Toolmaking chiefly involves the making of precision devices and parts for power-driven machines used to shape metal. Such machines are called machine tools. Toolmakers also produce special tools and measuring instruments. Toolmaking is one of the most important and highly skilled crafts in the manufacturing industry.
The main products of toolmaking include fixtures, jigs, and dies for machine tools. Fixtures hold a workpiece (the metal being worked) in place while a manufacturing process, such as boring, cutting, or drilling, is performed on it. Jigs both hold a workpiece in place and guide a machine’s cutting tool. Dies are used to mold, punch, bend, and cut out a workpiece. They range in size from huge blocks of steel for shaping automobile bodies to tiny precision devices for making watch gears. See Die and diemaking .
Toolmakers must use machine tools in their own work. For example, they use lathes to cut metal into round or cylindrical shapes, milling machines to cut flat surfaces, and boring machines to bore holes in metal. These machine tools are often computer-controlled. Before shaping a new tool, toolmakers may test various tool designs using computer simulations.
Toolmakers are sometimes called tool-and-diemakers. They typically complete a special training program that lasts at least four years.
