Saw-ry Not Saw-ry
This plastic guard moves up and out of the way on a miter saw to keep your fingers safe from the spinning blade.
What is a moveable blade guard?
If you measure across opposite corners of a frame and find the two diagonals are perfectly equal, your project is completely square and forms this shape.
What is a rectangle?
While "level" means a board is perfectly horizontal, this construction term means a wall or post is perfectly vertical.
What is plumb?
This term refers to the "fake" name a board is given at the store that only identifies its approximate size before it gets shaved down.
What is nominal size?
If a board looks totally fine on its flat face but curves like a banana when you sight it down the narrow edge, it has this defect.
What is a bow?
This fixed shop saw features a spinning blade and a fence, making it the king of ripping long boards and sheet goods down to size.
What is a table saw?)
This is the fancy mathematical name for the absolute longest side of a right triangle that connects the two shorter legs.
What is the hypotenuse?
If you look at a spirit level vial and the air bubble is leaning hard toward the left line, you must move the tool this way to correct it.
What is to the right?
Standard manufactured sheets of plywood or OSB are always sold in this specific common footprint size measured in feet.
What is 4’ x 8’?
Unlike wide-headed structural screws, this type of screwdriver bit features a flat, straight blade design that is notoriously bad at self-centering.
What is a flathead?
This aggressive demolition tool cuts by moving a straight blade rapidly back and forth like a power-driven hand saw.
What is a reciprocating saw?
A spirit level is great for checking angles, but its perfectly flat, rigid body means it can easily double as this layout tool.
What is a straight edge?
On a multi-purpose level, you will often find a mysterious tilted vial meant for checking this specific angled slope.
What is 45 degrees?
When looking at a piece of framing lumber, the arrow pointing to the wide, flat face indicates this part of the board.
What is the face?
These skinny fasteners have tiny, easily hidden heads and are explicitly meant for delicate trim jobs like installing baseboards and casings.
What are finish nails?
While big circular saws cut straight lines, this handheld saw uses a tiny blade to dance around tight, detailed curves.
What is a jigsaw?
In the famous construction world 3-4-5 triangle rule, these are the exact lengths required for the 2 sides of a triangle with a hypotenuse of 15 to create a perfect 90-degree corner.
What are 9 and 12?
This specific detail sander combines a circular spinning motion with tiny orbital vibrations, but fails to get into corners or inside edges.
What is a random orbital sander?
If you buy a standard nominal 2x4 at the local hardware store, its actual, physically milled dimensions are these smaller sizes.
What is 1-1/2” x 3-1/2”?
Unlike screws that lock in with metal threads, regular smooth nails rely entirely on this physical force to keep boards from sliding apart.
What is friction?
If you don't want wood pinching the back of a table saw blade and throwing a dangerous, flying tantrum, you need this safety feature installed.
What is a riving knife / feature that prevents kickback?
True or False: If you switch your tape measure from feet to meters or miles, the perfect 90-degree corner of a 3-4-5 triangle will change.
What is False?
Because they contain sensitive glass or plastic vials, longer spirit levels are actually more fragile than short ones and require extra care.
What is True?
2x4, a 2x6, 2x9, or a 2x12; While you can easily buy some of these at the lumber yard, you won't find this oddball size because it doesn't exist as common stock lumber.
What is a 2x9?
This is the physical slot or thickness of wood material that completely vanishes into sawdust whenever a saw blade makes a cut.
What is the kerf?