A job to remember

Side view of the dog coffin we completed in one hour.

Many customers walk in our shop and want something right then and there. This is fine for small jobs, as we are one of the dying breed of shops that still take walk-ins. Often we don’t have time to complete these small orders and are better off letting them simmer for a few days until we can work them in.

Sometimes you get a call like we did this past Friday. The lady on the phone seemed a bit distressed and needed a coffin made for her dog that just passed away. She called at 11 a.m., and we normally close at noon on Fridays. Leaving early makes for a nice weekend, but as anyone in our shop will tell you, Fridays are extremely hectic. We try to pack in a full day’s work in half the time, and something always pops up that has to be done that day.

It would be safe to say that everyone at Barnes MetalCrafters loves dogs. My dad, Tim Martin, the shop owner and the owner of two miniature dachshunds, talked to the lady on the phone and said we would make the coffin for her. We had around an hour to complete this task that not many shops would even attempt or take on. But nobody wants to be in the position the dog owner was in, so we all felt the need to help her out.

Dad handed me a piece of paper with a sketch he drew when he was on the phone with the anxious caller. He told me to make a NEMA 3 enclosure to the dimensions. We quickly told the team what was going on, and they were ready to tackle this job.

Laser operator Jason Barnes met me at my desk and asked what metal we needed. I told him at least a full sheet of 14-ga. galvanized and a small drop. He took off, and I began to key the numbers into a template I had in Autodesk® Inventor®. I had this thing designed and nested on the laser in about 10 minutes.

I left my office and told Jason I would find a drop of 14-ga. galvanized if he wanted to get the first sheet cutting on the laser. Nick Trueheart was at the press brake and asked for the drawings so that he could tool up the machine.

This was a pretty familiar job for Nick, so he set up the brake and was ready to start folding up the parts as soon as they were ready. A few minutes later, Jason and Nick were walking the parts to the brake where the correct program was all ready to go.

In about six bends these parts were making their way to a welding table where Randy Davis was ready to do his part. He was prepared to stay late if needed to help out the customer.

About 20 minutes later, Randy was letting his welds cool before applying some cold galvanizing spray to protect them.

We also decided to add some handles to the enclosure to make it easier to carry. Luckily, we had some of these lying around. We put them on and added some spray paint on those welds.

Top view of the dog coffin with gasketed cover.

Dad and I stuck around the shop for a few minutes after noon so that we could help the customer load the enclosure in her car. It barely fit in her backseat. The whole situation was a bit awkward because she had her two kids with her. She wasn’t in the best of spirits, and I politely told her that I was sorry. She just smiled and said, “Thank you.”

Most shops wouldn’t jump on this job like we did, but sometimes you have to do the right thing. She told us she didn’t have anywhere else to go to get the job done. Given that this wasn’t the most difficult job to do, we knocked it out extremely fast and made the customer happy.

We all felt good about what we did and were lucky enough to have the time and resources to make this a job to remember.

All images courtesy of Barnes MetalCrafters.

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