It is a Monday in early January and inky black at 5.30 in the morning as AL Daltons’ engineer Steve Balchin leaves homes and heads for the motorway.

Although recently promoted to technical director, today Steve is doing what he does best – working at the sharp end of the company’s service department, repeating a journey made countless times.

After picking up another member of the Dalton service team, Keith Simpkin, the pair head south from Nottingham down the M1 to carry out service/installation jobs, this time in Kent.

Steve is well beyond Watford Gap before the first light of dawn and is round the M25 and through the Dartford Tunnel to arrive at the first port of call, William Sharvatt and Son at Belvedere, Kent while most people are still tucking into their cornflakes.

While today’s trip is just down the M1, Daltons’ engineers travel the world, with contracts in Cyprus, Germany, Kenya and Belize. Although not all the foreign climes are as exotic as people think. “You take the rough with the smooth. Cyprus is a great place to work, but in the Falklands it was –6OC and I slept in a shed. But I’ve seen a lot of different places and met a lot of interesting people,” said Steve.

Operator error~

The work is hugely varied too, although Steve points to a common thread when it comes to breakdown repairs. “A lot of problems are down to operator error, as there are few fully-qualified machine operators, particularly with moulders,” he said. “Many come down to inexperience, although the Health & Safety Executive is working hard to address the situation.”

Back to the job in hand, and the usual colourful greetings are exchanged with Daltons’ driver Steve Bath who has arrived overnight with the truck containing a new Wadkin K25 6-head planer/moulder, Stenner ST100 band resaw and a Wadkin BRA radial arm cross-cut.

Once the equipment is offloaded, Steve and Keith put the machines into the workshop and spend the rest of the day on installation and commissioning. They work until early evening and have no alternative but to find accommodation for the night so they can be back on site at 8am to complete the job, give operating instructions to the machinists and ensure that everything is running smoothly. They then head off to another installation at Hutchings Timber Ltd at Deal.

&#8220It’s essential, when you spend so much time on the road, to have an understanding wife. I usually say to mine ‘smoke me a kipper and I’ll be home for breakfast’ and she says ‘what morning?’”

Steve Balchin

Two new Stenner ST100R band resaws have already arrived here from Daltons and, once again, Steve’s job is to install them correctly, commission, take test cuts and instruct the operatives.

Keith is on hand to assist but time runs out and an overnight stay is required again. Daltons’ service engineers are used to this kind of schedule and are back on site at 8am to complete the work before going to the next job, this time to Travis Perkins at Aylesford to install and commission a new Stromab cross-cut saw.

Three jobs done and on Wednesday night they drive back to Nottingham to spend the evening in their own homes. As Steve says: “It’s essential, when you spend so much time on the road, to have an understanding wife. I usually say to mine ‘smoke me a kipper and I’ll be home for breakfast’ and she says ‘what morning?'”

Workshop issues

Thursday is a rare day ‘in-house’ for Steve, liaising with service administration and sales personnel and addressing workshop issues before setting off on his travels once again early Friday morning.

This time he heads to the industrial north-east and MH Southern Ltd of Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, to organise the removal of a Wadkin 12in FD 6-head planer/moulder, weighing around eight tons, and its return to Daltons’ for a complete rebuild.

Saturday finds Steve in a Midlands prison carrying out a full service on the woodworking machines used by the inmates for training and rehabilitation.

Thankfully, he emerges from the prison walls at midday, reflecting on a week involving work on sites as diverse as the south coast and the north-east, nights away from home, long motorway journeys in the early hours and several missed breakfasts. He’s looking forward to spending some time with his family – and enjoying what’s left of the weekend.

Having spent a large part of his working life troubleshooting, Steve Balchin is not fazed by this kind of timetable or the driving hours and will no doubt be planning a similarly diverse roster for the week ahead.