Making a correction that the dials and offsets do not show: dialing a little past the number to allow for tool deflection, backlash or spring, or nudging a setup by eye. The term comes from shooting, where a rifleman aims off the target instead of adjusting the sights. In a shop it is half compliment and half warning, because it works only for the person who knows the machine.
Dial says fifty thou, but give it a little Kentucky windage, this old lathe springs about two thou on a cut that long.
Windage that lives only in one person's head is a process nobody else can run, so write the correction on the setup sheet.
Also heard as
- windage
Related terms
Eyecrometer
Joking name for measuring by eye, the calibrated eyeball used when no real gauge is handy.
Gnat's whisker
Clean shop term for a tiny, unmeasured amount, smaller than anyone bothers to put a number on.
Spring pass
A repeat finishing pass at the same setting to remove the material left behind by tool spring.
Sneak up on it
Approach a final dimension with smaller and smaller cuts, measuring between each, so you never go undersize.