A fanciful unit for a very small adjustment, used when the real amount is a feel thing rather than a number on the dial. Shops have a whole range of these, many far less polite, and gnat's whisker is the one used in mixed company. On a mill or lathe it usually means less than a thou.
Heard on the job
Bump the handwheel a gnat's whisker toward you, the cutter's just shy of the scribe line.
Also heard as
- gnat's eyelash
- hair
- smidge
- skosh
Related terms
Thou
One thousandth of an inch (0.001 in, about 25 microns), the everyday unit of machining talk in inch shops.
Kentucky windage
Adjusting by experience and feel rather than by the numbers, borrowed from riflemen aiming off for wind.
Eyecrometer
Joking name for measuring by eye, the calibrated eyeball used when no real gauge is handy.