The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
First Aid For The Ailing Houses
Bolts and machine screws are used for fastening metal objects. A bolt has a head designed to be turned with a wrench. It may have a nut at the other end, or may be threaded into the material it is fastening. Stove bolts have roundheads, but the under side of the head is squared to fit into a square hole and hold the head firmly while the nut is being tightened.
Machine screws are usually slotted screws, which are available in standard diameters identified by numbers. The four types most commonly used are the flathead, roundhead, fillisterhead, and cap screw. The cap screw has a hexagonal head for tightening with a wrench.
There are two types of headless screws the home owner will run across on his tools and equipment. One of these has a slot in the end of the shank, but the other uses a recessed socket that takes a special tool (Allen wrench) for loosening or tightening. These headless screws are usually used to tighten pulleys or wheels on shafts. A complete set of Allen wrenches, which are L-shaped hexagonal metal bars, may be purchased for less than a dollar at most hardware stores.
A great variety of other fasteners are available for special work, such as staples, rivets, expanding rivets, toggle bolts, corrugated fasteners, hooks and eyes, and even dowels. The average hardware or building-material supply dealer has a wide selection of different fasteners on hand, and can give expert advice on how to use them and which to select for the job at hand.
To be used with fasteners to add more firmness to wood joints, the mending plate is a handy workshop item to have around the house. A number of various shapes already drilled with countersunk holes for flathead wood screws are available; screwed to the side or edge of the joint, they give extra firmness that other methods of fastening may not provide.
Frequently, nuts on bolts work loose, usually by vibration. It happens on all types of places—from outboard motors and vacuum cleaners to junior's wheeled toys. A new thermoplas- tic chemical preparation, available in a plastic tube, now keeps nuts from working loose. Called Loctite, this works its way between the screw heads, and hardens, and only strong pressure with a wrench will loosen the nut.
RUSTY SCREWS
Rusty, stubborn screws can be loosened by heating with the tip of a soldering iron. (Be careful not to scorch the surrounding wood.)
