pipe you mount it on. A parallel clamp also slides on a bar, but its large, flat jaws stay parallel to each other as it tightens, which spreads even pressure across a glue-up.