Immediately after I graduated from high school, my father, never one for complacency, sent me out to find a job for the summer. I remember walking into a local lumber yard looking for work. The gentleman I spoke with didn’t have a position, but he knew that the production manager at a local truss plant was looking for help and directed me to their location. I had no idea what a truss was, but it sounded like a great summer job. The plant manager that eventually hired me warned me that once I started in the truss business, I would be a “lifer.” I chuckled smugly as I told him this was only a summer job and that I would be starting college in the fall. I spent that summer in 1978 building trusses on old “wing jigs” and learning how to cut truss members on a pull saw with manual stops. The smugness I exuded that day turned into 45 years in the construction and truss business.
Since that summer of 1978, I’ve had the pleasure of watching the growth of the truss industry from many different perspectives including framing, truss manufacturing, design software development, and now truss and wall machinery. One thing I’ve learned from watching the progress and innovation in the truss world is that each segment of this business relies, thrives, and drives the other segments in the same business. Spida Machinery is no different when it comes to being a driving force of innovation and technology in the truss and frame business. Over the years, Spida Machinery has brought to market the most advanced, productive reliable machinery in this industry.
Today’s truss manufacturers rely on Spida Machinery to address the needs of an ever-changing marketplace with products that make a real difference. Our Automated Apollo Saw and Wall Extruder line are great examples of how we have reacted to market trends. One of my favorite machines in the Spida Machinery arsenal is the PieceMaker Linear Saw. Anyone who has ever used a manual pull saw or manual component saw will have a great appreciation for the incredible productivity of our PieceMaker. We have customers who claim upwards of 15,000 board feet per day, in a 9-hour shift with a sawyer and a stacker.
As the demand for custom homes with unique, complex rooflines grows, so too does your need for a productive, reliable, linear saw. The PieceMaker Linear Saw has proven its worth time and again in the complex business of custom residential truss manufacturing.
The PieceMaker Linear Saw can be ordered in Left to Right or Right to Left configurations for material management. In addition, the PieceMaker can be ordered in a Z Pattern Configuration that takes in raw material on the front side of the saw and ejects the finished product on the backside of the saw. [For both diagrams, See PDF or View in Full Issue.]
The PieceMaker in the standard configuration is perfect for saw shops that are separated from the main production area. The material flow is indicated by the arrows, and note the optional waste conveyor direction.
The PieceMaker in the Z Pattern configuration is the perfect setup for shops that run on “just in time” cutting and production. The Z Pattern PieceMaker can be set relatively close to the Spida Roller Plant Roof Truss Table (hint hint ;-). This minimizes material handling and thus saves labor dollars.
I wish I could step back in time again, if for no other reason but to remember what it was like to try and stay ahead of the “wing jigs.” It is truly amazing to see how far this industry has come. Simple jobs that took a day to cut on a pull saw can now be done in less than an hour on the PieceMaker, even with the complexity of today’s homes, and with no mistakes!