Shop Talk vs. Engineer Speak

This week’s question sparked a flood of hilarious, honest, and painfully true responses:

Here’s a breakdown of what came back from the machinist hive mind:

🧠 The Vocabulary Shift: Say It Right or Get Eyeballed

• Scale — Not “ruler.” (Unless you're in the UK, where it's the other way around.)

• Drill — Not “drill bit.”

• End mills, ball mills — Not “bits.”

• Tenth — That’s 0.0001", not 0.1. Learn it. Live it.

• Thou, half-thou, Johnny blocks, Joe blocks, slip fit, press fit—these aren’t slang; they’re survival.

• “G.E” — Aka “it’s good enough”

• “WTF” — isn’t an expression. It’s punctuation.

🧾 Unwritten Rules from the Shop Floor

• “Dead nuts” = perfect, within tolerance.

• “Measure once, check twice…” – because material doesn’t grow back.

• “Just because you can draw it…” doesn’t mean we can machine it.

• “Rule #1: Never tell an experienced machinist what ‘the book says.’”

• Engineers: if your hole and dowel are both 0.500", it’s not going to work…

🛑 Phrases That Get Eye Rolls or Worse

• “All you have to do is…”

• “The book says…”

• Anything that starts with “I watched this on YouTube…”

😂 Shop Humor That Hits Home

• When someone messes up a job, I tell them “That’s what I call Rare Machining”. It’s rare because it’s certainly not “well done”!

• Ever been divorced?

  No sir.

  Ever been to jail?

  No sir.

  Do you drink?

  No sir.

  Are you on drugs?

  No sir.

  Ever seen a man lose a finger?

  No sir.

  😑 you ain’t gonna make it kid

👨‍🏭 And One Brutal Truth

Teaching engineers how to communicate with machinists isn't about language—it's about culture. If they want respect on the floor, they need to start with curiosity, not credentials.

Got more sayings, lessons, or pet peeves to share? Hit reply or leave a comment—we’ll feature more in the next edition.