Power tools are classified as either stationary or portable, where portable means hand-held. Portable power tools have obvious advantages in mobility.
Stationary power tools however often have advantages in speed and accuracy,and some stationary power tools can produce objects that cannot be made in any other way.Stationary power tools for metalworking are usually called machine tools.
The term machine tool is not usually applied to stationary power tools for woodworking, although such usage is occasionally heard, and in some cases, such as drill presses and bench grinders, exactly the same tool is used for both woodworking and metalworking.