'cordin to this:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drift_pin

a drift pin is a punch used for aligning holes as in metal working.  A couple of dictionaries confirmed this usage.  I did not find drift pin as a separate listing, but only as an example of the usage of drift as an adjective (modifying pin, where the general usage of pin is synonymous with punch).  Fact is, I had a bit of a time aligning the holes in the arm rest and the rest of the hinge on the chair, and used a smaller punch than the one I used as a drift when drifting the spring pin out and back in.

Did I use the terms correctly here?  Thanks.  DMc

---- Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> I think this is called a spring pin, rolled pin or split pin. Spring
> pin is the most common name.
>
> Jim
>
> On Jun 1, 2010, at 3:59 PM, Malcolm Stebbins <mwstebbins@YAHOO.COM>
> 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