Glossary
Drilling Machine Operator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential drilling machine operator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key drilling machine operator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in drilling machine operator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Chip
- Cut metal.
- Coolant
- Cuts heat.
- Countersink
- Cone-shaped recess.
- First article
- First part checked before a run.
- Fixture
- Holds parts.
- Lockout/tagout
- Energy isolation before servicing.
- Pilot hole
- Small starter hole.
- Pin gauge
- Checks hole size.
- PPE
- Personal protective equipment.
- Ream
- Finish a hole to size.
- RPM
- Revolutions per minute.
- Scrap
- Parts that fail inspection.
- SOP
- Standard operating procedure.
- Speeds and feeds
- Cutting speed and rate.
- Tap
- Tool for threads.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Drilling Machine Operator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Drilling Machine Operator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.