The Last Word: The Last Word on Staying Home Joe Kannapell Take it from me, being there is half of the battle, and Zoom meetings don’t count. This was true 50 years ago when I was working in our office, and it was true last week when I was in front of customers. There may be a price to pay, but the dividends will surely come back to you, as they... Read More November 2020 Issue #12256 Page 147
Sixty Years of Machines, Part XI: Auto-Jigging Innovations Joe Kannapell Clyde Fredrickson, a CM in the remote reaches of South Dakota, was determined to find a cheaper solution to the $250,000+ auto-jigging systems. So, he worked through several alternate ways to shorten setup times, like printing out Jigset coordinates, and moving pucks manually to designated... Read More October 2020 Issue #12255 Page 10
A Tribute to the Late Gene Toombs III Joe Kannapell Gene Toombs, the man who made MiTek, passed away suddenly September 25. He was 79 years old. When he came to us at age 49, there was no MiTek, just a conflicted company offering old software and obsolete machines. How could he help us, I wondered, when I first met him at our failing plant... Read More October 2020 Issue #12255 Page 18
The Last Word: The Last Word on Roof Truss Wizards Joe Kannapell Four roof truss innovators have changed our industry, from its beginning to the present day. Their names may be largely unknown now, but their work lives on and is worth assessing. The most notable is A. Carroll Sanford, whose machines are still cranking out trusses (see my March 2020... Read More October 2020 Issue #12255 Page 144
Sixty Years of Machines, Part X: Lasers Shine Joe Kannapell CMs are still debating lasers vs. auto-jigging, 30 years after their introduction. While both have been continually enhanced, their relative performance has remained consistent. However, lasers gained traction much faster, especially after one of the most productive plants, Ron Bergeron’s... Read More September 2020 Issue #12254 Page 10
The Last Word: The Last Word on 2020 BCMC – Virtually! Joe Kannapell In place of this year’s BCMC, why not travel virtually to several Shows, beginning in Louisville in 1972… Arriving at the sprawling Fairgrounds from the Colonel Sanders Inn, I walked through a maze of modular home sections and finally found our 8x10 booth. All the... Read More September 2020 Issue #12254 Page 140
Sixty Years of Machines, Part IX: Automatic Setup Joe Kannapell “I think this will work,” said Dick Rotto at the unveiling of auto-jigging at the 1988 BCMC in Nashville. This was a high compliment from the founder of the most prolific truss business, Trussway, Inc. And Dick had no equipment compatible with auto-jigging in his highly productive... Read More August 2020 Issue #12253 Page 10
The Last Word: The Last Word on Our Defenders Joe Kannapell The time was right to bring the defenders of our freedom together to honor one of their own, especially since they were under attack across the nation. The poignant occasion was to honor Sgt. Thomas Brennan with the blessing of a mortgage-free home. This was the culmination of a three-year... Read More August 2020 Issue #12253 Page 131
Sixty Years of Machines, Part VIII: Trackless Gantries Joe Kannapell In the 1990s, a storm began brewing in the component business. It started on the Eastern Seaboard when Carolina Builders bought a truss plant in Tidewater, Virginia. Later, it gained strength when Builders Supply & Lumber (BSL) opened a series of greenfield plants. And finally, it reached an... Read More July 2020 Issue #12252 Page 10
The Last Word: The Last Word on a Smooth Transition Joe Kannapell Not by choice in 1989, I transitioned from being behind a CM’s desk around to the front of the desk as a supplier. My old company took me back, despite the “blemishes” on my record as a plant manager. On my first day in the field, I picked up a 1987 Ford Taurus from outside our... Read More July 2020 Issue #12252 Page 135