Library

Nearly every U.S. and Canadian metal plate connected wood truss manufacturer has one or more clients who either construct pole barns or sell kit packages. Not much excitement though in dealing with typical orders of usually anywhere from 4 to 10 trusses per building. Money can certainly be...

Ten years may as well have been a lifetime with so much water under the industry bridge; so to speak. I looked back and saw how our little weekly newsletter became what is now the largest, and only monthly, publication that focuses on the Truss, Wall Panel, and Building Components...

Increasing use of mass timber as a competitive building product in the construction marketplace requires sound design guidelines to ensure safe, efficient, and economic use of wood products. AWC fire research on mass timber conducted over the last year, with support from the Softwood Lumber...

Sales-folk are plagued with an addiction to “get the order.” Deep down inside, we want ALL the orders. Unfortunately, for every sales person, there is an opponent who has the same desire...Get ‘em all. Egotistical human drive opened the door for masters of the art of selling...

My wife made furniture shopping a family event last weekend, which meant I had to go. The showroom was in a concrete tilt-up with open-web steel joists and a wood roof. My oldest son asked me who decides what construction materials are used, and why. He’s starting college in the fall and...

Struggling mightily to hand-design enough trusses, we suppliers aggressively pursued computer solutions. When mainframe hardware was introduced in the 1960s, our then-competitor, Gang Nail Systems, installed a Control Data “Cyber 70” in a customized, climate controlled computer room,...

For the last few weeks, I’ve been inundated with a barrage of emails with attached “invoices.” About 90% are caught by the spam filter, but that other 10% ends up in my inbox. I have no problem with simply pressing “delete” to rid myself of them, but there’s a...

Part I: Computerization Begins The arrival of the first computers 50 years ago signaled that truss design had come of age. And they came just in time. We urgently needed them to meet the growing demand for truss designs. But they didn’t come with experienced operators – in the...

We started with our foundation, floor truss equipment. Then we went up to roof truss production equipment. Now, it’s time to frame our project with walls. Each month as I visit manufacturers’ websites, I am amazed at all of the equipment available within our industry....

In April, I accepted the role of General Manager of the Oahu Lumber division and Truss Plant operation. Although I had spent most of my career at Kimal Lumber & Hardware in southwest Florida, and even served as the 2012 Florida Building Materials Association Chair, I decided the move from...