What is the term or name for the tiny gaps to keep pieces from moving?

[bwente]

I am trying to document some instructions and want to know what to call them.

I from Florida so I have being calling them “chads”, as in hanging chads. Tabs, chads, gaps?

[evansd2]

In molded/cast applications they are called “sprues” and “runners”.

See the injection molding portion:

Sprue (manufacturing)

[bwente]

Of course! I did that with wax when I did some castings. I guess it is the same when doing subtractive work as well.

[dklgood]

In the premium tools repeating shapes they are called “hold- in tabs”

[dwardio]

In the CNC flat-pack world, they are commonly referred to as “tabs.”

I always think of “sprues” as the tree-like supports used in the plastic model kits of my youth.

[bwente]

Tabs makes me think of tabs and slots. I just asked chat-gpt and it called it a “bridging tab”.

[Aloha]