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. Now you’d probably think we were very lucky bunnies if I told you that the unit right next to Butler Sheetmetal Ltd housed a small spray painting operation. Then again, anybody who knows the bunch I’m talking about would have us down as total lunatics if we ever used them.

I remember hearing some tale about a guy taking a set of gates to be spray painted as a panic job only for him to find the gates in question that he’d so lovingly crafted sat in a blazing skip when he returned a few days later. The bungling blasters had painted them the wrong colour and were trying to remove the coat via the medium of fire. A year after hearing the tale, the gate guy became a drinking buddy of mine and I recounted the tale without knowing he was the gate guy. The tale had so much more of a zest to it direct from the horse’s mouth.

Anyway, I’m not going to start babbling about their utter ineptitude as it’s worth an entire blog in itself. But do keep your hand on the proverbial dial in case I ever spill the beans on somebody getting arrested for shot-blasting the wrong bridge in Scotland during the rush hour, or regale you with stories involving classic cars having their roof nearly ripped off due to positioning said car with a forklift truck’s forks through the windows so painting the thing would be a bit easier.

However, the term useful idiots spring to mind as they at least remind you what kind of operation to totally avoid.

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.

We always value feedback, especially when it stops us from confusing ourselves. I’ve personally no idea who the buggery Gouchy is, but I presume he knows John and Matt from a while ago from a former sheet metal life.

He was awfully decent to point out that one of the first jobs they did - the so-called John Lennon globe - isn’t in the new John Lennon airport but the old terminal. Personally I’m a bit lost, although I do know the one and only time I flew out of John Lennon I’d taken my camera to take a few pictures of the thing in situ. And, of course, I couldn’t find the thing in situ because that isn’t where it was situated.

Thankfully, Gouchy has come to our rescue by taking a couple of pics and sending them to us:

Stainless Steel Globe in-situ

Prior to being rolled out the workshop

People are being very nice to us this month, I must admit.

If I had my way then I’d incentivize (can you tell this American language thing is starting to rub off on me?) our clients and customers to get a bit creative and photograph the work they’ve had done for them by Butler Sheetmetal. Then again, if I had my way I’d offer incentives (but obviously not rubbing off too much) to the boys (and girl) back at the workshop to start clicking jobs as they’re progressing and before they leave for their new home.

You obviously don’t have to go all Anton Corbijn and make like you’re shooting a Depeche Mode album cover, as a plain old out-of-focus polaroid will suffice, but if I was judging then I’d be more inclined to hand prizes out to people who’d taken pictures more along the lines of the recycling bin rack above.

But, I don’t have any prizes. I know, boo.

The best I can offer is if anybody has any pictures of work we’ve done for them or would like to take some pictures and pass them along, then I’d be more than happy to link to your company site (or personal site, for that matter) within the body of the post and the anchor text of your choosing.

Now if that don’t get your fingers on the shutters then I don’t know what will.

Our bread and butter here at Butler Sheetmetal Ltd is - yes, you’ve guessed it - fabricating things out of sheet metal. We make everything from stainless steel autopsy tables and hygienic bin washers to more specialised designer fabrication. We aren’t averse to whacking the living daylights of the odd bus panel either - but that’s more of an executive stress relief thing. You’re more than welcome to see a small selection of what we do in our sheet metal portfolio.

Showing you a selection of things we can do is altogether different to what we’re capable of doing. We’re not the biggest sheet metal job shop in the world but this is our capacity:

* CUTTING: 8mm Stainless and Mild Steel.
* FOLDING: 10mm Mild Steel - 8mm Stainless Steel
* SHEARING: 6mm x 3mtr Mild Steel - 5mm x 2mtr Stainless Steel
* WELDING: TIG, MIG, SPOT & STUD - Aluminium welding
* DRILLING
* PUNCHING
* NOTCHING: 300mm x 6mm
* NC GUILLOTINE: 8mm x 3.1 mtr
* LASERING
* SAWING: 150mm x 150mm
* FINISHING: Powder Coating, Anondising, Painting, Polishing

We’ve fabricated jobs for clients in Scotland and installed projects for clients in London. We aren’t too fussy where you are in the UK. Obviously, we don’t necessarily always get to meet face-to-face with those who are further afield, but there’s always the phone and email. It’s probably only convenient for you to pop in to see us if you’re in the Lancashire, Yorkshire or Manchester area. Although, you can always judge for yourself by checking out where we are in relation to you here and clicking the search maps button.

So, if you’ve got some sheet metal fabrication that needs doing and you’d like a quote, feel free to give us a ring on 01282 870033 and ask for John. Or you can just fire us off a quick email, with or without drawings, and we’ll be back in touch. Our full contact details are here.

We look forward to hearing from you.

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.