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You Make Shovels?
by Morning Machinist
Jon House
November 16, 2025
🧢🔥New Drop: The ±0.0001 Collection
For machinists who hold it within a tenth.
The ±0.0001 Collection is officially live — starting with the black-on-black trucker hat, plus rope caps and dad hats.
Clean. Precise. Built By Machinists.
👕 T-shirts coming soon.
🔨 You Make Hammers?
Machinists Try to Explain What They Do for a Living
It’s one of those conversations every machinist knows too well — you tell someone what you do, and they look at you like you just said you forge dragon armor.
Carter Shank posed the question in the MACHINIST group and the comments did not dissapoint 👇
What’s the funniest thing someone thought your job was when you told them you are a toolmaker?
Mine… “you mean you make hammers?”
💬 Top Comments from the Shop Floor
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“I told a teacher my Dad was a forger and she asked, ‘When does he get out of prison?’”
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“Told a guy this and he said, ‘You’re an assault, aren’t you? Every toolmaker I know is a dick.’”
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“I tell people I build plastic injection molds for the automotive industry. One person said, ‘You like a scientist or something?’”
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“I told them I make round parts square and square parts round. They thought I work at FedEx.”
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“I tell them I’m an inventor and a magician — with a hint of telepathy, reading engineers’ minds.”
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“I told a woman in Ireland I was a toolmaker and she said, ‘Ohh, so you make the shovels?’”
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“‘I’m a mold maker.’ — ‘What do you do with this fungus?’”
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“I tell them I make things that make things that sometimes make other things.”
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“After I say I’m a machinist they go, ‘Oh nice, can you help me with my car?’ Then I have to explain I’m not a mechanic.”
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“I’m a Mouldmaker. Apparently I leave pieces of bread out for days.”
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“Started in wire EDM — people thought I made wire.”
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“Tell them you’re a patternmaker and they think you make dresses.”
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“Making chips = potato chips.”
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“We used to get calls for mold issues at my dad’s tool shop.”
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🧠 Moral of the Story:
No one outside the shop truly gets it — but that’s okay. We’re the ones who make the things that make everything else.
Random Machining Memes
