A mock element for anything that cannot be sourced: an obsolete machine part, a material with an impossible lead time, or an ideal alloy that would solve every design problem. Old machines are full of unobtainium parts, which is why shops keep the ability to make them from scratch.
Heard on the job
That gear for the old shaper is pure unobtainium, we'll have to cut one ourselves from the broken one.
Also heard as
- unobtanium
Related terms
Pot metal
Shop name for cheap, low-melting die-cast alloy, usually zinc-based, that is brittle and almost impossible to weld.
Clapped-out
Worn out from long hard use, still running but loose, sloppy and well past its best.
Government job
A personal project made on company machines and material, on the side or on the clock.