What can this be?

[Midway Tommy]

Is that bench mounted tool what they call a "jig"?

Jigs guide tools.  Usually cutting or forming tools.   An example of a jig is a gizmo that guides a drill bit on a hand drill into the part at the correct angle.  OTOH, a drill press is not a jig.  I would say that the gizmos with reel handles are tools and not jigs, but hard to say for sure unless we know what they are used for.

Once I finally learned the difference between  a fixture (holds a part) and a jig (guides a tool), it kinda annoys me when other folks mix them up.  Guess it reminds  that I was getting it wrong for a long time.  Human nature

-J

My 45⁰/90⁰ table saw miter jig, that I designed 25 years ago, long before they were ever marketed commercially, and have utilized for 50 years, doesn't guide the table saw, it guides the boards I am mitering and/or cross cutting with the table saw. I don't consider it a fixture since it's an accessory, portable and not part of the saw. Wish I would have patented the dang thing back then, just like I wish I would have patented the attachment table I devised for the first Skil electric chain saws. It worked flawlessly for cutting stair horses out of 4x12 or larger timbers rather than trying to get a true cut free hand. I still use it occasionally for large rough sawn lumber/timber cuts. 15 years later Skil came out with a chain bar attachment for their worm drive saws that worked similarly.       

[jurelometer]

Is that bench mounted tool what they call a "jig"?

Jigs guide tools.  Usually cutting or forming tools.   An example of a jig is a gizmo that guides a drill bit on a hand drill into the part at the correct angle.  OTOH, a drill press is not a jig.  I would say that the gizmos with reel handles are tools and not jigs, but hard to say for sure unless we know what they are used for.

Once I finally learned the difference between  a fixture (holds a part) and a jig (guides a tool), it kinda annoys me when other folks mix them up.  Guess it reminds  that I was getting it wrong for a long time.  Human nature

-J

My 45⁰/90⁰ table saw miter jig, that I designed 25 years ago, long before they were ever marketed commercially, and have utilized for 50 years, doesn't guide the table saw, it guides the boards I am mitering and/or cross cutting with the table saw. I don't consider it a fixture since it's an accessory, portable and not part of the saw. Wish I would have patented the dang thing back then, just like I wish I would have patented the attachment table I devised for the first Skil electric chain saws. It worked flawlessly for cutting stair horses out of 4x12 or larger timbers rather than trying to get a true cut free hand. I still use it occasionally for large rough sawn lumber/timber cuts. 15 years later Skil came out with a chain bar attachment for their worm drive saws that worked similarly.        

Big tools (like table saws)  don't move, so the part has to move.  The purpose of sleds, miter jigs, etc is to guide the cutting action, so I would agree that although these gizmos are in the middle ground,  they are more jigs than fixtures.   Don't blame me.  I didn't create the definitions

If you built a cup shaped gizmo to hold a ball tightly to the sled, so that the ball could be sliced in half cleanly, you would have a fixture on a jig  More proof that my getting picky about terminology is kind of futile.  But I can't help myself.

Not in the trades myself, but I do make a lot of different stuff for fun.  I don't make fixtures and jigs as much as I should, but never regret it when I do.  The best tradesman seem to be more proud of their jigs and fixtures than the actual end product. Maybe because of the creative aspect?

And don't get me started on the whole USA patent fiasco.

-J

[Midway Tommy]

Not in the trades myself, but I do make a lot of different stuff for fun.  I don't make fixtures and jigs as much as I should, but never regret it when I do.  The best tradesman seem to be more proud of their jigs and fixtures than the actual end product. Maybe because of the creative aspect?

Yeah, but most times out of necessity, but they're still real proud of their innovations. I remember my dad talking about devising a 3 way C-clamp back around 1950 when he was building a lot of cabinets. He cut the stationary end off right after the curve on one C-clamp and welded that threaded portion to the center of another C-clamp so he could clamp stiles together where he wasn't able to get a pipe/bar clamp over one end. Now they make a host of different style clamps including 3 way C-clamps that have threaded adjustment rods from all three sides.

The way the patent fiasco works, that one little variation would have been enough to throw dad's patent, if he had one, overboard.