Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/66838
50 • JUNE 2012 • WORLD FENCE NEWS National Metal Industries Winged Slat® Locking Slats Bottom Top Lock Hedge New guy just doesn't dig the idea 2 Neil Court, Oceanside, NY 11572 • (516) 594-0364 • Fax (516) 594-0377 behind the power auger BY JIM HART, WFN CONTRIBUTING EDITOR EMERITUS In memory of Jim Hart, fencer, Aluminum Slats WWW.NMIFENCE.COM Over 100,000 lineal feet of privacy slats ready to ship! Privacy slats • Fence tools Fence hardware available storyteller, and world class humorist, we will occasionally reprint one of the many articles that he contributed to World Fence News over the years. Here is one that was originally pub- lished December 1991. Jim passed away in Florida, where he lived, a number of years ago. • • • Guess what I found on our house the other day? A real, genuine protu- berance. You know, a "bubble" under the paint, about the size of a quarter. To say I was shocked is to put it mildly, especially since we had the place painted not more that 10 years ago! But yes, there it was. Now, you have two choices in a case like this: Let it alone, or bust it up and repaint. I got the incurable tinker's itch and busted it. Course, I ain't satis- fied to just remove the protuberance. No, I get the 100-watt idea to take out that new pressure nozzle I bought a couple of years ago. The nozzle works beautifully, and lives up to all the claims made by the manufacturer. It slices through paint like a knife, and huge sheets of exte- rior latex come flying off the house like giant snowflakes. What started out as a 3/4 inch bubble in the paint has blossomed into 3,200 square feet of squeaky clean masonry that has to be painted. I completely forgot that I was sup- posed to be putting in 500 feet of 48" chain link, until one of my part-timers comes in and needs $50 to pay his pro- bation officer. I tell him he has caught me at a bad time. He says, "If you ain't got it, I'm dead! Seven years minimum!" I tell him, "I got it, you want it, you work for it! I'll pay you $1 a hole to get that 500 footer started. He quickly calculates an hourly wage against $1 a hole, and says "Where's the truck keys?" At Western Tube & Conduit customer satisfaction and quality are the first order of business. Our Fencepost and Fencerail production is ISO-9001:2008 certified - and our products are manufactured to meet all the applicable state, federal, industrial and regulatory specifications and requirements. While we regularly stock standardized products and sizes, we are happy to provide custom dimensions as well. All our Fence products are galvanized with high purity zinc. We use high frequency welding (ERW) to turn the highest quality strip steel into tubing, and then a continuous hot-galvanizing process to zinc-coat the products smoothly and evenly. A zinc-rich interior organic coating, a chromate conversion coating, and a clear exterior organic coating provide the complete finish package that gives them superior protection against the elements and long life as a result. Gal-Z serves customers looking for shaped Fence tubing as well as corrosion-protected mechanical tubing. It can be purchased in squares and in rectangles, and it provides excellent environmental durability while also fulfilling the need for strength and weldability. About this time, a stranger saun- ters up, and asks about a job. He don't know anything about fence, but is will- ing to learn. I tell him I'll try him out for a cou- ple of hours at minimum wage to see how he likes it. I tell my part-timer to take him with him to show him the ropes. I front the part-timer the $50, by the way, and about an hour later he calls in and says he's sick and has to go home. He tells me that the new guy wants to keep on working. Since he's showed him where to dig the post holes, I can live with that. I tell him to bring the truck home when he's through. Later I call the customer to see how things are going. The customer says the guy is "pounding away at it," and "I've never seen anybody go at it like he is." Well, I don't think anything is par- ticularly strange at this point, and I as- sure the customer that all my crew members are highly trained specialists. If you say so, replies the customer. Well, it starts to get dark, the new continued on page 52