In 2001, Daniel O’Neill returned to Dobson Gaskets after a brief spell away, and he has been here ever since. Now celebrating 25 years with the company, Dannny’s journey reflects not just the evolution of gasket manufacturing, but the blend of traditional skill, innovation and family culture that defines Dobson Gaskets today.

Daniel first joined Dobson straight from school, with no prior experience but a willingness to learn.

“There was a job advert in the paper”, Danny remembered. “I came in and started the next day.”

At the time, Dobson Gaskets was primarily producing soft-cut materials such as rubber, cork and compressed non-asbestos fibre. Metal gasket production was still in its early stages. Daniel began in what was then a relatively new department: metal-clad gaskets. It marked the start of a career that would grow alongside the company’s expanding technical capability.

When Dobson moved into metal-clad and specialist head gasket manufacturing, there were no off-the-shelf machines to buy. Much of the equipment had to be designed and built in-house. Working alongside a local engineering firm, the team developed custom-built machinery specifically for Dobson’s production needs.

“The early metal gaskets we produced were for heat exchangers. There wasn’t a machine that could produce them.” Danny explained. “The machines we’ve got downstairs now, we designed ourselves. They were custom-made years ago, and they’re still going strong.”

Over 25 years, Danny has combined traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology to create metal gaskets for heritage and contemporary applications.

Today, very few UK manufacturers still produce traditional metal-clad gaskets in-house. Dobson Gaskets is one of the last remaining specialists. Daniel has spent his entire career in the metal department, developing deep expertise in metal-clad gasket manufacture and classic and heritage head gaskets. While the core principles of classic gasket construction haven’t changed, the tools certainly have.

“When I started, we cut everything by hand and punched every hole by hand,” Danny continued, “and we did well to produce one metal gasket set a day. With CAD, waterjet cutting and laser cutting, we can produce thousands a year.”

But technology hasn’t replaced craftsmanship. Classic copper and composite head gaskets still require skilled forming and layering by hand. A traditional head gasket is effectively a sandwich construction, with a compressible filler layer between two copper outer layers. It’s careful, skilled work, and deeply valued by restoration communities across the UK and beyond.

“These older engines aren’t always perfectly flat, so the gasket has to compensate,” Danny explained. “We get letters from people who’ve got their classic car back on the road with our custom-made gaskets. That’s always nice.”

Daniel credits his longevity at Dobson Gaskets to staying open to change. When he started, the technology of today wasn’t available, but Danny has always been keen to keep learning his craft.

“I’ll try absolutely everything,” Danny explained. “The evolving technology is different to what I was used to, but I enjoy learning and using it.”

Andrew Jeffrey, Sales Director at Dobson Gaskets, is highly appreciative of what Danny brings to the company.

“He’s reliable, and he is honest,” Andrew said. “If there’s a breakdown, I can ring him, and he’ll come in. He works well, and he learns well.

Technical growth is only part of his story, though. The fact that it’s a family-run company is why Danny has stayed at Dobson for 25 years.

“They know me. I know them. It’s personal,” Danny said. “They understand what it’s like to have a family, so they are flexible if we need something. There’s great camaraderie on the shop floor, and the culture here has remained the same even as the business has modernised over the years.”

From hand-cut soft materials to advanced waterjet profiling, from early metal-clad experimentation to complex heritage head gasket packages, the journey has been one of steady growth rooted in expertise. And Daniel has been there for every stage.