Day 2: Genuine

This is me: Kevin Raymond, owner of K & E Sheet Metal. I am not a bot, and AI will not produce this content. It’s part of the reason I decided to start this blog on the website. And it’s why some of these posts will be absolute drivel. Genuine means that sometimes the product you’re producing is terrible; it needs some tweaking. It’s how you learn. It’s part of being a fallible human.

I want every piece of duct that leaves my shop to be perfect. I don’t mean just the dimensions, but the seams, the bends, everything that goes into the making of the total piece. But that’s not realistic. Sometimes, as an example, the air hammer crushes the Pittsburgh seam a bit too much. It pushes the seam out, creating a bulge. To the layperson or the naked eye, it’s not something that is noticed.

I notice. The installer probably notices. It bothers me.

However, it doesn’t affect the sizing of the duct. The issue is cosmetic. If I dwelled on every cosmetic issue, I’d never be able to get any product out the door. You can’t teach a new hire without there being a few mistakes along the way. We do our best to avoid them, but cosmetic issues don’t affect the function, and sometimes it just has to get out the door to finish the project. I’m learning to be flexible.

This doesn’t mean I’m cutting corners; it means I know my product. See, ductwork has some wiggle room. The joints have to be sealed with tape or mastic. Oftentimes, the duct is wrapped on the jobsite. So there’s room on either side of perfection. We, the shop, always strive for perfection, but it’s not always going to work out.

The same goes for what is written here. I can’t dwell on every redundancy or spat of bad writing here on this blog. Its purpose is to accept the garbage spewing from my mind. It’s not an essay primed for The New Yorker. I’d surely over-edit if that were the case. Also, my getting something in The New Yorker would be like a Chimpanzee playing for The New York Yankees. It’s just not possible.

That’s the genuine truth.

P.S. My apologies to all the Chimpanzees out there striving to wear the coveted pinstripes ;)