Why did most of today’s saw technology come from small shops and not from large machinery companies? And how could just a handful of not well-known people, working in remote locations, make such a difference? Until recent years, they didn’t make much money. Most sold their businesses (and inventions) for unimpressive sums. Yet much of their genius lives on, in highly enhanced renditions of their original inventions.
The first component saws came from outside manufacturers in the 1950s and early 1960s. Idaco came onto the scene through a logical entry point, being a sawmill equipment supplier in Northern California. Clary got involved through happenstance, as the saw business was totally unrelated to its main product line, mechanical calculators. But, besides making saws, Clary did take a (short lived) stake in the truss business, hiring Dan and Camilla Hurwitz (prior to their founding of On-Line Data), and moving them to Texas to leverage their cutting programs.
The next significant cutting innovations came from inside our maturing business. Machinist Art DePauw worked with Dave Chambers’ and Don Hershey’s nearby truss plant. TPI Inspector Jerry Koskovich worked around saws at multiple plants, and then largely with Villaume Industries. Jim Urmson worked on his invention in the truss plant he operated.
Large manufacturers didn’t initially get involved in building saws, mainly because of the volatility of the truss equipment business. Housing starts and truss sales tanked 5 times between 1965 and 1985, discouraging investment in machinery. In addition, who would want to expose their company to liability for injuries, especially with OSHA coming on strong in the 1970s? But, despite the economic setbacks, by the end of the 1970s, CMs had won over residential and apartment construction, and were much better positioned to invest in truss machinery.
As plate companies had continued to sell more truss assembly equipment, saws were a natural follow-on product. In the late 1970s, Gang-Nail’s purchase of Idaco stimulated other take-overs. In the early 1980s, Hydro-Air bought Art DePauw and his large backlog of saw orders. In 1985, Hydro-Air became MiTek, and in 1987, MiTek bought Gang-Nail and now owned the progeny of two of the saw pioneers. In 1991, Alpine acquired Clary, just as the housing industry and the truss business began its 17-year expansion. And when, in 1995, Alpine bought Speed Cut, Jerry Koskovich remained the sole remaining independent.