I'm going to hazard a guess that you don't have any manufacturing experience due to shibboleths: you said "fabrication" but you meant turning, not sheet-metal bending. Did I guess right?
This is a common interview tactic: trying to figure out if someone belongs to a group known to have particular skills by their choice of words or similar.
Turning parts on a lathe (and machining/milling) fit in my definition of "fabrication skills". (Mechanical engineer and a few hundred hours in the machine shop, but not a full-time machinist by any means.)
This is a common interview tactic: trying to figure out if someone belongs to a group known to have particular skills by their choice of words or similar.