Welder uses job loss to start a new business repairing outdoor equipment

The name Flat Tail Metal Works is a nod to Dill’s personal hobby – fur trapping. It also was the inspiration behind a 'dam' clever tag line. Images: Leigh Bedokis Photography, Carterville, Ill.

Eighteen months ago, Robert Dill of Carterville, Ill., made good use of his ability to build anything and everything.

Dill, an avid outdoorsman, grew up building and tinkering with whatever he could get his hands on. If he ever needed something, he built it for himself. If his friends ever needed anything, Dill was their guy.

The 41-year-old began his professional career as a union carpenter before he and his family relocated to southern Illinois. He was able to flex his welding and fabrication muscles while working as manager of a hunting ranch, much to the surprise of his boss. He lost that job once the ranch was sold, but by then word was out. Need something fixed or made from scratch? Contact Dill. He had drummed up enough interest in his weld and fab work to make a go of it full time.

Flat Tail Metal Works – a nod to his love of fur trapping – will, as its tagline states, build damn near everything. While COVID-19 was not kind to many small businesses in his area, including some of the few welding and fab shops, it hit at the right time for Dill. It’s been a wild ride, but the positive and endlessly humble Dill fearlessly seized an opportunity during a difficult time.

The WELDER caught up with Dill to find out where his story began, what some of his favorite projects have been so far, and where his business is headed in the next 18 months.

What is your earliest memory of welding and fabricating?

My dad used to race dirt-track cars in the early 1980s. As a kid I would sit and watch him work on his cars, and I always thought it was wild that he could make two pieces of steel stick together. I also loved watching him use the cutting torches with the fire and the sparks. I just remember being in awe of that as a kid.

When I got a little older, my buddy’s father had a shop with a bunch of welding machines and cutting torches, so we would experiment with the equipment and see what we could build from the pieces we cut up. We built everything and anything.

When we got a little older, his mom and dad bought us a cheap car or truck and we’d take it down to the frame and build it all the way back up with different modifications. It was a lot of fun.

How did you go from hobbyist welder to making it a career?

While COVID-19 was not kind to many small businesses in his area, including some of the few welding and fab shops, it hit at the right time for Robert Dill, who opened Flat Tail Metal Works, a custom welding and fabricating shop, after losing is his job.

I became a union carpenter in St. Louis, and the company I worked for did metal studs and drywall. We built hospitals, banks, Lowes, and Walmarts. I have always loved being outside, and if you were a certified welder, you got to weld all the clips onto the buildings. I knew I wanted to weld, so I enrolled in the local trade school and took everything they would offer about welding during my first two weeks of school. I earned my certification and that helped me get the job that I wanted.

I worked as a tradesman for about 9 ½ years until I got laid off. My wife’s family lives in southern Illinois, so we moved there and fell in love with the area. I owned a home remodeling business for several years and then I worked at a local weld shop for about a year until it closed.

I went to work for a pretty wealthy guy and managed his hunting properties and built a bunch of things for him. We were out in Kansas at one of his farms and he brought up the fact that he hated his deer feeders. I said, “Why don’t we just build new ones?” He said, “You can do that?” I said “Yeah, why not?”

His deer feeders were 3 ft. wide, 3 ft. long, and 4 ft. tall. You had to climb a ladder to get to them, and they had a weird hatch. When I helped him fill them, we had to make sure to bring a knife to cut each bag, then we dumped the feed into the feeder, and it was just a pain. The way the legs were welded on, the raccoons could climb up the legs and pour all the feed out. We picked up a pizza that night and I sketched out a design for a new feeder right there on the pizza box.

I’ve turned the deer feeder on its side, basically. It’s got 3- by 3-ft. sides and it’s 4 ft. long. I built a breakaway to try and prevent the raccoons from getting their paws in the food. Basically, the breakaway hits the raccoon in the hands and it rolls their paw out. And then near the hatch at the top where you put the food in, I added a bag cutter. There’s a bar across with two triangles so you can take a 50-lb. bag, hold it at both ends, hit the bag cutter, and it cuts that bag completely in half. You then line up both sides and dump that food into the feeder in like two seconds. On top of it, you could back up to it with a side-by-side.

I ended up making nine of these feeders. We thought it would keep the raccoons out, but if you know anything about raccoons, you know that they always seem to find a way to get what they want. He had cameras on the feeders, and we saw the raccoons literally hanging by their back feet, curling their bodies, and digging out the food. So while we didn’t stop them, we did slow them up a bit.

What's the craziest thing you have built?

The ranch owner I worked for got into hunting in Mexico and was interested in using the top-drive safari trucks and asked me to find him one. I called all these places in Texas and down south, but no one had anything like it for sale. He asked me if I could build him one if he supplied me with a truck. I said I thought I could.

I got the truck and built everything besides the cab, the motor, and the front fenders. I built the step bars, the bumper, and a 7- by 14-ft. platform for the top of the truck. When you’re sitting in a chair at the top, you’re about 13 ft. off the ground. They have mesquite trees down there and the canopy is pretty low, so you can see a lot from that height.

You can also drive it like a normal truck or from the second level. You can turn a key and all the power steering, brakes, shifting throttle, and everything else can be controlled from up top.

There really isn’t much that Dill can’t build, or at least won’t attempt. While working at a hunting ranch, Dill’s boss asked if he could make a safari truck for hunting excursions in Mexico. The answer, of course, was yes.

We drove it from Laredo, Texas, into Mexico, which was about a two-hour drive. When we reached the border, the Border Patrol officers were a little concerned and didn’t really know what to think of it. We thought they might not let us in.

What led you to want to open your custom fab shop?

The guy I had been doing work for decided to sell his farm right before COVID-19 hit. I applied for work at a bunch of different places but no one was hiring because of the pandemic. So, I told all my buddies that if they needed something built, now was the time to ask. They brought me a bunch of work and told their friends, who also brought work my way. I got so busy that I decided to make a go of it.

The other reason is there aren’t a lot of weld shops around here. One weld shop shut down and the guy that ran another shop retired. So, there were only like two shops in our area—both are pretty small and they’ve got their guys. I saw an opportunity to fill a need with that type of work in this area.

What’s the significance behind your company’s name?

I’m a fur trapper. Beavers are pretty common around here and you either love them or you hate them for tearing up your stuff. I’ve always found them to be neat animals, so when we were thinking of names, we were trying to think of something catchy. I also wanted a little character, like a logo, to go along with it and I thought immediately of the beaver. We met with a designer who came up with the character, and from there we became Flat Tail Metal Works. Our catchphrase is that we can build dam near everything.

What do you specialize in?

I am best known for my work with aluminum. I do stainless steel and carbon steel work as well, but a lot of my business revolves around aluminum mostly because no one else in this area wants to mess with it.

I would say 80% to 85% of what I do is TIG welded. I do a little MIG here and there, but for the most part, I’m TIG welding.

Can you give some examples of customers you’ve gained over the last year and a half?

Dill’s proficiency in aluminum welding sets him apart in an area where expertise in that material is lacking. He uses it to make repairs on boats for area fisherman as well as the Illinois Fish & Wildlife Conservation department.

I’ve been doing a lot of work for Illinois Fish & Wildlife Conservation – their offices are nearby. They had been sending a lot of work up to Wisconsin until they came across me. They are studying the Asian carp population in the local rivers. Apparently, they had a scary situation where a carp jumped into the boat and hit the throttle, which almost caused officers to be knocked out of the boat. They were in need of someone to build something to protect officers if that were to ever happen again.

They wanted something removable so they could take it off anytime they were out on lakes. I put three aluminum poles on the steering console. They put netting around the poles to protect the driver, the switches, and all the controls. It’s worked out great, so now they want that protection system for three more boats too.

A lot of their trailers have little bitty bunks on the back to load a boat. Many times these boats are loaded on rivers, and the boat itself is like 21 or 22 ft. long. It’s hard enough to try and load a boat, but when you add in a river current, it’s even harder. I am lengthening all the bunks on the side of the trailer and making them pretty tight to the boat so they are able to hit it, straighten up, and shoot right in there. I’ve done one of the boats already and the feedback I’ve gotten from them was that the longer bunks did make it much easier for them to load the boat. Now they want to do it to all of their trailers.

How has business been in the last year and a half?

Business has been extremely busy, and it’s gotten to the point where I can’t do it all by myself anymore. I recently hired a guy on a part-time basis to help me out. I don’t want to make him full-time and have him put all of his eggs into this basket just in case we slow down over the winter. Last winter I was busy the entire season, but that may change this year.

Word-of-mouth has been huge for me.

Do you have any plans to expand?

I’ve been looking into possibly moving my shop within the next year or two. My current location is fine, but it doesn’t have enough space for people to bring stuff in and out of.

I do a lot of work on boats, and people have a lot of trouble backing up their trailers. I want a setup that is almost like an automotive shop with double garage doors so a person can pull their boat into a bay, leave it there, and then we can drive it out once we’re done. I want to have enough room to be able to accommodate jobs that need to be done quickly.

I pretty much do everything in-house except for powder coating. I would really love to invest in a plasma burn table once I get enough space, and I am currently looking to acquire an ironworker.

This last year and a half has been absolutely wild, and it’s caught me off guard. I never expected business to take off like it has, so it’s been a pretty neat experience. I’m excited to see where we go next.