Jigs and (Not) Dancing

Piano factories have pretty fancy equipment-large industrial equipment to efficiently make parts consistently. How do technicians replicate that kind of work consistently and accurately? we make jigs: jigs for drilling holes, jigs for gluing things, jigs for cutting felts. What is a jig, other than an Irish dance? It's simply a tool that aides other tools (like a drill press) to replicate the same thing, consistently. Piano technicians are always trying to figure out faster and better ways of doing work. Here is a jig I spent some time making this last week: when we replace hammers, we also replace the wooden dowel (or shank) that connects the hammer to the hammer butt. this hole needs to be centered and perpendicular to the hammer butt, and this jig helps keep that alignment.

-- Piano Technician Bryan Hutchison