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Model Makers, Wood

Construct full-size and scale wooden precision models of products. Includes wood jig builders and loft workers.

What you’d do

  • Read blueprints, drawings, or written specifications, and consult with designers to determine sizes and shapes of patterns and required machine setups.
  • Fit, fasten, and assemble wood parts together to form patterns, models, or sections, using glue, nails, dowels, bolts, screws, and other fasteners.
  • Verify dimensions and contours of models during hand-forming processes, using templates and measuring devices.
  • Trim, smooth, and shape surfaces, and plane, shave, file, scrape, and sand models to attain specified shapes, using hand tools.
  • Plan, lay out, and draw outlines of units, sectional patterns, or full-scale mock-ups of products.
  • Construct wooden models, patterns, templates, full scale mock-ups, and molds for parts of products and production tools.
  • Select wooden stock, determine layouts, and mark layouts of parts on stock, using precision equipment such as scribers, squares, and protractors.
  • Mark identifying information on patterns, parts, and templates to indicate assembly methods and details.

Skills that matter

  • Monitoring
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Critical Thinking
  • Judgment and Decision Making
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Speaking

How to get there

Medium preparation: usually vocational school, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree

Also called

  • Craftsman
  • Model Maker
  • Sample Builder
  • Sample Maker
  • Builder
  • Jig Maker
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