If only we knew we were moving in more illustrious circles then we could bang on incessantly about them. Apparently we did some stainless steel tree rings that were to be inspected by Her Majesty not so long back, but nobody deemed it newsworthy enough to tell us what they were for until way after the event. Bless ‘em.

But if we’re not rubbing shoulders with invisible royalty then we’re tickling the odd palm with one of those peculiar handshakes. Apparently, that truckload of powder-coated planters we sent down to London a couple of months ago were to be housed in an old Masonic Lodge. As this picture testifies:

Most of the pictures we take tend to be of them in the process of being made or being shipped, and it’s generally up to the kindness of a client’s heart should we receive any pictures of our planters once they’re planted up. But, with this lot we’ve had the rare opportunity to get a series of pictures of them actually being planted up, which makes for a change.

You can view plenty more from where they came in the planter set here.

The finished set of planters in situ are going to look rather impressive I think.

As with many smaller sheet metal companies, there tends to be quite a bit of sub-contracting that goes on. Obviously, the smaller you are the less facilities you have in-house. And the busier you get, the more sub-contracting out you need to do.

So, it’s kind of important that you find half decent companies that have a remote idea as to what they’re supposed to be doing. We don’t have any in-house facilities for powder coating, so any planters that require a colour need to be done elsewhere.

The Butler boys recently did a rather large planter job for somebody in London and I think I recall the odd email between the powder coating firm and John fizzing through my inbox. I got an email last week with a few pictures of the planters leaving the powder coaters – Trevon Industrial Finishings in Colne. And, as John succinctly put it in his correspondence: “They really pulled us out of the shit with this one and did a fantastic job.”

Faint praise indeed. Now I have quite a pedantic eye when it comes to finishes, and I have to say that pictures do show a very good paint job. And the bottom line is that the customer is awfully pleased as well and will be sending us even more pictures once they’ve been planted up.

You see, it’s all well and good taking credit for a job well done, but on this one Trevon obviously went above and beyond the call of duty and really helped us out to the point that we’d have been in quite a hole otherwise. The customer isn’t going to care where you get the things painted, powder-coated, or finished. All they care about is the finish once they receive the finished article(s) – and quite right too.

It’s just that you might not be deserving of all the credit lavished upon you. Unless we deserve a pat on the back for sourcing the best industrial finishings company this side of Manchester that is.

Following on from the same lady who gave us the antique sheet metal tools, we also have the list of sheetmetal fabrication books dating from as early as 1907.

Here’s the listing of the books as it was provided to me in the email:

Antique books

1. sheet metal

a) Sheet Metal Work; Neubecker; approx 1912; fair cond.; sections include: tools and methods of obtaining patters, workshop problems, skylights, roofing, cornice work, index. 263pgs

b) [Practical] Exhaust and Blow Piping, a treatise on the planning and installing of fan-piping in all its branches; W. H. Hayes; 3rd ed. 1922 [copyright 1918]; The Sheet Metal Publication Company, New York; excellent cond.; chapters include: connecting dust separator and feeder, constructing the feeder nozzle and switch, designs for hoods and sweepers…; 200pgs

c) Sales catalogue for roofers and sheet metal workers; LD Berger, merchant and manufacturer, tinners’ and roofers’ supplies, 59 2nd st. Philadelphia; 1914; poor to fair cond; includes pictures, descriptions, and pricing for a wide variety of tools and sheet metal products, cornices; 255pgs

d) Warm Air Heating and Winter Air Conditioning; The Lennox Furnace Company; 1948; good to excellent cond.; chapters: different types of heating systems describedk designing a gravity warm air heating system, industrial and commercial wramair installations; good to excellent cond; 285pgs

e) Practical Sheet Metal Work and Demonstrated Patterns; Volume III – skylights; a comprehensive treatise in several volumes on shop and outside practice and pattern drafting; 1911; good cond; David Williams Company, New York; chapters: Making flat skylights; a novel method of building a double pitch skylight with gable ends; pattern for a valley bar, a turret skylight, details of a lifting sash…; 114pgs

f) Practical Sheet Metal Work and Demonstrated Patterns; Volume V – Cornice Patterns; a comprehensive treatise in several volumes on shop and outside practice and pattern drafting; 1911; good cond.; David Williams Company, New York; Chapters: Pattern for a Head to fill the end of a cornice cut off obliquely, pattern for mullion intersecting gable mold; pediment chart, pattern for a miter a different angles, pattern for bottom on bay window…; 112pgs.

g) The New Metal Worker Pattern Book, a treatise on the principles and practice of pattern curring as applied to sheet metal work; Geo W. Kittredge, David Williams Co. New York; 1907 [copyright 1896]; fair to poor condition; contents: terms and definintions, drawing instruments and materials, linear drawing, geometrical problems, principles of pattern cutting, pattern problems; 421pgs.

h) Standard Practice in Sheet Metal Work; National Association Sheet Metal Contractors, a reference book compiled for the use of architects, engineers, sheet metal contractors, installers of warm aair heating systems, and vocational training schools; by the trade development committee of the national association of sheet metal contractors of the U.S.; 1929; very good condition; Sections: roofing, gutters, skylights and ventilators, metal cornices, metal ceilings, blow pipe and exhaust systems…; 767pgs.

I don’t have any pictures of these, but I suppose some could be arranged if need be. I’d appreciate anybody who has any knowledge or interest in these to get in touch and I’ll pass your information on.

Three or so weeks ago I was contacted by a lady who’d inherited her grandfather’s entire set of sheet metal tools and has had them in her garage since he passed away 30 years ago. She’s not only wondering what’s what, but would also like to determine how much, if anything, they’re worth. She could very well be prepared to donate all or part of the collection to a museum if somebody was interested.

I’ve uploaded all the tool pictures to a flickr account and there’s 70 pictures (by my bad mathematic reckoning) of all manner of old school sheet metal tools including snips, pliers, calipers, saws, drills, tapes, set squares and a host of other bits and bobs – in fact, you can check the entire sheet metal tool collection out here.

If anybody knows exactly which certain tools are which and/or what they may be worth, please feel free to leave a comment under any of the corresponding photos.

Now I’m not on any kind of cut and nor are we necessarily trying to sell them off. We’d just like to get as much information on the collection as possible.

I also have the lady’s email address for anybody who’d like to get in touch with her personally.

Thanks.

Whilst we don’t tend to do much sheet metal fabrication round our neck of the woods relating to cars and such, we do have the pleasure of having to beat the living daylights out of the odd out-of-shape bus panel that may have pranged a shelter or three. There’s nothing Jasper loves more than to bang merrily away at his bench straightening out a disfigured sharabang door.

But, there appears to be a new form of steel that’s been developed to protect your average car occupant – elastic steel.

The Max Planck Institute for Iron Research and the German Steel Institute have developed a variety of steel that strengthens as it elongates. In the event of a car crash, the steel is ductile enough to absorb impact energy, but remains strong enough to protect occupants.

Called Twinning Induced Plasticity steel, the secret is that the steel passes the deformation energy down its length and to other parts, which also deform. The benefit is that with more area available to share the impact load, there is less that can reach the car’s occupants. The institute mentions using the steel in bumpers and side doors, the most vulnerable areas in a crash.

Besides it providing a safety element to your average driver, this elastic steel could be used pre-production if you’re supplying motors to the likes of Peter Crouch.

Not only do the self-same Innovation Cars lot provide luxury cars to the rich and famous, but, so I’ve been reliably informed by the relative of mine responsible for their online marketing efforts, they’ve managed to score one of only twenty Lamborghini Reventóns currently in the world and are the only place in the UK where you can get your hands on one.

Lamborghini Reventon

So if you’ve got a spare $1,400,000 and you feel the need to buy or lease a Lamborghini Reventon you now know where you can go.

At least you’ll be saving yourself Jasper’s exorbitant panel beating fees should you ever dent the beggar considering it’s made entirely of carbon fiber.