Glossary
Metal Patternmaker Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential metal patternmaker terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key metal patternmaker vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in metal patternmaker training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Casting
- Part made by pouring metal.
- Cope and drag
- Top and bottom mold halves.
- Core
- Forms internal cavities.
- Core box
- Mold for cores.
- Draft
- Taper for removal.
- Fillet
- Rounded corner.
- Machining allowance
- Extra metal to machine.
- Match plate
- Plate with pattern halves.
- Mold
- Cavity that shapes metal.
- Parting line
- Where mold halves meet.
- Pattern
- Shape used to make a mold.
- Sand mold
- Mold made of packed sand.
- Shrink allowance
- Extra size for shrinkage.
- Shrink rule
- Ruler with shrinkage built in.
- Shrinkage
- Metal contraction when cooling.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Metal Patternmaker practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Metal Patternmaker training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.