Hadaway Tool

Fixtures · Tooling · Metal assemblies · Newark, DE

Jigs, fixtures and steel parts built to your print, one to fifty at a time

A small jigs and fixtures shop and machine shop in Newark, Delaware. You send a drawing or a worn sample. We build the weld fixture, drill jig, gauge or stand that lets your own line run, and we tell you on day one if it isn't our kind of job.

  • 1–50pieces per job
  • ±0.002 inon locating features
  • 30×16×20in machining envelope
  • 72 inlongest weldment, about

How the price is set

One fixed price per job, written after we have read the drawing. There is no price list, because a jig is priced by its print: the number of locating features, the material, how much of it is hardened and how many you need. The written quote is the only figure that binds either of us.

Send a drawing Check if your job fits
Check sheet in every crate A finished welding fixture with toggle clamps and locating pins on the shop workbench
Weld fixture, A36 plate, 4140 pre-hard locators, toggle clamps. On the bench before crating.

The work

What we build

Four kinds of job come through the door. All of them start from your print and end with a sheet of measured numbers.

  1. Welding & holding fixtures

    Custom welding fixtures that hold your parts to the weld sequence, and assembly or inspection fixtures that locate off machined datums with pressed dowels and Delrin pads so a finished part leaves unmarked.

    Typical lead time 3–5 weeks · fixed price per fixture

    Fixtures

  2. Drill jigs, gauges & soft jaws

    Drill jigs with hardened bushings, go/no-go check gauges in tool steel, and 6061-T6 soft jaws cut to your part so the second op runs on your own mill.

    Simple jig 2–3 weeks · add about a week for heat treat

    Production tooling

  3. Frames, guards & brackets

    Welded A36 stands with mounting pads machined after welding, machine guards sized to the machine you actually have, and short runs of brackets that a production shop won't answer the email for.

    Frames 2–4 weeks · add about a week for powder coat

    Fabrication

  4. Repair & replacement parts

    Worn locators, bushings and clamp pads replaced and bases re-machined back to print. Or a part measured from your sample, drawn as a DXF or STEP you keep, then made.

    Priced after the worn tool or sample is on our bench

    Repair
Inside the shop: a knee mill, a lathe and a steel weld table in afternoon light
The floorManual and CNC mill, lathe, TIG/MIG bay, press brake, granite plate

Print → Build → Measure → Ship

How a job moves through the shop

  1. 01 Print
  2. 02 Build
  3. 03 Measure
  4. 04 Ship

Stop 01 · The print

STEP / DXF / PDFor a dimensioned sketch, or the part itself

We read it before we price it

Send the print. If you don't have one, send the part and a photo of where it sits. Somebody at the bench reads the drawing through, marks every feature that locates or clamps, and writes down what isn't on it.

Then we call you. It's usually three or four questions: which face is the datum, what the weld sequence is, whether the operator loads it left-handed. After that call you get a fixed price in writing. Not before.

Stop 02 · The build

30×16×20inches, the machining envelope

Cut, machined, pressed, welded

Plates go on the mill and every locator bore gets reamed to size. Locating pins are 4140 pre-hard or drill rod, pressed, not glued. We've seen the glued kind.

Anything in A2 or D2 that has to be hard goes out to a heat treater. That adds about a week and the quote says so up front, so nobody finds out on the due date.

Stop 03 · The measure

±0.002inches, held on locating features

Every critical feature, on the granite

The finished tool goes on the inspection plate. Pin positions, bushing locations, datum heights, gauge diameters. Each one is measured and the actual number is written down by the person who built it.

Tighter than ±0.002 in is possible by agreement. We'd rather talk about it before the quote than argue about it after.

Stop 04 · The crate

1 sheetof measured numbers, folded on the lid

Bolted down, not bubble-wrapped

Fixtures ship bolted to the floor of a plywood crate with foam blocks around the clamps. Small tooling goes in a box with the gauges oiled and sleeved. The check sheet rides on top.

Pick up at the shop in Newark or we arrange freight. Either way you know the date a week ahead.

Hands adjusting a toggle clamp on a steel fixture plate
Fig. 1Setting clamp pressure
Close-up of an even TIG weld bead on stainless tube
Fig. 2TIG on 304 tube
A marked-up drawing with a dial caliper and a machined aluminum part
Fig. 3Your print, our pencil

The part you keep

Made by hand, measured on paper

You get a check sheet with the measured numbers of every critical feature. Not a stamp. Numbers.

It is not a certificate and we don't pretend it is one. It is a single page, filled in by hand at the granite plate by whoever built the tool, listing each locating or gauging feature, the nominal from your print, the tolerance, and what we actually measured. If a pin came out 0.0015 in off nominal, the sheet says 0.0015. You can check any of it with your own indicator on the day it arrives.

Most fixtures that fail do so because the part was located off a cast surface. We locate off machined datums or we ask you why not, and the sheet shows which datums we used.

Example layout · not a real job

  • Pin A, X position2.5000 ±.0022.5008
  • Pin A, Y position1.2500 ±.0021.2493
  • Diamond pin B, X8.7500 ±.0028.7511
  • Rest pad height0.7500 ±.0020.7496
  • Checked byat the benchsigned

Before you send it

What we don't take

Four kinds of request get a polite no. Better you hear it now than after a week of waiting on a quote.

  • Production runs past fifty

    One to fifty pieces. Past that you want a production shop with bar feeders and a second shift, and we'll tell you so. We'd make your 500 brackets slowly and charge you for it.

  • In-house heat treat

    We don't run furnaces. Hardened A2 and D2 parts go out to a heat treater, which adds about a week. The quote names that week so it never turns up as a surprise.

  • Quotes from a phone description

    "It's about a foot long with a couple of clamps" can be a two-week jig or a six-week one. We quote from a print, a dimensioned sketch or a part on our bench. The call comes after we've looked.

  • Polishing for looks

    Mirror finishes on parts nobody measures, or show pieces for a trade booth. Not what the shop is set up for and not what we're good at.

Sixty-second check

Does your job fit this shop?

Four answers here and a few more on the next page. The fit check tells you whether we're the right bench for it and roughly how many weeks it takes. It uses the same numbers we'd use on the phone: the 30 × 16 × 20 in envelope, 72 in for weldments, 1 to 50 pieces, plus a week for anything hardened.

Send a drawing

Tell us what it holds, and how many

Fill in what you know. Attach files by replying to our first email, or send them straight to [email protected] with your company name in the subject. We read the drawing, call with questions, then send a fixed written quote.

A rough answer is fine. We'll ask.

No quote goes out until someone has read the print. Expect a call with questions first.