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Robert Dill of Carterville owns Flat Tail Metal Works. Dill's company welds and fabricates everything from aluminum life guard stands to custom boat canopies.
Robert Dill has always had a knack for building things.
Even as a child, he would watch his father and friends weld and fabricate metal for their dirt track race cars then try his hand at the craft.
Even as a certified welder on commercial buildings in the St. Louis area and later as a home remodeler, Dill found himself always making items from scratch, using the skills he had learned from his father and honed as a professional.
“I don’t buy things, I build them,” became his mantra.
Soon, friends started asking him to manufacture things for them. About a year-and-a-half ago, Dill went from fabricating on the side to doing it full-time as Flat Tail Metal Works.
From his shop north of Carterville, Dill offers a wide variety of metal fabrication, welding and custom work ranging from designing and building aluminum platforms for life guards to custom enclosures for duck hunting boats and specialized tools for wildlife management.
“Things have really taken off and I do all sorts of things,” he said. “The craziest thing I ever built was a truck to go to Mexico. It’s basically a high-rack Safari-type truck where you can drive it from the cab or up on top above the rack.”
The truck was as special order for a hunting ranch. Dill’s platform – high enough so the driver and passengers can see over the native mesquite trees – has a second set of controls at the platform. The truck, like much of his work, was specifically and custom designed for hunting and outdoor applications.
“I actually have been making custom catch tongs for handling animals,” he said, pointing to heavy aluminum scissor-like tools about three feet long with half-circle ends which come together. “I actually built 20 of them for a state agency.”
With the tongs, officials can hold a bobcat or other wildlife by the leg, neck or scruff while releasing them from a cage or trap, keeping both the human and the animal safe. He said he has shipped the tongs nationwide.
Flat Tail Metal Works – the name coming from Dill’s fondness for trapping wildlife, especially beavers – is gaining a reputation for boat customization, especially those used in waterfowl hunting. Inside his shop sits one boat with a brand-new nose, one Dill fabricated after the craft’s front end was torn off in an accident.
Outside, two other johnboats wait for Dill’s touch. One is from a frequent customer; Dill has already built a custom aluminum canopy for the boat complete with gull-wing doors to get in and out of the watercraft. Now, he’ll be removing a bench seat to make room for a camp stove and other accessories.
The company also works with other area small businesses, fabricating frameworks for commercial canopies, building specialized truck racks for power washing companies and custom auxiliary fuel tanks for contractors. He keeps tabs on all of the projects on a whiteboard.
“That list on the right,” he said, pointing to the pending projects, “keeps getting longer and that’s good.”
He said he often posts photographs of completed projects online and then gets calls from others who want something similar.
“I built that fuel tank and then got calls to build three or four more of them,” he said. “People call and ask, ‘Hey, can you build this?’ and then I start on it. The business has really taken off faster than I expected.”
Dill said every day brings new projects and challenges.
“This is great,” he said. “I’m doing just what I always hoped I would.”
https://www.facebook.com/Flat-Tail-Metal-Works-109274364122523
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Robert Dill of Carterville owns Flat Tail Metal Works. Dill's company welds and fabricates everything from aluminum life guard stands to custom boat canopies.
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