As the new Millennium dawned, it still hadn’t dawned on CMs that a linear saw was a sure bet. Jim Urmson was getting great results with his rough prototype, but he didn’t know whether other truss shops would. Fortunately, Jim’s plate salesman, Sid Gwyn, was so confident in Jim’s saw that Sid paid him upfront to build a production model. (Today, at age 82, Sid recalls how he had admired the simplicity of Jim’s “single head” saw, compared with the complexity of the “four head” saw that he himself had tried to build).
Jim now had the capital he needed to turn his invention into a marketable product that might, in his words, “create a good side business.” Over the following months, Jim went to work refining his machine while Sid went to work selling the saw using a video of the prototype, but he failed to gain much interest. But since Sid would soon own the saw and didn’t own a truss plant, he had to make a deal with someone. He finally found a home for the saw at Suwanee Truss (now BFS) in Lake City, Florida, but had to sell it for what he paid for it, in order to get the plate business.
In late 1999, Jim shipped a totally transformed saw, christened the “TCT,” two hours north to Lake City. He had replaced the surrounding cage with a clean white metal box, with a top-to-bottom front access door. Everything about the enclosure echoed the simplicity and safety of the machine inside. The saw and its computer interface were built on a pedestal, enabling it to be a relatively simple “plug and play” type of installation.
In December 1999, Sid Gwyn circulated a new video of the Lake City TCT, and Jim began building TCT #3. Despite the vastly improved look of the saw, Sid found no takers and Jim had to sell it himself. Because he believed in his product, he left no stone unturned among Florida CMs. First, he visited them and showed the Lake City video on a portable TV/VCR unit. Next, he invited them to Lake City or his own plant to see its productivity firsthand. And finally, he towed the TCT to their locations, and showed them what it could do in their environment by cutting parts for their current truss orders.
Jim’s road show was even more impressive than Truswal’s Roll-Splicer tour had been a decade earlier. Seeing hundreds of truss parts fly out of the TCT in thirty minutes turned the tide for Jim’s creation. West Coast Truss in Tampa and Forest Products in Sarasota signed orders in the fall of the year 2000. Then Jim reached down to South Florida and landed the business of Custom Designed Truss in Pompano Beach. Of these initial sales, Custom was particularly noteworthy. Custom’s owner, Howard Brennan, had never considered buying even a basic automated saw, because his work required so many saw setups. In fact, he had only employed pull saws. After he saw Jim’s saw in action, he bought two TCTs, one for each of his truss lines.
The TCT “buzz” soon began resounding not just in Florida, but also in the machinery suppliers’ headquarters in Grand Prairie, Texas, St. Louis, Missouri, and Indianapolis, Indiana. Randy Yost, veteran Alpine salesman at the time (now retired), observed the TCT’s success at West Coast Truss shortly after its installation. Randy was so impressed that he informed Alpine’s management that, if they built their own enhanced version, he would sell 10 linear saws the first year. Jere Broedling, veteran MiTek salesman (now deceased), who saw the TCT at Forest Products and Custom Designed Truss, was equally impressed but liked the saw “as is,” suggesting that MiTek negotiate a deal with Jim Urmson asap. However, when MiTek didn’t act quickly, Bob Mickle, the Florida ITW/Truswal rep, persuaded Klaisler, Truswal’s machinery supplier, to contract with Jim to sell the TCT outside of Florida.
In late 2001, Jim took the TCT to his first BCMC in Louisville and setup in Klaisler’s small booth. Unfortunately, this was a time when CMs were enamored with the sprawling array of newly ascendant computerized saws. Jim’s TCT was received with the same “wait and see” attitude as Jerry Koskovich’s Omni had experienced a decade earlier. But as the TCT’s successes in Florida continued to mount, CMs in Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, and Oregon placed orders throughout 2002.
In late 2002, BCMC convened, and, for the linear saw, its theme of “Building a New Tomorrow” could not have been more prescient. But, for the TCT, not in the way Jim expected. The Show did initiate a wave of linear saw activity, but mainly for the makers of the Wave Plate. But, in short order, this wave would wash over many of the TCT’s perceived drawbacks.
Next Month:
Opposites Attract