60 | New equipment brings expansion opportunities Dunedin Sheet Metals is increasingly being drawn into other products and processes at its well-equipped Ward Street workshop SOREC - Dunedin Sheet Metals T T Hugh de Lacy ENGINEERING He got thrown in the deep end managing another sheet-metal company, and that’s what qualified Bob McClenaghan to establish Dunedin Sheet Metals Ltd, which in May this year celebrated its 10th birthday. Bob launched the company to manufacture indoor and outdoor electrical meter boxes, and today he’s supplying them to wholesalers all round the South Island, including the likes of Radcliffe’s, Ideal, Redpaths and Telfer Electrical. They comprise Dunedin Sheet Metals’ main clientele, but the company is increasingly being drawn into other products and processes at its well-equipped Ward Street workshop. With a staff of three, including himself, Bob has expanded into general sheet-metal and light engineering work – steel, stainless steel, aluminium, copper and brass, including a lot of aluminium roofing flashings. Within the last year he has installed a new, four-metre-long Baykel guillotine and matching press brake folding machine capable of cutting mild steel up to 6mm thick, and of folding plates up to 10mm thick. Another recent acquisition was a CNC Amada turret punch, which gets extensive use in metre-box production among other products the company supplies. The extra capacity these machines have brought to the business has Bob thinking of expansion. One of the company’s sidelines is restoring copper and brass objects for private clients. “This was something I did with a previous employer, and at one stage I toured the second-hand shops looking for copper and brass objects to restore but quickly saw there was no future in that, but we get a steady stream of people coming in wanting us to work on their treasures,” Bob says. “We get a lot of old copper hot-water cylinders that people want us to polish up and turn into the likes of pot plant containers.” Another sideline reflects Bob’s background in drift-racing cars: he has a wide range of after-market car parts like custom exterior panels and spoilers, under-body guards – “Bash plates or sump guards we call them” – along with aluminium checker-plate hard-lids and other accessories. “We recently had our 10th birthday party, and that got us thinking about where we’re going to go in the future, and one of our first steps will be expanding our aluminium parts production.” As mentioned, Bob got into the sheet metal business the hard way – managing an existing one. “I was thrown in the deep end, and I had to learn enough skills to be able to understand and run the business: it was very much a case of having to give it a go myself.” These days the company does a lot of over-flow work for larger companies, as well as specialty sheet-metal work for other local firms, including for Dunedin’s George Street upgrade. “There’s very little work that we have to turn away these days, and with our team, our machines and our knowledge we’re here to help whenever and wherever we can. We love the challenging projects, which we seem to get quite a lot of – artists and architects are usually good for this type of work,” Bob says. “We get a lot of old copper hot-water cylinders that people want us to polish up and turn into the likes of pot plant containers.” MECHANICAL ENGINEERING UPFRONTHONESTWORKSFORMOSTASPECTS We are a very versatile company who love a challenge to suit any customer’s budget. FABRICATION MACHINING MAINTENANCE REPAIRS REBUILDS HANDRAILS BALUSTRADES FEEL FREETOENQUIRETODAY. CUSTOMCOMPONENTS OFWIDE VARIETY INCL ALLMATERIALS 027 220 3536 | 53Main Sth Rd Burnside, Dunedin, NewZealand
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