Fence Tools Unfiltered

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All right, it's that time of the week again. Hey, thank you everybody for tuning in. This is the Fence Podcast with Brian and Sasha. And if you missed us last week, it's because we weren't on last week. Sasha, right? So, but so Sasha, you and one of the reasons was you were out of the country. Am I right? Yeah. Well, sort of the c it is technically out of the country. Yes. Cross a bit of a wall in a border. I didn't dig a tunnel, but yes, we were in Mexico. Yes. Yeah. What were you do down in Mexico? I know if anybody's following me online, they probably already got to see it. Uh you were tearing some stuff up, right? Yeah. you know, fortunately and unfortunately, I think uh Brett Reszichek, my business partner and myself are having a bit of a midlife crisis and uh we somehow managed to rally up a race team and we're uh we were racing in the Baja 400 um last week. So, that was an experience of a lifetime. It was amazing. And that was your first Baja race with the team, right? Yeah, very first Baja um Baja race. We've been racing uh smaller serieses here in the state. Uh Johnny, one of our drivers who drives a a Trek spec uh truck spec for us uh did Reno to Vegas. Um we've done the mint. We've done really well on the mint and even my my big old bum actually made it through the Snore 250. So yeah, we've been we've been having a little bit of fun just testing the waters and but Mexico was Baja is just it's amazing. I I can't words don't describe how what that's like as an experience. Yeah. Well, I think it's a little bit more than a midlife crisis, Sash, because most of us go out and buy like an old Corvette and try to fix it up, never get it running or a motorcycle and and all that. Then we kind of tip it over and then we get scared when we get on the highway because there's too many cars going around us. But, uh, you went out, you didn't just go out and buy an old Corvette, man. You went out and got like six, eight, 10, 15, 20 cars and set up a race team bigger than bigger than most race teams that are out there. So, what uh what what got you into that, man? You I mean, you must have been passionate about this before because nobody starts desert racing that wasn't following it or in it before. What got you in it? So, desert racing is unique. I've come my background, you know, I've been in and out of racing my whole life like from the my 18 years old, of age and on. This was really I can take no credit for it. I've got to give all the credit to Brett, my business partner. uh he loved desert racing. Uh in Australia when I where I raced, I race rallies and put it around. Uh desert racing was just coming into its own. Um so for me personally, we started in December, maybe end of December last year, somewhere around there. Um was my my personal first experience of desert racing and it was exactly like fence. Once I found fence, I fell in love with it. And once I found Desert Racing, I literally fell in love with it. So, but Brett has had a lot more experience in it. Um, and we really just having, if you want to call midlife crisis, which we weren't, we were like looking at as a bit of a marketing tool to get out there and, you know, the community in Desert Racing reminds me so much of fencing community. It's so similar. Um, I know Brian, you you came out to us with us to the Battle of Prim. I mean, it is it's very similar. It's a lot of our own people, too. There's a lot of fencing companies, um, construction, and they're doing it for the love of it, not for the glory of it. So, it's amazing and it's a such a team effort. Y um because I tell anyone, you know, if you love racing, you know, I love Formula 1, I love all of that stuff, but desert racing is unique to all of that because you're chasing cars through the desert. You're jumping cars 20, 30 feet in the air. You're going through 10 foot ruts. You're your pits are in the middle of nowhere. And each time you come around a corner, it's just different. It's there's nothing's ever the same. And it's a really a test of strength, mental strength, but also the team around you. You just can't do this by yourself. You need a full team of committed people. And when I say committed, maybe insane because it is, but yeah. So, it's amazing. Yeah. So, what it take um I and everybody

Knows we're we're I mean, we're pretty close friends. I mean, our family is our you know, everybody. So, we vacation together and stuff. So, I I feel like I went on this journey a little bit with you. I just didn't have to invest all the money and and I I always said, you know what's uh you know what's better than owning a boat or a race car is somebody else that has this having a friend that owns a boat and a race car. Right. So, but so I've got to enjoy uh parts of it without having to go and do all the hard work that you put into it. So, um what's it take to prepare? Man, you were I mean you were like running around. you were preparing for this Baja 400 like I prepared for the fence show uh in a in a you know hectic race towards the end to get all your stuff ready and your cars and the trailers loaded and what was uh what was that like for your first one going that far away? It was a lot logistically very hard and it begins like when you get up on that podium it's not just about you as a driver and a co-driver um it's about everything where it begins. It begins with a race prep team called Playtech. They're amazing. Um, getting the cars ready. Um, you know, cuz every race these cars just get beaten. I mean, what we do to them is just you normally you can't do anything to that a car or, you know, or four wheels like we do. So, it begins there. It's it's a logistical nightmare just like everything else. Like all of the fence people out there that are watching the podcast and everyone else, you know, freight's a nightmare. Getting parts is a nightmare. Right now, it's it's just logistically impos it's so hard just to get basic stuff, let alone you try to put a team and you're traveling that far. And this was a 425 mile race. Y and you you're you got one car that's eight hours in front of the other. And we had three cars in this. It it just begins. Yep. Back in the shop and then the the commitment from the pit crew and the teams. It's just it takes so much more than just, you know, getting in the car and driving it. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason I brought it up, Sash, is because and I wanted to bring it up was because um I'm I'm wondering, I mean, you're on both sides. You're on the fencing, you're on the racing, and from what I've seen, it is pretty similar, but does anything about um racing, like teamwork, preparation, equipment, um does that carry over into the fence industry? I mean, do you see those in it? Oh, the they're they're intertwined. I mean, firstly, you're out in the elements, right? Like even the basics of, you know, fencing itself, you're in the elements, whether you're digging a hole or you're project managing, you're putting up a fence outdoors somewhere, right? Sometimes it's flat, sometimes it's on a hill. So, just that basics the same. Then you talk about the preparation, right? Like you have your estimators need to get in there, quote the job. You need your suppliers to be able to deliver the products and then you need your team to be able to both in the office and out in the field. Very very similar. Yeah. There's a lot that intertwines in both our industry and in desert racing. It's virtually like parallel with each other to be honest. Yeah. Well, speaking of equipment and performance and uh let's bring on someone that doesn't like to go slow like do you desert racers? He likes he's he's into racing where the cars are really moving. I'm talking about hauling butt, you know what I mean? And when those car Yeah. Those like rocket ships on the ground. Let's bring Al from Mr. Fence Tools on. And uh Al, what's going on, man? How you doing, guys? Good. I I feel out of place today because he's got Founders Racing on. You got an F1 hat on. And I got nothing on the top of my hat but a bunch of dirt last year. Yeah. Yeah. Were you down there last year? I didn't get to go, but uh since we were at the show, I did get to see him set up and I was when I was driving past it, I was like a little school girl uh looking looking at all that. I'm like, "Oh, that's where all the teams are, you know." Yeah. Down in the paddic and whatnot. It was uh super cool to see. So, yeah, it's fun. Well, living in Vegas, we get to see it unfortunately for four months before the race and two months after the

Race and then right when the traffic gets back to normal, they start setting up again. So, for that. Yeah. Oh, they it just becomes a a a traffic mess for months and months before the show. Um before the race. But yeah, so uh but you know, brings a lot of people to town. So, you know, living in Vegas, we don't mind we definitely don't mind crowds. But the rest of the time it's not too bad. So, uh everybody doesn't know you, Al. Um you're from Mr. Fence Tools and uh you've got a lot of history too in the industry a little bit. So, uh, tell everybody about how you, uh, you know, what your roles are over at Mr. Fence Tools, how you got into the industry. Um, a little bit about your backstory. Yeah. So, uh, you know, believe it or not, this was actually supposed to be a temporary job for me. I was moving from out of town and I just needed something to get me back to town and I started working for Shawn, uh, and Mr. Fence. Started out in the field like a lot of people do and, uh, you know, I became a special project foreman. I got into fencing. Uh I then got into the uh production management side as a project coordinator sales. Uh from then an opening opened up for tools and uh you know I came in and Sean and I did a lot of collaboration to get things running off the ground, a lot of innovation into the tools that we were uh he was trying to produce and get out in the field and it's just skyrocketed. We've been growing like crazy. Uh growing pains for sure. Yeah. It's been very interesting uh for me. It's a It's been a a crazy journey. Um, one that I'm certainly proud of for sure. Yeah. So, Sash, how familiar are you with some of the tools that Mr. Fence Tools puts out, man? They've got some crazy tools. What was the last one I was looking at was the um You got You guys have a special name for it, but it's the it's the string line on steroids. What is that one called? Oh, is it the uh the equalizer? Are you talking about the equalizer? The equalizer. Yes. Yeah. the most common uh the the most commonly bought tool that we have. It's uh it's for efficiency on layouts. It's it's a it's a go-to. You got to have gota have. What's um what separates though? I mean, I'm I'm People ask this all the time. I mean, you know, you got tools, they need this, they don't need that, or we're just getting stuff just because it's available and we want to try something different. But what separates genuinely useful tools from something that's just another gadget? I mean, you know, I I think in general, if I know, you know, and I know Sean King really well. I mean, we're pretty good friends. So, uh, you know, I've talked to him a bunch and and and everybody throughout the industry, and he doesn't just make tools because he wants to make a shiny little gadget. It typically is has a has a purpose and a use. And when Shawn does something, he's simply trying to trying to solve a problem. Maybe it's not a problem everybody has, right? but it was a problem somebody had or he felt that was out there that he could might probably kind of streamline or or you know it may not fit everybody but maybe it fits some people that were kind of having an issue. What what separates though a genuinely useful tool from just a gadget you know that gets thrown in a box? Yeah. And uh you know to be clear we make a lot of specialty tools, things that sometimes you might just use maybe once or twice and we also make things that are for everyday production. The equalizer being one of them. So, uh, you you know, you could spend hundreds of dollars on something that's going to resolve a problem once or twice, and that may be understandable as long as you accommodate that and you're estimating. Um, but for production, everyday efficiency, accuracy, uh, quality, uh, you know, things like the equalizer, uh, you know, we're real big on post driving. Nothing wrong with little beavers if that's the way you like to install fence. Uh, you know, we know it works as long as you do it accurately. um you know really uh as long as you know how to use the tools correctly um and and you're getting the proper training to do it um you know you see the results at the end of the day and and what you have um you know that's why we encourage a lot of training uh and actually getting some hands-on uh

Visualizations of of how these tools work and how they can impact uh the the bottom line at the end of the day. Yeah. Hey Al, do do contractors sometimes underestimate the value of a good tool like or you know do they look at a tool and say like how much time you know do they really look at hey if I get this tool it's actually going to save me time and labor. Yeah. A lot of times uh I find myself having these conversations uh with people. So we have a lot of sales that just come through the website. We are open our doors to anybody that wants to have a conversation. We we don't charge for consultations. I spend probably threequarters of my day on the phone with people um explaining tools and fortunately for me um my boss uh likes to be on camera for 75% of the time as much as he can because he's putting good valuable content out there um for people to have um and and so fortunately a lot of those explanations are needed to visualize and you know since we sell across uh the nation um you know a lot of times I need that resource in order to explain it. But u a lot of times it's just more or less just spending time with the customer and finding out what they actually need. My goal is never to sell somebody a tool that they don't need just because I want to get extra sales that day, you know. Um if you're not um doing a certain amount of revenue, I'm not going to recommend you buy, you know, a $75,000 machine, right? Um, so I I really take every relationship that I establish over a phone call and I try to genuinely give my uh my opinion about uh how it could improve and then you know we do have some statistics that we can provide to show but really in the tool itself sometimes you just kind of got to see it to believe it and uh that's why we encourage the trainings because after a a day of training with Shawn your mind is just blown at how much information you intercept at once. But then just all the tools and you're like, "Oh my gosh, why didn't I think of that?" You know, and and just like Brian was talking about, um, really a lot of these tools come about just because we encountered problems on a job site. And so you take that problem and you dissect and say, "How can we fix this? How can we make it efficient?" And and how can we get it out in the hands of people at a reasonable cost, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Al, you know, I'm glad you brought that up because um you know, similar like buying specialty tools is kind of similar to like uh when you get software, you got to be careful, you know, even the software companies because they got to do a good job on the onboarding and explaining it and making sure people making sure that they understood how to use the software when they get it. Otherwise, after three to six months, um they just end up canceling it. The wife's like, "Hey, what am I paying this $200 a month for in the office or something?" You're like, "Oh, I never really set that up." And it cancels, right? But if a software company does a good enough job explaining um what it does and gets you to use it, and I think that's why a lot of good ones are so aggressive at getting a hold of you once you sign up, if you ever notice that to make sure that you actually get it set up and use it, then you end up keeping it. So, um that same kind of mentality, I would assume, would have to come with some of these specialty tools because, um if they're out looking for some of these tools and they're talking to you, you know, what what should they consider before investing in a more expensive specialty tool to where it doesn't end up like that? It doesn't end up with something that you just don't use and then you wish you never bought or sold and they never buy another one because I would assume it's like a lot of things you you know you want them to buy another one in two years or buy another one when they buy a new truck. So what should they consider before they start buying specialty tools so that it doesn't become another tool that doesn't get used? Yeah, it's phenomenal question. I mean honestly uh you know when I have the conversations with people I really try to evaluate how much uh you know portions of certain types of materials they're installing you know um you know what is their method for uh you know tearouts. Are they extracting posts out of the ground? Are they just cutting them off at ground level and covering them them up? Uh you know the there there's really a tool for just

About everything that we can think of that we've tried to develop. If not, uh, you know, I can assure you that I'll have an email, uh, in my inbox on Monday from Sean asking me to, uh, figure out something, you know, some kind of idea that he dreamt of in the middle of the night. That happens all the time. Yeah. I had a dream last night, you know, off we go, right? Yeah. But physics doesn't allow us to build it, right? I have this dream of this thing to build, but it's not physically problem. You can't do it unless you're in in like in space where there's no gravity. the tool won't work, right? Yeah. Yeah. But really, it just depends on a lot. You know, are you going to get your ROI back out of it? Now, most of our tools pay for themselves in in a fraction of the time that that before you even think about it, you know, equalizer, uh, you know, a few hundred bucks. Um, if you're saving, you know, uh, 30 minutes a day, uh, and you multiply that, you know, in labor or even just in accuracy, I mean, resolving errors and quality has a lot to do with that as well. Uh a lot of times the number one um you know uh hiccup to to fence companies is is really uh call backs, right? That that that is something that a lot of people don't necessarily uh factor in when they look at their margin and after they paid out their commissions and everything else and then they get a call back, right? Whatever you can do to make the job um is is as is as is as is as is as is as is as is as is as is as is as is as you know prioritized with quality as possible. You love your customers to death but at the same time you don't necessarily want to get called from them all the time, right? So, making sure that the job is done correctly and efficient to where you can run off to the next job. That's the beauty of this of the way that we've uh tried to uh encourage people to install fence is kind of get in, get out, but don't take shortcuts, right? And in order not take those shortcuts, you got to sometimes invest in those specialty tools to get there. So, Al, this is going to be a super loaded question. Um, and these are normally questions that Brian's gonna ask you, but today I felt very creative, right? No, this one's going to be tough to answer and I think, you know, we'd all like to try to find this answer, but is there a tool that every fence crew should have on a truck? And I I'm going to ask Brian that one after you, but let's see. Like, is there something you go, "Hey, to be honest, no." But you know what? This is a pretty good tool you should all have on on on your truck. Yeah. un undoubtedly that the the number one answer that everybody's going to guess and I don't want to beat this to death is honestly it's the equalizer and and the reason that is is because every job site is going to have a layout. Uh the only one that is really not going to pertain a whole lot to that is aluminum. You can do it with aluminum on the equalizer, but we have a tool for that as well, the SpaceX, um which is designed to be able to to to drive the ipost if you're driving that. Um now, um you know, whether it's chain link or or vinyl, aluminum, wood fencing, however you do it, you know, with different spacings or whatever, the equalizer takes the guesswork out of it and it makes it super fast um on on on how to uh lay it out so you can just get it done. I remember um you know many many years ago when I was on a job site uh thinking to myself like oh I can take a tape measure and go out here and count the sections and and start marking it out and whatnot and then uh you know there's really no need to do that right all you have to do is mark uh where or pin where your corners are going to go and then everything else is just laid out for you. um you you know there's a gate spacer and everything and so now you can see the hazards in place where they need to go and you can you can actually move the gates where you need to as you're laying it out. So with with tools like like a fence wreck for example like you can literally carry the equalizer and the stakes all of your layout equipment I think layout is one of the biggest things um especially if you have like a project coordinator that's already come in and kind of just resolve that for you. Go in lay it out make sure there's no hazards in the way. uh knock it all out and then somebody comes in and um you know sleeves it and then you're in and out and potentially do two three jobs in a day if so. Um so

Again I didn't want to beat that to death. I think we have a lot of tools that do a lot of different things and we don't just manufacture um a lot of these you know specialty tools or um uh you know daily usage tools. You know you have things like um the quick pull all the post drivers that we offer. We don't make our own post driver, but we sell just about every one that you can think of. Um, you know, and there's there's bud budget ranges for everybody, whether you're uh, you know, more kind of on the truck in the truck range or you're working with a full franchise uh, company with maybe, you know, 10 12 trucks running every day. Um, there's there's a way to uh, effectively install fence uh, with what you got and we we can help you set up with that. That's why we have the consultations that we do. Um, but but I mean really we could we could talk all day about certain tools that you can go. My goal is not really to to push or sell tools. Um, it's really more or less to to I I get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing people's reaction because I get a lot of feedback. Most of my customers is repeatable uh um repeatable sales really. you know, um it's always the same people buying either post drivers or equalizers or SpaceX's or now I've changed manufacturers, so I need a different SpaceX tool. Uh I mean, they're all so important as long as you're getting uh the efficiency that you're really wanting to pay for out of the tool. And the quality, again, um you know, I don't want to sacrifice speed for quality. Quality is absolutely necessary, but so is speed, too, right? Um so, you know, equalizer in short. Equalizer for sure. But but like I said, we could go all day with a lot of post drivers for me is is is a huge huge benefit. that's a tough one, Sash. Uh I mean, I'm going to answer that one, too, because I think You know, I'm I'm being, you know, being with all the trucks that we've had since, you know, 20 some years, 30 years going on the trucks, right? Going out with crews and stuff. I'd say it would depend on the decade you asked me because if you asked me what the most important thing to have on your truck, you know, going up into the 90s was probably a Thomas brother's guide, right? A map, right? Because I mean, and you we didn't have access to our phones to navigate people around. So, and you had to teach 1920s. So, go to 300 block of Smith Street and you knew where the the I mean, you didn't just know where streets were. You knew where where the 800 block of this street was, right? So, uh, Isaac Thomas Brothers interrupted there. And then and then I'd say into the 90s into the 2000s, the battery technology in our drills and stuff was just coming about and it wasn't really um it wasn't really there where it needed to be where you could count on it all the time. The batteries, the Makita drills would Makita when they had the long ones, but they nine volt they didn't last very long. So, I would say for us, but we don't, you know, we don't do the same style offense to everybody. I would say a pipe cutter, like a rigid pipe cutter to where you could at least cut some top rail or a cut the post off. Um, said you guys haven't mentioned the most basic one that I got hit over the head with was a pair of pliers. And it wasn't just any plier. You know what I mean? The HCO be that was the only fire. If you got anything else, you I'd get hit over the head. What is that rubbish? You know, yeah, I agree. Fence player. Yeah, fence players are a given in the hog ring pliers, right? But I think now it's a 300 foot tape. And uh I know you guys have that because you guys you guys are more concerned with the type of fence you build about having perfectly even spacings. I'm not as concerned with that with the fence we build. You know, the style we bid, whether it's off by an inch or two, it doesn't really you don't notice as much on the fences that we build, right? And we're not that that consistent on that part. So 300 foot tape with stakes. And I don't know why I I have no idea why the stakes end up getting left on jobs. So the stakes and I know you guys have some stakes like that with a string line. So I think now stakes with a stakeholder. Y 300 foot tape stakes and a string line is probably the if you don't have that like you said layout. This comes down to layout right is uh the And you guys have some cool stuff. So speaking of stakes though you

Have I remember seeing on Sean's truck that he has some custom blue stakes with like different almost like it almost reminds me of like a a finish nail or something. I don't know. Yeah, they're Yeah. double-headed tent stakes and we powder coat them blue. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you have stakeholder boxes that have plastic for the insert so you can mount it on your trailer, your truck, and you uh you know, we encourage having 12 stakes, that's generally enough to handle just about every layout that you're going to need. Um and and also to mention uh since if you're a full sections kind of guy, um the equalizer has a uh a step brother which is uh the marker cable. So, we that's kind of in the same same realm, same thought process. There's beads on a steel cable that you that you just pull out in tension and you can do full sections that way. Now, if you're doing a lot of uh continuous length, uh I would absolutely encourage doing full sections up until maybe the last bit of run, maybe equalize out, but no, you're 100% right with that. Yeah. And I'm of course I'm thinking um you know, you're kind of more cookie cutter backyard kind of stuff. But if you're more in agg or doing commercial jobs, things like that, 100% full sections, you're going to get the most bang for your buck. Yeah, we do tens and then we get down to that last 30 feet or so and then we just figure out what if it's 38 feet, we divide that out. You know what I mean? Less than 10. We end up with some nine footers or something towards the end. But um I think that's just I think that's pretty typical on chain link and stuff like that too. You just don't uh unless you're getting into like the iron panels we do where you're you're trying even then we just set them a couple inches under and trim them if we have to. You know, we're uh and using brackets. We don't I guess we just don't stress as much about it on the stuff we're doing. And you know, some of these are commercial on there. Steel over there, right? All steel. Yeah. We don't do any aluminum or anything like that. So, it's all steel. Yeah. And uh uh chain link and and stuff. So, but but I have a question though, and I don't know if Sean's going to let you say this or not, if you're allowed to say this or told you not to or something, but right. So, what's uh you know, we all have we all have like ideas, companies, products, stuff we started that we wish wouldn't have or just bombed out or something, but um what was a tool that you guys made and you're like people are going to love this thing and then it filled up. You made a bunch of them on the shelf and then just you did you didn't sell any of them and it just kind of like uh you know what I mean? A tool that just just you thought was the most amazing fix in the world and it just it doesn't make any sense. But yet this this steak that you made that was almost no engineering. You sold a million of them. And this other product that you put all your heart and soul into uh didn't didn't do anything. Can you think I I've got I've got a handful of those to be honest with you because I' I've got my own uh my own ideas that I've tried to incorporate. Um I've I've got a little bit of a funny story that uh you know when when the UI5s first came out Uh we had to have something to align them, right? Well, tell everybody what that is first, though, because not everybody not everybody lives in that world where they pound the posts and and sleeve sleeve stuff over. So, tell everybody what that is. Right. So, uh with with vinyl fencing, uh if you're driving two and three steel posts, um you know, a lot of people use the the plastic, uh adapters, well, uh we decided to kind of opt out and go with a steel adapter uh that gave us a lot more rigidity. um didn't have any chatter. Um and it was also adaptable to thin and thick wall posts and to two and 78 posts. We can get into technicalities with that all day. Um but uh we found ourselves really kind of needing to align them so you could slide the the post the vinyl post over that steel post. Um and so we developed a jig that I end up coming up with the name which is kind of comical as a unifier, right? And so, um, so that way you could align the top and the bottom uni5, which is the post adapter. Um, so you can align that level and slide the post over and move on to the next.

Well, one day, uh, you know, Sean tells me, he's like, "Man, we made this tool for absolutely no reason because we have a unifier." I'm like, "Really? What do you mean?" He's like, "The post itself." I'm like, "Oh my gosh." Like it's literally like you you pin nail the top one, you you slide the post over it and just set it on the bottom one, level that post up, then just lift it up and pin nail it. So there's no need to carry an extra tool. And a lot of times the answer is right there in front of you. You know, good point. And sometimes things are just too new because you come out with a product and the first thing you want to do is try to resolve an issue that a lot of times doesn't even necessarily exist. Yeah. Um, before we came out with our Instagate kits, which are um, you know, designed to be gates that you can just take out of a box. Of course, you use your own panel. Uh, with wood, you would just use pickets, but everything comes in the box, the hardware, um, everything you need for the gate. Uh, before we we designed those Instigates, we actually started with these plastic blocks that you could just slide into an end post and then, you know, put your rails in for aluminum. And uh I came up with this jig that was like telescopic and it slid and it has these adjustment handles and I thought that it I just blew the industry away with it. Uh and it it ended up being kind of a a piece of crap. I mean it's really difficult to to operate. It worked but nowhere near to the level of what we've done with the Instigate kits now. Um and and so you know that's kind of my two cents on that. think it's nothing wrong with trying out an idea. Um there's always improvement. I think it's rare to see a tool on our shelves um that is uh more or less on the newer side that doesn't have a reiteration or an implementation added to it within uh you know six weeks or a month uh or two months or whatever it be three months, six months. We're constantly innovating and changing. I think the the SpaceX I've changed uh which is a tool for for driving aluminum ipost for uh for for aluminum and it does work um very well. I do it for a Marin star steel fence as well. Um but I think I've got like over 200 different drawings for all those and they've and they've all got different versions. So I'm like on version 2.3 something now. So yeah. Uh it's constant change but I enjoy it, you know. It's it's it's rewarding to see. So, yeah, I know. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask a question. I know what the answer's going to be already because it was on my list to ask uh and we kind of it's going to fall back to the same thing we're talking about. What the what's the most popular tool that Mr. Fence Tools has. It's probably it's, believe it or not, it's here recently. It's not been that much really the equalizer. I wouldn't say necessarily. I mean if if you want to say toolwise um the post drivers really is more what I get asked about because you know we have really made an effort to encourage people to encourage not necessarily persuade people to drive posts but looking at things differently uh you know in a different perspective on how they can uh operate uh the benefits to post driving you know there I don't even want to kickstart that uh that debate Um, it's extensive and and it's been deep death. Uh, but I I I really find myself having a lot of conversations with people about gas post drivers, pneumatics, hydraulics. Um, people are really into the post driving because they see all these awesome videos that people like Sean King and Mark Olsen and you know you any anybody puts out uh information wise that gets people really kind of thinking like do I really want to continue to use pack concrete and pack it out you know um it's it's very effective it's clean you know there's pros and there's cons to everything right the number one thing that everybody's always going to say is rocks rocks rocks or you can't do it where I'm at. Um, you know, there's there's a solution for everything, but um, you know, I I would say popularwise, uh, post drivers in here recently, more than anything. Uh, oh, my screen's doing something weird. Um, I would say the fence Rex, man. The fence Rex has been blowing up like crazy. I don't think we have made two identical units yet. Every time we make one, Sean thinks of something else. What's Tell everybody what the Fence Rex is. I know I' I've seen a few of them.

What What is it? Oh, man. It's a post driver with a Montana uh 350 head um that is on tracks that you can drive behind and in front with literally just a joystick and you could it literally does the work of of two people and it's and it's um it's just blown production out. I can't get Sean off of his anymore. Like I I can't even get him to answer the phone because he's out driving on this thing all the time. Uh it's it's it's like a kid in a candy store with it. Um but this machine can drive posts in like 30 seconds or a minute. I mean depending on soil conditions, of course. So I think the other day he called me and he's like, "Man, I just did like 13 hours. I did like 3,100 feet of fence by myself and all this." Dude, you are just bananas. Like pushing the limits, pushing the limits. this machine um you know drives post up to 4 inch post in and under a minute and I think he said that he was even driving uh these posts six feet in the ground at a minute a post you know like that's that's just bananas I I want nothing to do with building 3100 feet of fence by myself I don't care what come I'm the helper okay I'm a helper okay I'm the guy that's like dropping stuff off the fittings at the posts and like picking up the scrap while you're while you're you're cutting stuff. I'm not building no 3100 ft of fence by myself. And we put a we put a pipe rack on this thing. It's got a platform that we designed to hold 34 pieces of 32 and 38 I'm sorry, uh 2 and 38. Um and and of course you can always slide a 3-in post over the top of that. Um I think he's accommodated a packout box on it now. You can put all your equalizers, 12 stakes, adjuster cables, gate spacers. I think the last iteration that Sean did, he had an umbrella on it for the shade. Um, I mean, I'm telling you, he had a SpaceX mounted on it. Uh, this thing was wild going down. Uh, I think we had it at a golf outing and everybody was gawking after it. Pretty cool. So, Al, is there is there is there a new tool or new exciting product coming from you guys that you can share with us tonight at all, if at all possible? Um, I I'd love to say that we have something bang out and new that's coming. I think for us, we have seen such an upturn in in uh instigate kit sales that right now our main focus is really to try to ramp up as much production as possible because when these things came out, everybody was, you know, buying one or two here and there and I've got people buying pallets of these gate kits at a time and our production is just drowning in in this. And so we're really focusing on trying to get our lead times uh as quickly as possible because we've become uh kind of a go-to for a lot of consumables and we don't want to let our customer base down. We still make tools and love to make tools. Try to get ahead of that as much as possible. Like I said, we don't really have anything that's that's brand new that's coming out. Uh a lot of ideas that we need to get to right now. our priorities is making sure our customers are happy and the gate kits is really um you know we haven't had to make any changes with those uh anytime uh recently but those are where where are you making the gate kits? How do people get access to the gate kits? Tell us a little bit about where they're getting manufactured and how people can jump on and grab them if they need them. Yeah, the Instagate kits we make all inhouse. Um, we make them for wood, we make them for aluminum, and we make them for vinyl. Um, the the concept behind the aluminum and the vinyl are essentially two aluminum extrusions that are powder coated. Um, with aluminum currently, we just offer it in the satin black. We could do white if we absolutely uh, you know, had a an order to justify it. Um, and then, um, with the vinyl, we do white, tan, and satin black, which the satin black actually looks really good with your off colors like gray, mocha. Um, it really highlights the openings. Gotten a lot of compliments about that. You would essentially just use a fence panel and make a gate out of it. And you can do it on site. So, we wrap them specifically, as you know, there's hundreds of different manufacturers. Um, they all have different specifications, rail sizes. We make them all tailored fit. Um, usually the turnaround time is somewhere between two to three weeks. I think right now we're probably closer to about three to four. Um, but we're really crunching to try to get those in.

And then, um, a beautiful product that we have is the wood instigate kit. Um, which is a Cat 5 variation, kind of like an upgraded kit, um, where we have a textured black powder coated finish. You get two uprightes and three rails, um, to match everything. Uh, the secret sauce to our gate kits is the rivets. We use quarter inch rivets to attach everything because we found out that screwed fasteners over time tend to come loose and rivets uh are extremely reliable when it comes to that. So I encourage people to check out uh the Instigate kits on YouTube. Um there's some videos there. Some of them a little outdated. I think Sean's working hard to get some new stuff out um with the media team uh and doing trainings as well. Um, and also on our website or just give us a call. Uh, happy to send pictures or anything else of some completed projects with these Instigate kits. Um, people love them. I wish I could keep them on the shelf. Um, I I'm I'm I'm out of stock, but we're making them as fast as we can. Um, that's a that's a good problem. That means they're good. It's a great problem, but I also want to make sure the customer base is happy, you know. Oh, yeah. You mentioned the fetch fence racks. It replaces a couple people, right? So you can get out there sometimes. So, um, right now we're still dealing with the labor shortage in the fence industry. We're still trying to find people to build fence. We're still trying to find people to sell fence. I mean, all the companies across the country, um, I know winter comes sometimes and some companies kind of change a little bit and switch gears and snowplow and things like that, but the rest of the country is still out there looking for installers and stuff. So, um, and Sean's been doing this for a long time. So, it's not like he he decided to do this because of all the shortages of labor, right? So, did you see now that we're having this kind of shortage of labor and finding um you know people to work and install and build fence, do you think that helped with some of the you know increase in demand for some of this equipment? Absolutely. I think uh you know I I recently ran into a situation with a customer who wanted a fence wreck and it's it's really just him and two other guys. Uh, and so what happened is he had to spend most of his time out in the field with his guys and then he had to work long hours doing sales um on top of all of his uh, you know, uh, production management. Um, and so what ended up happening is we had a conversation about how he could schedule his production to where um, he can run ahead of schedule of it and he could operate the fence wrecks by himself, drive all the post and just have his team come in and sleeve everything together. And that that changed the dynamic completely. And and whether you're just a guy with uh maybe a couple helpers or you have uh you know two or three uh trucks or however many um you know you could almost uh have its own production schedule on the fence racks because you really just need one man to operate this this machine. Um, even with with traditional post drivers, you generally need two people. One to hold the post and level it uh while the other person is uh you know driving it. Uh where the fence Rex takes care of that alto together because as soon as you put the head on top u you know you have a joystick literally right in front of you. You just tap it a little bit. You got levels on the mask and everything and then as soon as you find that sweet spot, you just push the down button and it's just magic, you know, and you stop it right where you need it to. So, yeah, it's uh it's it's really been eye opening to see different ways that people can operate their business by using tools like this. Um, you know, obviously there's there's a budget to consider. You know, are you in the market to spend 72,000 bucks is what it cost fully outfitted the way we make it. We put your uh your company logo on it. We we we paint it uh to match kind of your your company theme. Uh we try to really do a custom job for every person uh that that or every company that buys one or you can just get a Mr. Fence Tools version and we've had a couple people decide to get one of those instead. But but yeah, it's really changed the dynamic of thinking about how you can operate and there's nothing wrong with kind of changing gears occasionally to see if you can get a little bit more

Bang for the buck on a machine like that. very efficient. If you have rocks, whatever, uh I can assure you I have seen uh very little issue with the machine uh being able to drive any kind of post down in there. Yeah, I've seen it in action, man. It's really cool. Really cool. I mean, and I know he's working on it non-stop. Uh oh. There it is. Oh, you know what? Question time with Al. So, rapid fire question time. Uh, we're going to go into these things. Sash, are you ready? I think I feel like we got to know Al enough to where everybody listening is probably most likely going to be able to answer these questions for him. Right. I agree. So, none of us uh none of us get to see these questions in advance. Uh, we kind of just kind of go through them as we're doing it. Let me see what we got. Uh, rapid fire question number one for Al. Favorite tool. Not the most popular or sold. What's your favorite tool? Yeah, I would say yeah, the Patriot pneumatic driver. Okay, that's a solid one for me. Y what's your most underrated tool? Underrated tool? O, I know this is rapid fire, man. I'm thinking through uh the quick pull. Uh I I think people uh underestimate just how useful it is and and how compact it actually is to just store on a truck and how useful it actually is to pull posts. The NW quick pull. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Okay. We're talking Rowdy. Rowdy the man. The NW quick that one. Yeah. Yeah. If you're listening rowdy, you just did a shout out for you. That's awesome. Yeah. They'll be at the fence show and you'll be a matter of fact if you buy a quick pull from me, you get a free equalizer with Oh, there you go. running for quite some time and shipping on that, too. That's awesome. And you ship it out. What? Um, okay. I think I think based off of your uh favorite tool, you can kind of answer this one. Digging post or driving posts? Yeah, based on the fact that I've had to dig post. Uh, I think that the answer is pretty clear with driving post. Like I said, I love Little Beaver to death. I think they have phenomenal products. Um, and and if that's that's your niche and it works for you, Little Beaver is the way to go with the earth drills. 100%. Yeah. So, we've got uh what do we got? Best tool for saving your back. Man, am I allowed to duplicate an answer? Because I feel like the quick pull is really pretty good with that. I think both both yours was driving post. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I'm gonna switch my answer here. How about this? How about the Hallbot? I Yeah, that's right. I haven't Well, I have never I I've seen I've seen it kind of in action a little bit, but I haven't really seen anybody use it on a job site yet. Um I there's some videos of that out there. I'm sure people can see, right? Yeah, the Hall. Yeah, I think there's some some videos if you get on the uh the academy page or the tools page, Hallbot. Um you got any questions about it, reach out to me. I will get you in touch with the right person. They're awesome. I mean, uh I love the age that we're in. can literally have uh remote controlled uh trailers that drive material back into the backyard, you know. And that was at demo days. Do you remember seeing it the whole dude at demo days in Florida? I don't know if you can give that to an Australian to I will somehow screw it. You should see how I drive race cars. So yeah, I don't They need one of those to to just to pick them up, bring them back to the finish line sometimes. Yeah, I don't know if you Sorry. Go ahead. I don't know Sash if you had the list over there too came over. let's see this one. Wood, vinyl, aluminum, or chain link. But you know the problem with this answer? There's no iron. So, I'm going to add this one. Wood, vinyl, aluminum, chain link, or iron. You know, I'm a I'm a big How about this? How about we just call it ornamental and be settle for that. I think ornamental is a phenomenal product. I love it. I think it's a it's it's really I love the look of it and I

Love the speed of installing it. Now, I know with iron it takes a little bit longer than the aluminum. Um but I think uh it's worth its weight. Um because it is very strong. Um but yeah, that that would be my choice on that. I think you answered this one before, but we'll go out and see it once more. One tool that belongs in every fence truck. I'm gonna try to switch it up here with that. Let me see here. Um I was like, what haven't I pitched? Well, you know, I'm thinking I'm thinking, you know, I'm thinking of every truck that I've ever seen has had a thumper on it. Um you know, a lot of times, you know, especially with now that we have post drivers, whenever you're setting post, sometimes you need to adjust your heights almost always, um at least a little bit. So, that is a tool that just about I mean I'm not going to say it's as effective as an equalizer of course, but I think it's a pretty solid one's the thumper or even the mini thumper. What is that? That's like that big that big sledgehammer thing. Okay. With that slightly uh angled handle, right? Yes, that's right. Yeah, those are cool. You know that for a reason. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So, okay. Here's one for uh you're doing the post drivers. You can do whatever you want. You know, whatever tool you're thinking about on this, but battery gas or panomic? I'm just kidding, Susan. I know it's Brilliant. That is a great question and I think that each one of them has its gonna sound so loaded and political but um I think each one has its proper place but I am actually very lean towards the battery side currently. I think that that is the direction the industry is really wanting to go. Um but uh gas uh it has its place. Um and and pneumatic is also the one thing that we didn't uh touch on is hydraulic either of course. Um but but yeah, battery would be short answer on that one. A lot of development coming from from uh some places. I'm not going to say names. I'm not at liberty, but uh the battery game is is I'm expecting to to change things within the next five years. And this is going to be a tough one. There's the final question of the um rapid fire. Sasha, I'm going to steal this one. Uh so, and this has got to be hard because you're working with Sean King. Um so, it's going to be a tough one. So, describe Mr. Fence Tools in three words. Huh. And how would you do that on anything revolving around what you guys do, but try three words. How do you describe Mr. Fence Tools? Three words. Um, our beliefs is uh efficiency, innovation, and driven. Got to stay driven. Man, that was awesome, dude. He pulled that out, man. That's awesome. That's awesome. I say something like, I don't know, sales, uh, trucks. That's why we didn't we didn't ask you the question, Brian. Michelob Ultra. I don't know. I'd be like, mine would have been really, really bad. I don't know. Right. Yeah. cash flow. Yeah. Margins. That would have been for me trying to describe myself. It'd be just a mess. Yeah. So, uh closing this out. Um Sasha, thanks for coming on, too. But um where can listeners learn more about your and ordering your products? How do they get uh get a hold of you or even uh where they find the stuff to learn more? Yeah. So, mrpfinstools.com. Um you know, you can Google us. Uh I encourage you to look at our reviews. Um, you know, we try to take the time to, uh, have conversations with our customers. Whether you're just wanting a generalized question over a little $30 jig, it doesn't really matter. Um, you know, I'm going to entertain anybody that calls us because I love helping people out. I don't work on commission. Uh, my team works very hard to make sure that uh we get the satisfaction out of the the people that come to see us. And I absolutely love it when people come to our facility and give us uh give give me and my team the praise. um and show us just how much uh effort we we we put in how it reflects in their attitude. And so I'm very grateful for the people that are in our industry and uh that keep our mouths fed. Um but yeah,

Mrfencetools.com you'll see us at the FWA show, Fence the Fence Show, excuse me. Um booth uh one 10001 I think it is right next to Mr. Fence Academy, which also go to check out by the way. Awesome. Super beneficial there. Um, so yeah, mrp fencetools.com. Google it. Um, look us on look look us up on YouTube. Um, or just get a hold of Sean King directly. I'm sure you'll see him floating around on Facebook. Um, I'll give you his phone number. I don't care. I'm good with it. You guys are never too You guys are never never too hard to find. So, as always, um, you know, thank you for coming on. If anybody wants to see All in person, Sean in person, some of your team, come down to the fence show. It's coming up here. I mean I man we have got one more episode Sasha before it's time to go live at the show sir brother it's almost go time that's it. Yeah it's time. So uh you know start packing your bags. Um get your goodies ready. Get over to Las Vegas. Go over there and see Al and everybody from Mr. Fence Tools and Mr. Fence Academy at the Fence Show. Go to fenceow.com. Um get registered. Uh there's still I mean the room block is just held on by I mean we're over way over the room block. I think it's just barely holding on if there's rooms available. Um, go to fento.com, get registered, get a hold of myself or Susan, probably Susan if you really really want to get a solid answer and help. But, um, call the property if you have to as well um, to get your rooms and they're going to keep giving us to them as long as they can. Um, and those rooms are still $85 right now. Um, and it's and any minute that could just get turned off. And you know how it goes when that happens. Rooms go up. Same room. You can get one for $85 now, might go to 150, you know, uh, the next minute. So, uh, get, you know, get on there. Go to fenshow.com, get registered, get a hold of Sasha, myself, or somebody to get a code if you uh need to try to get in. Um anyway, Al, thank you. Uh tell Sean thank you for all the effort he does for the industry, too. Uh look forward to seeing all you guys. Everybody listening, don't forget to like and follow and share this. Um we need you guys' help to get more content out there and uh to meet more people. Thank you guys for having me. You got it, man. We'll see you guys in a week, two weeks at the most. All right. Thank you guys. Take care. See you. I'm going full throttle. I'm going full throttle.

You want to go full throttle with me? Go to fenshow.com to register now. Make sure to check out our podcast. See you at the Ben Show.