As I stood in the small office waiting for the saw deposit check, the fax machine began running. I was stirred by the bold headline on the unfurling document, “…Timbermill’s Advantages Over Easy Set ...” Then I watched large bullet points cascading out of the machine. At that moment, owner Doug Brandt’s assistant handed me the $26,000 check, and I walked into his office to get it signed. My heart pounded until he handed it to me with the signed order. Then I executed the Gene Toombs maneuver, “say thank-you and get the hell out of there.” Never give them time to change their mind, he had reiterated. Especially now! However, Mr. Brandt stopped me and asked that I speak to his shop foreman.
I raced to the truss shop behind Berlin’s lumberyard, did my duty, and headed to my vehicle. Suddenly, the intercom blared out, “… return to Mr. Brandt’s office.” Now I had to go back and face the music. Thankfully, Mr. Brandt did grill me on each of our alleged shortcomings but kept to his word. Then he savaged my competitor, handed me the offending fax, and sent me down the road.
Such was the “dog-eat-dog” saw competition as we finished the 1980s. Timbermill had owned the component saw market across my Virginia-to-Maine sales territory, and they knew it. But our new entry into the fray, the Easy-Set 1000, began to make its mark. We traded heavily on Art DePauw’s good name and his proven components: saw frame, quadrants, inclined infeed, and most mechanisms. To these we added the winning features of Idaco (which we now owned), proven over 25 years: vertical centerline adjustments, segmented hold-downs, belt conveyor, and more. We had also replaced Art’s imported DC motors with Baldor AC Motors controlled by VFDs. And we installed most controls on a panel that the sawyer could swing around, close to his working position [for photos, see PDF or View in Full Issue].
Now, armed with the competition’s talking points, I descended from the hills of Central Pennsylvania to the outskirts of Philadelphia, to visit S & F Manufacturing. This plant was part of an oldline lumberyard, owned by the third generation of Shelly’s (the “S”), which retained the initial of founder Frank Fenstermacher (the “F”). Here I met Ken Slotter, for whom I had engineered trusses ten years earlier. After hearing his preference for the Timbermill, I was unable to make much headway with my counterpoints. Then we went to his cramped saw room and measured the available space. To my utter delight, the Timbermill’s integral inclined conveyor wouldn’t fit. Ours was detachable. Ken signed the order and I skedaddled to the next opportunity on the other side of town.
At the U.S Components plant, I met with veteran trusser Denny Weaver. Fortunately, he was familiar with the good DePauw name. I didn’t have to say much, except to mention our improvements, and brag on the DePauw clientele, especially those nearby. When I went to see Bill Myers, the owner, the next morning, Denny’s affirmation made the sale. As I headed back to Virginia after selling 3 saws in 3 consecutive days, I knew that the Easy-Set was a winner. With the best features of two of the three most widely used brands, who could beat Easy-Set? My answer came during installation of these saws a few weeks later.
I first became concerned when Berlin’s sawyer told me it was easier to “pattern cut” a scissor bottom chord than to set it up on his new Easy-Set. In other words, he preferred to lay the truss out on the shop floor and scribe the cuts onto the board and cut it with the Metra-Cut saw. He thus awakened me to the challenge at hand. While nearly all Easy-Set adjustments were powered, none were automated. When setting up this piece, the sawyer had to know which blades to adjust, and then toggle in 10 different settings: 5 angles and 5 centerlines [for image, see PDF or View in Full Issue]. This took too long, he intimated, and required too much thought. I had to agree and that made me remorseful that our new saw really wasn’t a huge leap forward. But what else was out there? I soon found out.
I was even more concerned when I heard that Lenny Sylk was looking at a totally automated saw. After observing U.S. Components’ installation, I called on Lenny’s nearby Shelter Systems plant, intending to “save him some money” by offering him an Easy-Set. I started out in his saw shop and was surprised to see that they had ingeniously retrofitted their DePauw saw with video cameras. That let the sawyer set up all blades from one location, thereby emulating (and therefore neutralizing) one of the main Easy-Set advantages. It seemed they were on a path to rigging up their own automation (later confirmed by Keith Myers). That gave me some hope that Lenny would do it on the cheap, rather than spend nearly twice as much for an unproven automated saw. Then I went to work figuring out the return on investment (ROI) that could be realized with automation, to prepare for the upcoming 1988 BCMC Show. Ironically, that Show in Nashville would prove to be a game changer and threaten the DePauw’s dominance.
Next Month:
Automation Takes Hold