The old drill template I used for 8 years finally got retired

I used to mark every door contact hole with a paper template I made back in 2014. Took forever on commercial jobs because the template would shift on metal frames. Last month on a bank install in Akron, I finally caved and bought a magnetic drill guide for $40. That thing stays put, and I knocked out 14 contacts in under two hours. Anyone else still using homemade jigs out of habit, or did you switch to something better?

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elizabethmason15d ago

Wait until you're 15 years in and find yourself duct-taping a level to a cardboard cutout just to avoid buying a $15 tool. I still have a paper template from 2016 that's held together with packing tape and pure spite. Spent a whole afternoon on a hospital job re-drilling holes that shifted a quarter inch because that thing decided to slide at the worst possible moment. Magnetic guide sounds like cheating, honestly. But hey, if it means I stop cussing at metal door frames, maybe I should retire my relic too.