The HobbitHouse Ilustrated Glossary of Woodworking terms

FASTENER TERMS

This set of terms having to do with fasteners and related terms is extracted from the general glossary shown here: GLOSSARY
and links that are not local to this subset will put you back in the main glossary

for images of wood itself, go here: wood id site


NOTE: this sub-glossary is very much a work in progress;
glue types, for example, are not yet well represented




270 degree hinge --- This refers to a hinge that allows a door to rotate 270 degees and thus allows it to open all the way to the outside side of a cabinet wall. This can only be achieved on a frameless full overlay cabinet design, and is best illustrated graphically, so see below. Note that there are two basic style of 270 degree hinges and the first is shown on the left side of the composite pic below and the other on the right side. Also, note that sometimes these hinges are called wrap around hinges or "wrap around inset" hinges or "double wrap around" hinges or "full back to back wrap around" hinges, but "wrap around hinge" normally means what is shown on that link. Examples:



acorn nut --- A type of cap nut that is specifically shaped like an inverted acorn, which shape is purely decorative, not functional. Examples:



Allen head --- A type of screw or bolt head that is designed for use with an Allen wrench.

Allen head bolt --- A bolt with a hexagonal recess in the head requiring an Allen wrench , often used in woodworking machinery, among many other things. These may be in metric or SAE sizes. These are usually made out of strong steel, but occasionally you may find them in lighter grade steel or even aluminum. Allen head recesses are also used extensively in set screws. Other names for this item are "socket cap screw", "socket screw", and "socket head cap screw". Examples:



Allen wrench --- A type of wrench that is a hexagonal-shaped metal bar, usually in the shape of an "L" but sometimes in the shape of a "T" and sometimes with a handle like what you find on a screwdriver but more often with a handle on the "T" portion, used to turn Allen head bolts and set screws. These may be in metric or English sizes and are sold both in sets and individually. Examples:



anchor bolt --- A device for connecting timber members (or anything else, for that matter) to concrete or masonry. There are numerous styles, some of which involve drilling a hole in the concrete or masonry (in particular, see expansion anchor bolt) and some of which involve embedding the bolt in concrete when it is poured so the bolt is in place when the concrete sets and the wood (or whatever) that is to be attached is drilled out and then placed over the bolt and attached with a nut. Anchor bolts are used for, among other thing, fastening the sill plate in a frame construction to the foundation. To prevent the plate timber from splitting, the anchor bolt nut is often put down over a plate washer. Examples of the most common type of anchor bolt which is an "L" shaped metal rod, threaded on the longer end:



anchor hinge --- A particularly strong type of door hinge that has flaps on the (hinge) leaves to give extra attachment points to the door and frame; the flaps attach horizontally along the top edge of the door and the top surface of the frame. Most have these flaps on both leaves, but some (e.g. the two on the right side of the pic below) only have it on the frame leaf. Examples:



annular ring nail --- A nail that has ridges around the circumference of the shank to provide extra holding power for applications such as wood to plywood bonding, flooring, roofing, and use in pallets. Although, as they are driven in, the ridges push the wood fibers aside, after they are in the fibers tend to expand back into the ridges thus giving better holding power than smooth-shank nails. The size and shape of the ridges varies considerably and they are often angled back up the shank so as to act like wedges, and sometimes they are actually tight spirals rather than just circumferential ridges. These nails are particularly susceptible to crippling because all those rings provide multiple points of possible failure. Examples:



architectural ball bearing hinge --- synonymous with ball bearing hinge

architectural hinge --- A door hinge that is categorized as either commercial or residential. Whether for a home (residential) or for a public building (architectural), these hinges are very similar. Commercial hinges are generally differentiated from residential ones by being more substantial in construction due to the heavier use they are exposed to in public places.

auger point screw --- A screw that has a very sharp point and threads that grip the wood strongly. Such screws often have a the kind of end found on a self tapping screw, and in any case this type of screw is designed to be used with no pilot hole ... it pulls itself into the wood once started. Examples:



ball bearing hinge --- A hinge (generally a butt hinge or an olive knuckle hinge but it could be most any type) that has ball bearings between the (hinge) knuckles to reduce friction and make for a smoother, easier, opening action. The ball bearings are captured in small flat cylinders that sit between some or all of the knuckles, depending on how heavy-duty the hinge needs to be. These are particularly suitable for industrial applications where a door may be opened and closed all day long thus wearing out normal knuckles in a relatively short time compared to those on ball bearing hinges. Examples:



ball screw --- A mechanical device for translating rotational motion to linear motion. It is just like a lead screw except that the sliding portion contains ball bearings and thus the device does not heat up quickly (the way a lead screw would) when used continuously in a powered situation.

barrel hinge --- (type #1) A type of hinge where the door leaf and the frame leaf are not really leaves at all but instead are barrel-shaped cylinders of metal with a flat hinged joining mechanism. The barrels are inserted into recesses drilled in the door and the frame such that the hinge is totally hidden from view when the door or lid is closed. These are very often used, in small sizes, on jewelry boxes and in modest sizes on mid- to hi-end home entertainment centers and such because the are a type of fully concealed hinge. The construction of this mechanism does not lend itself well to heavy-duty uses such as house doors and in fact these items are often advertised with the warning "not for load-bearing applications". Examples:



barrel hinge --- (type #2) A type of hinge where the the door leaf and the frame leaf each have only one (hinge) knuckle and generally both knuckles are closed at the end through which the pin does not protrude. These are suitable for heavy duty use on wooden doors and gates. These are generally a type of lift off hinge and are often sold under that designation. Examples:



barrel hinge --- (type #3) A type of hinge that is used in metalworking and requires welding, not woodworking, and that is therefore not illustrated extensively in this glossary. Examples:



bed bolt --- synonymous with cross dowel

bifold door --- A type of sliding/folding door made from two (or occasionally more) hinged panels that fold onto each other as the door is slid sideways. Often used on closets in the USA. Since each joint in the door moves in only one direction, it isn't necessary to use a complicated hinge such as the folding screen hinge and a light-weight version of a butt hinge is used, called a bifold door hinge. This version has one leaf that folds inside the other so that the total thickness is only one leaf, which is an acceptable gap on closet doors. Examples:



bifold door hinge --- There are two versions of this hinge and both are, as would be assumed from the name, designed for use on bifold doors. The first design is a special version of the butt hinge that has the door leaf folding into the frame leaf and thus providing a gap that is only one leaf thickness while allowing surface mounting rather than requiring a mortise for either leaf. The second version has one leaf sitting about the other (or two leaves above/below a center leaf) which again allows a gap of just one leaf thickness with surface mounting. These hinges work just fine with this type door because each joint only moves in one direction. For a similar hinge that is more flexible, see folding screen hinge. Compare/contrast to double action spring hinge. Examples of the first type are on the left and the second type on the right:



binding head screw --- An apparenly vague term that, technically, designates any screw that has EITHER a slightly undercut (that is, shallow) head, OR an extra broad head, with (in either case) the point being to be effective in holding ("binding") electrical wires or u-shaped spade lugs at the end of electrical wires. Some sources equate a binding head with a truss head but I am not confident that that is a correct alternate definition. One of the available types that does not fit the technical defintion, but DOES seem to fit the use, is a screw that has ridges on the bottom of the head (similar to those on a serrated flange nut but without the flange). In finding pics for this item I was sometimes not able to distinguish them from ones that look EXACTLY the same but are sold under various other, more normal, names. Examples:



blind screw --- synonymous with set screw

bolt --- (1) A somewhat vague term used to describe short logs to be sawn for lumber or used for veneer (either slicing or rotary cutting) or to be used as pulpwood.
bolt --- (2) A uniform-diameter metal shank with screw-like threads on the outside (although not necessarily all the way up the shank) and a head of some kind that is used to turn the bolt. Bolts are not tapered, as screws usually are, and they have to be able to accept a nut that has a uniform internal diameter and threads. If something doesn't meet ALL of the aspects of that definition, then it isn't a bolt, it's a screw. One form of "headless bolt" is a set screw (and because it's headless, it's a screw, not a bolt). Bolts can be self-tapping as long as they still are able to accept a uniform nut above the self-tapping threads, so the fact that a shank is self-tapping doesn't make it a screw. If a bolt has a "screw driver" type head, such as a flat-head slot, that does not make the bolt a screw. If a bolt is very small, then in widely accepted common usage, it is called a machine screw but that's really just another name for what is technically a bolt (although the implication is that is is a very small bolt). Compare/contrast to screw and see also bolts vs screws. Note that the statements made here (and elsewhere in this glossary) follow common usage but are NOT universally accepted; the entire issue of nomenclature for bolts and screws was perhaps the biggest mess I encountered in compiling this glossary. Below is a composite pic showing some types of bolts and following that, there is a list of the most common types of bolts, with each term linked to a full illustrated description. Examples:


types of bolts:

bolt drive types --- see screw and bolt drive types

bolts vs screws --- The bottom line is that if you have a fastener with a uniform diameter threaded shank (above any self-tapping area) that takes a nut and has a head, it's a bolt; otherwise it's a screw. This definition follows widespread common use, but is NOT absolute. The most fundamental difference between a bolt and a screw is that a screw will NOT accept a nut but a bolt, by definition, has to. Also, screws often have tapered shanks but bolts never do. Bolts have to have a head; a "headless bolt" (e.g. a set screw) is not a bolt, it's a screw. The term machine screw is a widely used misnomer that really just means a small bolt, frequently with a head designed to be turned by a screw driver. The fact that a bolt is driven by a screw driver, does not make the bolt a screw. Neither overall size nor head type have any bearing on whether a fastener is a bolt or screw. Both bolts and screws can be self-tapping, but above the area of the self-tapping threads, a bolt has to be able to accept a nut with a uniform inner diameter and uniform threads. That is, the self-taping threads can be on a tapered end section of a fastener but if the part above that adheres to the definition of a bolt then the whole thing is a bolt and if not, it's a screw. Again, these statements follow common usage but are NOT universally accepted. The whole bolt/screw nomenclature issue is perhaps the biggest mess I have faced in compiling this glossary.

box nail --- A box nail is very similar to a common nail and they are sold in the same penny size as common nails but but the size designation is based on LENGTH rather than the original unit weight designation of common nails. They have narrower shanks and slightly smaller heads than common nails and so weigh less than a same-length common nail of the same penny designation. They are slightly larger in diameter than a finishing nail of the same length. Box nails are sometimes used on thin material, the way finishing nails are, but the heads are clearly visible after the nails have been driven so they are not an exact replacement for finishing nails, but rather their purpose is more to avoid splitting the wood they are driven into than to have an unobtrusive head.



box wrench --- A type of wrench that is a long, flat, metal rod with a short cylinder on one or both ends that has internal serrations that fit around the head of a bolt or nut. Some have a ratchet mechanism built in and some are offset (also called cranked) as shown in the composit pic below. These come in both English and metric sizes and are sold both individually and in sets. Not shown in this glossary are variations that are shaped like an "S" or a half-circle, and other obscure variations. Single-ended box wrenches are fairly rare. The term "ratchet wrench" is sometimes applied to versions of this wrench when it has a ratchet mechanism, but that term is also applied more often to socket wrenches. Compare/contrast to open ended wrenches. Examples:



brad --- A very small, thin, nail; most definitions say brads are no more than 1" long, but you can buy them up to 1 1/2" long. They are wire nails and they are quite small in diameter. Large brads are about the size of a 2d nail in length but smaller in diameter. Brads are used for attaching thinmolding and are often used in the backs of picture frames to attach a thin piece of molding that holds the picture in place. There are a couple of specialty tools that help deal with brads, called brad setters. Examples:



bugle head screw --- A screw that has a countersunk head that is shaped like a bugle rather than the more normal 45 degree-flat-slope style. These are particularly used on drywall screws so as to not crush the drywall too much as the countersink goes in. Examples



butler tray hinge --- A hinge that mounts in mortises in a tray-top and allow the tray wings to fold to 90 degrees and also snaps flat. They are for those little "breakfast in bed" style folding trays. Often the flaps have cutouts that act as handles. These are very similar in style to counterflap hinges but they often do not have the floating knuckle. Examples:



butterfly hinge --- A butt hinge that has its leaves shaped like butterfly wings instead of being rectangular. Counterflap hinges are a special-purpose very plain version of this but when done in more elaborate form they are used for decorative effect on small to modest sized items such as jewelry boxes, small windows, kitchen cabinet doors, and so forth. Counterflap hinges tend to have just one (hinge) knuckle on one side and two on the other and are not load-bearing hinges but the items being described here ARE used for load-bearing application (albeit generally light-duty ones) and so will have several knuckles on one side and one less on the other side. There is a style of hinge that seems to be used mostly in Great Britain that is called a parliment hinge which has a butterfly shape and is sometimes called a "butterfly hinge", but it would never be confused with any of the hinges that Americans call "butterfly hinge". Examples:



cabinet connecting screw --- synonymous with confirmat screw

cam lift hinge --- There are at least two types of cam lift hinge. The first is a type of butt hinge where there is a slant to the mating edges of the barrels on the door plate and the butt plate such that when the door is opened, the hinge mechanism causes it to rise, thus creating a lift against gravity that will then cause the door to close by itself when released. In addition to working as a door closer, this type of hinge also allows the bottom of a cabinet door to be right down at the carpet level because while a normal hinge in that situation would have the door scraping across the carpet as it opened, this hinge lifts the door up off of the carpet as it opens. One more advantage to this hinge is that it is a type of lift off hinge. The second type has the cam lift action but is not a lift off hinge and is more like a T hinge than a butt hinge. The second type is not shown in the composite pic below. Examples:



cap nut --- A hex head nut topped by a solid dome or a cylinder then a dome or even just a cylinder. These are usually all metal but occasionally all nylon. Such nuts can only be used with carefully measured bolts because the bolt has to grip into the nut securely, but it cannot protrude so far that the cap nut is raised above the surface being clamped. The purpose is to provide a decorative/safety type of topping that both looks better than a raw bolt end protruding through the nut, and which also prevents the bolt-end from scratching any nearby moving surfaces such as human knuckles. Automobile lug nuts are usually cap nuts but unlike "normal" cap nuts (as shown here) they have a tapered bottom. There is a more decorative version called the acorn nut and there is a version that more widely distributes the pressure on the clampled surface called the flanged cap nut. Examples:



cap screw --- A somewhat ill-defined term, sometimes also called a "hex cap screw" if it has a hexagonal head, this is a fastening device that is, by a limited definition, visually indistinguishable from a hex head bolt but which is manufacturered to tighter tolerances that are much more likely to be of interest in machining situations where high precision is necessary, as opposed to in woodworking where a normal (and less expensive) hex head bolt is going to do the job just fine. Such hex head cap screws are a tiny bit smaller in diameter than the equivalent sized hex head bolt and are threaded all the way along the shank. A looser definition maintains the requirement for high tolerance manufacturing but allows a wider range of body shapes. The name "cap" screw seems to be based on the fact that such a device always has a head (the "cap") that clamps against the material being fastened when the device is driven all the way in. Some definitions of cap screw state that they are a form of head bolt, meaning that they are not used with a nut.

captive washer lock nut --- see lock nut

card table hinge --- A specialty hinge designed to allow parts of a card table top to fold up on itself. This is a style that was more in use in the past than it is presently. It is slightly similar to the scissorhinge except that there is no pin but rather a floating plate that rotates freely at both ends inside the two halves of the "scissor" plates. The point of this mechanism is to allow the parts of the table top to rotate from being along the same plane to being flat up against each other and to do so without there being any difficulty in the edges clearing each other; it does this by having the edges move away from each other as the flap part is rotated over on top of the rest of the table which would not be possible if there were a single-pin pivot point that was in-line with the plates, and you definitely wouldn't want a (hinge) barrel sticking up out of the surface of the card table. The part that contains the (hinge) pins is thicker than the rest of the (hinge) leaves so the mortise that is requred for these has two different depths. These are functionally quite similar to counterflap hinges. Examples:



carriage bolt --- Also called a "coach bolt", this is a bolt with a square shoulder at the top and usually a rounded head with no screw-driver slot or other means for holding the head. This type of bolt is intended to be inserted into a cavity (normally in metal) that is square at the top and then a nut is put on at the other end and tightened with a wrench. The square shoulder in the square cavity keeps the top of the bolt from turning. There is another version that uses a ribbed section instead of the square section and this one is known as, and is illustrated at, ribbed neck carriage bolt. Examples:



carver's screw --- A type of clamp used by wood carvers; it consists of a threaded metal rod that is put through a hole in a workbench and screwed into the bottom of the item being carved. There is a nut or other tightening mechanism that goes under the bench. The traditional version has a wing-shaped metal plate with a square hole in it that fits a square head on the bottom of the rod for tightening the screw into the workpiece, and then that same plate acts as a tightening nut under the bench, thus removing the need for any other tool to do the carver's clamping. The beauty of the carver's clamp is that it leave all of the surface of the item being carved, except the very bottom, open to the carver. One possible drawback is that if a chisel is pressed or hammered into the edge of a workpiece in a way that imparts rotational force in the direction that tends to loosen the carver's screw, then occasional re-tightening may be required, which can be a pain. Examples:



casement hinge --- A type of hinge specifically for use with a casement window. There are several styles ranging from fairly simple to moderately complex. Examples:



castle nut --- A nut that has a slotted ridge around the top, making it look very much like a castle guard tower. It is used with a bolt that has a hole through the end through which a cotter pin is inserted and then bent around the castle nut so that the nut becomes captive and cannot vibrate off. Also called "slotted hex nut". Examples:



cement coated nail --- A nail coated with adhesive ("cement") to give it a very rough surface for greater holding power.

clevis pin --- A short metal rod with a head on one end and a hole drilled in the other end, so that the pin can be put through a hole and then be fastened in place by a cotter pin through the hole in the pin. There is a special type of "cotter pin" used with clevis pins, as shown in the composite pic below. This form of cotter pin has one leg ridged to hold it on the clevis pin and the legs are not bent after insertion into the pin. This form of cotter pin is more readily removed than a standard cotter pin. Clevis pins are also attached with wire rings much like a key-chain ring. Clevis pins are used to attach small rotating parts to each other, to attach turnbuckles to a chain loop, etc. Examples:



clip on hinge --- add definition

clutch head screw --- see security bolt

coach bolt --- synonymous with carriage bolt

coach hinge --- I have found very few references to this term and most of those simply show a butt hinge

coach screw --- synonymous with lag screw

combination head screw --- A screw whose drive mechanism will accomdate both a phillips head screwdriver AND a flat head screw driver. Examples:



combination wrench --- A type of wrench that has a box wrench on one end and an open ended wrench on the other end. The box wrench end may or may not have a ratchet mechanism and or be offset. They come in both English and metric sizes and are sold both individually and in sets. The term "ratchet wrench" is sometimes appied to these when the box wrench end has a ratchet mechanism. Examples:



common nail --- A wire nail used almost exclusively for construction. This is both by name and by actual existence the most common form of nail and is what people normally mean when they say "nail". It has a broad head for good holding power and a fairly thick shank to provide shear strength where it is applied. The large head that provides the great holding strength of this type nail is a disadvantage in situations where looks matter more than holding power, so in those cases, a finishing nail is a better choice. Examples



concealed hinge --- A hinge which is either totally hidden from view when closed (see fully concealed hinge or partially hidden from view when closed (see partially concealed hinge. NOTE: In casual usage, the term is often used as synonymous with fully concealed hinge and the term "partially concealed hinge" is much less used.

concrete screw --- synonymous with masonry screw

confirmat screw --- A screw designed for use with MDF or particleboard when used in cabinet construction (these screws are aka cabinet connecting screws) and the threads are fairly deep to grab these somewhat crumbly materials and care is required to not overtighten the screw since they will strip out fairly easily. The OD of the shank directly under the head is typically a little larger than the OD of the threads and the drive is most often an Allen head drive but may also a be Phillips head drive. They usually, but not universally, have a very thin flange at the top of the head that is driven flush in the material being screwed and they usually have blunt rather than pointed tips since they are designed to be used with a pilot hole often drilled out with stepped drill bits specifically made for use with these screws. Examples:



conical anchor --- a tapered cylinder (thus a cone), generally of plasic, that expands when a screw is driven into it. It is used to anchor relatively light things to wall board / drywall, plaster, and masonry. There is a "ribbed" version that is particularly good for drywall because it has little "wings" that help keep the device from rotating as the screw is driven in. Examples:



connector bolt --- A bolt that has a broad flat head with a recessed allen wrench drive hole. These are most commonly used with either cross dowels or sex nuts. Examples:



continuous hinge --- synonymous with piano hinge

corner brace --- There are many devices in woodworking that are called corner braces, but the most common use of that term is for what is also (somewhat more specifically) called a "table corner brace", which is a metal plate that is used to brace the corner of a desk where the legs meet the rails, often with a corner tongue and groove joint. The brace is attached with a hanger bolt with the screw thread end going into the leg and the machine screw end coming through the brace, which is then tightened with a nut that usually has a split ring lock washer under it to prevent loosening under vibration as the table is jiggled slightly in use. Most often, the brace has short edges that go into grooves in the rails for added stability and rigidity. There are also shop-made versions that are more simple (one of which is shown in the illustration below). Examples:



corrugated fastener --- A small wavy (corrugated) rectangle of steel with one edge sharpened so that it can be driven into wood to hold a joint together. These can be driven with a hammer but there are also powered nail-gun-like drivers as well. Examples:



cotter pin --- A bent piece of metal that has a loop with two projections coming off of it side by side. The projections can be put through a hole and the loop prevents the pin from going through the hole all the way. The projections are then bent so that the pin is firmly held in the hole on both ends. Used to fasten wheels to axles on toys, wheelbarrows, etc. There is a variation on this that is used with the clevis pin, where the "cotter pin" has one of the legs is ridged and the legs are not bent after insertion (see clevis pin). Although these are usually manhandled with a pair of pliers, there is a specialty tool for removing them (called, appropriately enough, a cotter pin puller. Examples:



cotter pin puller --- A hooked tool for removing cotter pins after the legs have been straightened out. Examples:



counterflap hinge --- a hinge used for counter flaps of the type often seen in bars and diners. Many types of hinges COULD be used for this purpose but the hinges that are specifically given this name tend to be those that have a shape very much like that of a butterfly joint but tend to be more plain than their similarly-shaped cousin, the butterfly hinge. More importantly, they are double hinged with a floating knuckle so that when mounted flush with a countertop via shallow mortises, they both allow the counter top to flip over 180 degrees and at the same time not have a (hinge) barrel sitting proud of the counter top, AND even more importantly, they floating knuckle allows for some slack so that both sides of the countertop can have perfectly square edges and still not mash into each other as would be the case if the floating knuckle had no play in it. See hinge parts for a discussion of the various parts that make up this type of hinge, but note that this hinge operates significantly differently than the standard butt hinge in that the knuckles do not mate with each other but each have their own captive pin with a floating knuckle joining the two thus providing a double pivot. Functionally, these hinges are quite similar to the card table hinge Examples:



countersink --- [verb] To create an extra wide opening at the top of a screw hole so that the head of the screw will sit flush with the object it is put into.
countersink --- [noun] (1) The area removed by a countersink bit.
countersink --- [noun] (2) synonymous with countersink bit

countersink bit --- A drill bit that allows you to drill out the upper portion of a hole so that the head of a screw (that has been countersunk will sit flush with the face of the object it is put into. There are special bits that drill countersink holes and also bits that drill both a pilot hole and the countersink at the same time; these are called countersink pilot hole bits and there are two types; the first has a set of 3 or more sharpened flutes around the edge that do the cutting and the second type is a solid countersink-area-shaped piece of metal with a hole it it and it is the edges of the hole that do the cutting. There is also a manual version somewhat like a screwdriver, but with a countersink bit on the end, called a hand countersink. Examples of both types:



countersinking --- The process of creating a countersunk area in a material (usually wood or metal).

countersink pilot hole bits --- drill bits that both drill a pilot hole and cut out a countersink area at the same time. These usually come in sets with diameters set for the most common screw sizes and they have adjustable collars that allow for different depths so that the pilot holes can be adjusted for different length screws. Examples:



countersunk --- [verb] Past tense of countersink

countersunk lock washer --- an external tooth lock washer but cone-shaped to conformm to the bottom of a countersunk screw. Examples:



countersunk screw --- A screw that has a sloping part under a flat head. Such screws come in two flavors as shown in the composite pic below. The standard countersink is a 45 degree angled flat surface and the bugle type (see bugle head screw) is a concave surface. Examples:



countersunk washer --- A washer that is used underneath a countersunk screw so that a countersunk hole does not have to be drilled in the material AND so that the holding pressure is distributed over a wider area (these are often used over thin material). There is a version of these (the flanged countersunk washer) that spreads the pressure out even more. The cross-section of one side may be a hill, a wedge pointing towards the center, or a triangle pointing up from the surface. Examples:



coupling nut --- A very long hex nut that is used to join two threaded rods. There is also a version that has a round exterior. These are also called "hex coupling" nuts and "rod coupling" nuts. Examples:



cranked chisel --- Any type of carving chisel (cranks don't occur in lathe chisels) that has a dog leg or other bend in the shank, these are also called a "dog leg chisel", "crane neck chisel" and "bent shank chisel" and are useful whenever you need to pare with the chisel flat on the work surface. If the cut is away from an edge, or in a recess, the handle of a normal chisel will get in the way but With these chisels the dog leg in the handle gives clearance above the work to hold the handle. These are particularly useful for joinery and they also work quite well for removing long glue bead lines after the glue has dried. If the crank is very close to the end of the tool, the tool is sometimes called a short bent tool and if the bend is further away from the end and/or is a more gentle curve, the tool is called a long bent tool.

cranked hinge --- A type of hinge has a crank in one or both (hinge) leaves and that thus allows a door or window to swing through 180 degrees. Also called a "stormproof" hinge becuase of its common use with storm windows. When I first saw the term, I assumed it meant a hinge like a casement hinge for use with a casement window since that is a window that opens by cranking a handle. Instead, the term "crank" in this case is being used in its sense of "having a dog-leg bend". The term "double cranked hinge" means the same thing (both leaves are cranked) but if only one leaf is cranked, then the hinge is called a single cranked hinge. Double cranked hinges in particular are also called "stormproof" hinges because they are commonly used with storm windows. Often when the term "cranked hinge" is used, the person using it has a particular type (single or double) in mind and does not bother to preface the term with "single" or "double" and that goes for manufacturer's advertisments as well. Examples:





crescent wrench --- A type of wrench that has two parallel jaws with one and integral part of the handle and the other adjustable through a sliding mechanism controlled by a knurled gear shaft inside the handle. These are most commonly used to turn square head bolts and hex head bolts. Although they will all turn items that are both English and metric sizes some are marked with English gradations and others with metric gradations, and many with no gradations at all since users rarely set them to a size and then put them on the item to be turned, but rather just put them on the item and adjust to fit. Compare/contrast to open ended wrench. Examples:



crippling --- When a nail is not strong enough to withstand the force required to drive it into the wood, the weakest portion of the shank will bend when the head of the nail is hit by the hammer. This is called crippling, and it is particularly troublesome with annular ring nails because all those rings provide multiple failure points. It can also be a problem for any nail when driven into a particularly hard wood or when struck with more force than is warrented for the size of the nail, and of course a poorly centered hammer blow can cause it in any nail.

cross dowel --- A type of knockdown fastener that consists of a steel dowel with a threaded hole through its middle and a slot in one end for use with a flat head screwdriver (to get it to line up, not to tighten it), most commonly used with a connector bolt. the dowel is inserted into a hole in one piece of wood, that also has a hole to accept the bolt into the hole in the center of the dowel, and then the bolt is put through a hole in another piece of wood and the two can then be tightly joined, but later broken down if desired. Because of their wide-spread use in knockdown bed assemblies, these are also called "bed bolts". Examples:



cup hinge --- synonymous with European hinge

cup hook --- A small metal rod, threaded on one end and bent into a cup shape on the unthreaded portion, and it may or may not have a circular flange separating the two sections. The device is screwed into a wall or other holding element so that things can be hung from it. I believe the name derives from the fact that the shape is like a cup, but I have seen large ones used to hang drinking cups by their handles, so I'm not positive. Examples:



cut nail --- A flat, tapered nail that is stamped out of sheet steel. These nails have a blunt end instead of a point and a rectangular cross section and have greater holding power than wire nails. They are often used for fastening flooring. Examples:



dead nail --- In days gone by, screws were either not invented yet or hard to come by, but nails were available, so certain types on construction were give the necessary holding power by driving a nail through the connecting items and then bending the pointed end over at the back. Such nails were then referred to as "dead" nails, and the phrase "dead as a doornail" referred to such a use in a common type of door construction.

deck screw --- As the name says, this type of screw is designed for use in decks (external structures usually of treated lumber or very durable hardwood), thus they are made from galvanized steel, stainless steel, or are coated in some way to resists corrosion. The have very coarse threads and sometimes have a section at the top that has cylindrcial ridges rather than sprial threads; this is to resist pull-out due to expansion/contraction of the wood (once the screw is driven, the wood fibers push back around the ridges and not being helical, they strongly resist having the screw "undrive" itself due to wood movement). They are ALWAYS flat-headed and countersunk or have small heads (a type of trim screw) that will sit below the deck surface since it would be really obnoxious to have screw heads sticking up out of a deck. The drive type is normally either allen head or phillips head, never flat head because driving screws into decking requires a lot of torque and flat head drives are just too likely to strip. Sometimes, decking screws are a type of self tapping screw. Examples:



demountable hinge --- A specialty hinge that is used to facilitate the mounting and adjustment of cabinets, especially kitchen cabinets. There are two types: the double demountable hinge and the single demountable hinge.

demountable hinge slot cutter --- A router bit used to cut the slots needed by a demountable hinge tab. Examples:



die --- see tap and die

dock washer --- A very large, thick fender washer for use on heavy construction (such as a marine dock, thus the name).

door hinge --- A butt hinge that is strong enough to hold a house door. Often, door hinges will be somewhat fancy instead of just plain flat metal, and they will also frequently have a finial at both the top and bottom of the hinge pin. Door hinges are often put into mortises in both the edge of the door and the frame, as can be seen in the lower right portion of the composite pic below. Door hinges on external doors are most often made of either brass or stainless steel to avoid corrosion due to exposure to moisture. Eamples:



door leaf --- The hinge leaf that is mounted to a door. Compare/contrast to frame leaf.

door wing --- synonymous with door leaf

double action spring hinge --- A type of hinge that has two (hinge) barrels that act in a way that allows a door to swing more than 180 degrees in each direction (in and out) and spring-loaded so that the door always return to center closed position. Also called "double barrel" hinge, "saloon door" hinge, and "cafe door" hinge. In addition to the composite pic below of examples of this type hinge, I have, to show the action, created a graphic that shows the operation looking down onto a door and frame, with directions arbitrarily designated as "inward" to the left and "outward" to the right (and only showing a short portion of the door and frame). Note that the door swings outward centered on the barrel colored dark red and it swings inward centered on the barrel colored blue and the two barrels are attached by a 3rd (middle) leaf. Examples:





double cranked hinge --- A type of hinge that has a crank on both leaves and thus allows a door or window to swing through 180 degrees and move completely clear of the door frame area. A similar item with only one of the two leaves having a crank is called the single cranked hinge. Cranked hinges are also called "stormproof hinges" because of their common use with the kind of louvered panels that used to be called "storm windows" before modern technology made that term come to more commonly mean something else. See hinge parts for a discussion of the parts that make up the hinge. Note that in the graphic below, I have drawn the window such that when closed it sits proud of the frame, but it could just as well be mounted so that it ends up flush when closed (which would result in their being a larger gap at the hinge when it's fully open, but that's not a problem, it just didn't look as neat when drawn that way). Examples:





double demountable hinge --- This is a somewhat complex type of specialty hinge that is designed to facilitate installation and adjustment of cabinet doors, especially kitchen cabinet doors where there are typically many in a row and you need them to all line up neatly. The mechanism that allows the easy adjustment that is at the heart of this type of hinge is a tab that is inserted into a mortise in the wood and that is cut by a demountable hinge slot cutter router bit. The tab is pulled into the inside of the wooden section (door or frame) by clamping pressure exerted by a countersunk machine screw that goes through the (hinge) leaf and into a threaded hole in the middle of the tab but which does not touch the wood anywhere because the slot is cut extra large to allow for movement (up and down AND back and forth) of the screw so as to align the door as needed. Because this tab mechanism is on both the door leaf and the frame leaf, there is a great deal of flexibility in terms of adjusting the position of the door. Compare this to the great precision that you have to have in placing the screw holes for mounting other types of hinges to make sure all the cabinet doors line up and you can see why this type of hinge is a favorite of kitchen cabinet installers. There is another version of this type hinge that only has the tab mechanism on the door leaf and it is called a single demountable hinge. This is a partially concealed hinge because only the barrel and part of the frame leaf are exposed, and it is a type of flush hinge. You can't see that in the pics below because the angle is wrong on all of them, but if you look at the illustrations with single demountable hinge you'll see what I mean. The flush aspect is implicit in the mounting pic in the upper right hand corner, but you may have to think about it a bit to see it. Although it's not obvious from the pics below, some styles of this hinge require a mounting technique that is slightly different from that shown in the upper right below. The second from the left hinge in the pic below exemplifies this; if you look carefully, you'll see that the only way this hinge could be mounted is if the entire back edge of the door be given an edge rabbet. The term "demountable" in the name is somewhat misleading since it would normally imply that no screwdriver is required to demount the hinge (see lift off hinge), but that is not the case with this hinge, although it IS easier to remove than traditional hinges because only the one machine screw in the frame leaf needs to be removed to dismount the door AND the hinge. Examples:



double dovetail half lap --- synonymous with corner half lap with double dovetail

dowel screw --- A cylindrical (not tapered) metal shank (typically of steel) with no head, wood screw threads, and both ends pointed. These are used to connect two wooden parts that have blind holes, such as the finial on a stair railing. Some are un-threaded in the center to make installation using a pair of locking pliers gripping the center easy. Do not confuse with a hanger bolt, which has a machine screw on one end and a wood screw on the other. Vendors sometimes list these two different items indiscriminately as one being the other. Examples:



drawer front screw --- A screw, usually steel with a broad, flat head and an unthreaded area below the head then coarse, firm-griping threads below that. These are used in drawer fronts as follows and illustrated in the composite pic below: the false front is attached to the drawer sides and two oversized holes are drilled in it, then the drawer front, which is wide enough to hide the drawer sides and prevent the drawer from sliding back into the carcass, is attached to the false front through the oversized holes, using the drawer front screws. This allows some movement in drawer front so that it can be lined up precisely so as to not look skewed from the front of the cabinet, and then when it's lined up the screws are tightened. These are most commonly provided with Phillips head drive holes because a flat head drive could too easily slip off and mar the surface on the inside of the drawer. Examples:



drill rod --- synonymous with threaded rod

drop flap hinge --- A hinge designed for use with a vertical panel that covers the front of a cabinet section but drops down 90 degrees to provide a horizontal work space. Not to be confused with drop leaf hinge. These are specialty hinges, are round and have a "tongue" that slips out as the vertical portion is dropped down to become the work surface. Examples:




drop leaf hinge --- For drop leaf table extensions and not to be confused with drop flap hinge. This is a butt hinge but with one of the hinge leaves wider than the other so as to clear the curved portion of the drop leaf. This is normally used with a special-shaped edge to the two fitting parts, as shown in the first composite pic below, but it can be a more simple, straight edge on each part as shown in the leftmost image in the second composite pic below. Examples:






drywall screw --- As the name says, this kind of screw is designed for use with drywall so it doesn't have to be very strong and thus they are generally pretty skinny. Thay are always flat head screws so as to be flush with the drywall surface, and they are countersunk in a curved fashion (often called a "bugle" head) so as to not abruptly the drywall as they go in. They also seems to always use a phillips head drive type, probably because if the screwdriver slipped off of a flat head drive type it could poke a hole in the drywall and the shape does not lend itself to the use of a robertson drive. They typically are made of steel, sometimes with a black finish and have quite coarse threads and they are sometimes a type of self tapping screw since on the other side of the drywall they have to go into a stud; for the same reason, they often have a very sharp point if they are not self tapping. Unlike more normal wood screws the outer diamter of the threads on these screws is larger than the unthreaded shank. Compare/contrast to particleboard screw and see also reverse thread drywall screw. Examples:



edge mounted --- For a hinge leaf, this means that the leaf is mounted (with or without a mortise) into the edge, as opposed to the back or the face, of the door and frame that it is mounted on. Compare/contrast to face mounted. See hinge mounting positions and styles for an illustration.

edge mounted hinge --- Any hinge uses edge mounting on both of the (hinge) leaves. See hinge mounting positions and styles for an illustration. Compare/contrast to face mounted hinge.

elevator bolt --- A bolt that is usually similar to a carriage bolt in that it has the square top to the shank and no slotting or other drive mechanism at the top of the head, but unlike the carriage bolt, the elevator bolt has a very wide thin head that presents a lot of surface area for gripping, but a low profile so as to not present much of an obstruction above the surface. There are other variations, most notably one that has triangluar protrusions going down from the head to grip the wood and prevent turning (this variety does not have the square section at the top of the shank), and another form that simply omits the square section, although on this one, it's not clear to me how it is that the head is kept from rotating while the nut is tightened. Examples:



end nailing --- Inserting a nail directly into (that is, perpendicular to) the long direction of a member. This is generally a poor technique because nails do not hold well when driven directly into end grain. When a nail is driven through the face of one plank and into the end grain of a support post, it's a tossup whether it should be called end nailing or face nailing, though the preference seems to be end nailing, with face nailing being more often used when nailing together two parallel planks or when nailing through a face and into a side. Compare/contrast to toe nailing and face nailing. Example:



end play --- In a hinge, this is the amount of movement that a (hinge) leaf can make perpendicular to the (hinge) barrel. See hinge dimensions.

European hinge --- Also known as "cup hinge" and "European concealed hinge", these are of a design quite different from more "normal" hinges. They have 2 parts, the hinge cup and arm as one part and the mounting plate as the other part. The door side is fixed with the "cup", which fits in a round mortise inside the door and is held with screws that go through wings that come out of the sides of the cup mechanism. The cabinet side uses the "mounting plate" which can be adjusted horizontally and vertically so you can easily align a row of doors. There are two types of these hinges, one for face frame doors and one for frameless doors. They are fully concealed hinges and are very popular for cabinet doors in kitchens and entertainment centers. They are also sprung to close automatically, so no catch is required at the closing edge of the door. They are also a type of zero clearance hinge. Examples:



expansion anchor bolt --- a variety of anchor bolt that has two parts, the bolt itself, and an expansion cylinder that is placed in a hole drilled into masonry. As the bolt is tightened, the expansion part expands outward against the sides of the hole thus providing a strong pressure fit. Unlike the other form of anchor bolt (which is an "L"-shaped bolt that is put into concrete before it sets), this type is also used for horizontal applications (in the side of a masonry wall, for example). A similar fastener pair is a lag screw with a lag screw shield. For direct fastening to masonry (without a sleeve) see masonry screw. Examples:



external tooth lock washer --- A lock washer for which the locking mechanism is a set of teeth around the outer rim of what would otherwise be a flat washer. This type, as contrasted to an internal tooth lock washer, has greater holding power, but can mar the surface (of the object being clamped) where it shows. Examples:



eye bolt --- A bolt that has a ring of metal (the "eye") on top instead of a normal bolt head. These are used for various kinds of tie-downs, with a rope or wire going through the ring. There is an almost identical construct that has a tapered end (and is used in wood) that is called an eye lag screw (and, technically incorrectly, also called an "eye lag bolt" even though it's a screw). These constructs may or may not have a shoulder.



eye hook --- (also called "eye screw") A metal rod, most commonly steel, that is threaded on one end and bent into a circle on the other end. The device is screwed into a wall or other support structure and used for hanging things. It is particularly useful for threading a string or rope through a number of them so that things can be hung from or draped on the rope. When these constructs are fairly large, and particularly when the eye is a continuous piece, they are more normally called eye lag screws. Examples:



eye lag --- synonymous with eye lag screw

eye lag bolt --- A commonly used name for what is also, and more correctly, called an eye lag screw

eye lag screw --- A construct identical to an eye bolt except that it has a tapered end (making it a screw rather than a bolt, and unlike its namesake the eye bolt, it is really a screw not a bolt even though it has a uniform (not tapered) shank (but it IS pointedon the end). Another way of looking at it is that it is a lag screw with a ring for a head. If these constructs are fairly small and have a discontinuous ring (and sometimes even with a continuous ring) they are called eye hooks or eye screws. In practice, the distinction between eye hook and eye lag screw seems to be vague to non-existent but the name "lag" usually implies the larger/thicker version and the term "hook" generally implies the that the eye is a discontinuous piece, just bent from the shank. The names are so interchangeable that I have the items included in the composite pic below are what I think SHOULD be called eye hooks. These constructs may or may not have a shoulder but most commonly they do because otherwise you might turn them after then have entered the material all the way and thus create a circular gouge in the surface They are most commonly steel. Examples:



eye screw --- synonymous with eye hook

face mounted --- For a hinge leaf this mean that it is mounted on the face or back, as opposed to the edge, of the door and frame to which it is attached. It may or may not have any mortises. Not to be confused with surface mounted. Compare/contrast to edge mounted. See hinge mounting positions and styles for an illustration.

face mounted hinge --- Any hinge uses face mounting on both of the (hinge) leaves. See hinge mounting positions and styles for an illustration. Compare/contrast to edge mounted hinge.

face nailing --- Inserting a nail directly into (that is, perpendicular to) the face of a plank. When a nail is driven through the face of one plank and into the end grain of a support post, it's a tossup whether it should be called end nailing or face nailing, though the preference seems to be end nailing, with face nailing being more often used when nailing together two parallel planks or when nailing through a face and into a side. Compare/contrast to toe nailing and end nailing. Example:



fastener --- A solid device (that is, not an adhesive) used to join two objects together. Below is a list of the ones most commonly used in woodworking, with links to their entries in this glossary. Several of these have many subtypes that are discussed with the individual terms. NOTE: INCOMPLETE SECTION --- some of the terms below are not yet defined in this glossary

fast pin hinge --- A hinge in which the hinge pin is fastened permanently in place as opposed to being a removable cylinder, as it is in, for example, a door hinge. "fast" in this instance does not mean speedy, it means permanent and in fact another name for this is "fixed pin hinge". For an example of a fast pin hinge, see barrel hinge (type #2). Compare/contrast to loose pin hinge.

fender washer --- A washer that is very like a common flat washer except that it has an OD that is something like 4 or 5 times the ID rather than the 2 times of a normal flat washer. The purpose of fender washers is to distribute the pressure of the screw or bolt head far wider than is the case with a normal washer; fender washers are designed for use with very thin material (hey, like the fender of a car !). There is an extra-thick, heavy-duty version of these that are used for heavy constuction and are called "dock washers". Examples:



finishing nail --- A slender nail with a small, semi-spherical head, which is used with trim and molding and in places where nail holes must be very small. It is called a "finishing" nail because (1) it is used in finish carpentry (this is the original source of the name) and (2) it is used in places where the finish of a piece shows, and it is important to use a small-headed nail so that it is unobtrusive and/or can be unobtrusively covered with wood putty and finished to blend in with the surrounding surface. It has the significant disadvantage of poor holding power because of the small head, so is not used in situations where holding power matters much. Also, it is thinner relative to its length than a same-length common nail but is sold using the same "penny" designation based on LENGTH (rather than the same number of nails per unit price) as the common nail of the same length. SO ... a 6-penny finishing nail will have the same length as a 6-penny common nail but will weigh considerably less because it is much thinner (a little thinnner even than a box nail of the same length). There is a corresponding version of this for screws, the trim screw which is also called a "finishing screw". Examples:



finishing screw --- synonymous with trim screw

finish screw --- synonymous with trim screw

finish washer --- (aka finish cup washer, aka trim washer) A washer for use with countersunk heads on bolts or screws but without the countersunk hole. They are shaped something like a donut sliced horizontally and have several uses. Use them to dress up exposed screw heads or to convert a flat head to a "pan" head when the screw cannot be countersunk. They also help distribute the load which can be helpful with softer materials and they work well for creating eyes or headlights on childrens’ toys. Compare/contrast to flush washer. Examples:



fixed pin hinge --- synonymous with fast pin hinge

flange --- An external or internal rib, or rim (lip), used either for strength (e.g. the flanges of an I-beam which are the horizontal members at the top and bottom of the beam) or for a guide (e.g. the flange of a train wheel, which keeps the wheel on the track) or for attachment to another object (e.g. the flange on the end of a pipe). The horizontal members of a box beam are called flanges. The extensions of roof flashing, usually at chimneys and plumbing vents, are sometimes called flanges. Some handled tools with a general shape like that of a screwdriver (although possibly a radically different use) sometimes have a flange or shoulder to prevent the tang or shank from being driven too far into the handle and splitting it. Items such as cup hooks often have a part that is called the shoulder or flange.

flange bolt --- A bolt with a flange at the bottom of the head to provide more surface over which to spread out the pressure of the head on the object being clampled. These are most commonly hex head bolts but there is nothing in the definition that requires that. Flange bolts many or may not have serrated ridges on the bottom of the flange. Examples:



flanged --- Having one or more flanges.

flanged cap nut --- A cap nut with a flange around the bottom to more widely distribute the pressure on the surface being clamped. Examples:



flanged countersunk washer --- A countersunk washer with a flange around the rim to distribute the pressure on the clamped surface more widely. Examples:



flange nut --- A nut that has a flange around the side that is going put against the object being clampled. Mostly these are hex head nuts but there are also cap nuts that are flanged. The flange serves to distribute the pressure from the nut over a wider area of the part being clamped, reducing the chance of damage to the part and making it less likely that the nut might loosen due to an uneven surface. The flange may be serrated to provide a locking action, in which case the nut is formally called a serrated flange nut. The serrations are angled such that they keep the nut from rotating in the direction that would loosen it. Examples:



flathead --- (1) Short for flat head screwdriver
flathead --- (2) A flat head screw
flathead --- (3) A bolt or screw that is designed to be driven with a flat head screwdriver.
flathead --- (4) The HEAD of a bolt or screw that is designed to be driven with a flat head screwdriver.

flat head screw --- (1) A screw that has a flat head, so that it will be flush with the object it is screwed into; this requires a countersunk head. It usually has a tapered shank but these exist as both wood screws and machine screws and the machine screws have a straight shank and often have an allen head drive slot but the wood screws almost always have a flat head", a phillips head, or a Robertson drive slot. The most common materials for these are steel, brass, and aluminum.
flat head screw --- (2) Any screw that uses a flat head screw driver.
Examples of type (1):


Examples of type (2):



flat head screwdriver --- This is THE standard screwdriver and what people normally mean when they say screwdriver (the other widely used version is the phillips head screw driver). The end is shaped like a long skinny rectangle (like a minus sign) and fits into a corresponding slot in the screw head. The big disadvantage of flat head screws and their drivers is the tendency to strip the slot in the top of the screw head when high torque is used. They just don't provide much protection against that. Examples:



flat speed nut --- see spring nut

flat washer --- The most common type of washer, the flat washer is a simple disk of material, normally metal, and is designed to distribute the pressure from the head of a bolt or screw across more of the surface (into which the fastener is being put) than would be covered by just the head of the fastener. Compare/contrast to fender washer and split ring lock washer. There is a square version of this called, not very surprizingly, the square washer Examples:



floor Closer --- Also known as a spring pivot, this is a spring loaded door closing device that is installed in a recess in the floor below a pivot hinge in order to regulate and control the opening and closing of the door. These have a heavy spring which is attached to the pivot pin where it comes down into the floor and it in turn is rigidly attached inside the bottom of the door.

flush cranked hinge --- A specialty type of single cranked hinge that has a cutout in the frame leaf so that an inset cabinet door can swing a full 180 degrees and be flush with the face frame both when open and when closed. Actually, I may have been hasty in accepting this definition since I find that ther are in fact some double cranked hinges that are the flush type. They look like the some of the ones in the composite pic below except that the tongue-like leaf also has a dogleg. Examples:



flush hinge --- You might think from the name that this has something to do with a hinge being flush-mounted with a mortise in the door or the frame, but quite the opposite, what it really is is a type of edge mounted hinge that is also a surface mounted hinge. That is, it is mounted on the edge of the door and frame and with no mortise in the either. It has what amounts to being a mortise (generally referred to as a "recess" in this case) in one of the leaves (which is generally mounted as the frame leaf) into which the other leaf fits when the door is closed so as to provide only a single hinge leaf's width of opening between the door and the frame. They are used as edge mounted hinges in any cabinet doors that don't need to have a really tight fit between the frame and the back edge of the door. Rather than being "flush mounted" in the sense of being mortised, this type of hinge avoids the need for a mortise in the door or the frame. Generally, these are not used for heavy load-bearing applications. Examples:

need to add flush hinge pics


flush washer --- A washer that is like a flat washer except that the center is pressed down into a cone shape to conform to the underside of a countersunk screw and the rim acts to spread the load out a lot more than is the case with a countersunk head alone. Compare/contrast to finish washer. Examples:



folding screen hinge --- This is a type of hinge that is functionally similar to the double action spring hinge in that it allows 360 degrees of movement, but it is lighter weight and has no springs because it is designed to allow a folding screen to be repositioned but not actually swung back and forth the way cafe door is, for example. That is, the folding screen hinge is not really a load-bearing hinge at all. Like the double action spring hinge it has, effectively, three leaves and two barrels, but it is a somewhat more complex layout and less strength as you can see in the pics below. Examples:



folding table hinge --- synonymous with butler tray hinge [actually, there are several types of hinges that could well be used in fold-up table tops, but they each have their own names]

frame bolt --- An ill-defined term that seems to refer most often to flange bolts as used in framing, with bed frames, in automobiles, etc. but also is used to designate other types of bolts when they are used in framing applications. In other words, this seems to be a loosely defined term based on the USE of a bolt, not the style of the bolt itself.

frameless door --- A door for a frameless cabinet. These doors are always overlay doors rather than inset doors (see face frame doors for further discussion) because inset doors in a frameless cabinet would give the total construct quite an unattractive look. Compare/contrast to face frame door. Examples:



framing hammer --- Similar to a heavy claw hammer but with two differences. First, the claw is straight rather than curved which allows it to be more easily used as a crowbar. Second, the head has a waffle-like crosshatching and framing nails have a similar crosshatching on the top of their heads, thus providing a striking surface between hammer and nail that is far less likely to slip off than often happens when a normal smooth-top common nail is stuck with a claw hammer (which has a smooth face). The crosshatching on the head of this type hammer does tend to mar the wood, but since it is framing, it will be covered up and the marring won't be seen. Some framing hammers have a magnetized slot along the top edge of the striking surface to hold a nail. This allows the nail to be placed and driven quickly with just one hand. Framing hammers are going the way of the dodo bird now that nail guns have taken over in framing work. Examples:



framing nail --- A common nail that has been crosshatched across the top of its head so that when struck by a framing hammer (which has a crosshatched head face) the blow will be very unlikely to result in the hammer head slipping off of the nail head. Framing nails are going the way of the dodo bird since the advent of nail guns, which are MUCH faster than a framing hammer and nail, and the nails in the nail guns don't need the crosshatched head of the true framing nail. In fact, the true framing nail as described here is SO rare that I was unable to find even one pic of it anywhere anywhere on the Internet. The one example I could find was a drawing, not a pic of an actual nail, but it does show correctly what they look like:



framing screw --- A vague term that seems to be applied to any screw, regardless of type, if it is used in a framing application.

French cleat --- A simple, easy-to-build but strong mounting mechanism for wall cabinets (or most any heavy wall-mounted object that has, or that can be made to have, a flat back). The "cleat" is nothing more than a beveled plank that is mounted to the wall studs and that then provides a long "hook" on which to hang the flat-backed object. A corresponding "hook" plank (also beveled) is glued/screwed onto the top back of the object to be hung. Variations include whether the cleat is open or hidden and for hidden cleats, whether or not there is an added rim arount the back of the hung object so that it appears to be completely flush with the wall. The open cleat is commonly used as a shop mount for various tools and hidden cleats are commonly used to mount object in, for example, a living room. If the plate mounted to a cleat drops significantly below the bottom of the cleat, it's a good idea to put a trim strip along the bottom (as shown in the example below) so that the plate doesn't sag inward at the bottom Examples:



friction hinge --- Any hinge that has a friction mechanism in the (hinge) barrel that causes friction between the (hinge) knuckles to keep a door open at any fixed position. Although a well balanced butt hinge will allow a door to sit at any position, a strong breeze will move the door unless the hinge is a friction hinge and then it will take a little more force to move the door.

full mortise hinge --- Any hinge that has both of its (hinge) leaves sitting in mortises rather than being surface mounted. Leaves that sit in mortises are flush with the surface that they are in, so that they do not get in the way of the door closing. Compare/contrast to full surface hinge.

full surface hinge --- Any hinge that has both of its (hinge) leaves surface mounted rather than sitting in mortises. Leaves that are surface mounted can, depending on where they are mounted, interfere with the closing of a door, or at the very least require a gap that would not be required if they were mortised. The advantage of surface mounted leaves is very simple ... you don't have to create a mortise. Compare/contrast to full mortise hinges.

full wrap around hinge --- A type of hinge that wraps around both the edge and the back of both a door and the face frame on an inset face frame cabinet. It provides strength and a full 180 degree opening range. You COULD do the same job with a butt hinge but you'd have to put screws only into the edge of each whereas the full wrap around design allows mounting screws in both the edge and the back of the door and the frame. Sometimes 270 degree hinges are called wrap around hinges (and several variations on that name, which are listed with the term 270 degree hinge), but the item shown here is what is normally intended by the term full wrap around hinge and there is another style called the partial wrap aound hinge. The partial wrap around hinge is typically used in a frameless cabinet whereas the full wraparound is used in a face frame cabinet. Examples:



fully concealed hinge --- Any hinge that has the entire mechanism hidden from view when the hinged object is closed. This is highly desirable on some objects, such as jewelry boxes and entertainment center cabinet doors. There are several types of fully concealed hinges, the most common of which are listed below with links to their full definitions and illustrations. Then in the composite pic below that are shown a number of "miscellaneous" concealed hinges, some of which have a body style that is VERY close to the SOSS hinge, but the mechanism is slightly different. Compare/contrast to partially concealed hinge.



galvanic corrosion --- A process that causes corrosion in dissimilar metals that are in contact with each other in the presence of salt water (or certain other chemicals); the combination of metals and electrolyte creates an electronic process which separates material off of one of the metallic surfaces. Non-conducting phenolic washers are used to prevent this when, for example, steel screws are used in aluminum blocks.

gate hook --- [also gatehook] A type of hooking system most often used to keep screen doors closed. It consists of an eye hook on each end and a long, specially shaped cup hook attached to one of them and fitting into the other. Also called a "hook and eye". Examples:



glass door hinge --- A type of pivot hinge designed specifically for use with glass doors. What accomodates glass doors so well is a "U" cross-sectioned bracket that holds the glass. Sometimes screws are used to hold the bracket, but more often it is glued to the glass (or installed as a pressure fit with high-friction rubber) so as to avoid having to drill screw holes in the glass. The (hinge) pin then protrudes directly up or down into the frame. I have seen even very heavy full-sized glass doors mounted with this technique, but it is more commonly used in display cases and home entertainment centers. Examples:



grub screw --- synonymous with set screw

gudgeon --- The "hole" part of a pintle and gudgeon hinge. When used on ships' rudders, the gudgeon is almost always a U-shaped strap with the hole a the middle of the U, but in other application, other types are used. Examples:



gutter spike --- This is a long nail (usually about 7" to 8" long and up to 3/8" in diameter, although more like 1/4" is more common) that is specifically used to install roof gutters. As shown in the composite pic below, the nail is put into the outer hole in the gutter, then inserted through the ferrule and then through the inner hole in the gutter and driven into the fascia. The ferrule prevents the nail from being hammered in so far that it bends the gutter. Generally, these are quite similar to common nails in appearance, but the end of the shank may be ridged for better holding power. There are long screws that are also used specifically for the same job for even more holding power. Examples:



hand countersink --- A manual tool that allows you to drill out the upper portion of a hole so that the head of a screw will sit flush with the face of the object it is put into. There is a version that is used in drills just called the countersink bit. Examples:



handedness --- Various items in woodworking, including tools, locks, closers, some hinges and other hardware, require that you take into account a direction of motion and/or a method of mounting to accomdate that motion. The most widely known handed too is the scissors. It's very annoying to use a "normal" pair of scissors in your left hand so left-handed scissors were developed. For hinges, see hinge handedness.

handscrew --- A traditional woodworking clamp with two long wooden jaws joined by two threaded rods that have handles in line with the shank. The rods adjust independently by turning the handles, which allows you to position the jaws parallel or at angles to one another. Handscrews come in a variety of sizes, based on the length of the jaws, generally from about 4" to as much as 12". There are two disadvantages of a handscrews. First, there's no quick release; the only way to move the jaws is by the slow turning of the screws, and second, it is hard to tell when the surfaces are really parallel to the workpiece (and thus providing even pressure). Examples:



hanger bolt --- A metal cylinder (not tapered and most commonly steel) with screw threads on one end and machine threads on the other end and the center either fully threaded or ,more often, "plain" which means there is a section without threading to make installation easier (you can grip the unthreaded part with vise grips). Often used with corner braces on the underside of table corners, where the screw threaded end is screwed into the table leg and the machine screw end runs through an angle bracket and which can then be tightened by the bolt on the that end of the hanger bolt. Another use is in overhead installation of things that need a machine screw to attach to but have to go into a wooden joist. Do not confuse with dowel screw which seems somewhat similar but has screw threads on both ends and has completely different uses. Vendors sometimes list these two different items indiscriminately as one being the other. Examples:



head --- (1) The top portion of a nail, screw, bolt, and many other items. The design of the head often distinguishes between and among such items and is specific to particular uses and tools.
head --- (2) The area at the top of a window or door in a building. See also header.

head bolt --- A bolt that is to be screwed into a threaded piece of metal, as opposed to being put THROUGH a piece and fastened on the other side with a nut. A head bolt in practice is identical to other bolts; the name is based on the USE, not the design. The head bolt IS likely to be threaded all the way up the shank whereas some bolts have an unthreaded section near the head.

headside --- The piece of wood in a joint through which a screw or nail passes on its way into the receiving piece, which is known as the pointside.

hexagon hinge --- Supposedly, this is a type of butt hinge used with a cabinet that is set at a 45 degree angle in a corner, which makes the door and the two areas to each side of it three parts of a hexagon, thus the name. The panels of the door are beveled on the backside to 135 degrees and this hinge is designed to work with that. These types of doors are common in kitchens. NOTE: I have seen VERY few references to this type of hinge, I found one pic of it and forgot to save it and could not find it again (it was a butt hinge with an angle in one leaf) and I am doubtful about the need for this type of hinge since for the intended application, depending on the desired mounting technique and the specifics of the door/cabinet arrangement, one could use a simple butt hinge or a half cranked hinge or a full wrap around hinge or a partial wrap around hinge.

hex cap screw --- A cap screw with a hexagonal head

hex coupling nut --- see coupling nut

hex head bolt --- A bolt with a 6-sided head that can be easily turned with a crescent wrench. Such bolts may be threaded all the way along the shank or not. Examples:



hex head nut --- (also "hex nut") A machine nut with a hexagonal-shaped outer rim.

H hinge --- Basically, a butt hinge with an "H" shape for use on inset doors. Although some versions could be edge mounted hinges, that does not seem to be at all the norm and most of them are face mounted hinges. Some are specifically designed for use on doors that are a bit thin for edge-mounted butt hinges. In any case, the "H" shape means the (hinge) leaves are taller than the (hinge) barrel which is a bit like on a parlimenthinge but more extreme. The short barrel is OK because this type of hinge is designed for only modest load-bearing requirements and the long leaves are both for decorative effect and to provide a longer surface in which to put mounting holes. Some that are use mostly for decorative purposes have mounting hole only at the top and bottom of each leaf. Small H hinges tend to be used for cabinet hinges, while larger ones are for passage doors or closet doors. A very similar hinge is the HL hinge. Examples:



hidden hinge --- synonymous with fully concealed hinge

high collar lock washer --- An extra high split ring lock washer. Split ring lock washers are essentially just normal flat washers with a split in them but the high collar version isn't flat at all. Rather, it is more of a high cylinder than a flat cylinder. This makes it a much stronger locking mechanism than a normal split ring lock washer. Examples:



hi lo thread --- A type of screw thread where there are actually two courses of thread, one higher than the other. These offer low driving torque and fairly high holding power in material that is somewhat curmbly such as masonry, wallboard, particle board, hardboard, etc. It is also fairly effective in very soft woods. The design traps material between the higher threads without causing it to crumble. Examples:



hinge --- Usually a three-part mechanism, normally but not necessarily made of metal, that holds two pieces of wood (or other material) together in a way that allows them to rotate, to a limited degree, relative to each other, around the axis of the hinge. The parts of the common types of hinges are the (hinge) pin and two (hinge) leaves but there are more types of hinges than you can shake a stick at and not every one of them is of the basic (butt hinge) type or even a variation on it. They are most commonly used for doors but have other uses (e.g. ships rudders, drop leaf tables). Types of hinges, and hinge-related terms, include: NOTE: INCOMPLETE SECTION --- some of the terms below are not yet defined and there are others not yet listed. Please note that some of the "definitions" given here are overly simplistic for brevity and the full definitions should be examined for a full understanding of the term. Also, while this list is reasonably comprehensive, it is not exhaustive. There are some hinge types that are so rarely seen/used that little information is available on them and it is also possible that some of them are only available from one manufacturer. I figure that if they are that obscure, I don't really need to have them here. An example of this is the "pivot reinforced (butt) hinge".

hinge barrel --- The portion of the (hinge) leaves that contains the (hinge) knuckles that accept the (hinge) pin. When talking about this item in relation to hinges, it is never called the "hinge barrel", it is just called the "barrel". For an illustration, see hinge parts.

hinge cup --- part of a European hinge

hinge dimensions --- The graphic below describes the various dimensions that apply to "standard" hinges such as the butt hinge (but not to some other types such as the European hinge).

need to add hinge dimensions pics


hinge finial --- A finial that is put on the top or bottom of a hinge pin to give the hinge a more decorative appearance. Examples:

need to add hinge finialpics


hinge handedness --- add definition

hinge knuckle --- The parts of a hinge that make up the (hinge) barrel through which the (hinge) pin goes. For an illustrations, see hinge parts and hinge dimensions.

hinge leaf --- the flat part of a hinge that attaches to a frame or the object being hinged. When talking about this item in relation to hinges, it is never called the "hinge leaf", it is just called the "leaf", although sometimes the one that attaches to a door is called the "door leaf" and the one that attaches to a frame is called the "frame leaf". For an illustration, see hinge parts.

hinge length --- The length of the leaves of a hinge parallel to the pin. See hinge dimensions.

hinge mounting positions and styles --- A graphic showing various ways that hinges can be mounted on the edge and face of a door or frame, with and without mortises.



hinge parts --- A simple illustration of the (hinge) barrel, the (hinge) leaf, the (hinge) knuckle, and the (hinge) pin sections of a common style hinge. I put "(hinge)" in front of these terms because technically, that's the right name, but it is overly formal and not normally used in the context of talking about a hinge. Sometimes, depending on what is being hinged and how it is being hinged, the two leaves may be referred to as the door leaf and the frame leaf (for example, this would apply when hanging a house door. The knuckles of the two leaves mate up to form a hollow cylinder called the barrel, into which is slipped the pin. This is the simple, or "standard" hinge style, but there are many others, some of which do not look anything like this. The illustration shown below is a butt hinge but it is illustrative in general of many styles.



hinge pin --- the solid cylinder central part of a hinge that slips into the (hinge) knuckles to keep the two (hinge) leaves from separating. When talking about this item in relation to hinges, it is rarely called the "hinge pin", it is normally just called the "pin". For an illustration, see hinge parts.

hinge pitch --- On a hinge, this is the length from one point on a knuckle to the same point on the next knuckle up, taken parallel to the (hinge) barrel. See hinge dimensions. It is interesting to note that even if the knuckles on the leaves are different heights, the pitch will be the same on both leaves (assuming there is not an unusual amount of end play due to one set of knuckles being shorter than the opening left by the other set).

hinge stile --- A door stile to which a hinge is affixed.

hinge width --- The distance from the outer edge of one leaf to the outer edge of the other leaf when the hinge is lying flat. See hinge dimensions.

HL hinge --- Similar to an H hinge except that there is a long horizontal tab on one leaf which means it HAS to be face mounted rather than edge mounted. Large HL hinges were common for passage doors, room doors and closet doors in the 17th, 18th and even 19th centuries. On taller doors H hinges were occasionally used in the middle along with HL hinges at the top and bottom. I noticed that every example I found of this type hinge had plain bore screw holes, never countersunk. I hypothesize that this is because back when these were in common use, cleanly countersinking the screw holes was not as trivial as it is today and countersunk screws were likely not as readily available. Since these are used at both the top and the bottom of a door there is a handedness to them. They are always positioned so that the top hinge has the long leaf portion at the top and the bottom one has it at the bottom. Examples:



hook --- A metal rod, threaded on one end and bent on the other end into a shape that depends on the use. Common types:

hook and eye --- synonymous with gate hook

hospital tip hinge --- A butt hinge with a (hinge) barrel that is beveled on both the top and the bottom towards the door when the door is closed. This is for use in detention centers and hospitals and is to prevent the barrel from being used to hang things (most particularly self-hanging of suicidal people). Examples:

need to add hospital tip hinge pics


industrial hinge --- A heavy-duty architectural hinge for use in public places where doors are subjected to much heavier use than are doors in residential settings which use lighter-duty versions of architectural hinges called "residential hinges".

insert nut --- synonymous with threaded insert

internal-external tooth lock washer --- A lock washer for which the locking mechanism is a set of teeth around the inner rim and another around the outer rim of what would otherwise be a flat washer. This type has the same disadvantage as the external tooth lock washer in that it will mar the surface (of the object being clamped) where it shows, but this type has the greatest locking power of the toothed-type lock washers. Examples:



internal-external washer --- synonymous with internal-external tooth lock washer

internal tooth lock washer --- A lock washer for which the locking mechanism is a set of teeth around the inner rim of what would otherwise be a flat washer. This type, as contrasted to an external tooth lock washer, has less holding power, but will not mar the surface (of the object being clamped) where it shows. Examples:





invisible hinge --- synonymous with fully concealed hinge

jam nut --- a thinner than usual machine nut that is used specifically to be jammed up against a normal nut (or possibly another jam nut) so that the pressure of the two on each other makes it very difficult for either to move. The point is to create a situation where the pair of nuts together will not loosen due to vibration whereas a single nut might. Jam nuts are typically half the thickness of normal nuts. They can also be used in situations where it is desirable to tighten a nut quite a lot but without putting pressure onto the object that the bolt is going through; in this situation the normal nut is put into position with light pressure and then the jam nut is tightened up against it so that the two together will not vibrate off of the bolt, but there is only light pressure (by the nut on one side and the bolt head on the other side) against the pieces being clamped together. Examples:



J bolt --- A rod threaded on one end and then bent into a "J" shape. Most often the bend is a uniform "U" shape but it can be more circular or less circular and more of just a slightly-more-that-90-degrees bend. The purpose of a J bolt is to be embedded in concrete with the threaded part extending up out of the concrete and thus, like it's cousin the L bolt it is sometimes called a "cast in place" bolt. Examples:



Kep nut --- see lock nut

K-lock nut --- see lock nut

knuckle --- see hinge knuckle

knuckle length --- see hinge dimensions

lag bolt --- A commonly used (but technically incorrect) alternate name for what is more often, and more correctly, called a lag screw. This fastener does NOT take a nut so it's screw, not a bolt. (see bolts vs screws).

lag pintle --- A particular type of pintle which is just an L-shaped cylinder with threads on one end and a short barrel-stop below the pin. It is attached by just screwing it in. Widely used in mounting to a round gate post where the normal strap-type pintle and the plate pintle don't fit well. Examples:



lag screw --- A screw with a hexagonal head so that it can be turned with a wrench instead of a screwdriver, thus allowing more torque. Typically used for heavy-duty joints such as screwing a couple of two-by-fours together or screwing a load-bearing metal plate onto timber, but also used with a lag screw shield to screw things into masonry. Due to the need for strength these are pretty much always made of steel. They come in a wide variety of diameters and lengths. They are also called, technically incorrectly, and less commonly, "lag bolts" because of the straight shank and the head that is more commonly seen on a bolt than a screw; they have wood-screw type threads and are not designed to screw into a nut. See bolt vs screw. Example:



lag screw shield --- A lead sleeve that is put into masonry so that a lag screw can be used to attach something to it. Operation is similar to that of an expansion anchor bolt. Examples:



lath nail --- A slender nail that is used to attach lath to studs. It is skinny so as to avoid splitting the lath strips. Sometimes particularly short lath nails will have ridges along the shank to enhance holding power. I note that although the definition, and common sense, say that the lath nail is and should be slender, some nails sold as lath nails are NOT particularly slender. Examples:



L bolt --- A rod threaded on one end and then bent into an "L" shape. The purpose of an L bolt is to be embedded in concrete with the threaded part extending up out of the concrete and thus, like it's cousin the J bolt it is sometimes called a "cast in place" bolt. Examples:



lead screw --- A device that uses a threaded rod with a mechanism riding on it to translate rotational motion to linear motion. A very common woodworking application is in a bench vise which uses a large lead screw to translate the rotational movement of the turning rod to the in/out motion of the vise jaws. Lead screws do not work as well if the thread profile is triangular as on a bolt as they do if the threads are more rectangular in cross section. Even with rectangular cross section threads and a heavy coating of grease, lead screws are not designed for continuous, powered motion because of the friction inherent in their design. A similar device with less friction, but more costly manufacturing, is the ball screw.

leaf width --- In a hinge, this is the distance from the center of the (hinge) barrel to the outer edge of a (hinge) leaf. See hinge dimensions.

Lhook --- A small metal rod, threaded on one end and bent into an "L" shape on the unthreaded portion, and it may or may not have a circular flange separating the two sections. The device is screwed into a wall or other holding element so that things can be hung from it. Examples:



lift off hinge --- A type of hinge that allows the hinged item (such as a cabinet door) to be lifted off of the fixed item (such as the cabinet) just by lifting it up and without the need for any tools. These may or may not be a type of cam lift hinge and if the end of the barrel opposite the one through which the pin protrudes/enters is totally closed, these may be sold under the designation barrel hinge (type 2). Other types of hinges that can be liftoff types (but will not necessarily be) include the HL hinge, the olive knuckle hinge" and others. Examples:



lock nut --- A nut with some sort of mechanism that prevents vibration from loosening it. There are two basic forms, both shown in the composite pic below. The first is a captive-washer nut, which simply has a lock washer (generally an external tooth type) that is integrated with, and not removable from, the nut. The washer may or may not spin freely; for the fixed-position washer, the tightening has to be done from the bolt end, whereas if the washer spins freely, the nut OR the bolt may be tightened. When the washer spins freely, this type is known as a "K-lock" nut or a "Kep" nut The second is the nylon-insert type which has a nylon center instead of a metal one; the nylon compresses somewhat when force is applied during the tightening of the bolt, thus creating a spring-like force against the nut. Another mechanism that keeps nuts from vibrating loose is the castle nut which is not normally called a "lock nut", just a castle nut.Examples:



lock washer --- A washer that in some way causes the screw or bolt head to lock in place so that it will not be affected by vibrations. Machinery parts, for example, often vibrate severely and a bolt can just back right out of a hole because of the vibration so some kind of pressure is needed to keep the bolt from moving in the first place. Lock washers are rarely needed in wood because wood won't generally vibrate a screw out of its hole the way threaded metal will. The primary types of lock washer are:

loose pin hinge --- The "normal" type of (hinge) pin; the pin is not permanently affixed to any of the (hinge) knuckles but rather floats freely and can be removed so that the knuckles can be separated. The most common type of hinge to use this is the standard residential door hinge. Compare/contrast to fast pin hinge

machine bolt --- (1) A little-used term that simply designates a hex head bolt or square head bolt.
machine bolt --- (2) [little used] synonymous with machine screw.

machine nut --- A term that is rarely used because it is what most people MEAN when they say "nut", so rather than being called a machine nut, it would normally just be called a nut. It is a type of nut that can have a square or hexagonal outside and is about half as tall as it is wide. The more common names for these are based on the shape and are "hex nut", "hex head nut", "square nut", and "square head nut". There is a special-use machine nut called the jam nut which is just a thin hex-headmachine nut. Examples:



machine screw --- This is a VERY widely used term that is actually a misnomer but perfectly acceptable because of wide usage. Anything that someone calls a "machine screw" is 99%+ sure to be a small bolt and if it isn't a bolt, it's a screw (not a "machine" screw). See also, bolts vs screws. The name seems to have come about because in earlier days of bolts and screws, bolts were always bigger than screws, so when small versions of bolts were developed with the advent of more precise threading capabilities, they were called machine screws instead of bolts. Compare/contrast to wood screw. Example:



masonry nail A type of nail that is specifically designed to be driven into masonry. These are of hardened steel and come in several shank styles. Most definitions say that a masonry nail has a fluted shank for extra holding power in masonry, but in practice many items sold as masonry nails do NOT have fluted ridged shanks. There is a type of masonry nail (not shown in the composite pic below) that is specifically designed for holding down softer material, such as carpet tack strips to a concrete floor, that have an extra wide head. Examples:



masonry screw --- Also called a "concrete screw", this is a coarse-thread screw that, unlike most screws, has a straight, rather than a tapered, shank (but they do have tapered ends). It is designed to go directly into a hole drilled in masonry with a masonry drill bit. The coarse threads are necessary to grip mansonry and the need for strength dictates that these are always made of steel. Masonry screws have various types of drive heads but the most common is a combination flat head drive slot in a hexagonal top like that of a hex head bolt. Similar-use fasteners include a lag screw with a lag screw shield and any normal bolt used as an expansion anchor bolt. Such screws often use hi lo threads. Examples:



mirror screw --- A screw or a bolt that has a threaded hole in the middle of its head (in addition to the drive slot) so that another, smaller screw with a large decorative head can be screwed into the top of the mirror screw for use in a mirror (or elsewhere that "elegance" is desired) so that what shows doesn't look at all like a screw head, it looks like a decorative circle or dome (these heads are typically brass or are chrome-plated). Examples:



molly bolt --- A clever device for fastening stuff to walls. It consist of a cylinder of metallic strips with full hollow cylinders at each end through which a small bolt is run and a head with a pair of spike flanges. You drill a hole in a wall, insert a properly sized molly bolt, tighten the bolt head which causes the metal strips to bend and press up against the inside of the wall, thus holding the whole thing in place. The spiked flanges on the head keep the head from spinning as you tighten the bolt. You then remove the bolt, put the thing to be mounted up against the molly bolt head and reinsert the bolt through the object, tighten it back down, and voila! There are versions that have a sharply tapered plastic cone on the end so that they can be driven directly into drywall without the need for first drilling a hole. Examples:



mortised hinge --- Any hinge that has both the door leaf and the frame leaf sitting in mortises. If only one leaf (and it would usually be the door leaf) is sitting in a mortise and the other is not, this would be called a "single mortise hinge". The purpose of using mortises is so that the object being hinged can fully close; that is, some hinge mounting positions are such that if one or both leaves are not mortised, then the thickness of the leaf/leaves would keep the door (or lid or whatever) from fully closing. Compare/contrast to single mortise hinge and surface mounted hinge. See hinge mounting positions and styles for an illustration.

mushroom headed bolt --- synonymous with timber bolt

nail --- A long, skinny, metal fastener used to join pieces of wood or to join other objects to wood. There are numerous types of nails and they can be made from various types of metal. Nail length is normally measured from the underside of the head down to the point. The most basic nail types are categorized by shape, as opposed to coating (for which see the following list), size, or other characteristics. These include:

Other nail names based on the finish rather than the use and that may apply to more than one basic type of nail. For example, there are bright common nails and bright finishing nails

nail gun --- A hand-operated power tool which drives nails from a carrier strip. "Framing nailers", which drive framing nails are Widely used in the construction trades and has pretty much replaced the framming hammer. "Finish nailers" drive finishing nails and "brad nailers" are for really small nails/brads. Examples:



nail head --- The top of a nail; the portion of a nail that is struck by a hammer. The two most fundamental characteristics of a nail beyond the material it is made from (usually steel) are the shape of the body and the shape of the head. Head shapes range from a very wide flat cylinder on a roofing nail to an almost non-existent head on a finishing nail.

nail holding strength --- One of those poorly defined (in precise technical terms) characteristics that is always mentioned in any full discourse on the properties of wood. It refers to the degree to which the wood tends toward ease or difficulty in removing nails once they have been inserted. Wood that has poor nail holding strength would obviously be a poor candidate for nailed joints. End grain in most woods has poor nail holding strength, some extremely poor. Nail holding strength, when mentioned, normally refers to face and side grain holding strength, not end grain.

nailing plate --- A section of wood attached to metal or masonry so that framing members can be nailed to it. Not to be confused with a nail plate.

nail plate --- A sheet metal plate stamped so that spikes are formed on one side to grab like nails when the plate is pressed into timber to join two pieces. Widely used in prefabricated roof trusses. Not to be confused with a nailing plate. Examples:



nail sizes --- Common nails are sized by an archaic system based on how many old British pennies it took at one point to buy 100 of them, and the symbol for penny is the letter "d". What the ??? you say ... can't the British even SPELL? Well, yes, they can. They can also speak Latin, or used to be able to, and the "d" comes from the Roman name for coin (denarius), not a British penny. It's sort of like the story about why American railroad ties are THIS far apart but that's another story. ANYWAY, it took more pennies to buy 100 of the bigger ones than 100 of the smaller ones, so bigger ones have bigger "penny numbers"; see the chart below which shows the approximate diameter and the length in inches of the normal sizes. Note that the length does not count the head. I have sized this image so that on my monitor, which is set for 1280x800 pixels, the nails are almost exactly full size. I have had no luck for many years now in buying any 2d nails. No one seems to stock them any more. There are penny sizes above 20d ... I'm sure I have some 30d and 40d around and I remember buying some 60d at one point years ago (although I can't remember WHY I bought them ... damned things are almost as big as railroad spikes!). Really big nails are in fact called spikes.


no mortise hinge --- Could refer to any surface mounted hinge but usually is synonymous with bifold door hinge.

nut --- A (typically) square or hexagonal piece of metal with a hole threaded through it to accept a bolt. When the two are screwed together tightly, compressive force increases the friction at the threads such that the two do not normally come apart. Since vibration can sometimes loosen a nut, a split ring lock washer can be used under the head of the bolt to maintain the compressive pressure in the threads to prevent that from happening. There are actually quite a variety of fasteners that are called nuts other than just the common square and hex types. A couple of them are shown in the composit image below. The item that is what is most normally meant by the term "nut" is formally called a machine nut. See also bolts vs screws. Below is a composite pic showing many of the types of nuts, followed by a list of the most common types used in woodworking or related metal working, linked to more extensive definitions and pics.



nylon insert nut --- see lock nut

nylon lock nut --- see lock nut

ogee washer --- a large cast iron washer with an ogee-shaped rim. This is typically used in very heavy construction such as bridge-building because the large bearing surface prevents bolt heads from pulling into the wood under high load. This is an even more heavy-duty construction washer than the dock washer because, while it does not have a greated OD, it is much thicker. Examples:



olive knuckle hinge --- A particular form of H hinge where there is a single knuckle on each (hinge) leaf and each is shaped like an acorn. Although the name derives from it being shaped like an olive, the shape is really more like a back-to-back pair of acorns, as you can see in the composite pic below. These are normally mortised into the edge of a door and into the frame and only the (hinge) barrel will be visible when the door is closed, and they are normally a form of ball bearing hinge. Examples:



open ended wrench --- A type of wrench that is a flat bar with two separated prongs on one or (usually) both ends that fit around the head of a bolt or around a nut to turn it. These come in both English and metric sizes and are sold both individually and in sets. Compare/contrast to crescent wrench. Examples:



overdriven --- Refers to fasteners driven into material with too much force, breaking or crushing the material under the head of the fastener. Compare/contrast to underdriven.

paint clearance --- A spacing in a hinge, this is the dimension between the inner edge of a leaf and the surface of the opposing knuckle. On many hinges, this space is just enough so that the leaf edge doesn't rub against the knuckle and squeek, but if a hinge is going to be painted then there needs to be enough paint clearance so that the rotation of the hinge does not cause the inside of edge of a leaf to scrape the paint off of the outside of the opposing knuckle. For an illustration, see hinge dimensions.

parliment hinge --- A type of hinge that seems to be mostly used in Great Britain, this is a butt hinge that has had scoops removed at the top and bottom which shortens the (hinge) barrel. This reduces its strength, but some people feel that it provides a more aesthetically pleasing appearance, even though since it is normally used as a projection hinge, the scalloped leaves are mostly hidden when it is closed. These are also called "butterfly hinges" in Great Britain, but they would never be confused with what Americans call a butterfly hinge. Although normally mounted as a projection hinge, they are occasionally face-mounted and are used just for the decorative effect, much like the American butterfly hinge but less gaudy and a bit more elegant. Examples:



partially concealed hinge --- Any hinge that has part, but not all, of the mechanism hidden from view when the hinged object is closed. This is not so much a TYPE of hinge as it is a MOUNTING TECHNIQUE for a hinge. For example, a butt hinge when mounted to the edge of a door and to the frame directly opposite the edge (see edge mounted hinge) is a partially concealed hinge, but if that same hinge is face mounted then it is NOT partially concealed. Compare/contrast to fully concealed hinge.

partial wrap around hinge --- A type of hinge that wraps around both the edge and the back of either a door or a frame and butts to the edge of the other. This is a truncated version of the full wrap around hinge; it provides the same 180 degree range of motion as the full wrap around but slightly less mounting strength. The partial wrap around hinge is typically used in a frameless cabinet whereas the full wrapaound is used in a face frame cabinet. Examples:



particle board screw --- As the name says, this type of screw is designed for use with particle board. They are very similar to drywall screws. Most definitions say that they are THINNER than drywall screws, but that seems odd to me since particleboard is heavier than drywall. Looking at screws that are actually sold as one or the other, it is a mixed bag as to which is thicker. Like drywall screws, these have coarse threads and the outer diameter of the threads is larger than the shank. They have countersunk heads and are usually made of steel, but unlike drywall screws the countersinks tend to be uncurved instead of the curved ("bugle") type found on drywall screws and also unlike drywall screws, these tend to have an unthreaded section below the head. The drive slot is most often an Allen head. These screws often use hi lo threads. Compare/contrast to drywall screw Examples:



paumelle hinge --- A hinge that, much like the olive knuckle hinge, has only two (hinge) knuckles but with this hinge, the knuckles are very elongated and have a modernistic, streamlined look. These are more aesthetically pleasing (more "decorative") than, for example, a plain butt hinge but they are somewhat weaker. Examples:

need to add paumelle hinge pics


phenolic --- A particular type of thermosetting resin, the chemical composition of which is beyond the scope of this glossary. As a solid, it is used in making non-conduction washers (see phenolic washer and as a chemical compound, it is used in some finishing agents.

phenolic washer --- A type of washer in which a particular type of nonconducting material (phenolic) is used to prevent electrical conduction between a screw or bolt and the material into which is is inserted. This is to prevent galvanic corrosion, although that is also prevented by several other types of non-conducting shoulder washers. Examples:



phillips head --- A type of screw or bolt head requiring a driver in the shape of plus sign instead of the minus sign shape of the normal flat head screwdriver. The phillips head drive provides a little more protection against stripping the slots than does a flat head screw and driver, but not really all that much; they still strip pretty readily. Compare/contrast to flat head. Examples:



phillips head screw driver --- A screw driver with a head in the shape of a plus sign, rather than the minus sign shape of the normal flat head screw driver. Used to drive phillips head screws, these provide a little more protection against stripping the drive slots than do the flat head screw and driver, but not by much. Examples:



piano hinge --- [aka "continuous hinge"] A long (sometimes VERY long) butt hinge. The name derives, rather obviously, from the fact that this kind of hinge is used on pianos, among other things. Examples:



pilot hole --- A hole drilled in a workpiece to receive the threaded portion of a screw. The pilot hole is just slightly smaller than the screw's thread diameter. Pilot holes are drilled for one (or both) of two reasons; first, to make sure the screw travels on the intended path in the wood rather than being deflected by the grain of the wood and second, to prevent the wood from splitting when the screw is inserted --- many wood species are hard enough that the insertion of a large nail or screw will not locally crush the wood fibers away from the inserted metal as happens in softer wood, but rather will cause the wood split along the grain.

pinch dog --- A type of clamp that is a rectangular "U" shaped piece of metal with sharpened wedge-shaped ends that are driven into the ends of planks that are being glued together so as to pull them together without the use of other clamps. Examples:



pin hinge --- A hinge that consists of nothing but the (hinge) pin. There are two basic uses for this form of hinge. The first is where the (hinge) knuckles are just the object being hinged itself and the pin is put directly into holes drilled in the top and the base of the object and the top then rotates off of the base with the roation centered on the pin. These are used in specialty items such as small ornamental jewelry boxes. The second type is where a flat, inset, box lid has a pin coming out of the rear of each edge and going into the carcass. Examples

need to add pics


pintle --- The "pin" portion of a pintle and gudgeon hinge. When used on ships rudders, the pintle is typically a U-shaped strap with the pin attached at the middle of the U, but in other applications, other types are used. Below are examples of the U-strap type and for the other two common types, see lag pintle and plate pintle.



pintle and gudgeon --- A hinge type that is widely used on ship rudders. Basically it is a pair of U-shaped straps with one (the pintle) having a pin pointing down off the end and the other (the gudgeon) having a hole at the end to accept the pin. The gudgeon is put on the stern of the ship and the pintle is put on the rudder. Although on ships the pair almost universally uses the "strap" style, other applications often use a couple of other styles, all of which are illustrated with the terms pintle and gudgeon.

pipe clamp --- (1) A type of clamp in which a metal pipe is used to separate the jaws, one of which is fixed and the other of which has a screw mechanism for applying pressure. This is exactly the same as a bar clamp except that bar clamps are typically manufactured to fixed sizes (1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet) whereas one can use a pipe of any length. The jaw sections can be purchased from tool companies and the pipe from a local hardware store. Jaws with deep throats are available.
pipe clamp --- (2) A hold-down device that clamps a pipe to wood or masonry. Generally it is a half-cylinder with two flanges for screws, but may be only a partial cylinder with only one screw flange (in which case it is often called a pipe strap). There are numerous other devices that are called pipe clamps, and which DO perform various methods of holding down pipes, or holding pipes together, etc., but most are not related to woodworking or house construction as these are. The back of these pipe clamps / pipe straps may be ridged for extra strength. Examples for both definitions:


type 1 (portable vise)



type 2 (pipe clamp, ALSO used as a cable clamp)


pipe wrench --- A type of wrench that is used on pipes. It has two jaws that are adjustable via a knurled cylinder that moves the upper jaw in a direction parallel to the handle (normal pipe wrench) or perpendicular to it (offset pipe wrench), and the jaws have deep serrations so as to grab pipes firmly. Examples:



pivot door hinge --- A type of hinge that is combined with a sliding mechanism so that you can open a cabinet door 90 degrees and then slid it back out of the way into the cabinet. This is mostly used in entertainment centers, armoires and kitchen cabinets. There is one type of this hinge that uses a a href="#rackandpinon">rack and pinon style mechanism and this is called, not too surprizingly, a "rack and pinion pivot door hinge". Examples:



pivot door runner --- The slide portion of a pivot door hinge.

pivot door slide --- This term is used to mean either a pivot door hinge OR the sliding portion of a pivot door hinge. Personally, I think it should just mean the slide portion, but I've seen it used both ways and I'm not here to make up definitions, just report to them.

pivot hinge --- (1) One type of scissor hinge
pivot hinge --- (2) see glass door hinge
pivot hinge --- (3) A type of hinge that is made for use with shower doors, doors in glass display cases, full-sized glass doors, and any other application where it is desirable (or necessary) to have the weight of the hinged object be taken up by a support on its bottom which also acts as the hinge. There are numerous designs, some include internal springs to close the door automatically. Those for glass doors generally have "U" shaped support brackets at the top and bottom of the door, at the edge that is to be hinges (see glass door hinge), with the (hinge) pin going up or down out of the bracket. For wooden doors, one design uses a heavy horizontal plate through which the pin projects. So the (hinge) leaves on pivot hinges are completly different that the more common type found on butt hinges. A feature that distinguishes this from the scissor hinge is that with this hinge, unlike with the scissor hinge, one (small) part of the item being hinged rotates in the opposite direction from the main body of that item. Examples:



plain bearing hinge --- a hinge with no ball bearings or oil-impregnated or anti-friction bearings

plate pintle --- A particular type of pintle in which the mounting portion is a flat plate. Examples:



plate washer --- A heavy duty washer, usually square but sometimes round, that is used in attaching a sill plate to the foundation. Examples:



plough bolt --- synonymous with plow bolt

plow bolt --- A carriage bolt but with the additional requirement that the head be countersunk; designed to be used in the fabrication of plows. Examples:



plug --- A section of dowel that is inserted into deeply countersunk screw holes then cut off and sanded flush to hide the screw head. Plugs are sometimes used to simulate a pegged look [see dowel joints such as was common in older furniture.

pocket screw hole --- A hole drilled at a sharp angle into a board or panel to allow it to be screwed to another piece of material, generally at a 90 degree angle. This is a popular joinery technique and there are commercial jigs called pocket screw hole jigs to facilitate it. This hole is normally put at a place on the workpiece that will be hidden from view in normal usage of the piece.Examples:



pocket screw hole jig --- A jig, generally manufactured (although some woodworkers do make their own) that facilitates the uniform drilling of pocket screw holes. Because of the sharp angle, these holes are pretty much impossible to drill freehand, so these jigs are quite useful. Examples:



point --- Same meaning as in general English usage; a sharp end on something. In woodworking, it particularly refers to the sharp end of a nail or screw, but also to the sharp end of many tools such as an awl. On nails, the point is often deliberated blunted because a blunted point will crush its way into the wood, which SOUNDS like a bad thing but has the happy result of not pushing the wood fibers aside (as a sharp point would) which is good because pushing the fibers off to each side of the nail can cause the wood to split.

pointside --- The piece of wood in a joint that receives the point of a nail or screw after that fastener passes through the headside.

projection hinge --- A butt hinge (usually specifically a door hinge but it doesn't have to be) that has extra wide (hinge) leaves but with the mounting screw holes clustered out near the edge of the leaves. This allows the hinge to be mounted so that the (hinge) barrel is out away from the door and frame, thus allowing the door to swing 180 degrees even if there is a slight projection on the wall behind the door (when it's open). The first time I ever saw one of these I though it was a normal door hinge installed by some doofus who REALLY misjudged where the screw holes ought to go (I'm not too observant sometimes!). Sometimes, but not always, parliment hinges are a type of projection hinge. Directly below is my normal composit pic showing examples of this item, then below that is a graphic of how it works to clear a projection. Examples:





push nut --- see spring nut

push pin --- A successor to the old-style thumb tack, this is a short nail with a large plastic, easily gripable head (looks a little like a scaffold nail head), used to affix papers to bulletin boards. Examples:



quadrant hinge --- A specialty hinge for use on things like jewelry boxes, this device combines the feature of being totally hidden from view when the lid is closed and the ability to hold the lid open at about 90 degrees. it has a curved element that goes into a deep mortise in the box when closed. It has two L-shaped leaves that have to be mortised and the curved element goes into a deep mortise under the frame leaf. Examples:



quick release mechanism --- Any mechanism that allow for rapid release (and usually application as well) of a set of jaws or other restraining or positioning device. An excellent, and common, example is that found on most bench vises where the mating part of the screw mechanism can be moved away from the tightening screw by a lever next to the handle of the vise, thus allowing the jaws to be moved in and out freely. The most common way of accomplishing this (and this is the method used with bench vises) is the split nut. Once the jaws are in the desired position, the quick release lever is itself released and the screw mechanism once again engages, allowing a pressured clamping with the vise. The concept of "releasing quickly" actually applies to the device itself, not to the object being retained by the device; that is, when the device is holding an object the quick release mechanism might not work because it is under pressure, so the quick release action is often applicable only when the device is not yet in use (and that is definitely the case in the example of a bench vise) and an object under clamping pressure can NOT be release quickly by the quick release mechanism, it has to be released slowly by the clamping mechanism.

rack and pinon door hinge --- A particular type of pivot door hinge that uses a rack and pinion mechanism.

ratchet --- [verb] To move something by small amounts in only one direction (linear or rotary).
ratchet --- [noun] A mechanism consisting of a toothed wheel or rack engaged with a pawl that permits it to apply force in only one direction (it spins freely in the other direction), either linearly or rotationally. Numerous tightening devices, such as some forms of socket wrenches, use ratchets. In fact, socket wrenches are sometimes called ratchets, although that's pretty sloppy usage. Micrometers use a ratchet mechanism to do the final fine-adjustment.

ratchet wrench --- A term that is sometimes applied to box wrenches and combination wrenches when they have a ratchet mechanism (which they do not always have).

removable hinge --- This term can refer to either of two types of hinges that allow a cabinet door to be removed without the use of a screwdriver. These are the lift off hinge and the clip on hinge.

residential hinge --- A relatively light-duty architectural hinge" for use in residences (where they are not subject to the kind of heavy use experienced by industrial grade architectural hinges).

reverse thread drywall screw --- A screw designed to avoid paper tear in the face of drywall. A screw entering drywall can cause a slight lifting of the paper at the surface and in a severe case can cause small tears in the paper around the screw. These screws have their top several threads reversed so that as the screw goes in the drywall and paper right at the entry point is pushed back down and then the head seats over it. Compare/contrast to drywall screw. Examples:



ribbed neck carriage bolt --- A carriage bolt except that rather than the square gripping section at the top of the shank there is a ribbed section that does the gripping. The normal carriage bolt is designed for use with hard metals but this ribbed neck version is designed to be used in wood or soft metal. Examples:



ring shank nail --- synonymous with annular ring nail

Robertson screw --- A screw with a head requiring a driver with a square tip (the "Robertson" drive). These are also called square head and socket head. This drive type is used on all kinds of screws but it is particularly popular for flat head screws (that is flush-mount screws), these resist cam-out very well. Personally, I hardly ever use any other kind of wood screw and when I DO use any other kind, I often find that the use is accompanied by numerous loud expressions of words that we would not encourage our children to use. See screw and bolt drive types



rod coupling nut --- see coupling nut

roofing nail --- A nail type with a larger head than common nails so that relatively soft material such as asphalt shingles won't pull through them. These are commonly available and Size depends on thickness of roofing material being nailed down and the thickness of the roof sheathing to which it is being nailed. The shank styles vary greatly, with some being riged, some sprial, etc. Examples:



roofing screw --- A screw, used with a rubber washer that comes with it, to use on roof shingles. The washer is to provide a watertight seal. Such screws are generally either self tapping screws or auger point screws. Examples:



round coupling nut --- see coupling nut

scaffold nail --- A nail, usually the size (see nail sizes) of a 10d or a 16d common nail, which has been given a double head so that it can easily be removed because the 2nd head is not driven into the wood and provides a place where a hammer claw is easily inserted to remove the nail; used in scaffolds, bracing and any temporary fastening job where the nail must later be removed. Here's a diagram of some common sizes of scaffold nails. Note that the length does not count the heads, just as is true with single-headed common nails. I have personally found these nails to also be very useful as hangers; that is, if I'm thinking of driving a nail in until the head protrudes by 1/4" or so I have a place to hang something by a cord in the shop (my flashlight for example), these nails work great.



scissor hinge --- A type of hinge that two long, flat, parallel plates that are hinged in a way that can be either in-line or offset and which are affixed one to the top (or bottom) of a door and the other to the frame above (or below) the door. That is, the plates are horizontal, unlike the more common vertical (hinge) leaves. If the hinge point is in line with the plates, this is a type of pivot hinge, examples of which can be seen in the lower left of the composite pic below. The offset pivot is more common for these hinges as can be seen in all of the other pics below. The name derives from the rather obvious similarity to scissors. With an in-line pivot, these require that the door being hinged either have a gap away from the frame, or that it have a rounded back edge, one of which is needed so that the back door edge can clear the frame when the door is opened. one feature that distinguishes this from the pivot hinge is that on the pivot hinge one (small) part of the item being hinged rotates in the opposite direction from the main body of that item whereas with the scissor hinge, the entire hinged object rotates all in the same direction. Examples:



screw --- [verb] To use a screw (see noun definition below) to join objects.
screw --- [noun] One of the six simple machines, the screw is a helical inclined plane (called the "thread") on a shaft (called the "shank") that converts rotational force (torque) into linear force, with a conversion factor based on angle of the thread and the diameter of the shank. Screws have many uses, but in woodworking they are primarily fasteners used to hold objects to wood and/or to hold pieces of wood to each other. They are one of the two primary fasteners used with wood, the other being nails. Screws are particularly well suited for use with wood because they do not, on many woods (but not all), require a threaded (or even pre-drilled) hole, they just sink into the wood and grab. Some woods require pre-drilling either because they are too hard to accept the screw without a hole to take up most of the shank or because although they will accept the screw without a hole, they will most likely split without it. See also bolts vs screws.

Screws, even when you limit the discussion to ones used in woodworking, come in a bewildering variety of shapes, sizes and materials but most of those are somewhat endemic to the definitions of the individual screw types and so are discussed with them. However, there are two significant characterists which, with a few exceptions, are used on number types of screws and these are the head type and drive type so I have given them their own sections and discussed particularly with individual screws where it is pertinent to do so. The categorization below is based primarily on the USES of screws but also included some based on their head types or drive types. The entire issue of nomenclature for bolts and screws was perhaps the biggest mess I encountered in compiliing this glossary. See also screw and bolt drive types and screw and bolt head types

Here is a list of some of the more commonly used types of screws:

screw and bolt drive types --- Screws and bolts have a large number of drive types, some of which are common to both, some of which are used only, or mostly, with one or the other, and many of which are specialty types not used in woodworking at all. Following the composite pic below of some of the more common types is a list of types and, for some of them, links to a further discussion of them and/or the type of screw or bolt they are used with. I have included only some of the specialty types that are not used in woodworking. Basically, I just got tired of using VISIO to DRAW the damned things when they don't even need to be here anyway. A particular drive type may or may not be closely related to a head type



screw and bolt head types --- Many screws and bolts have a name that pretty much totally defines their configuration but in addition to this, there are type of heads that are used with screws and/or bolts that can have two or more drive types and the name is usually based on the shape, and less often, the function, of the head. Examples:

binding head screw binding --- undercut under the head or with extra wide head, so as to trap (bind) electrical wires or connectors. That is, the type is defined more by function than by shape, so there are several head types several drive types
bugle --- a curved countersink, mostly used to avoid crushing drywall; usually has a phillips drive
button --- like pan but more curve on top and always has a Allen drive socket
cheese --- like a flat fillister but thinner (about half as high as wide). The definition calls for a cylindrical wall but in practice they are sometimes sloped (so the wall is a cone section, not a cylinder). Drive slot is most often flat head. Also, in practice, lower profile flat fillisters, which SHOULD be called cheese head, are in fact still called fillisters
countersunk --- angled sides to allow flush mount (non-protruding head). The bugle head is also a countersunk head, but what is shown here is the "standard" straight (but angled inward) wall. Drive can be any style. This type of head is not, as far as I am aware, ever used with large bolts, just screws and the small bolts that are often called machine screws.
mirror screw dome --- same as mirror (but term is also loosely used for other domed heads)
fillister --- high cylindrical-walled head with a rounded top and deep drive slot for a flat head screwdriver and with less tendency for cam-out than normal flat head slots. There are fillister heads that use an Allen drive instead of a flat head and even some that use a Phillips head drive, but mostly you will find them with flat head drive slots. Typically used in a counter-bored hole.
flange --- integral wide washer provides extra holding surface. Drive can be any type but seems to be most often Phillips slot or hex head.
same as countersunk flat --- same as countersunk
flat fillister --- same as fillister, but without the slight curve on top. Although technically a flat fillister with a head that isn't very high is called a cheese head, in practice this distinction is often not made. Also, as you can see in the composite image to the left, items sold as "flat fillister" have a full sized head and should be called just fillister (check out the silver one on the left).
set screw headless --- this is a set screw
hex --- hexagonal head, very common, easy to drive with socket set, crescent wrench, pliers, etc. This is the most common head for bolts and has largely replaced the older square head.
hex washer --- like hex but has an attached washer-like flat flange. Typically, the outer portion of the hexagonal part is raised above the inner portion to provide extra gripping area for the driver. There is a specify type of these that are slotted (see below; slotted hex washer)
knurled --- has indentations, usually a cross-hatch, so you can turn it with your thumb and forefinger. It may or may not also have a drive slot
low head socket cap --- what it says; a socket cap head that is lower than usual. In practice, I found a great many items sold as "low head" socket caps that had the same high head as normal ones.
same as spade paddle --- same as spade
mirror screw mirror --- screws with various kinds of separate decorative tops that go over the actual screw
oval --- like a countersunk head but with shallow-domed top instead of the normal flat top of a countersunk head
pan --- domed cylinder; the exact shape will vary a fair amount depending on manufacturer; there may even be a flat area on the top or it may look more like a round head
same as oval raised --- same as oval
round --- hemispherical, mostly for decoration (similar to mirror, but the top is integral to the screw not a separate item); the exact shape will vary a fair amount depending on manufacturer; in practice, items sold as "round head" can look more like a pan head
round washer --- round top and with an integral washer under it; the top is usually not as domed as on the normal round head, it's more like a truss head.
serrated flange --- same as flange head but there are serrations on the bottom of the head that are raised on the side opposite the insertion direction so as to inhibit vibrational loosening of the screw or bolt (exactly as on a serrated flange nut). This head is found almost exclusively on hex-head bolts.
shouldered spade --- same as spade but with a flange ("shoulder") above the threads
slotted hex washer --- hex washer head but also slotted for a flat head screwdriver
socket cap --- a cylindrical bolt head that takes an Allen drive (ocassionally other types of drive). The rim of the head may have ridges to make it easy to turn with pliers rather than the inserted driver
same as socket cap socket head --- same as socket cap
spade --- you turn it with your thumb and forefinger; this is a subset of the thumb screw and has a particular name because of the shape of the head
square --- drives with a wrench or pliers; although relatively inexpensive to manufacturer, this is primarily the precursor to the hex head and has largely been replaced by that.
trim screw trim --- small head (the screw version of a finishing nail)
truss --- has a very shallow dome head. It also has a low edge which some definitions say is to inhibit tampering, but since they use standard drive types, that doesn't make much sense; the edge is usually low enough to prevent pliers from being used on them but nothing else. The SHAPE of the truss head is used on some security head types but items sold specifically as truss head are NOT security types. Some items sold as truss head are what would be more accurately called a round washer head (see above).
undercut --- Shallow-head countersink that provides a little extra thread length for a given screw length


screwdriver --- A hand tool with a handle and a special-shaped end that fits into whatever kind of screw that the tool is designed to work with. Like screws themselves, screwdrivers come in a VERY wide variety of styles, with the two most common (by far) being the drivers for flat head screws and Phillips head screws, which are the only two shown in the composit pic below although there are more than a dozen other kinds. This is just to give a very brief example of some of the styles of handles. See also screw and bolt drive types . Examples:



screw pocket --- see pocket screw hole

screws vs bolts --- see bolts vs screws

security bolt --- A term that designates a very wide variety of screws and bolts that have the common characteristic of being designed so as to deter casual removal. The most widely known of these is the one we've all seen on public bathroom stalls where the designers seem to feel that since we all have a lot of free time while sitting on the John, and of course we all carry screwdrivers around with us, we would disassemble the stalls while we were doing our business so that by the time we were ready to pull our clothes back up, it would be a good time to do so since the disassembled stall would be collapsing around us and we would no longer have privacy. To thwart these devious machinations, the stalls are assembled using a type of screw (or bolt) that can be driven IN with a flat head screwdriver but which cannot be UNscrewed with the same tool. This type is called a "clutch head screw". The security features for these devices generally involve modifying a standard head type or using a totally weird head type. Modification often just consists of putting a post in the middle of the head so that a normal driver won't go in and you have to have a similar driver that has a hole drilled in the end. One of the cutest weird heads is the "snakeeye" head which has two little holes and requires a special driver. Security bolts/screws are little used in woodworking, so I have not broken out the various kinds in this glossary. The composite pic below shows many of the most common and as you can see, I have included both screws and bolts.



security butt hinge --- synonymous with security hinge

security hinge --- [aka security butt hinge]. This is a standard butt hinge but with an addition. Consider a standard butt hinge on an outward-opening door. The (hinge) barrel will necessarity be exposed to the outside which means the (hinge) pin could be removed from the outside. If this is done, then the door can be opened from the hinge side because the (hinge) knuckles on the door leaf will simply slip past the knuckles on the frame leaf once the pin is removed. What is added to the security hinge is a set of protrusions on each leaf that mate into matching holes on the other leaf and even protrude slightly into the door edge and the frame. With these in place, the door cannot be opened on the hinge side even with the pin removed. Example:



security screw --- A type of screw that is designed to resist casual removal. These are little used in woodworking. They are identical to security bolts except that they meet the definition of a screw rather than bolt (see bolts vs screws)

self centering bit --- A specialized drill bit designed to bore perfectly centered pilot holes for hinge mounting screws. The bit uses a standard twist drill bit inside a retractable spring-loaded sleeve. A tapered end on the sleeve fits into the countersink on a hinge screw hole to automatically center the bit when you press the sleeve against the hinge. Commonly referred to as "Vix" bits after the brand name of the original version, self-centering bits come in various sizes to accommodate different screw gauges and hinge hole sizes. Examples:



self closing hinge --- Any type of hinge that has a mechanism that causes the hinge to automatically close the hinged object once it is released. Examples include the cam lift hinge and the spring loaded hinge.

self drilling screw --- synonymous with self tapping screw

self tapping machine screw --- Also called a "thread-cutting screw", this fastener is somewhat similar to a self tapping (wood) screw. It has a portion at the bottom that looks, not like the scraper on the self tapping (wood) screw but rather an actual machine tap and rather than coarse threads, it has the same relatively fine threads of a machine screw. These screws have a straight shank and are typically a hard metal such as steel that are being driven into a hole in a soft metal such as alumninum. The hole is drilled in the soft metal but then one of these fasteners is used rather than tapping it. The drive slots can be most any type, as can the head style. A similar device for use in wood is the self tapping screw. Examples:



self tapping screw --- Also called the "self threading screw", this is a coarse-threaded screw, usually made of steel and with a straight, rather than a tapered, shank and a cutting ridge at the bottom that scrapes out room in wood for the threads; these are not used in metal. As the screw is driven into raw wood, the scraper opens up a hole in the wood and then the threads tap themselves in. These do not work well in really hard woods without a pilot hole. The drive slot on these can be most anything, as can the head style. There is a small-bolt equivalent, for use in metal, called the self tapping machine screw. Examples:



self threading screw --- synonymous with self tapping screw, NOT synonymous with self tapping machine screw.

semi-concealed hinge --- synonymous with partially concealed hinge

SEMS fasteners --- SEMS threaded fasteners are assemblies that combine bolts or screws with washers, collars, specialized stampings, or other components. They come in a wide variety of sizes and configurations and have the advantage that the washers and other components are captive and thus speed up assembly and also can't fall off and get lost during assembly. I have found only anecdotal information as to where the name "SEMS" comes from (it was supposedly from an early patent) and am not yet confident enough in it to repeat it here. Other anecdotal information says the name is an abbreviation of asSEMbled. Examples:



serrated flange nut --- A flange nut that has ridges on the flange that bite into the surface and are angled such that they keep the nut from rotating back in the direction that would loosen it. Because of the serrations, such nuts cannot be used with a washer since that would defeat the operation of the serrations. Although the definition does not require that these be hex head nuts I have never seen them in any other form. Also called a "wheel lock nut". Examples:



set bolt --- synonymous with tap bolt

set screw --- A headless bolt (which by some definitions makes it a screw, since bolts have heads) that has a recessed slot for a flat head screw driver, or more commonly a hexagonal recess for an Allen wrench. Set screws are used, for example, to tighten metal rods (such as at the end of a bowl gouge) into a metal handle, where a protruding head would be a serious problem. This term is badly misused, being often used to designate a bolt that has a head; such an object is NOT a set screw even if it is being used in a similar function, it is just a regular bolt since set screws by definition don't have heads. In addition to providing a tightening force against a potentially rotating shaft, set screws are also used in a way that causes an unthreaded section at the end of the shank (see "dog" below) on their end to be inserted into a hole in such a shaft to provide total prevention of rotation. The types of ends most commonly available on set screws include:

Examples:



sewing machinge hinge --- identical to butler tray hinge

sex bolt --- A term that refers to a nut/bolt pair where the bolt can be pretty much ANY type of bolt but the nut is abnormal in that rather than being a relatively flat section of metal with internal threads and no head, it is a headed tube with internal threads. The underside of the female nut's head is often serrated to provide gripping force and there is usually no drive slot on the head of the nut. Sometimes the head of the nut is knurled. Sex bolts are frequently used in security application (see security bolt) since with an undrivable nut head and a security head on the bolt, it is very difficult to remove the whole assembly once it is in place. Although it is true that most any type of bolt can be used with the nut from a sex bolt pair, the "true" version most often has a cylindrical unthreaded section at the top of the shank, just under the head, that has the same outer diameter as the nut. The bolts in these bolt-nut pairs are often connector bolts. Examples:



sex nut --- (1)see sex bolt
sex nut --- (2) Any male human.

shank --- A term with a bewildering variety of definitions; as regards woodworking the term refers to the cylindrical shaft of a nail, screwdriver, drill bit, cutting tool, etc. For cutting tools that have a tang going into a handle, the shank is the portion of the tool between the tang and the blade. For screws and bolts, the shank is generally taken to mean the smooth portion below the head and above the threads, but is also sometimes used to refer to the threaded portion as well, especially in situations where the distinction being made is between the head and the rest of the fastener. For nails the shank is everything but the head, whether or not it includes rings or spirals for greater holding power. For screwdrivers, it is generally taken to mean the everything from the edge of the handle down to (but not including) the end portion with the shaped tip (flat, Phillips, etc.). For turning and carving chisels and gouges it designates a portion starting at the edge of the handle and moving most, or all, of the way down to the working end of the tool where the cutting edge is. Shanks can be bent (particularly on carving and turning tools) or straight and can have most any cross section, although most are round (as on screws) or rectangular (as on files).

sheet metal connector --- (1) A flat rectangle (and sometimes other shapes) of sheet metal, perforated so that nails can be driven through; used to join wood in exactly the same way as nail plates.
sheet metal connector --- (2) Any of a huge number of different kinds of formed sheet metal parts used to join pieces of ductwork or other parts.

sheet metal screw --- As the name says, this type of screw is designed to work with sheet metal. Since the sheetmetal is always thin, and these screws never have fine threads because they would not grab the sheet metal; instead, the threads are relatively coarse and very sharp. They are also threaded all the way up to the bottom of the head and occasionally will have a self-threading cutting ridge at the end. In any case, because of the sharp, full threads, these screws make good self tapping screws for use in wood. They tend to be relatively thick and are rarely very long. Their drive slot is typically flat head or phillips head, rarely allen head, and the head style can be most anything but a very common head type has a straight-up hex rim plus a flat-head drive slot. They usually have a straight shank (rarely a tapered one like a wood screw) but they are pointed on the end. Although I have occasionally seen screws sold as sheet metals screws that were countersunk, that doesn't make sense to me since thin sheet metal could pull right through a countersunk head, so it seems to me that they should always have a flat bottom on the head (and most of the ones you see DO have that), regardless of the shape of the top of the head. I think such countersunk "sheet metal screws" are more likely to be useful with wood. Examples:



shelf clip --- A small device for holding adjustable shelving, this piece of specially bent and formed steel works in conjunctioni with a set of upright steel rails that have slots into which these fit. Best described with an image, so see below. Compare/contrast to shelf pin. Examples:



shelf pin --- A small device for holding adjustable shelving, this consists of a cylinder that goes into the upright side of a shelving system with a projection that may be a cylinder or some form of flattened piece that holds the shelf. Generally, there will be a symmetrical rows of holes up the front and back of both sides of the uprights and 4 of these will be used, with the shelf pins, to support each shelf, which can then be moved up/down by moving the pins. These are almost always made of brass or steel but light-use versions come in plastic. The holes are always1/4" for all types. Some of the flat-projection version have a hole that can be used to screw the shelf in place, after which it is no longer adjustable without removing the screws. Also, you will occasionally see these sitting in a recess in the bottom of the shelf which keeps the shelf from moving front-to-back but weakens the support since it halves the amount of wood being supported by the pin (see the lower left corner of the composite pic below for an example). Compare/contrast to shelf clip. Examples:



S hook --- A metal rod that has been bent into the shape of the letter "S". The ends may or may not be closed. One use for these is to attach a solid-link chain to something, and they are used for other hooking and fastening operations. Often, one will open up one or both end with pliers and then close them again on another object (such as a chain link). Examples:



shoulder bolt --- Sometimes (technically incorrectly) called a "shoulder screw", this is a bolt (NOT a screw) that has an unthreaded shoulder below the head and then a threaded portion. Depending on the application for which it is designed, a shoulder bolt may have a the outer diameter of the shoulder larger than the outer diameter of the threads or the same as the threads. Shoulder bolts are designed for various metalworking applications, not woodworking (although they are used in various woodworking power tools). See bolts vs screws. Examples:



shoulder screw --- synonymous with shoulder bolt

shoulder washer --- A type of washer that is like a flat washer with a "shoulder" that physically insulates a screw or bolt from the area just below its head. These are used primarily when affixing thin sheets of one metal to something using a screw or bolt of a different metal. The shoulder keeps the thin metal from touching the screw or bolt and because shoulder washers are normally a form of electrical insulator, the the physical insulation is accompanied by electrical insulation and prevents galvanic corrosion. Simple electrical insulation is the reason they are often used in electrical systems (such as computers) when screwing down printed circuit boards with metal screws. Examples:



shower door hinge --- synonymous with pivot hinge

side play --- In a hinge, this is the amount that (hinge) leaves can move relative to each other and perpendicular to the (hinge) pin. This is essentially a measure of how loosely the pin sits inside the (hinge) barrel. See hinge dimensions.

sill anchor --- A threaded metal bolt that has its head and upper portion mounted upside down embedded in the concrete of a wood frame house foundation. It projects through holes in the sill plate which it then holds down with washers and nuts.

sill plate --- (1) The lowest horizontal member of the structural framework. It sits on the foundation, is normally bolted to it with sill anchors, and it supports the lower structural beams and frame uprights (studs, etc) above it. Aka "sole plate" and "mud sill". Often to protect the plate timber from splitting, the attaching bolt will be used with a plate washer.
sill plate --- (2) The bottom framing member of a window frame.

Examples



single cranked hinge --- A hinge that has a crank in one (hinge) leaf. There is a specialty type called (appropriately) the flush cranked hinge that is shown in the 4 smaller pieces in the middle of the composite image directly below. If both leaves have the crank, then it is a double cranked hinge. See hinge parts for a discussion of the parts that make up the hinge. Examples:



single demountable hinge --- This is a somewhat complex type of hinge that has the tab mechanism that is fully explained elsewhere (see double demountable hinge) but only on the door leaf not the frame leaf which is a more traditional style and may use one wood screw but more often uses two of them and they usually go through oval clearance holes so as to allow for up/down adjustment of the leaf positioning. This is a partially concealed hinge because only the barrel and part of the frame leaf are exposed, and it is a type of flush hinge as you can see in the pics below. As shown in the mounting pic in the upper right some (but NOT all) of these hinges can be mounted only if the entire back edge of the door be given a reveal (an edge rabbet). The second hinge from the left below is one such. The term "demountable" in the name is somewhat misleading since it would normally imply that no screwdriver is required to demount the hinge (see lift off hinge), but that is not the case with this hinge. Examples:



single mortise hinge --- Any hinge that has only one (hinge) leaf sitting in a mortise. This would normally be the edge hinge (whether it's on the edge of the door or the edge of the frame) because it wouldn't make sense to mortise a face mount and leave the edge mount proud since that would leave a gap between the door and the frame. See hinge mounting positions and styles for an illustration.

sinker nail --- A type of framing nail but thinner than a common nail (somewhat like a box nail), and coated with adhesive (they are a type of cement coated nail) to enhance holding power. They usually have a slightly countersunk, funnel-shaped, head so as to sink flat with the surface of the framing member into which they are driven. They often have a grid stamped on the top of the head exactly like a framing nail. Examples:



slip joint hinge --- synonymous with lift off hinge

slotted nut --- (also, slotted hex nut) synonomous with castle nut

slotted screw --- Any screw designed to be used with a flat head screw driver. See also flat head screw definition (2).

socket cap screw --- synonymous with allen head bolt

socket head cap screw --- synonymous with allen head bolt

socket screw --- synonymous with allen head bolt

socket wrench --- A type of wrench with a cylinder on the end (the "socket") that has an internal hexagonal shape; comes in many different sizes to fit numerous different sizes of nuts, bolts, and other fasteners. These wrenches generally come in sets with a varying number of sockets included and are available in both metric and English units. Most such wrenches have a ratchet mechanism and in fact are sometimes called just "ratchet wrenches", but there are many styles, not all in sets and not all with ratchets. Also, the term "socket wrench" is applied to both box wrenches and combinatinon wrenches when they have a ratchet mechanism. Examples:



SOSS hinge --- SOSS is actually a brand name. These are, like the barrel hinges (type 1), a type of concealed hinge and have the same multiple flat plates as the barrel hinges but generally more of them and the mounting portion requires elongated mortises rather than a round ones and they use heftier mounting screws, all of which makes this type, unlike the barrel hinges, useful for load bearing applications. Note that there are numerous styles of hinges that are similar to SOSS hinges, particluarly in body shape, but they are different and are listed in the 2nd composite pic under concealed hinge. The main difference is that the SOSS hinges, as you can see below, have multiple flat plates that make up the moving part of the mechanism whereas the look-alikes have slightly different mechanisms. Note that some of the examples below are not sold by SOSS; they are knockoffs that are sold as SOSS by other companies. Examples:



speed nut --- see spring nut

spike --- A large nail, usually over 4"; bigger than a 20d nail. See also nail sizes. One example is a gutter spike. Note that in the woodworking sense, the term spike is not used to mean a "railroad spike" which has a particular kind of head and is generally rectangular in cross section and is not at all like woodworking nails.

spiral nail --- A nail with a spiral ridge down the shank, somewhat like the threads of a screw but with a MUCH lower angle. They are used especially for hardwood flooring because the holding power makes them much more squeak-free than regular nails. They are also used for siding, fencing, and sometimes for pre-built rafters although with todays nail guns all kinds of framing are more likely to be done with coated straight nails rather than spiral nails. Examples:



split nut --- A nut that is, as the name suggests, split on one side or on two opposite sides, such that either (1) the sides of the nut can be moved away from the bolt so that the bolt can slide freely past the nut, or (2) the nut can be tightened on the bolt and the pressure can be released using the same mechanism that is used to tighten it. The first type is used, for example, on bench vises so that the jaws can be opened widely very rapidly by opening the split nut and then when the split nut is closed, the jaws can be adjusted with fine granularity to clamp down on a workpiece. Similarly, it is used on positioning systems such as in a metal lathe where the use of a split nut allows for rapid movement to a coarse-granularity positioning and then the fine-granularity position is achieved after the split nut is closed up again. The second type seems to be used only in plumbing and does not relate to woodworking. The right-most pic in the composite below is the first type and all the others are the second type. Examples:



split ring lock washer --- A washer that is somewhat like a common flat washer except that there is a radial split in the washer and one side of the split is raised. This causes a spring-like action that exerts pressure against the bottom of the screw or bolt head as the raised part is compressed by the head and this tension is designed to prevent the screw or bolt from coming loose due to vibration. Note also that the split is angled and the edge goes against the direction of UNscrewing so that the washer has a "grab" in addition to the pressure and the combination is even more forceful in resisting unscrewing due to vibration. Split ring lock washers are rarely used with wood screws; they are designed for use against metal surfaces and are used with bolts. Split ring lock washers CAN be used effectively on wood surfaces if a flat washer is put between the lock washer and the wood surface, but lock washers are rarely needed in wood because wood won't generally vibrate a screw out of it the way threaded metal will. Also note that the split will cause an indentation in the wood and really grab the wood side tightly against unscrewing if a flat washer is not used on the wood side. There is an extra-thick version of the split ring lock washer and it is called the high collar lock washer. Split ring lock washer is what is commonly meant by the term "lock washer" but there are several other types. It is also called a "split washer". See lock washer types". Examples:



splitting nut --- The condition when a cutter or drill roughly breaks through the bottom or back of a workpiece. I have this definition from only one source and have no faith in it but it could be right. I have never seen it used.

split washer --- synonymous with split ring lock washer

spring loaded hinge --- Any type of self closing hinge that uses springs to do the closing. Examples:

need to add spring loaded hinge pics


spring nut --- There are a number of different style devices, all used to capture bolts, that are referred to in various intermixed and only loosely defined ways. The most common names are push nut, speed nut, flat speed nut, spring nut, and U-nut, depending on the shape (but, again, the names are not applied consistently). They all have three common characteristics: (1) they work partially on a springing action which causes them to put pressure on the threads of the bolt and thus helps hold the bolt in place, (2) they are not amenable to tightening on the nut side because unlike a machine nut, for example, they present little or no surface on which a wrench can work, and (3) they can be put onto the bolt quickly because the springing action allows them to be slipped down over the end of the bolt and then the final tightening is done by turning the bolt. When they consist of folded-over flaps, they are called U-nuts and because of their ability to go on the bolt quickly, they are also called speed nuts. Some look a bit like an internal tooth lock washer with internal prongs, but the prongs point UP so that the bold threads will grab them, rather than pointing down so that they grab the object being clamped. Examples:



spring pivot --- synonymous with floor closer

square head bolt --- A bolt with a 4-sided head that can be easily turned with a crescent wrench. Such bolts may be threaded all the way along the shank or not. Examples:



square head nut --- (also "square nut") A machine nut with a 4-sided outer rim.

square washer --- A washer that is just a square of metal with a hole in the center. Sometimes called a "square flat washer" which doesn't really make sense to me, since a "flat washer" is round so that's like saying a "square round washer". Also, I am quite sure that some vendors sell plate washers, even heavy duty ones, under the name square washer but I don't think that a small, thin square washer would ever be sold as a plate washer. Examples:



standing bolt --- synonymous with stud bolt

starter hole --- A small, shallow hole created as a guide for a screw or a screw-type element such as an eye hook. A deeper hole would be called a pilot hole.

step bolt --- (1) a heavy-duty bolt used on the corners of towers (eg a radio tower) to provide something to step on as a worker climbs the tower; this is not a woodworking item.
step bolt --- (2) synonymous with carriage bolt

stitch bolt --- A long bolt through mechanically laminated timber (similar to glulam but using bolts instead of, or in addition to, glue) that holds the laminations together. That is, this is not a TYPE of bolt, it is a type of USE for bolts.

stove bolt --- Refers to any fastener of the various types that would most often be called a machine screws but which are in this case used as part of the fabrication of a wood-burning stove to attach sheet metal parts. In all of the examples I've seen, there is one common characteristic, which is that these never have an unthreaded shoulder but are threaded along the full length of the shank.

strap clamp --- A type of clamp where a strap, often canvas, wraps all the way around a workpiece (such as a picture frame) and the clamping force is exerted by either a screw mechanism or a toggle mechanism at a point where the strap comes back on itself. WHen used on rectangular items, strap clamps are frequently used with specially made pads that protect the wood's corners and provide even pressure on the corner joint. Examples:



strap hinge --- A type of hinge that was one of the first types used. It most typically consist of two long heavy (hinge) leaves, one of which attaches to a heavy door or gate and the other of which attaches to an adjacent wall. Designed to be both ornamental as well as functional, early versions often had elaborate leaves. Although most definitions say two long leaves, modern usage has corroded that definition and the term now include hinges that have only one long leaf (which item is then more correctly called a T hinge) and also many now are quite plain. Smaller versions are used for decorative purposes on cabinets. See hinge parts for a discussion of the parts that make up this kind of hinge. Examples:



structural bolt --- A large hex head bolt used in heavy-duty structural applications such as in bridges and buildings. One knowledgeable definition also stated that such bolts have a controled thread length (and there are some technical reasons why, based on specific use) but while I can believe that that is a correct formal definition, I think it highly likely that the term is generally used more loosely just meaning any large hex-head bolt intended for heavy duty structural use.

stud bolt --- A short threaded rod that may or may not have an unthreaded section in the middle and which is generally intended to be permanently fixed to an object on one end by being screwed into threads in that object and then having a nut placed over the other end to attach something to the object to which the one end is fixed. Also called a "standing bolt". Examples:



surface mounted --- For a hinge leaf this means it is mounted on the surface (of a door or frame, edge or face) with no mortise being used. See hinge mounting positions and styles for an illustration.

surface mounted hinge --- Any hinge that uses surface mounting for both of the (hinge) leaves. If one leaf IS sitting in a mortise and the other isn't, then it is a single mortise hinge and if both are then it is a mortised hinge. See hinge mounting positions and styles for an illustration.

swing clear hinge --- synonymous with double cranked hinge

tap --- see tap and die

tap and die --- Taps and dies are normally used with metal, not wood, but it is not unheard of to see taps used with very hard woods and in any case, woodworkers sometimes have occasion to use the more simple metalworking tools such as these so I've included them in this glossary. Taps are used to put internal threads into a hole drilled in metal, thus creating a place that a machine screw, for example, can be screwed into, and dies are used to put external threads on metal cylinders, thus creating a threaded bolt-end. These are generally sold in sets but can be purchased individually. They are turned by what are called, variously, tap handles / tap wrenches and die handles / die wrenches. Dies generally have cylindrical outsides but sometimes are found with hexagonal outsides, as shown in the examples below. Cylindrical dies require a special handle but hex shaped dies can be turned with a crescent wrench. Dies can be turned with a socket wrench, or a box wrench, or with the special handles that are generally provided with tap and die sets, which come in two styles as shown below. Examples of taps, dies, handles/wrenches, and sets:


tap and die set



taps



tap wrenchs / handles



dies



die wrenchs / handles


tap bolt --- Any fully threaded bolt with no blank (unthreaded) portion just below the head as is common on some types of bolts. Examples:



tapped --- describes a hole that has had threads cut in it with a tap

tapping --- Using a tap to create threads in a hole in metal to accept a bolt.

tee hinge --- see T hinge

tee nut --- see T nut

T hinge --- A hinge that looks like the letter T when it is opened. A T hinge is similar to a strap hinge, and in fact is often used in the same applications, except that one strap has been replaced by a (hinge) leaf that is like that of a butt hinge so that it does not require the width of a full strap hinge leaf. Note that many manfacturers sell tee hinges as strap hinges even though that is technically incorrect. See hinge parts for a discussion of the parts that make up this type of hinge. Examples:



thread --- (1) The helical-spiral projections around the shaft of a screw or on the inside of a tapped hole (usually in metal, not wood). Technically, the thread is a helical inclined plane and makes screws one of the six simple machines defined by classical mechanics.
thread --- (2) A very fine string, used to sew cloth items.

thread cutting screw --- synonymous with self tapping machine screw

threaded --- Having threads

threaded insert --- a device to allow machine screws to connect to wood. It is a metal cylinder with threads on the outside that screw into the wood and threads on the inside that accept a machine screw. There are quite a few variations, based on the following characteristics: Some of these names are misleading. "Low profile" really should be called "shallow depth" since that is the actual function. "Self-tapping" is misleading because, really, they are ALL self-tapping; No one ever taps the wood, it's just that "self-tapping" are more designed to cut into the wood like a self-tapping machine screw cuts into metal. One variety has "interrupted threads" which stick out more than normal (see pics below) to make them particularly suitable for use in particleboard and other composite materials. Below are various combinations of the characteristics, and I have noted in researching this that flanges seem to be used only on the self-tapping styles and never with the slotted drive style. There are several different types of driver that can be used with these --- see threaded insert drivers









threaded insert driver --- a device used to insert threaded inserts. There are basically 4 types; manual, slotted, hex, and homemade. The manual driver can be used with any of the various types of threaded inserts but is required for the type that has no drive slot. The slotted drive is a cylinder that goes into the inside of the insert, then a part that is exactly like the end of a flat head screwdriver, then a hex drive head. The type of insert that these work on COULD be inserted using a flat head screwdriver, but I can tell you from experience that that is an exceptionally bad idea unless you are a robot. The Hex driver is a just a normal hex drive but with a wide cylinder above the drive head that sits on top of the insert (which, with this type of drive, is normally flanged, so the cylinder sits on the flange). Homemade styles are based on either using a machine screw with a jam nut or a machine screw just screwed into the insert --- the examples below show one such with a hex head drive, mainly because that's my own preference. Examples:





threaded rod --- steel or other metal rod that has been threaded for its entire length. Commonly available in hardware stores in sizes from about 1/8" to 1" in diameter and 3 feet or 4 feet long, threaded rod can be used to make custom-length fasteners and can also be used with turnbuckles. Examples:



threading --- [noun] synonymous with threads
threading --- [verb] The process of creating threads on a metal shaft. Compare/contrast to tapping.

thrumbscrew --- [also thumb screw] This term is loosely used to describe any bolt (not screw) that has a knurled knob that is intended to be tightened with the thumb and first finger but it very specifically applies to a bolt (again, not a screw) that has a flat oval top that clearly is designed for use the the thumb and first finger. Compare/contrast to wing screw which is similar (sometimes the line between the two gets a little blurred). Although, as stated, this generally refers to a bolt, not a screw, there are a few similar items (there's an example in the upper right of the composite pic below) that actually ARE screws. Examples:



thumb tack --- The predecessor to the modern push pin, this is a short nail with a very broad flat head, used mainly to affix papers to a corkboard. Examples:



timber bolt --- Also called a "mushroom head" bolt, this is a very-large-headed bolt that is used to join timbers. The large head prevents the high forces on such bolts from pulling them throught the wood and obviates a washer. Usually there are 4 wedges angled down from the underside of the head onto the shank and these prevent the bolt from rotating while the nut is tightened. An alternative to the wedges are short spikes coming down out of the bottom of the head. Examples:



T-nut --- An internally-threaded cylinder with a flat top and sharp metal prongs rising off of the top. These are designed to be driven into a hole in one side of a piece of wood and a bolt is put through from the other side, attaching an object to the wood. These are sometimes used for knockdown joints. Often the surface of the wood around the head of the T-nut will be countersunk (a flat depression, not angled, done with a Forstner bit) so the head does not protrude above the surface of the wood. Examples:



toenailing --- driving nails at an angle from one framing member that is butted up against another at a right angle, most often through a vertical stud into a base stud as shown in the drawing below (in which the nails are not yet driven all the way in). The term can also describe the use of screws for the same purpose. When nails are driven from both sides of the vertical member, as is the best technique if both sides are accessible, it is sometimes called "cross toenailing". Compare/contrast to face nailing and end nailing.



toggle bolt --- A specialty fastening device, primarily for use with wallboard. It it a normal bolt, but the "nut" is a spring-loaded pair of wings that are pressed together to get through the wallboard and that then spring open behind the wallboard and hold the bolt in place when it is tightened. Like a molly bolt, it cannot be removed once put in place, but can only be fully driven into the wallboard so as to fall into the space behind the wallboard. If driven directly through a solid object, the wings have to be removed and then reinserted on the back side of the object and then driven through the wallboard. Examples:



toothed washer --- see external tooth lock washer, internal tooth lock washer, and internal-external tooth lock washer

torque washer --- A washer used only under the head of a carriage bolt and typically in heavy-duty applications, and which has two functions. First, it prevents the bolt's head from spinning when the nut is being tightened and second, it provides a greater load area under the bolt head so it doesn't dig into the wood. The washer has a square center which fits snugly around the square shank just below the bolt's head and this means the bolt head and the washer have to turn together, then the washer as 4 little pointy nubs on its underside and as the nut is tightened, these dig into the wood, keeping the washer (and thus the bolt head) from spinning. They work best with softwoods and man-made composite lumber and are not likely to give good results with really hard woods because they will not seat well. They are widely used in heavy-duty construction such as swing sets, docks and decks. Examples:



torque wrench --- (1) A wrench that shows the amount of torque that is being applied, so that you can tell when you have tightened something to a given amount of torque. These are not much used in woodworking.
torque wrench --- (2) A wrench that has an internal slip mechanism that can be set to a specified torque and then the wrench will not tighten beyond that torque, but will simply slip and click. These are not much used in woodworking.

torx head --- A screw head requiring a driver in the shape of a star.

TPI --- Threads Per Inch; a measure of the density of threads on a screw or bolt.

trim head screw --- synonymous with trim screw

trim screw --- This is the screw version of a finishing nail. It has a very small head (it's really the size of head, not the shape of the head that distinguishes a trim screw) so as to be unobtrusive and has the name trim screw because it was designed to be used with, amoung other things, wood trim. It normally has a cylindrial (not a tapered) but pointed shank and coarse threads. The drive type may be Allen head, phillips head, Robertson drive, or star drive. It may or may not be countersunk. Examples:



truss head screw --- A screw that has a very low domed head and very low edges. There are pictures and a further discussion in the entry with the term screw and bolt head types.

turnbuckle --- A device for tensioning cables, ropes, tie-rods, etc. It consists of a metal centerpiece with threaded holes in each end, one left-hand thread, one right-hand thread, into which are screwed eyelets or hooks. When the center piece is turned, both eyelets are moved in or out simultaneously, thus increasing or decreasing the tension on whatever is hooked to them. In large uses, you'll see them in guy wires on telephone poles, the rigging on sailing ships, etc. Examples:



twist drill bit --- This is the "normal" drill bit, the one that folks are probably thinking of when they say "drill bit". It is a long metal shaft with helical fluted cutting edges and a fairly broad point. These bits are good for both wood and softer metals. In the USA, these drills can be purchased individually by size and also come in numerous sets. The most common sets are the "A to Z" set (A=.234", Z=.413"), the "#1 to #60 set (#1=.228", #60=.040"), and the "1/64 to 1/2" in 1/64" increments set. There is also a lesser known set of micro bits #61 to #80 (#61=.039", #80=.0135") and there are variations on the "normal" twist bit, including the very popular brad point bits. Examples:



two leaf hinge --- Although this term, in general, just means any hinge that has two leaves, it also has the specific meaning of being synonymous with the type of bifold door hinge that has one leaf above the other. Many types of hinges have two leaves, so why the term "two leaf hinge" should sometimes specifically apply just to that one I do not know, but that's what I have found to be the case.

U bolt --- A length of rod that is threaded on both ends and then bent into a "U" shape which might be a very curved U or a more rectangular U. The curved variety in particular is used as a pipe holddown. Examples:



umbrella head roofing nail --- A form of roofing nail with an exceptionally large head to prevent pullthrough of roof shingles. As nearly as I can tell, these are widely used in Asia but not much in the USA. Examples:



undercut screw --- A shallow-head countersunk screw or bolt, the point of which is to reduce the profile of the head and thus provide a little extra thread length for a given length of screw. Examples:



underdriven --- Describes a fastener, such as a screw, not fully driven flush to the surface. Compare/contrast to overdriven.

U-nut --- see spring nut

upholstery nail --- Also called "upholstery tack", this is a small, thin-bodied nail, usually 1/2" to 3/4" long and with a very broad head. The head most often is domed and frequently has some sort of design on it, sometimes quite elaborate. Sometimes the head is in the shape of a pyramid or other shape that would not be found on any other kind of nail because these nails are used to affix upholstery to chairs and other padded furniture and thus are as much decorative as functional. Examples:



variable speed reversible drill --- A power drill that has a speed control and the ability to reverse the direction of spin. VERY handy for putting in and taking out screws (using a screwdriver bit instead of a drilling bit). These tend to be a little more powerful than the standard power drill and also usually have a second handle rod that projects out of the side to give you a very firm two-handed grip when using the tool to tighten nuts or screws or when using large boring bits. Examples:



washer --- A device, usually metal, with a hole in the middle, used under the heads of bolts and screws to distribute force more evenly and widely from the head of onto the surface under the head. Other shapes and materials for washers are used to provide seals, locking mechanisms and vibration reduction. Typical washers have an OD about twice their ID, but fender washers are a notable exception to that rule of thumb, and most types of lock washer have a smaller OD than others. Similar devices are the gasket and the O-ring. Types of washer likely to be encountered by woodworkers include:

washer head screw --- A type of wood screw that has an extra-wide head that acts as both a washer and a head. These are sometimes seen in machine screws as well, but are much more common in wood screws which need the extra holding power. Examples:



wave washer --- A type of lock washer that has as the locking mechanism the fact that the washer (which is otherwise a thin flat washer) is bent in a wavy fashion so that it creates a spring-like clamping pressure between the bottom of the bolt or screw and the surface being clamped. Examples:



wheel lock nut --- synonymous with serrated flange nut

wide swing hinge --- A butt hinge that has one extra wide leaf and is mounted with the barrel offset from the door/frame joint so that the door moves out of line with the frame when opened, thus giving extra clearance. Often used in hospital rooms and some industrial settings, the point being that it provides unobstructed access through the entire width of the door frame. Examples:

need to add wide swing hinge pics


wide throw hinge --- synonymous with wide swing hinge

wing nut --- A nut that has "wings" (upsweeping flanges) on the sides so that it can be turned with fingers instead of needing any kind of wrench or pliers. See also thumb screw and wing screw. Examples:



wing screw --- Exactly what you would have if you took a wing nut (which is much more familiar to most people) and super-glued it to the end of a threaded rod. It's a bolt (NOT a screw) that has a "wing nut like" head, although the term is sometimes used to describe items that should be called thumb screws. Examples:



wire nail --- A nail that starts out as a length cut from a strand of wire. This can be any of several types of nail. Common nails, box nails, and brads are all usually wire nails, including even the larger sizes, because automated construction techniques make very effective use of wire.

wire nut --- A simple but incredibly useful device that rivals the paper clip in ingenuity, this is a plastic cone with a spiral of conductive wire inside; you jam two stripped electrical wires into it and then you twist it and the wires are physically (and therefore electrically) mated with a strong bond that can be released later by just reverse-twisting the cap. It does have the drawback that a lot of vibration can loosen the connection, so there are applications where it is still better to rely on a soldering iron and/or electrical tape. Examples:



wood screw --- A screw designed for wood or a similar material, with a pointed, tapered shank, relatively coarse threads, and sometimes an unthreaded portion just under the head. Wood screws are designed to fasten objects to wood or to fasten two pieces of wood together. The pointed shaft is often driven directly into wood, but depending on the hardness of the wood, a pilot hole may be required. There are a huge number of different head styles and drive types and other characteristics of fasteners that may have other specific names but are also what is meant by the term "wood screw", including many that do NOT have a tapered shank but rather have a straight, threaded, shank with a pointed end. Materials include steel, brass, and aluminum. See also bolts vs screws. Compare/contrast to machine screw. Examples:



wrap around hinge --- A type of hinge that either partially or fully wraps around both the edge of a frame and the matching door. The two types are shown in this glossary at:

zero clearance hinge --- Although technically this term is properly applied to any hinge that allows unobstructed access for pullout shelves or drawers once a cabinet door is opened to 90 degrees or more, it is usually applied to a specific style of hinge that is also called a European hinge. The point is just to make sure that the door will not protrude into the area of the cabinet opening when open so that any drawer or shelf that is being pulled out through the opening will not be obstructed by the back edge of the door. With the proper mounting in the right kind of door setup, a butt hinge could serve this function, as could a wrap around hinge and others, most particularly the 270 degree hinge. Another, less used, name for these is "zero protrusion hinge". The examples shown here are all of the European hinge type:



zero protrusion hinge --- An apparently little-used term that is synonymous with zero clearance hinge

# of terms in this subglossary: 418