Writes a friend:

Here in my little city in Tennessee, we have factories and small machine shops. Metal fabrication is a diverse business here, serving farming, industrial, commercial, and building trades.

 It is common to go to the metal seller, talk to him about your needs and specifications, and he will have your metal piece ready the next day, whether it needs cutting, bending, welding, etc.

A man went to town today to see about buying a new piece of steel tubing to fabricate for his tractor on his farm.

The metal seller told him the price would be guaranteed only for eight hours.