Drill jigs, check gauges and soft jaws that hold a hole to ±0.002 in

A drill jig puts the hole where the print says without a layout, a center punch or a DRO. Plate jigs sit on the part. Box and leaf jigs close around it. The locating scheme is the same as any fixture: machined datums, a round pin, a diamond pin. The difference is the bushing.

We use two kinds. Press-fit bushings go in permanently and suit a jig that drills one size forever. Slip-renewable bushings sit in a liner and lock with a screw, so the operator can drill, swap to a reamer bushing, and ream in the same setup, and you replace a worn bushing in thirty seconds instead of sending the jig back. Both are hardened. Hole position is held to ±0.002 in at the bushing.

The failure we see most: a jig with no chip clearance under the bushing. Chips pack in, the part lifts, and hole four is 0.010 in off. We leave a gap of about one drill diameter between bushing and part unless you tell us otherwise.

Soft jaws let an odd-shaped part sit in an ordinary milling vise for its second operation. We cut 6061-T6 blanks to your vise's width and bolt pattern, then machine a pocket that matches the part profile so it drops in, seats against a stop and clamps without crushing.

Send the part drawing and your vise make and jaw width, or post us one of your existing jaws. We'll cut the pocket about 0.001 to 0.002 in over the part so it loads by hand and doesn't rock. For thin-wall parts we leave clamping relief so the jaw grips on the stiff section only.

Vise fixtures go a step further: a plate that bolts in place of the jaws and holds two, four or six parts at once. Worth it when the op runs every day. Not worth it for a batch of ten, and we'll say so.