I wrote this a couple-few years ago, when I still lived in West Virginia. It didn’t find its way into my next book so I thought I’d share it here. Some of it is out of date by now—aluminum tariffs were imposed just after I talked to Palmer, and that probably would’ve shifted the focus of our conversation a bit—but the recipe is still good! Deep in western Maryland, just a few miles from the West Virginia state line and quite a ways off Interstate 68, you’ll find a nondescript building in a small industrial park outside the town of Oakland, population 1,873. Inside the building are nine die-casting machines so large that if you ordered one from China—because they’re no longer made in…