Joe Kannapell

The Last Word: Removing the Achilles Heel of Jigging

Joe Kannapell

Until recently, vertical members have been the bane of all jigging systems, whether they occur on the perimeter or the interior of trusses. And they are found more than ever on apartment and residential designs. Handling these members without human intervention has been the Achilles heel of...

#16296 Cover image
March 2024
Issue #16296
Page 146
Wendy Boyd

A Year of Building onto the Spida Family

Wendy Boyd

Christmas has come around so quickly – where has the year gone? Many great things have happened for Spida in 2023, so before we celebrate another Christmas and New Year, let’s reflect on our journey this year. The start of 2023 was all about planning for the year and executing...

#15293 Cover image
December 2023
Issue #15293
Page 17
Wendy Boyd

From Kiwis to Gators, Spida is Making Big Moves

Wendy Boyd

As we get ready to make our move to the new Spida factory in Jacksonville, Florida, a few things come to mind in terms of making the move as easy as possible and what the move means to all of us on the Spida Team. Firstly, we have stock on hand, in Shelbyville, that would be better off...

#15292 Cover image
November 2023
Issue #15292
Page 16
Glenn Traylor

Should We Follow Lasers Blindly?

Glenn Traylor

When GPS systems first became available for personal cars, we started hearing stories about folks turning left onto a railroad track or following a cow trail through the valley to a dead end. In 2012, three Japanese tourists in Australia drove into the Pacific Ocean after their GPS told them to....

#15292 Cover image
November 2023
Issue #15292
Page 33
Eide Machinery Sales Team

Building on a Legacy with Eide

Eide Machinery Sales Team

The legacy of the Eide name runs deep. Established in 1927, Eide Saw Company was a saw blade repair and supply company in the heart of Minneapolis’ milling and lumbering industry. Over the past 96 years, however, we have grown and expanded to keep pace with the ever-changing woodworking...

#15287 Cover image
June 2023
Issue #15287
Page 54
Joe Kannapell

The Last Word: Is the Future Flat?

Joe Kannapell

Seeing so many flat roofs early this year made me wonder if the future of truss building will be flat. During the January SBCA Phoenix Open Quarterly Meetings, some of us saw Truss Fab Components’ yard loaded with flat trusses, and others saw the flat roof lines of Frank Lloyd...

#15284 Cover image
March 2023
Issue #15284
Page 128
Joe Kannapell

The Last Word: The Last Word on Automated Material Handling

Joe Kannapell

With automated saws and auto-jigging tables, what remains is automated material handling, and that’s what we find at Builders FirstSource’s (BFS) Austin plant. House of Design’s (HoD) robotic roof line there extends the floor truss pre-plating methodology found at their Atlanta...

#14281 Cover image
December 2022
Issue #14281
Page 144
Joe Kannapell

The Last Word: The Last Word on Pre-Plating

Joe Kannapell

Just as Trussmatic brought back hydraulic plate pressing, House of Design has resurrected pre-plating. Both practices proved themselves in the early days of our industry, but both required disciplined shop floor management, and each had limitations. [For all images, See PDF or View in Full...

#14280 Cover image
November 2022
Issue #14280
Page 132
Edmond Lim, P.Eng.

The Most Automated, Most Toured Truss Plant

Edmond Lim, P.Eng.

In my humble opinion, since 2014, United Truss of Innisfil, Ontario, Canada has unofficially held the titles of “The most automated truss plant” in North America and “The most visited truss plant in North America.” United Truss was the un-named but featured truss plant in...

#14279 Cover image
October 2022
Issue #14279
Page 50
Joe Kannapell

The Last Word: The Last Word on Totally Robotic

Joe Kannapell

Attendees at BCMC 2019 stood safely right next to an awesome gesticulating robot and became immersed in observing record-breaking truss building – virtually, that is, through a VR headset. Back then, Trussmatic robots hadn’t made it stateside, and hadn’t yet handled our crazy...

#14278 Cover image
September 2022
Issue #14278
Page 130
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