Wedges—Misunderstood and Underappreciated? Glenn Traylor The lowly wedge sometimes gets very little respect. If your plant is doing it right, the wedges usually are cut from drops or culls. That’s a good way of doing it, and it sounds very simple, but not just any piece of wood is suitable for a wedge. There are important qualifications that... Read More March 2018 Issue #10224 Page 36
Lumber Briefs: Managing the Bear Market Matt Layman 4 Costly Bear Market Mistakes! What could possibly be worse than missing a huge bullish market move? There are four critical bull market mistakes. Actually, they go both ways...bull and bear markets. Failure to acknowledge that the trend/price direction is preparing to reverse. This... Read More March 2018 Issue #10224 Page 77
Is There Such Thing as Too Much Pressure? Glenn Traylor Too much pressure is not only a problem in our lives, it can also be a problem in our plants. One of the most important issues when manufacturing quality trusses is plate embedment. Without proper embedment, the connector plate cannot adequately transfer load forces through the members down to... Read More February 2018 Issue #10223 Page 36
Lumber Briefs: What Could Go Wrong? vs. Nothing Could Go Wrong! Matt Layman “What is the lumber market going to do?” is a very important question and the answer is very simple. It is going to rise and fall. Brilliant, right? A better question might be, “How far will lumber prices rise and fall?” That answer requires an understanding of... Read More February 2018 Issue #10223 Page 81
Seeing the Need for Quality Assurance AND Training Glenn Traylor When you look at this photo, what do you see? The photo is an actual picture taken during a plant audit, but just imagine this was taken at your truss plant. In the photo, the second side of the floor truss is set up in the floor machine with the connector plate positioned and ready to receive... Read More January 2018 Issue #10222 Page 36
Lumber Briefs: Hello 2018...The Year of the Bearish Lumber Market Matt Layman This time last year, my message was that 2017 was going to be a year of extreme volatility. To start the year, 2x4 #2 SYP-E was trading for $460. The same product in Canadian SPF-W was $310. SYP was $150 over SPF. By November that relationship had flipped with SYP at $430 and SPF at $490. SYP... Read More January 2018 Issue #10222 Page 79
A Case for Providing More Design Info to the Assembly Table Glenn Traylor It’s true that, by nature, the materials currently used for wood trusses can vary in strength and properties. Given a specific lumber size and grade, truss builders often need to evaluate lumber picked, cut, and provided to build the specific job at hand. After verifying the lumber grade,... Read More December 2017 Issue #10221 Page 36
Lumber Briefs: Women: Labor Solution and The Future of the Housing Matt Layman We’ve heard the old adage, “This isn’t your father’s business anymore,” implying that things have changed since the “old days.” Well, things are going to have to change in the housing industry if we ever intend to get out of the corner of this room we... Read More December 2017 Issue #10221 Page 75
So Who Exactly is Responsible for Lumber Quality? Glenn Traylor In the United States, we are blessed with an abundance of quality building materials we may chose to use while fabricating our wood truss products. As long as we are able to confidently predict lumber values and our truss design software has the proper values entered, we can be assured a quality... Read More November 2017 Issue #10220 Page 34
Lumber Briefs: September has Surged; Now the October Ovation Matt Layman Perhaps the most important question in our lumber industry is: “What's next?” We are in the heat of the September Surge. That will soon be coming to an end, but the clock doesn't stand still. Lord willing, the sun will rise tomorrow. So, the question is, “What's... Read More October 2017 Issue #10219 Page 73