Hi, my name is Annabel and I’m in my second year at Lancaster University. During my three month Summer break, Thomas Smith Fasteners gave me the opportunity to work for them full time in the Sales office. During my time here, I have gained some valuable skills that I can transfer both into my studies and my future career.
During my time at Thomas Smith Fasteners, I processed sales orders, communicated with customers over the phone and via email, and answered customer queries about the services we provide. This boosted my confidence and ability to communicate in a professional and efficient manner, whilst still maintaining a rapport with the customers to boost sales and improve customer experience.
I also frequently created purchase orders and conversed with suppliers on at least a weekly basis. This required me to attentively keep an eye on our stock levels and use my initiative when deciding when to order stock and how much money to spend.
Maths has always been a weaker skill for me, but my experience at Thomas Smith Fasteners has greatly improved this. In my role, I calculated gross profit, completed our end-of-day banking every day, and used bulk prices to calculate the price of an individual item. These tasks have boosted an essential skill that I can transfer into other roles, my studies, and everyday life.
Moreover, my role included a lot of marketing and outreach work. I experimented social media marketing, sending out emails to prospect customers and ringing past customers to discuss their needs.
I am extremely lucky and privileged to have been given this opportunity to work in a busy, fast-paced workplace during my university Summer break. Thank you to Thomas Smith Fasteners for allowing me to gain an insight into how businesses work, and I would love to be back someday!
Another weird and wonderful order was received recently for some 12 Point Flange Nuts and Screws in Black Oxide for the aerospace industry.The customer specified UNJEF thread which is a very unusual thread form. UNJEF are ultra fine pitch threads. The thread accuracy is referred to as a 3B class of fit or a 2B class of fit.Normally we take days to complete our standard jobs, but this part took 3 weeks due to its complexity.#engineering #fasteners #manufacturing
Everyday is a learning day here at Thomas Smith Fasteners.
A couple of weeks ago, we received a unique request to manufacture some ‘historical gun bolts’ for an old war ship which is now a floating museum.
At first, we did not know what these bolts were, but after more communication with the customer, we matched them to 1/2 BSW x 1 Slotted Dome Head Brass Bolts.
2 weeks later we had them manufactured and delivered to the customer.
Big Fred Dibnah, the backstreet mechanic himself. Where to start? Well firstly I’d like to say before beginning at Thomas Smith, I’d seen videos of Fred Dibnah, without knowing who he was. I think it might be a generational thing. Given at the time of writing I’m 25 and at the height of Dibnah’s TV popularity, I was learning the alphabet and being told you can’t eat playdoh (it says non-toxic to be fair). I can’t really blame myself for not knowing much about him.
But since my first day here at Thomas Smith Fasteners, I’ve been told various stories and shown multiple videos for Fred’s. His life and career are something which should be more commonly known by the youth of today (myself included). So here we go, the story of Fred Dibnah and why he holds a place in the hearts of Thomas Smith Fasteners and the nation.
The Early Years
Fred Dibnah was born in Bolton on the 29th of April 1938 to Frank and Betsy Dibnah. A normal working-class Bolton lad, Fred developed a love for steam engines from a young age. He also was fascinated by chimneys and the people working on them. He became a joiner and then his most known role a steeplejack. A reyt northerner with his northern routes. He was quoted to say “them fancy London types don’t know the pleasure of eating Fish and Chips with their fingers”. And he’s right, they’ve got nowt moist in them chippies.
Fred Dibnah Steeplejack
Fearless Fred Dibnah
So after serving two years in the military, Fred became a steeplejack. He began with the aim of saving as many chimney’s as possible. Now when we discuss these chimneys, we aren’t talking about the ones on top of your house. We’re talking industrial chimneys, the highest in the UK being 850ft at Drax Power Station erected in 1969. That’s roughly 2 and a half times the size of the shard or 7 times The Statue of Liberty. Fred definitely wasn’t scared of heights and often bemoaned health and safety procedure demonstrating his fearlessness even more.
Fred chose his profession to “preserve chimneys, however finished up knocking most of them down”. The sheer bottle Fred Dibnah had in the video below is mind-blowing, he looks over his shoulder almost as if certain death isn’t there. And the most scary bit he’s laughing while he runs away. Fair play to the guy but there’s no chance I’d be laughing. I’d probably have a heart attack. Bafflingly he was only ever injured once, falling off of a stepladder whilst decorating.
Chimney Destruction
Dibnahs’ Love of British Industry
Fred became known across the country as a steeplejack when he was featured on the BBC in 1979. Tasked with demolishing a chimney brick by brick with very little safety equipment. Fred not only loved being a steeplejack, he loved British Industry.
His love of steam and engines was widely coveted across the BBC, where he made documentaries about British Industry. Enamored by steam engines, he purchased his first engine an Aveling and Porter steam roller for £175. Dibnah began his restoration work having to make many of the parts himself. He would then take this to steam fairs across the country with his family in tow.
His love of steam, rail and all things industry was palpable. So when the BBC were looking to make documentaries on British Industry, who better then the enigmatic Fred Dibnah. His eccentricity and passion is felt throughout his TV career when discussing all matters in the field.
Love of Engines
So where does Thomas Smith Fasteners fit in?
Well I’ll tell you. As detailed in a blog post from December 2020, Fred Dibnah visited our Atherton factory on the road to pick up his lifetime achievement award. He was given the grand tour of our Atherton factory, beginning in the offices, before visiting the production line and warehouse.
Fred often visited us for his engine parts and a brew. He used our services as we provided specials that were and still are hard to get your hands on. Well, that and the brews. He was popular amongst our staff with his natural charisma and love for the industrial age. Following his visit to our factory where he was supplied with all the goods he needed, Fred headed to London to pick up his lifetime achievement award. Fred proudly displayed his honorary degrees from both Aberdeen and Birmingham, whilst also receiving an MBE from Queen Elizabeth II.
Fred’s Visit to Thomas Smith Fasteners
In Memoriam
Fred sadly passed away on the 6th of November 2004, he is fondly remembered for his work as a steeplejack, backstreet mechanic and TV personality. His work is honored by the Fred Dibnah foundation in Bolton, as well as his very own statue on Bolton’s, Oxford Street. Whether remembered for his fearlessness, charisma or love of steam engines, he showed the world what British Industry is all about.
We recently manufactured for a client in Portugal some 1 Bsw x 5 5/8 A4-80 Hex Bolts.
A4-80 Stainless grade is common with metric bolts but not on imperial bolting. Our sister company Smith Bullough, were able to manufacture these in imperial BSW threadform without any issues.
These bolts were also supplied with raw material certification and a 3.1 cert.
Thomas Smith Fasteners were delighted to sponsor a local running race which was held in Astley on Sunday 23rd October. The event named “Gin Pit 5” is a popular trail race. 200 runners from running clubs from all the over the North West took part. Congratulations to Michael Hampson of Burnden Road Runners and Laura Riches of Leigh Harriers who won their repsective races.
Manufactured in house by our sister company Smith Bullough.
We are extremely pleased that we could offer our service for this project.
Do you have any restoration projects that require fasteners?
Due to our expertise and ever growing machinery improvements we are able to offer a huge range of products to various different industries. I.e. Classic Car Restorations, Oil & Gas, Construction, Heritage Rail , Offshore, Nuclear and many more.
We can offer CNC manufacturing in house, Cut & Roll Threading plus Secondary Operations – Turning, Milling, Drilling and Grinding.
Steve McQueen’s 1963 Triumph TR6 Motorcycle is an exciting piece of motoring history, and was on display at MotoGP last weekend.
The bike was the star of the final scene of The Great Escape, where McQueen’s character makes a bid for freedom by trying to jump the machine over a barbed wire fence into Switzerland.
After the film, the bike was sold to a farmer, who used it to herd cows, but it was then stored in a barn for decades.
