From what I was told, two men with drawls marking them of Southern (United States) descent asked if the lathe had a “buckable chuck.” The Sales Manager explained that he wasn’t familiar with this machine tools expression. After some conversation with the customers, the Sales Manager explained to me that “buckable chuck” was likely where you could put a part on a chuck and zero out the alignment.
We conferred with a Practical Machinist forum and learned that “Buck-able chuck” was most likely not Southern but came from “Buck being the first chuck company to offer a 3-jaw scroll chuck that could be dialed in,” according to the sage advice of one Kansas machinist.
From a cursory Internet search, we came across directions from the Buck Chuck Company advising machinists to “Never Spin Chuck without Gripping a Workpiece.” Alas, never spin machine tools jargon without consulting with the Google Workengine!
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Don’t miss our LeBlond lathe promotion until February 28th where you receive a FREE two-axis Newall DP700 digital readout with the purchase of a RKL 1300, RKL 1500 or RKL 1900 Series engine lathe. Check out the offer here.
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All things Buck-able and chuck-able got us thinking about other machine tools slang. Machinists from all over the world poured in suggestions, much of it unfit for print in this G-Rated blog. But we do have the following gems.
The U.K. seemed to have the best slang. One machinist from Midlands deemed a tight fit as “tight as a duck arse.” Another machinist from Norfolk, U.K. called a loose fit a “marble down a drainpipe.” To “thrutch” is to push a machine hard and “like a baby’s bum” is a smooth and even surface.
American machinists were not to be outdone. “Hot dog down a hallway” was the opposite of “tight as a duck arse.” A “scoshe” was a measurement a little more than a few tenths and less than a few thousandths.
Got any favorite expressions or bits of machinist slang? Let us know in the comments below and we might write about it in the future! Keep in mind, regardless of your preferred chuck slang, LeBlond can supply you with quality chucks from major suppliers like Buck, Bison and TMX to name a few.
Don’t miss our LeBlond lathe promotion until February 28 where you receive a free two-axis Newall DP700 digital readout with the purchase of a RKL 1300, RKL 1500 or RKL 1900 Series engine lathe. Check out the offer here. If you’re interested in new LeBlond manual lathes, K.O. Lee grinders or need original OEM parts for LeBlond, K.O. Lee, Standard Modern, Johnson Press, Deka Drill and W.F. & John Barnes equipment, fill out a contact form here.