SQA National 5 Practical Metalworking: the Bench Work area - marking out, hand tools, drilling, threading, materials and safety
A deep-dive SQA National 5 Practical Metalworking guide to the Bench Work area. Covers measuring and marking out from a datum, bench hand tools and processes, drilling and hand threading with taps and dies, ferrous and non-ferrous metals and their properties, and safe working practice in the workshop.
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What the Bench Work area actually demands
Bench Work is the foundation area of National 5 Practical Metalworking. It teaches how to shape metal by hand at the bench: measuring and marking out, cutting and filing, drilling, and cutting threads, plus the metals you work with and how to stay safe. These skills run through every product you make, and the practical activity and its case study sample them directly. Each topic has its own dot-point page with worked questions; this guide ties them together.
Measuring and marking out
Before any metal is cut, the job is marked out from a datum edge so errors do not build up. Measure with a steel rule, scribe square lines with a try square and scriber, mark parallel lines with odd-leg callipers, scribe arcs with dividers, and punch each hole centre with a centre punch. Engineer's blue makes the fine scribed lines show clearly.
Bench hand tools and processes
Work is gripped in a bench vice (with soft jaws to protect a finished surface) and cut to size with a hacksaw (teeth forward, cutting on the push stroke). Metal is taken down to a line by cross-filing and finished by draw-filing. A cold chisel shears metal cold. The SQA names three hammers: the ball pein (general metalwork and riveting), the cross-pein (starting pins and shaping sheet) and the claw (nails in wood).
Drilling and hand threading
A twist drill cuts holes (centre-punch first; countersink to recess a screw head). Threads are cut by hand: an internal thread with a tap and tap wrench (taper, second and plug taps, in a tapping-size hole), an external thread with a die and die stock. Both are turned forward then back to break the swarf, with cutting fluid to lubricate and cool.
Metals and their properties
Metals are ferrous (contain iron, rust, e.g. mild steel) or non-ferrous (no iron, do not rust, e.g. aluminium, copper, brass). A metal is chosen by matching a named property - strength, hardness, toughness, malleability, ductility, conductivity, corrosion resistance - to the demands of the job.
Working safely
The workshop has hot, sharp and rotating hazards. Each is controlled: safety glasses for flying swarf and sparks, an apron and gloves where appropriate, machine guards kept in place, work clamped not hand-held, the chuck key removed before starting, and the area kept tidy.
How the Bench Work area is examined
Through the practical activity and case study, the Bench Work area is sampled by:
- Accurate marking out and measuring. Working from a datum and naming the right tool for each line.
- Correct technique. Describing how to saw, file, drill and thread accurately and safely.
- Justified material choice. Linking a named property of a ferrous or non-ferrous metal to the product.
Check your knowledge
A mix of recall and reasoning questions covering the Bench Work area. Attempt them, then check against the solutions.
- Name the tool used to scribe a line parallel to an edge. (1 mark)
- State why a hacksaw blade is fitted with the teeth pointing forward. (1 mark)
- Name the three hammers specified for National 5 bench work. (1 mark)
- State the difference between a tapping hole and a clearance hole. (1 mark)
- Give one example each of a ferrous and a non-ferrous metal. (1 mark)