| Questions | 5 |
| Topics | Chisels, Clamps, Fasteners, Rulers, Welding |
Wood chisels are used to shape or smooth wood surfaces. They come in a variety of widths and can be used with hand power or tapped with a mallet when deeper cuts need to be made.
A clamp applies pressure to prevent two objects from moving relative to each other, for example, to keep to pieces of wood together while the glue between the dries. A clamp is commonly made of metal and shaped like the letter C with a perpendicular flat-edged plate providing variable pressure between it and the top of the C as a screw to which it is attached is tightened and released.
A nail is a short pin-shaped shaft of steel that's typically used to fasten pieces of wood together. It has a flat head on one end and a point on the other. A rivet consists of a cylindrical shaft with a head on one end and a tail on the other. When the rivet is installed, the tail is expanded and reshaped to form another head, creating a dumbell shape that will hold two surfaces together semi-permanently.
Rulers are used to both measure distance and to draw straight lines. Tape measures are flexible rulers made from cloth or metal and are useful for measuring longer distances and in tighter spaces. Both rulers and tape measures provide similar accuracy, commonly down to \({1 \over 16}\) or \({1 \over 32}\) inch. A steel framing square is made up of a shorter ruler (tongue) and a longer ruler (blade) that meet at a 90° (right) angle. A framing square is often used by carpenters when framing stairs and roofs.
Welding is a high-temperature process that involves melting the base metals in the objects to be joined to fuse them together. A filler metal is used to provide additional material to make up a joint that, depending on the weld type, can be stronger than the base materials alone. Oxyacetylene welding is a welding process that uses a torch fueled with oxygen and acetylene gases. Electric-arc welding utlizes electric current in a safer welding process (it doesn't involve burning explosive gases) that enables a wide variety of specialized applications like stick, MIG (metal inert gas), and TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding.