Has COVID-19, its aftermath, and raging inflation brought the multi-family truss business back to its roots? Bo Powers, co-owner of Panel Truss, sees fewer wraps and more garden style jobs further from cities. Kenny Shifflett, owner of Ace Carpentry, believes the plethora of these...

A second sales pro reacted to Jim Urmson’s Florida saw blitz, the redoubtable (now deceased) Jere Broedling. Few knew Florida CMs better than Jere, first as Gang Nail’s sales manager, then as Bemax salesman, and finally as a MiTek rep. Like Randy Yost, he relentlessly prodded his...

The late Cheryl Shepard, with the support of Rob and Gene Frogale, proved that wall panels could be successful on their own merit, unaccompanied by trusses. Her hard work and dedication went a long way toward disproving the long-held belief that trusses were the key moneymaker. Amazingly she and...

Floor trusses work better than I-Joists when accommodating the new Rheia (ree’ uh) air distribution system being developed by eight leading national builders. As with trusses, skilled designers craft Rheia layouts and produce design calcs required by building departments. And builders and...

After an impressive debut and ten sales on the BCMC Show floor, the fate of the Alpine Linear Saw (ALS) was still up in the air. Few knew that the ALS was the product of a 105-day crash effort (see “One Hundred Five Days in 2002,” by Dave McAdoo in the December 2021 issue), and that...

Trusses of the future will be flat, or nearly flat, based on The New American Homes (TNAH) that have been shown annually at the International Builders Show (IBS). Though the elegant designs of these homes may seem atypical, they have to abide by the same factors that affect every house being...

A new truss plant owner faced a daunting challenge: local home builders wouldn’t use trusses and apartment builders were driving tough bargains. The owner’s partner, Charlie Barns, 250 miles north in Dallas, couldn’t have understood since he was cranking out hundreds of trusses...

Coming soon to your town and plant are “two-over-two towns,” which I initially disdained, but not after I saw that they were just loaded with components. Even so, who would want to live in a two-story townhouse that was built over or under another two-story townhouse, and be packed...

Two linear saws were set to battle one other at BCMC: Alpine’s, never having operated in a truss plant, vs. TCT’s, running in 10 truss plants. But few expected the competition at the 2002 Show. Alpine’s entry was the result of a crash effort, largely behind the scenes, to...

A Journeyman Engineer of some 50 years, Lecil Alexander left us suddenly on December 6, 2021, after a tragic bout with pancreatic cancer. Lecil came to our industry as an Engineering Manager at Clary Corporation in Texas, having already earned his professional standing. After that formative...