Here’s an email I received asking for a bit of help and have been given permission to replicate it on here to see if anybody has any idea.

I have always been interested in metal sculpture and I am having a really tough time finding any education in this area. I would appreciate any advice you can give me on where to look and what classes to take. I am interested in all metals especially copper and fabduct metals (sheetmetal?) since my husband does heating & air, we have tons of scraps and I would love to make somethings out of it. I am also curious how to learn to paint metal to look antique or rusted. Where do I find out what to use to coat the metal before/after and how to treat it. Thank you for your expertise!
Jocelyn

You can contact Jocelyn directly at jocelyn3@gmail.com but I also think it’d be quite nice if anybody answered her questions in the comments in case anybody has has the same problem at some point in the future.

I think we might be talking somewhere round Minnesota, but me being me, I forgot to ask exactly where.

Once in a while, the transatlantic language drift grates along its respective fault lines and induces a bit of a cross-cultural brain fart. For example, this weekend somebody suggested a game of Clue, which I assumed was the same as Cluedo. It is. Not only that, but for the sake of bragging rights, we invented it as Cluedo in 1948.

With that in mind, I’m wondering if we have a case of linguistic gymnastics going on with the following question somebody asked in the comments:

What is a true 45 degree elbow?

I’ve had a spell at a place selling industrial pipe fittings and the plastic variety and I don’t recall anybody asking for or referring to ‘true elbows’. The only distinction I remember is weld or threaded elbows(M/M,M/F,F/F).

So, are true elbows an American phenomenon, or does it refer to the angle?

Or, am I just a bit thick?

Do you remember Ask The Family?

I mean the 70’s version with Robert Robertson sporting a Donald Trumpian comb-over/weave but without the necessary product.

Robert Robertson

Do you remember the picture round where an ordinary everyday object would be photographed in extremely tight close-up and they’d zoom out until somebody realised it was a potato peeler?

Well it seems my own family at Butler Sheetmetal are playing the same game with me regarding this particular photo:

On first inspection I thought it might have been a cladding for a nuclear reactor that had got stuck as they were trying to carry it out of the workshop. I was thinking the red thing was our sliding front door and that the photo had been taken after somebody had fallen flat on their arse. And then I wondered if the red thing was the floor and the grey thing was a new front door. The only problem with that being that there was never a lip leading out of the workshop before and there’s no red paint on the floor since I originally painted it and it was back to the original concrete within two weeks.

My only educated guess is that it’s another workshop or factory somewhere.

The more I look at it the less of a clue I have as to what or where it is to the point whereby I’ve now reached that state of clueless singularity: a point of infinite density.

So, the person who comes closest to what it is wins something nifty.

Fingers on shonky buzzers people.

Now if Danny can answer this one like he did the last one then he officially becomes my hero. Damn, if anybody can answer this one they’ll become my hero.

Are you able please to give me the following information:-
1)What were the names of the main types of machinery which would have been used in a tin box manufacturing company in London during the 1890s?
2) Would such machinery have been powered by electricity?
3)Which of such machines had the highest accident rate?

Step aside Google Answers (oh, you already have done!)

Whilst I wouldn’t say I’m inundated with weird and wonderful requests and questions from all four corners of the internet, I would say that I do get more than my fair share.

There are questions sitting in the comments and in my inbox that are either worthy of an answer of even worthier of my/your/our contempt.

Keep them coming people and I’ll make sure they get the ‘appropriate response’.

Dear Sir,

I am a student studying in M.Sc. (Engg.) New Product Design.

I would like to know whether aluminium is costly or stainless steel is costly with respect to the quality and ability to produce sheet metal components (which determines manufacturig or processing cost) like PEPSI I mean cold drink tins..Kindly respond to the above question as early as possible.

Thanks and regards,

SANTOSH G DEVIHOSUR

Over to you………