Fitting, mechanics, and "benchwork" generally are the often overlooked set of basic workshop skills upon which industrial civilization is based. This is the field of the use of hand tools, primarily with metal. It includes both the (dis)assembly of components when you do not modify the parts (in repair, or in interchangeable-part manufacturing) and the fitting of parts to each other for in non-interchangeable precision manufacturing.
Many of these techniques are similar to those used on a finer scale in ../ Technical Horology (see especially Workshop Methods and Curricula). If it takes a machine tool, I'll cover it in the Machine Shop Notebooks).
Measuring, Inspecting, and Testing
These Notebooks cover only methods using hand instruments. For measuring, inspecting, and testing by machine, see ../../ Machine Shop -> Measuring, Inspecting, and Testing.
Mechanics
Putting things together without modifying the parts. Not much here, as this topic has been well-covered for over 150 years.
What is a "pin wrench"?
Hand Scraping
The use of a Hand Scraper may be undertaken for two logically distinct purposes.
"Hand Scraping" proper is the process of using a scraper (either manual or power) held in the hands to remove small amounts of metal from a precision surface so as to provide an accurate bearing surface to within some tolerance. It is the way in which the finest machine slideways have been produced from the early 19th century to the present. This is the sense which will be discussed here.
(Hand scraping is logically both a part of Fitting and a surface finish. The section here is actually a link "up and over" to the [Functional] Hand Scraping Notebook in the ../ Machine Shop -> Surface Finishing section.)
Hand scraping may also be done to produce a decorative finish on a surface. When this is done it is often termed Frosting or Flaking.
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