On July 5, 1960, in a marathon session, a dozen entrepreneurs set standards for a brand new industry, and, in the process, met a government deadline. These early truss plate adopters came well-prepared and didn’t hesitate to make far-reaching decisions. Fortunately, they left a detailed...

I’ve been covering the industry’s evolution toward robotics, but I’d like to stop for a minute and recall the days of corrugated fasteners. These clever clips proved themselves whenever trusses were flipped or ejected. Now, perhaps ironically, they still have a role to play...

Twelve competitors faced one another for the first time—but only because they had to. Each of their fledgling plate businesses was threatened by a July 31 deadline from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), and they had less than three weeks to put together a design criterion for...

Not all post-installed mechanical anchors are created equal. There are key differences between screw and expansion anchor types — differences that include how they gain their holding strength, installation requirements, and overall anchor performance. In the following article, field...

Connector Selection Guides (CSGs) are tools Simpson Strong-Tie has created to assist users in designing and building with engineered wood products (EWP). They consist of a series of short fliers (available as PDFs on strongtie.com for printing or mobile use) guiding builders on how to select...

If you’ve ever spent a few hours working on your hands and knees to drill holes and drive screws, you know how time consuming and tedious it can be. Now, imagine spending consecutive weeks, months or even years fastening wood planks to steel on a manufacturing production line. For...

It would give you an incomplete idea of the new LTTP2 light tension tie if we didn’t first discuss the original LTT series. The LTT20 tension tie first appeared in our 1987 Connectors for Wood Construction catalog as a post-pour, wood-to-concrete connector. The LTT20 installed with nails...

We have paired up with Jaime Costiglio from That’s My Letter to bring you free plans for a DIY sofa and ottoman. [For photos, see PDF or View in Full Issue.] Most people have a family room or another designated space where they watch TV or play games. In my home, we have an open first...

MiTek welcomed Marie Jureit-Beamish, widow of John Calvin “Cal” Jureit, inventor of the Gang-Nail connector plate, on Wednesday, December 15, 2021, at its global headquarters in Chesterfield, Missouri. Jureit-Beamish transferred ownership of the original Gang-Nail connector plate and...

With the recent introduction of our new LSSR rafter hangers for 2x lumber, we thought we’d provide some background on how these new hangers were developed and why. Field-adjustable sloped and skewed hangers allow designers to specify widely available, economical connection solutions....