On Wed, 29 Jan 2014 12:34:12 -0600, Tim Wescott
wrote:

The sons of the family mechanic talked about "wallering a hole", in the
sense of "to wear and enlarge in an uncontrolled manner" ("the bolt was
loose and wallered out the hole, now it don't fit"), or (with contempt
for shade-tree mechanics) "to intentionally enlarge a hole in an
uncontrolled manner" ("that deleted just wallered out those holes
instead of using a drill bit of the proper size, now nuthin' fits right").

Has anyone else seen this? I'm curious if it was a family invention or
if it's a word of real usage.

I think it may be a universal term. I know it was commonly used by
USAF aircraft sheetmetal men on several bases in several countries :-)

Commonly used when one drilled several rivet holes and after driving
the first rivet discovered that the holes didn't perfectly line up and
you can't get the remaining rivets in the holes, so you waller the
holes out a bit.
--
Cheers,

John B.