Who is the most important person in your truss operation? The designer who creates the projects? The guy who signs the check? Without sales there is no business, so is it sales? Let’s make an argument for someone you might take for granted. There is a person who looks at every job –...

Today’s technology has made life easier for the truss designer and others in the truss fabrication process. In the early days of the truss industry, we used, reused, and modified existing designs to create new designs using paper, pencil, and a handy Smoley’s Book. Soon we graduated...

Previously, we’ve reviewed the top manufacturers’ defects according to a survey of In-house inspections. (See my April 2020 article, “How Do Your Manufacturing Errors Rank on the List?”, for the top ten items and ways to correct them.) While wane in the plated area topped...

Face the facts. Trusses are large and bulky. They take up a lot of space and often cannot be stored inside. They have a shelf life. What are the factors that need to be considered? Are there ways to extend the shelf life of trusses? Are any of the methods currently used counterproductive? In...

Can you make substitutions of different lumber grades and species? The short answer is: yes. Even so, you have to take several factors into consideration when making a substitution. To narrow the discussion, let’s focus on southern pine. The substitution must have design values equal to...

With the introduction of lasers, setting up a truss while accurately controlling its perimeter and profile has never been quicker or easier. But do lasers do the job by themselves? The answer is no. They cannot. Here is why. Lasers provide excellent and accurate information to truss builders...

Lewis Carroll had a great line: “If you don’t know where you want to go then it doesn’t matter which path you take.” This advice came from a cat in Alice in Wonderland given to Alice when the cat asked Alice, “Where are you going?” Believe it or not, this...

Let’s face some facts. Eventually your truss building equipment needs repair or replacement. Exactly when do you pull the trigger? When do you take the big jump? In a perfect world with endless resources, it’s an easy calculation—replace or repair the equipment when there is a...

Mill cuts are common in our lumber today, especially with machine evaluated lumber, so it is important to know how they should be addressed and used in your product. Mill cuts are random saw cuts or planer cuts not intended to have been made. Sometimes they do not present a problem. Other...

On a recent plant visit, we came across a situation that is hopefully rare. The truss builders had hand-cut floor truss webs at the table in several places because the webs provided with the cutting were mis-cut. The result: a truss that might “look” okay but would not be safe to...