Drip Trays and Ashpans: The Unsung Heroes of a Well-Run Workshop, Kitchen, or Home

By the MetalMade Team | Sheet Metal Fabrication, Cape Town

They're not the most glamorous products we make. They won't come up in conversation at a braai the way a turbo cowl might. But if you've ever had to mop up a greasy mess under a vehicle, deal with a leaking geyser that's quietly been damaging your ceiling, or spent ten minutes scooping ash out of a fireplace by hand, you'll understand exactly why drip trays and ashpans matter.

At MetalMade, we've been fabricating both for over 25 years, and we make them to suit the exact job they need to do. In this post, we want to give these workhorse products the attention they deserve, what they are, where they're used, and how we make them.

Six-Legged Custom Drip Tray

Drip Trays: Simple Concept, Real Consequences When You Skip Them

A drip tray is exactly what it sounds like, a shallow metal tray designed to catch fluid that drips, leaks, or runs off from something above it. But the simplicity of the concept shouldn't fool you into thinking it's unimportant. In the right application, a drip tray is the difference between a minor inconvenience and a serious mess, a costly repair, or even a safety hazard.

Where Are Drip Trays Used?

The two most common applications we supply are:

The motor industry. Whether it's a vehicle on a workshop floor, equipment in a service bay, or machinery in a factory setting, oil and fluid leaks are a fact of life. A well-fitted drip tray underneath catches what drips, keeps floors clean and safe, and makes compliance with environmental and housekeeping standards a lot easier. In a busy workshop, this isn't optional, it's just good practice.

Geysers in residential and commercial properties. This one surprises some people, but geyser drip trays are one of the more consistently requested items we make. A geyser installed in a ceiling void or on an elevated platform can cause significant water damage if it leaks or eventually fails, and they all eventually fail. A correctly sized metal drip tray underneath the unit, paired with a proper overflow drain, gives you that safety margin. It won't stop the geyser from going, but it'll stop your ceiling from coming down with it.

What Material Do We Use?

Our drip trays are typically fabricated in 1.6mm or 2mm galvanised steel. Galvanised is the right call here, it's corrosion-resistant, which matters when you're dealing with water, oils, or workshop fluids over an extended period. For most standard applications, 1.6mm or 2mm gives you a good balance of rigidity and weight.

That said, we work to whatever the client needs. If you require something thinner for a tight space, or heavier gauge for a more demanding industrial application, we can accommodate that. We don't have a single standard size either, every drip tray we make is fabricated to the dimensions the client provides. Send us your measurements and we'll cut, bend, and fold it to fit.

A Custom sized Mild Steel Ash Pan - these are for the base of the braai to collect all the ash and embers, it protects the base of the firebox or your braai from extreme heat.

Ashpans: Because Cleaning Out a Fireplace Shouldn't Be a Disaster

If you have a fireplace, a wood-burning braai, or a solid fuel stove that sees regular use, ash management is something you deal with constantly. And without the right setup, it can be genuinely messy, fine ash going everywhere, unnecessary contact with still-warm coals, and a lot of unnecessary effort.

An ashpan is a fitted metal tray that slides into the base of a fireplace or stove to catch ash as it falls through the grate. When it's full, you pull it out, dispose of the ash cleanly, and slide it back. Simple, contained, and much neater than scooping from the bottom by hand.

What Are Ashpans Made From?

Ashpans need to handle heat, not the direct flames, but the residual warmth of ash that hasn't fully cooled, and the general thermal environment of the base of a working firebox. For this reason, we fabricate ashpans in 3mm mild steel as standard. It's robust, it handles the heat well, and it gives the pan the structural integrity to be slid in and out repeatedly without warping or distorting over time.

If a client has specific requirements, a lighter 1.6mm unit for a smaller or lighter-duty application, for example, we can work with that too. As with all our products, we don't have a fixed catalogue. We have the skills, machinery, and material knowledge to make what you actually need.

Custom Sizing as Standard

Fireplaces and stoves are not all the same. Older homes especially tend to have bespoke, hand-built fireplaces where standard sizes simply don't exist. Part of what we've always offered at MetalMade is the ability to fabricate to exact client specifications — and ashpans are a good example of that. Give us the internal dimensions of your firebox base and we'll fabricate a pan that fits properly, not one that's close enough but rocks around or leaves gaps at the sides.

Why Come to MetalMade for These?

We're aware that drip trays and ashpans aren't hard to find online or in hardware stores. So why fabricate rather than buy off the shelf?

Because off-the-shelf often doesn't fit. Standard sizes are designed for average applications. If your geyser is an unusual dimension, your workshop floor has a specific footprint, or your fireplace was built by a bricklayer with his own ideas about proportions — a standard product won't serve you as well as something made to measure.

Because material quality matters. Not all galvanised steel is the same. Not all mild steel is the same thickness it claims to be. When we make a product, we know exactly what material went into it because we sourced it, cut it, and formed it ourselves.

Because we've been doing this since 2000. Over 25 years of sheet metal fabrication means we've made drip trays for commercial workshops, residential installers, plumbers, builders, and homeowners. We know what works and what doesn't, and we're happy to advise if you're not sure what spec suits your application.

Get in Touch

Whether you need a single ashpan for a home fireplace or a batch of drip trays for an industrial fit-out, we'd love to hear from you. Give us your dimensions, tell us the application, and we'll take it from there.

Reach us here:

• 📍 Unit 6, No. 6, Sixth Street, Montague Gardens, Cape Town

• 📞 021-552 7750

• 📱 076-890 8355

• ✉️ mandy@metalmade.co.za

• 🕐 Mon–Thu: 7:30am–4:00pm | Fri: 7:30am–1:00pm

Or drop us a message via our Contact page and we'll get back to you.

MetalMade specialises in sheet metal fabrication, including drip trays, ashpans, turbo cowls, chimney flues, coupling guards, and custom metalwork. Based in Montague Gardens, Cape Town, and serving clients across the Western Cape and beyond.