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- How a job runs
Six steps from your print to a crate, and the price is fixed before step four
Every custom tooling job through this shop runs the same way, whether it's one drill jig or a welding fixture for a 40-piece run. One person reads your drawing, calls you, quotes, builds, measures and writes the numbers down.
- Files accepted
- STEP, DXF, PDF, sketch, sample
- Quantity
- 1–50
- Locating features
- ±0.002 in
- Simple jig
- 2–3 weeks
- Weld fixture
- 3–5 weeks
Lead times are guidance from past jobs, not a promise. Add about a week for outside heat treat or powder coat. The written quote carries the date we commit to.
What happens, and roughly when
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Drawing review
Your file gets opened by the person who would build it, not a sales desk. We look for the datums first. Where does the part locate? Off a machined face, or off a cast or saw-cut edge that moves ±0.030 in from one batch to the next? Then the clamp points, the tolerance stack, and anything that won't fit the 30 × 16 × 20 in machining envelope. A 3D model helps. A PDF print is fine. A hand sketch with dimensions works for simple jigs and brackets. A sample works for repair and replacement parts.
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Questions call
Ten to twenty minutes. How many parts a shift. Does the operator load from the left or the front. Is the weld sequence fixed yet. Will the gauge live on the machine or in the QC room. We ask because the answers change the tool, and it is much cheaper to hear them now than after the base plate is cut. If you don't know an answer, we'll say what we'd assume and put it in writing.
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Fixed written quote
One fixed price for the job, or a per-piece price for short runs. It lists material, what's machined, what's welded, any outside heat treat or coating, what the check sheet will record, and a delivery week. We don't publish prices, and we don't quote from a phone description, because two jobs that sound the same on the phone can be a day of machining apart. The written quote is the only binding figure. If your drawing changes, the quote gets reissued before we cut.
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Build
Base plates are squared and ground or fly-cut flat first, because everything after references them. Pins are 4140 pre-hard or drill rod, pressed, not glued. Clamp pads get Delrin or UHMW where they touch finished surfaces. Weldments are tacked, checked and welded in sequence. Hardened A2 or D2 details go out for heat treat and come back to be finished. If something on your drawing turns out not to work once the metal is on the bench, we stop and call. We don't improvise on your part.
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First-article check sheet
The finished tool goes on the granite plate. Every critical feature from the drawing gets measured: pin positions, bushing locations, locating face heights, gauge diameters. The measured value goes on the sheet next to the nominal and the tolerance, in the handwriting of the person who built it. It's not a certificate and it's not a stamp. It's numbers, and you can check them yourself.
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Crating, pickup or shipping
Small tools go in a box with foam. Anything heavier than about 50 lb is bolted into a plywood crate so it can't shift, pins and bushings oiled, the check sheet in a sleeve on the lid. You can pick up at the shop door at 1 801 DAWSON DR, NEWARK, DE 19713, or we arrange freight and put the cost on the quote.
A sheet of measured numbers
Below is the layout of a check sheet for a small drill jig. The measured column is filled in by hand at the plate; this sample is laid out for illustration, so read the columns, not the values.
| Feature | Nominal | Tolerance | Measured | OK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bushing A, X from datum B | 1.2500 | ±0.002 | 1.2508 | Yes |
| Bushing A, Y from datum C | 0.8750 | ±0.002 | 0.8744 | Yes |
| Bushing B, X from datum B | 3.5000 | ±0.002 | 3.5011 | Yes |
| Locating pin Ø | 0.3750 | −0.0005 / 0 | 0.3747 | Yes |
| Rest pad height, 3 pads | 0.5000 | ±0.001 | 0.5004 / 0.4998 / 0.5002 | Yes |
| Base flatness | — | 0.001 | 0.0006 | Yes |
Things that add a week
Outside heat treat. Hardened tool steel goes to a heat treater, which adds about a week, and the quote says so. Same for powder coat.
Drawing changes after the quote. We'll take them, gladly, but the clock restarts from the revised quote, not the original one.
Waiting on answers. If the questions call leaves an open item, like which of two part revisions the fixture must hold, we hold the job until it's answered in writing. Building to a guess is how you end up paying twice.
What we won't do to go faster: skip the check sheet, glue a pin, or locate off a cast surface because the print didn't give us a better one. If a date can't be met properly, you hear that on the call, before the quote. Run your dates through the fit check if you want a first answer tonight.
Send the print and we'll call with questions
Fixtures are on fixtures, frames and guards on fabrication.