A tapered pin is a fastener used in mechanical engineering. They are steel rods with one end having a slightly larger diameter than the other. Standard inch-sized tapered pins have a taper on diameter of 1:48 while metric ones have a taper of 1:50. A 1:48 taper means that one end of a 4-foot-long bar (48 inches) will be 1 inch smaller in diameter than the other end, or a 1/4-inch taper over a 1-foot length.
Some tapered pins have a male screw thread on the small end that holds the pin in place with a washer and a nut. Other pins are threaded on both ends, on the thick end to pull the pin out with the same nut that holds the pin in place.
Famous quotes containing the word pin:
“It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided; but the men: divided into mere segments of men—broken into small fragments and crumbs of life, so that all the little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself in making the point of a pin or the head of a nail.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)