One glaring gantry glitch, truss plates falling off, still needed to be addressed in the early 1990s. Missing bottom plates interrupt production, or worse, compromise quality. Sometimes an uneven table surface is the cause. But often the gantry mechanism is to blame. Tolerances are surprisingly...

While many Americans are stuck at home without work, most of us have been blessed to keep working, at home or in component plants. Remarkably, most CMs have operated continuously with very few incidents. One large manufacturer with 1500 associates has not had a single Covid case. Then, why such...

As housing boomed in the mid-1980s, truss plants needed better equipment. Among those was Heart Truss and Engineering in Michigan. Heart was also benefitting from booming auto plants nearby. Their production head, Bob LePoire, pondered how to keep up. Bob’s boss and Heart’s...

Larry Dix and I had to leave Texas to find jobs in the 1980s, as oil had crashed, and no one was buying our trusses. Back then, oil was $25. Today, they’re giving it away. Both Larry and I landed and recovered in Virginia, where government spending levels out the economy (we hope)! No...

The roller gantry had two major obstacles to clear in the 1970s, both erected by its inventor, Carroll Sanford. Both were delineated in hard-to-evade U.S. Patents. The first was on the machine itself and the second was on the connector plate that it required. The simplicity of the gantry machine...

From four stories up, I realized how far wood components have come. I was atop 170,000 sq. ft. of trusses, viewing the Minneapolis Basilica, and couldn’t help thinking back 47 years to my first jobsite visit. [See PDF or View in Full Issue for photos.] Back then, floor trusses were brand...

The roller gantry dominates today’s truss production, but it hasn’t always done so, despite the fact that it hasn’t changed much over sixty years. The reason for its relatively slow ascendency is found in its origins and in its adaptations over this period. And along the way...

A few CMs have already heard the “buzz” about floor cassettes from the annual International Builders Show (IBS). A good portion of January’s Show dealt with offsite construction, and prebuilt floor sections are of major interest. At one of the Show’s seminars, we...

More CMs are “doing it right the first time” via vertical presses, taking advantage of their flexibility and the quality of their production. But few realize that some of the most successful plants in our industry started with table presses. These presses have always had the...

Forty years ago, a frenetic fray raged over the World Record for truss production. While CMs across the country competed, the two main players, Littfin in Minnesota and Dickie Vail in Louisiana, produced numbers that may never be equaled. The massive trophy, displayed today in the lobby of...