Jig (tool)

Last updated
A bicycle frame building jig Frame building jig.jpg
A bicycle frame building jig

A jig is a type of custom-made tool used to control the location and/or motion of parts or other tools.

Contents

Description

Device with grooves and chucks Bundesarchiv Bild 183-76109-0001, Werktatige des Fritz-Heckert-Werk-Karl-Marx-Stadt.jpg
Device with grooves and chucks

A jig's primary purpose is to provide repeatability, accuracy, and interchangeability in the manufacturing of products. [1]

An example of a jig is when a key is duplicated; the original is used as a jig so the new key can have the same path as the old one. Since the advent of automation and computer numerical controlled (CNC) machines, jigs are often not required because the tool path is digitally programmed and stored in memory. Jigs may be made for reforming plastics.

Jigs or templates have been known long before the industrial age. There are many types of jigs, and each one is custom-tailored to do a specific job.

Drill jig

A drill jig is a type of jig that expedites repetitive hole center location on multiple interchangeable parts by acting as a template to guide the twist drill or other boring device into the precise location of each intended hole center. In metalworking practice, typically a hardened drill bushing lines each hole on the jig plate to keep the tool from damaging the jig.

Drill jigs started falling into disuse with the invention of the jig borer.

Since the widespread penetration of the manufacturing industry by CNC machine tools, in which servo controls are capable of moving the tool to the correct location automatically, the need for drill jigs (and for the jobs of the drill press operators who used them) is much less than it used to be.

PCB jig

Printed circuit board (PCB) jigs are used to test PCBs. They have a dump board inside the jig which can find faults in the PCBs.

Jewelry jig

A jig used in making jewelry, a specific type of jig, is a plate or open frame for holding work and helping to shape jewelry components made out of wire or small sheets of metal. A jig in the jewelry making application is used to help establish a pattern for use in shaping the wire or sheets of metal. In the jewelry application, the shaping of the metal is done by hand or with simple hand tools like a hammer.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Router (woodworking)</span> Woodworking power tool

The router is a power tool with a flat base and a rotating blade extending past the base. The spindle may be driven by an electric motor or by a pneumatic motor. It routs an area in hard material, such as wood or plastic. Routers are used most often in woodworking, especially cabinetry. They may be handheld or affixed to router tables. Some woodworkers consider the router one of the most versatile power tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Printed circuit board</span> Board to support and connect electronic components

A printed circuit board is a medium used in electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich structure of conductive and insulating layers: each of the conductive layers is designed with an artwork pattern of traces, planes and other features etched from one or more sheet layers of copper laminated onto and/or between sheet layers of a non-conductive substrate. Electrical components may be fixed to conductive pads on the outer layers in the shape designed to accept the component's terminals, generally by means of soldering, to both electrically connect and mechanically fasten them to it. Another manufacturing process adds vias: plated-through holes that allow interconnections between layers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electrical discharge machining</span> Metal fabrication process

Electrical discharge machining (EDM), also known as spark machining, spark eroding, die sinking, wire burning or wire erosion, is a metal fabrication process whereby a desired shape is obtained by using electrical discharges (sparks). Material is removed from the work piece by a series of rapidly recurring current discharges between two electrodes, separated by a dielectric liquid and subject to an electric voltage. One of the electrodes is called the tool-electrode, or simply the tool or electrode, while the other is called the workpiece-electrode, or work piece. The process depends upon the tool and work piece not making physical contact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machine tool</span> Machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials

A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All machine tools have some means of constraining the work piece and provide a guided movement of the parts of the machine. Thus, the relative movement between the workpiece and the cutting tool is controlled or constrained by the machine to at least some extent, rather than being entirely "offhand" or "freehand". It is a power-driven metal cutting machine which assists in managing the needed relative motion between cutting tool and the job that changes the size and shape of the job material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metalworking</span> Process of making items from metal

Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale: from huge ships, buildings, and bridges down to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drill bit</span> Type of cutting tool

Drill bits are cutting tools used in a drill to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order to create holes drill bits are usually attached to a drill, which powers them to cut through the workpiece, typically by rotation. The drill will grasp the upper end of a bit called the shank in the chuck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drilling</span> Cutting process that uses a drill bit to cut a circular hole into the workpiece

Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at rates from hundreds to thousands of revolutions per minute. This forces the cutting edge against the work-piece, cutting off chips (swarf) from the hole as it is drilled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metal fabrication</span> Creation of metal structures

Metal fabrication is the creation of metal structures by cutting, bending and assembling processes. It is a value-added process involving the creation of machines, parts, and structures from various raw materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grinding machine</span>

A grinding machine, often shortened to grinder, is a power tool used for grinding. It is a type of machining using an abrasive wheel as the cutting tool. Each grain of abrasive on the wheel's surface cuts a small chip from the workpiece via shear deformation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheet metal</span> Metal formed into thin, flat pieces

Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turning</span> Machining process

Turning is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, describes a helix toolpath by moving more or less linearly while the workpiece rotates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boring (manufacturing)</span> Process of enlarging an already-drilled hole with a single-point cutting tool

In machining, boring is the process of enlarging a hole that has already been drilled by means of a single-point cutting tool, such as in boring a gun barrel or an engine cylinder. Boring is used to achieve greater accuracy of the diameter of a hole, and can be used to cut a tapered hole. Boring can be viewed as the internal-diameter counterpart to turning, which cuts external diameters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tool and die maker</span> Class of machinist in manufacturing

Tool and die makers are highly skilled crafters working in the manufacturing industries. Variations on the name include tool maker,toolmaker, die maker,diemaker, mold maker,moldmaker or tool jig and die-maker depending on which area of concentration or industry an individual works in.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fixture (tool)</span> Device for firmly holding a workpiece during manufacturing

A fixture is a work-holding or support device used in the manufacturing industry. Fixtures are used to securely locate and support the work, ensuring that all parts produced using the fixture will maintain conformity and interchangeability. Using a fixture improves the economy of production by allowing smooth operation and quick transition from part to part, reducing the requirement for skilled labor by simplifying how workpieces are mounted, and increasing conformity across a production run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewelry wire</span>

Jewelry wire is wire, usually copper, brass, nickel, aluminium, silver, or gold, used in jewelry making.

The jig borer is a type of machine tool invented at the end of World War I to enable the quick and precise location of hole centers. It was invented independently in Switzerland and the United States. It resembles a specialized species of milling machine that provides tool and die makers with a higher degree of positioning precision (repeatability) and accuracy than those provided by general machines. Although capable of light milling, a jig borer is more suited to highly accurate drilling, boring, and reaming, where the quill or headstock does not see the significant side loading that it would with mill work. The result is a machine designed more for location accuracy than heavy material removal.

Indexing in reference to motion is moving into a new position or location quickly and easily but also precisely. When indexing a machine part, its new location is known to within a few hundredths of a millimeter, or often even to within a few thousandths of a millimeter, despite the fact that no elaborate measuring or layout was needed to establish that location. In reference to multi-edge cutting inserts, indexing is the process of exposing a new cutting edge for use. Indexing is a necessary kind of motion in many areas of mechanical engineering and machining. An object that indexes, or can be indexed, is said to be indexable.

A drill bushing, also known as a jig bushing, is a tool used in metalworking jigs to guide cutting tools, most commonly drill bits. Other tools that are commonly used in a drill bushing include counterbores, countersinks, and reamers. They are designed to guide, position, and support the cutting tool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DipTrace</span>

DipTrace is a software suite for electronic design automation (EDA) to create schematic diagrams and printed circuit board layouts. DipTrace has four modules: schematic capture editor, PCB layout editor with built-in shape-based autorouter and 3D preview, component editor, and pattern editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milling (machining)</span> Removal of material from a workpiece using rotating tools

Milling is the process of machining using rotary cutters to remove material by advancing a cutter into a workpiece. This may be done by varying direction on one or several axes, cutter head speed, and pressure. Milling covers a wide variety of different operations and machines, on scales from small individual parts to large, heavy-duty gang milling operations. It is one of the most commonly used processes for machining custom parts to precise tolerances.

References

Bibliography