Rob, I think it is definition 4 from your reference that applies here:

4 : something (as a tool) driven down upon or forced into a body

I was unaware of this usage.  Thanks again.  Dmc

---- Rob <becida@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
> "drift" is a neat word...
>
> http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/drift
>
>  >>1 a : the act of driving something along<<
>
> On the arm rest you can drift the roll pin in/out or you can tap the
> drift pin in/out.
> I might use a drift to pound a ball joint out or to pound one in (old
> king pins & a 5 lb hammer on a bench vice work really well for this).
>
> Of course you can always just beat the sucker to where you need it.
>
> Rob
> becida@comcast.net
>
>
> At 6/1/2010 01:59 PM, Malcolm Stebbins wrote:
> >Sorry.  I MAY not have the right name for this "pin", but in my
> >vocabulary, a Westy arm-rest drift pin is a metal tube about the
> >length of a hairpin (maybe shorter) and about the diameter of an
> >elbow spaghetti..... BUT, it is completely cut from end to end so
> >that it will compress when forced/banged into a tunnel type
> >hole,  like the one on the westy arm rest.
> >
> >One can use a blunt (cut off) nail the size of the tunnel to bang
> >the pin out of the tunnel, or one can buy a real tool to do it.
> >
> >Again, I may have the names mixed up here.  Malcolm
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >________________________________
> >From: "mcneely4@cox.net" <mcneely4@cox.net>
> >
> >Malcolm, I still don't know what a "drift in" is.  Is that the pin
> >that I punched out, referred to in the post referenced below as a
> >"steel plug?  Seems such an odd term that I feel a need to know.  Thanks, DMc

--
David McNeely