Along the lines of "shop built" jigs and fixtures are 3D printed versions. @Wmcullen has put a number of them in the 3D Print Files resource area, and he was gifting a couple in this thread. Printing opens up a whole new approach to jigs especially. Of course it opens up a huge can of worms relative to owning a printer and knowing how to use it and design parts for printing, but there's no free lunch, as they say.
Where I work, technicians are often working with aerodynamically shaped parts, i.e. turbine blades, survey rakes for wind tunnel testing, etc.. Holding these partss securely for doing things like drilling along an edge, or at precisely the same location in dozens of them is a real challenge. In the "old days" they'd fashion vise jaws and locating fixtures out of wood, or dental plaster. Today, they take a solid model file, generate a mirror image of the odd-shaped surface, and print a plastic or hard rubber mate. 3D printers have become almost as indispensable in a modern shop as a drill press. Where I work, making sure there's enough 3D printer feedstock is as important as keeping a good stock of drill bits and end mills.
Where I work, technicians are often working with aerodynamically shaped parts, i.e. turbine blades, survey rakes for wind tunnel testing, etc.. Holding these partss securely for doing things like drilling along an edge, or at precisely the same location in dozens of them is a real challenge. In the "old days" they'd fashion vise jaws and locating fixtures out of wood, or dental plaster. Today, they take a solid model file, generate a mirror image of the odd-shaped surface, and print a plastic or hard rubber mate. 3D printers have become almost as indispensable in a modern shop as a drill press. Where I work, making sure there's enough 3D printer feedstock is as important as keeping a good stock of drill bits and end mills.
