March 2024 Component Manufacturing Advertiser

The

A dverti $ er Component manufaCturing

“How

Anna Stamm – Advertiser Forum: Showing Appreciation with Candy and Corned Beef

Joe Kannapell: Wall Panel Technology Prequel: Birth of the Component Industry

Wendy Boyd – Spida Machinery: How Do We Ensure an Installation of Spida Machinery Goes Well?

Todd Drummond Consulting, LLC: Straight Talk About Labor Shortages and Costs

Glenn Traylor: What is the Best Way to Handle Defects Under the Plated Area?

Edmond Lim, P.Eng. –LimTek Solutions: Batch Cutting vs. Cut By Truss

Ed Serrano – Vekta: Focusing on Safety with Vekta and Dahlsens

Carl Villella – Acceptance Leasing: A Closer Look into 2024

Frank Woeste – All Things Wood: Substantial Wood Truss Content at Virginia Tech Course

MSR Lumber Producers Council: Opportunities Abound at 2024 MSR Workshop in Charlotte

Thomas McAnally – The JobLine: On-Site Homebuilding with an Off-Site View

Geordie Secord – Design Connections: Designing for Resiliency

Craig Webb – Webb Analytics: Deals Report 2023: Tracking the Openings, Closings, and Acquisitions

Paul McEntee – Simpson Strong-Tie: Up to the Test: The Heavy Seated Knife Plate Beam Hanger for Mass Timber

Joe Kannapell – The Last Word Removing the Achilles Heel of Jigging

Misc.

Door

Calendar

Anna L. Stamm Director of Communications and Marketing Component Manufacturing Advertiser.

Making the Effort

TAdvertiser F Forum

Showing Appreciation with Candy and Corned Beef

he holiday season is upon us (yes, really), and it provides ample opportunities to build camaraderie and team spirit at your business with a little effort and a little food.

Many companies have some form of employee appreciation program, but those that don’t have not realized how gestures, both big and small, truly help build a sense of friendship, teamwork, and loyalty among a staff. And just as with other relationships, the easiest way to approach this is to begin with food. Did you consider passing out candy hearts for Valentine’s Day? Importantly, we’re not talking about setting down a bowl and walking away, but rather recognizing each individual with a token of your appreciation for them being a part of your team. If conversation hearts or foil-wrapped treats aren’t your favorite, how about a smile plus a simple “hey, thanks for your hard work” for each member of your team?

Upgrading to a Plan

When random acts of kindness become too few and too far between, it’s probably time to develop a plan so the urgent voices pulling you in multiple directions don’t drown out the subtle whispers that remind you to be kind. Next up will be St. Patrick’s Day. Although cooking corned beef and cabbage for everyone would be excessive, there are other ways to capitalize on the merriment and mirth of the holiday. It may sound corny, but encouraging everyone to dress in green and awarding small prizes to those who participate is a fun way to bring your team together. The degree of complexity for the contest is up to you, and you can adjust it to make the most sense for your time and place.

If you won’t be ready for St. Patrick’s Day, then how about Easter? The first week of April will be flush with cream-filled eggs and marshmallow peeps. Yes, the actual holiday will have been on March 31, but that’s not the point. The point is to show your team members that you appreciate them!

If you think that Easter doesn’t qualify as an April holiday this year, then how about Tax Day, April 15th? Looking ahead to May, Cinco de Mayo is becoming very popular, but another option is Armed Forces Day. If you’re not a party planner at heart, then delegate! Odds are, you have someone on your team who would love to organize some fun and frivolity.

Teamwork is not all work—it’s also the privilege of building a team. It’s never a bad time to show your appreciation and build some camaraderie too.

Don’t

Monet DeSauw FWA 500

Floor Web Cutter

• Push Button Powered Blade Angulations

• Single Push Button Setting for 2 Blades per Side

• Electronic Digital Readouts

• Backup Mechanical Indicators

• Cuts 4 Angle Webs, Cantilever Webs (2 piece webs) & Square Blocks

• Magazine Lumber Feed for 3x2, 4x2 and 6x2 Lumber 12 1/2” to 48 1/2” Length Capacity (7” Minimum on Square Blocks)

• 60 Pieces per Minute

• (4) Internal 16” Blades & (1) External 16” Cut-Off Blade

• Pneumatic Blade Brake on External Blade

• Dust Hoods

• Belt Waste Conveyor (under saw)

• Add $4,200 for 12’ Incline Waste Conveyor (adjacent to saw)

• Add $1,900 for Extra Set of Blades

• 480 Volt / 3 Phase FOBMO Call For Pricing

Monet DeSauw DeRobo

Linear Saw

• Automated (Truss Design Software Download) or SemiAutomated (Touch Screen Entry) Operation

• All Movements are Computer & PLC Controlled

• Comprehensive Setup Screens Display Each Piece with Setup Data

• 22” x 40 Tooth Blade on PAE Cut 1 or 2 Boards up to 20’ (2 Second Plunge Cut)

• Cut Chords, Webs, Rafters, Wedges & Stair Stringers

• Cut Long Scarfs by MultiPlunging

• Servo Positioning on Infeed, Angle & Outfeed Pusher

• Over Travel Protection

• Ink Jet Printer

• Lumber Optimization Program

• Belt Waste Conveyor

• 480 Volt / 3 Phase / 60 Amp

• Includes 5 Day Onsite Installation & Training

• Optional Monet DeSauw Live Deck, Bunk Feeder & Incline Belt Waste Conveyor FOB MO

Call For Pricing

Monet DeSauw DeSawyer

2000 Automated Saw

• Touch Screen User Interface with Backup Mechanical Controls

• 3 Operating Modes: Auto, SemiAuto & Manual

• All 20 Axes of Movements are Computer & PLC Controlled

• Comprehensive Setup Screens

Display Each Piece with Setup Data

• Anti-Collision & Optimizing Programming

• Auto Calibration Productivity & Time Tracking

• Maintenance Diagnostics

• Variable Speed Conveyor (0-50 Flights per Minute)with Powered Hold Downs

• (1) 30” x 80 Tooth Blade (27 3/4”

Scarf on PAE)

• (4) 16” x 40 Tooth Blades (13 1/2”

Scarf on Centerline)

• Pneumatic Blade Brakes on all 5 Blades

• 16 1/2”

•

•

•

•

up and running FAST! WE’LL EVEN HELP SELL YOUR USED EQUIPMENT TOO!

CONSIDERING EQUIPMENT? CONSIDER CLARK.

EZ-SET AUTO JIGGING

EXCLUSIVE & PATENTED DESIGN

Automatic Truss Jigging System to drastically reduce setup times. Allows for 100% embedment on the table, with top & bottom chord pucks in the same slot. TopSider or standard configurations available for conventional kick-leg, walk-thru, or our new trackless 8' and 10' continuous table systems. Systems for other roller & hydraulic gantries are coming soon. Available in new machine installations or for retro-fitting your existing table. The TopSider is exclusively applicable for “kick or flip leg” style truss presses such as the Tri-Axis & Lumbermater®

•

•

•

•

•

2Seconds

That'sallthetimeittakes todrillstudsforrunningRomexorotherelectricalwireinthewallpanels

Motor: HeavyDuty5HP-3phase-220vor440v(Pleasespecifywhenordering)

MotorcarriagebearingandspindleassemblymountedonBlanchardgroundsteelplate

LinealmotionishardenedandgroundVbearingsandrails

BlockSizes: 2x4through2x12infiniteheightsettingtocenter

AirSupply: 100psi10CFM

Drills: 2wing3/4'”CarbideTippedcanaccommodatesmallerorlarger

Spindles: AlloySteelpolishedandgroundprecisionshafting

Frame: 2"SteelWithPowderCoatFinish

Covers: 10Gauge(1/8"Thick)Aluminumremovable

Dimensions: Height-60inches,Width-33inches,Depth-33inches

Shippingweight: 750lbs.-(Includingcrate)

MADEINAMERICABYAMERICANS

By Joe Kannapell

Wall Panel Technology Prequel: Birth of the Component Industry

Prefabricated wall panels made their first big impact under a government program in World War II. In 1942, the federal government began contracting with 50 existing prefab housing plants to deliver dwellings for 42,000 wartime workers. Since this work was highly repetitive and required rapid delivery, it was well adapted to assembly line techniques. And this action stimulated a nascent industry to continue to advance the art of component manufacturing. Among the recipients of these government contracts were the Levitt brothers and the Price brothers.

Immediately after the War, these same prefab plants prospered enormously by supplying the avalanche of orders from returning veterans, and the Levitts were the most ambitious, being christened “the future of home building” by the media. William and Alfred Levitt had moved their assembly line onsite to create the massive Levittown development in record time. Largely unnoticed during the same period were the increasingly productive offsite assembly lines used by James and George Price and about 250 of their peers.

Back in 1940, the Prices had incorporated their company with the name National Homes, an unlikely choice of names for a business in Lafayette, Indiana, a town of about 25,000. But this limited market forced them, initially, to figure out how to ship houses 50 miles to Indianapolis, and later, 120 miles to Chicago.

During the late 1940s and 1950s, National expanded rapidly by establishing a large dealer network, mostly outside large city limits. And in 1955, they began acquiring other prefabricated home plants close to most major markets. By standardizing practices at all of their operations, National became the largest manufacturer by 1960, supplying 45,000 units per year, more than any other builder.

In the 1950s, the Levitts also added an offsite facility to supply their projects in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. However, this was primarily a lumber supply yard that also did batch cutting of wall and roof parts.

In the 1960s, as equipment became available, National purchased and installed panel lines from Triad in Nebraska and truss equipment from Hydro-Air in St. Louis for their facilities. Also during this period, Ed Ryan was setting up his first component operation across the street from 84 Lumber, Marv Schuette was opening Wausau Homes’ first facility, and many other builders were following suit.

In 1972, when housing starts were reaching their all-time peak, Lou Davis joined National Homes. Lou would eventually retire as manufacturing VP for Builders FirstSource and was also an executive with Wickes after leaving National, but he recently described the amazing operation he saw early in his tenure at National in Lafayette:

“They framed panels up to thirty foot long on their multiple Triad tables. After sheathing, panels were conveyed through a nailing bridge and windows were installed. Then, panels were stood up and insulated with batts of fiberglass. From there, they were stacked vertically on one side of an open-top box trailer, with room for trusses to be set upside down on the opposite side. Beneath the sloping chords of trusses was roof sheathing, shingles, and other building materials. Underneath the deck of the trailer and between its axles was a box containing all the smaller miscellaneous building supplies and equipment. Across the street from the plant were up to 160 trailers ready for loading and shipment. Most houses could fit on a single trailer.”

No wonder a young Lou Davis was impressed, National Homes had been mastering their component manufacturing for 30 years when he arrived. Though they were not alone, National was a singular pioneer in the prefabricated home industry. They had survived through wartime and economic uncertainty and had advanced the state of the art of offsite construction, creating six component plants, three modular plants, and nine mobile home plants. But also, during Lou’s tenure there, the specialized component manufacturers had arrived on the scene, and they would soon make a dent in National’s business.

Next Month: Wall Panels Become Components

Helping Builders Save Time + Reduce Costs

Increase the value of the advanced component package you provide to builder customers with open web floor trusses. Builders who partner with their component manufacturer to design their builds using floor trusses can gain efficiencies in shorter cycle times and reduced waste compared to I-Joists.

Are you ready to help builders design for floor trusses from the start? Talk to a MiTek Representative to get started.

MII.COM/FLOOR-TRUSS

Safety Speed Manufacturing, model 7400 XL*, vertical panel saw, 3 HP induction motor, 64 inch crosscut, 2 1/8" maximum thickness, accuracy within 0.005 inches, 13 foot long welded steel frame with integrated stand and linear V-guides, enclosed counterweight system, adjustable vertical and horizontal rules. Quick changes from vertical to horizontal cutting. Includes machined aluminum material rollers, hold down bar, wheels, quick stop gauges and material hold downs. Dust collection ready. Options available include digital readouts for vertical cuts, automated length measuring, laser guide, stop bar, vacuum and midway fence. 208-230/460 volt, 3 phase electrical (208-230 single phase, 2 HP power optional +$100.00).

$14,499

Wall assembly made easy.

Introducing the Simpson Strong-Tie ® EasyFrame automated marking system. A combination saw and printer, EasyFrame cuts wall panel or frame pack members that are pre-marked for fast, accurate assembly. Designed for efficiency, EasyFrame prints framing details directly onto lumber, including locations of studs, connectors, MEP and more. The automated saw comes with essential safety features, while powerful software ensures precision cuts. Plus, batching capabilities optimize material use — minimizing waste. EasyFrame is supported by our installation and on-boarding services, training and technical expertise. It’s a smart way to increase productivity, maintain high quality and build your business.

Add EasyFrame to your production line. To learn more, visit easyframesaw.com or call (800) 999-5099.

© 2024 Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc. M-BT-EF24-WPM

By Wendy Boyd Chief Customer Officer Machinery Group Spida Machinery

How Do We Ensure an Installation of Spida Machinery Goes Well?

Let’s talk about the most recent installation of a full frame line for Spida Machinery in Pennsylvania.

After working alongside the management of the Truss and Panel plant in PA for quite some time – initially talking about their wish list, moving through to budgets and capex, then to layouts, factory space and frame line inclusions – our customer happily signed for their new frame line and Spida Machinery started manufacture. Built from the ground up, including all electrical, software, and hardware, Spida planned and built to the customers’ requirements.

Once we started the ball rolling on the build, the planning started – internally – for the installation. Initially, we request samples of output files to make sure all systems can talk to each other, and we can report overall production and other efficiencies required. We are also verifying that your system and ours meet all the necessary requirements, including hardware, operating systems, and any additional dependencies.

Planning is now well underway, timelines are checked and rechecked. Spida will talk to our customer about site requirements – whether this is your new build, or a new piece of equipment into an existing facility, we run through the same checks and balances. Do we need a crane, do you have adequate forklifts, is the site clear and free for installation, have the electricians been engaged…? Is the network configuration to be done and how do you want your machine set-up? The time Spida spends initially saves everyone time and energy in the long run.

Once this part of the planning has been completed, we gear up for installation day. Peter Whiteley, our Service Manager, and our team of technicians have been planning this day for months. He will have talked to you, our customer, many times, made many arrangements, and given requirements for all parts of the job.

Installation day

Our containers and smaller machinery generally arrive a few days in advance of our team of installers. For all container products, Spida will send a technician to supervise the unload and to ensure that the unpack of the container is seamless and our machinery is in great shape. The Spida technical team then unpacks and moves everything into position and starts the task of installation. There are team members crawling on the floor, up on ladders with cables and wiring, and generally like ants on an anthill with lots of movement, lots of teamwork, and lots of banter.

Testing day comes after only a few days of installation – we test our wares constantly to ensure everything is in great shape and we complete all the testing required to ensure software and hardware functions appropriately. After completing the installation within their previously specified timeframes, then we bring in our trainers to train the staff on the high functioning machinery. We do not leave you until the whole process is complete and you are cutting, pressing, or wall framing as you aspire to do. We ensure you have a successful and smooth deployment and start planning your PMP (Preventative Maintenance Program) with you to ensure your machinery stays at the top of its game.

The Spida service, deployment, and training team take the whole process very seriously – we strive for the best outcome for our customer and ourselves, and we take pride in handing over the machinery ready for its new production.

Interested? Let’s talk about how we decide together on what’s best for your factory and then show you what it looks like in a plant layout. It’s all part of the service for Spida Machinery.

4,001,398

That’s the total trigger count from all six nail guns combined on an installed Terminailer.®

For a machine that was a little over two years old, that is a big number; a real tribute to the durability of the machine’s components and engineering.

Yes, that number represents a pretty darn impressive mechanical milestone to be sure, but what is really impressive is that human hands were saved from millions of repetitive motions and potentially costly nailing accidents.

With just a sole operator, Terminailer drives a whole lot of improvement in efficiency and output. This amazing sub-component assembler quickly and precisely drives 30% to 70% of the framing nails in any wall panel job—be it batch, or just–in–time production. All with no complicated training, software or set-up time required when switching configurations. Add increased safety and easy maintenance with off-the-shelf parts, and you can see why Terminailer should be driving greater productivity in your plant. Terminailer® and Terminailer XP

Put things together like never before.

www.TERMINAILER.com

765-751-9990

THE NEWEST PANEL

DESIGN PLATFORM AVAILABLE

TRUEBUILD ® LAYOUT WITH PANEL DESIGN FUNCTIONALITY WAS WRITTEN FROM THE GROUND UP TO DELIVER COMPLETE MODEL CONTROL TO PANEL DESIGNERS.

•

•

•

• Floor Truss Machines

• Lumber Splicers

•

• C-Clamp Presses

2006

•

• Two Worm-Drive Circular Saws

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Don’t just do it, nail it. It’s a brand new day in wall-panel production, with a whole new way of doing things better.

Terminailer®, a revolutionary, event-driven, nailing machine that completely defies any preconceived notions about sub-component assembly.

Terminailer all but shatters the stereotypical myth that subcomponent equipment is essentially peripheral – unimportant. And it does so by quickly and accurately driving far more framing nails in your wall panel jobs than ever before. Whether in your shop or in the field, one operator sets the pace for production and quality. And that reduces labor costs and other aspects of overhead.

Terminailer is an event-driven, sub-component assembler that will quickly and accurately drive 30% to 70% of the framing nails in any wall panel job. In your shop or in the field, one operator sets the pace for production and quality. The Terminailer functions independent of design software, requires zero set-up time when switching between any configuration, and requires no special operator training.

The Terminailer is easy to move around the shop so it’s location can evolve as your shop evolves. With all of the nailing occurring in the closed main chamber, nail injuries and nail location miss-fires are eliminated, making your plant that much safer.

With nearly ten years of development from people that know machinery it is assembled to exacting standards, well supported, and it is easily maintained with shelf-item parts. Terminailer: vetted, tested, and ready to drive maximum productivity for you. Be sure to check out our videos below for a quick review of this revolutionary machine!

One month after installing a Double Lumber PickLine to feed two TCT Linear Saws:

"We are getting 3,000 to 5,000 bdft more each saw, than we were getting before the install.

We have shut down one Cybersaw and one TCT chord saw.

This equals about 3 less people 10 hours, and 2 less forklifts 10 hours.

Overall, it is a major improvement to our operation. We hope to have the chance to run it two shifts to further accelerate the payback.”

Tom

Owner

Confront 2024 Challenges with a Modest Investment in Process Improvement for Enhanced Performance, Ensuring ROI Retention and Improvement

The Most Advanced and Up to Date Lean Process and Industrial Engineering Methods to Significantly Improve:

✓ Productivity

✓ Quality

✓ Employee Issues

✓ Net Profits

All Areas Manufacturing, Sales, Design, and Admin.

All Things Being Equal, a Gain of Three Net Profit Points is a Low Bar for TDC. A Gain of Only One Point Would Easily be 10x the TDC Investment for Most Companies

All Departments Sales, Design, Manufacturing, and Admin

✓ Proven and Practical Process Improvement with Lean Manufacturing based on Refined Industrial Engineering.

✓ Proven Best Practices Based 100’s of Client Practices.

✓ Increase Overall Productivity in all Departments. Not Just the Manufacturing Area.

✓ Achieve Real Labor Reduction Costs Per Sales Dollar.

✓ Proper Productivity Incentive Programs for All Departments.

✓ Reduce Mistakes and Improve Quality.

Equipment and Building Design Recommendations

✓ Material Flow, Equipment, and Building Design.

✓ Unbiased with Absolutely No Referral Fees.

✓ Too Many Vendors have Suggested Costly Facilities and Equipment Choices with Significant Constraints that Could have been Avoided with TDC.

Time Standards Development

✓ Productivity Scheduling, Efficiencies Measurement, Productivity Incentive Programs, and Labor Cost Estimations.

✓ Units based on Work Minutes, R.E., or S.U.

Brad Emmert—President Brazil, IN

“…. Todd’s services included plant efficiency, design efficiency, better organization, man minutes per truss type, and more.

Just implementing a few of Todd’s suggestions will more than pay for his services in a short amount of time. ….”

Keith Myers—Truss and Panel GM, Lakewood, NJ

“….Your time standards are perfect. They are far more accurate than BF. We are much more comfortable with the MM for estimation of labor for both the pricing and shop scheduling. BF is just too unreliable for our needs. ”

20+ Years of

35+

www.todd

Shane Soule—President Bremen, IN

“….It was an investment well spent because I not only learned a completely different way to view labor metrics, but I came out of it with a completely different mindset on pricing, scheduling, and staffing. ….”

Read Dozens of Client Testimonials (Link)

Straight Talk About Labor Shortages and Costs

Ihave had the same conversations with so many executives concerning the tight labor market and rising labor costs. There is good and bad news concerning this subject. First, the good news is that you can be assured that high labor costs and a tight labor market are not only affecting your company but also your competition. Everyone is dealing with this same issue. The bad news is that if your company suffers from open positions, lost productivity, and continuously increasing labor costs, the problem is mainly due to your company’s labor practices, not the revolving events happening outside your company. Your company must decide whether they wish to address the labor practices directly and meaningfully to achieve better results or keep playing willful blindness games. TDC has found, time and again, that the companies with the best labor practices have far fewer open positions, less labor cost as a percentage of sales, and much better profits.

Why are the available labor shortages happening? There are several reasons, but the number one problem is that starting in 2020, 400k fewer new workers in the US came into the labor market that year than were leaving. For the next decade, the problem will grow upward toward 900k per year with fewer workers coming into the workforce than leaving the US labor market. And, the problem as a percentage of the total population is even worse for Canadians. (Source for graph: Peter Zeihan Kern County Energy Summit)

Other reasons that are causing labor shortages include lower participation rates and the mismatch of college-educated versus non-college-educated job openings. So not only do we have a shrinking labor force, but fewer of the remaining are willing to be employed in the available job openings for various reasons.

A True Story of a Company Seeking Applicants – A general manager, who I’ll call John, recounted to me that he stood outside the unemployment office handing out job applications to people needing a job. His location desperately needed to fill many positions, especially in fabrication. This location and company had been in that area for decades, so it was not an issue of a new company seeking new employees for new job openings. And, his location was one of many locations of a large corporation. Even so, not one unemployed individual would fill out the application and apply for a job opening after talking with him for a few minutes.

Todd Drummond

John was skilled in management practices and treated his employees with dignity and respect. So, what was causing the labor issues for John? There were four main reasons that not only affected John’s situation but are typical for so many companies.

Problem #1 – Bound by too constraining corporate HR practices.

Problem #2 – Not paying market wages for the given labor costs market.

Problem #3 – Treating employees as disposable.

Problem #4 – Unable to recognize and retain higher-performing employees.

Problem #4, the inability to recognize and retain higherperforming employees, is a sure sign of poor company employee practices. Using only statistics within any company, let’s take as an example a company with 120 employees in their manufacturing area that has to hire an average of 10 employees per month. This loss rate means they have a 100% turnover rate per year, which is horrible. Typically, this would be shown as 1/3rd of the employees are with the company for three years or more, 1/3rd for one to three years, and the rest are a constant turnover. Of the 10 new employees being hired, let’s assume only one is worthwhile and will be retained as an employee. That would mean the company’s turnover would be virtually nonexistent if it could recognize and retain higher-performing new and existing employees in less than a few years. Retention of good employees is paramount for best-performing companies. Companies with high turnover rates typically perform at a 60% or less efficiency overall. The cost is far more than simple wage losses or the continual cost of employee hiring. The severe negative impact of lost productivity and the substantial increase in costly errors clearly negatively impact net profits. Why so many are willfully blind to this is a mystery to me.

Problem #3, treating employees as disposable, is an opportunity wasted. When times are tough, and a company has no other options, laying off employees because of a lack of revenues is perfectly understandable because the company must survive. But when new automation equipment is replacing some positions or other better practices are reducing labor in a given area, why are these employees not offered job openings in departments that are needed for the company? (I’ve seen this more than I care to mention.) Natural attrition will reduce overall employee counts without the need to lay off employees. Other times, when sales slow because of seasonal demands, most managers lay off employees as the very first thing for operation cost savings. Then, management is surprised when sales pick back up, and they cannot fill the open positions within manufacturing for many months. For most companies, the lost gross margins that would have been earned at full capacity in the spring ramp-up would far exceed the lost labor cost of carrying a good percentage of the laid-off employees. Believe it or not, employees have monthly obligations they also need to meet. Word gets around quickly in the job market when companies have zero loyalty toward their employees. Also, this disposable employee attitude is extremely corrosive to employee morale and any perceived loyalty toward the company.

Problem #2, not paying market wages for the given labor costs market, is by far the biggest reason companies cannot find competent and reliable employees. It is also the biggest reason for the retention of good employees when they can simply find higher wages somewhere else. A good rule of thumb is that an entry position within the manufacturing industry should have a starting wage of at least $2 to $4 above the local fast-food chain. Any production manager can vouch that the best-performing and skilled employees are twice as productive as the new hires. So, what do you think their wages and bonuses should be to keep these high performers? Far too many of you think of only labor costs instead of labor costs compared to total sales produced. Higher-performing employees are worth every extra penny because they garner far more margin dollars per hour than their increased labor costs.

Problem #1, being bound by too constraining corporate HR practices, can be very detrimental to a company. Whether your group is one of dozens of locations or just one manufacturing location, the HR practices of the company can be devastating to the company’s goals within your department. Labor markets vary from state to state and even by county. Having a major company, such as an auto manufacturer, next to your location will severely impact that location’s ability to find talented help. Having a corporate HR group dictate labor wages across the company’s broad spectrum is usually counterproductive. Like the greater labor market, different departments within the company can create labor competition. If one department needs higher wages to fill all the positions, then offer those same positions to anyone in the company at those higher wages instead of trying to keep the wages held at an artificially low wage. Wages should always be defined by the local general manager responsible for that location’s P/L, never an HR department or a distant corporate division manager.

A second point I would like to mention that HR and upper management should understand is that far too many underestimate the skills and physical stamina needed in manufacturing areas. Too many have the false impression that you only need to hire warm bodies. This attitude towards the manufacturing area is simply wrong and very counterproductive. Just like paying for higher grade lumber, you must pay more for better talented, reliable, and performing employees.

TDC has found that companies with the best employee practices, low turnover, and very few unfilled positions have the highest profit percentages of sales among their peers, regardless of their manufacturing automation. I have seen their P/L statements, and they are not even close. On average, it is 5 to 10 points better. Conversely, the companies with poor employee practices have the worst net profits of their peers, and yet again, the numbers are not even close by at least 5 to 10 points below the average.

As stated in my article, Including Meaningful Process Improvement on Your Capital Investment Checklist, “Over the coming decade, the companies that survive and prosper will only be those with strong and healthy HR management practices.” This article should convince your company to take best-in-class HR practices seriously. Automation is not going to be good enough. And if you want to review your company’s labor management practices, TDC can help.

The TDC team is your best source for learning about proven and practical lean manufacturing best practices combined with industrial engineering principles to keep your company at the leading edge of competitiveness. No one is better at providing your team with proven results for good employee practices, pricing, truss labor estimation, and so many other best-in-class practices. TDC’s tailored solutions are for the client’s specific needs. Go beyond the typical software and equipment vendor recommendations for your operations and do what many have dared to do. Embrace the Drummond Method, and your company can experience cost savings, and net profit gains that usually take months or years can be accomplished in weeks or months, resulting in an average of 3 to 6 point net profit gains for CMs. All areas are addressed, not just the manufacturing. Please do not take my word about TDC’s services, though. Read the public testimonials many current and past clients with decades of expertise and experience have been willing to give: https://todd-drummond.com/testimonials/.

IntelliVIEW Suite Manage. Design. Build.

The industry’s most powerful integrated component design, engineering, and management software for steel and wood-framed structures.

iCommand

Manage projects, customers, materials, pricing & inventory

iModel

Design truss layout & profiles

iDesign

Optimize material usage & engineer trusses

iPanel

Design wall layouts, panelize, bundle, break & stack

eShop

Maximize crew productivity & improve manufacturing efficiency

The IntelliVIEW Suite is a fully integrated software solution for the layout and design of a building’s rough framing elements—including roof and floor trusses, wall panels, solid sawn, EWP, sheathing and various ancillaries.

The IntelliVIEW Suite provides the industry’s most complete analysis of the design, cost information and bill of materials—promoting increased profits by reducing plate and lumber use.

Ask those who know. They’ll tell you about the people at Alpine who make a difference.

•

•

•

• Sets up in 2 to 15 Seconds

• Five Blades cut 2x3 thru 2x12 up to 20'

•

• Excludes Incline Waste Conveyor (adjacent to saw) and Live Deck (in fronnt of saw)

• 480 Volt / 3 Phase

• Video available upon request

$38,900 NOW $10,000 FOB TX

Wasserman & Associates 800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

2016 MiTek Blade Infeed

2016 MiTek Blade infeed sub-assembly, brings single boards to the saw cutting chamber. Handles 2×3 through 2×12 lumber to 16-ft long. Has 1 HP motor, 19′-9″ long x 3′-0″ deep x 3′-5″ high with +/- 2.5″ vertical adjustment. 230 volt, 3 phase electrical required. 110 PSI at 50 CFM air required.

$7,499 FOB FL Wood Tech Systems 765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Safety Speed Cut Model 7000 Panel Saw

Safety Speed Manufacturing model 7000, vertical panel saw, 3 HP induction motor, 64 inch crosscut, 2 inch maximum thickness, accuracy within 1/64th of an inch, 10 foot welded steel frame with integrated stand and linear V-guides, enclosed counterweight system, adjustable vertical and horizontal rules. Quick changes from vertical to horizontal cutting. Includes machined aluminum material rollers, hold down bar, wheels, quick stop gauges and material hold downs. Dust collection ready. Options available include lower frame extensions, digital readouts, laser guide, stop bar, vacuum and midway fence. 208-230/460 volt, 3 phase electrical (208-230 single phase, 2 HP power optional +$100.00). $10,199 Base, FOB MN.

765-751-9990

The L-M Verticut 2000 is a true Precision End Trim (PET) saw that is capable of holding a 1/16th accuracy all day long. Made in the USA, the V2k comes equipped with a 15 HP 460/230 volt High-E three phase TEFC motor driving a Double ended Premium “Stellite” inlaid saw bar with a spring loaded chain tensioner and an automatic oiler to lubricate the .404 pitch custom profile semi chisel saw chain.

Rather than a single pivot-point, the saw assembly is mounted on a mandrel box that is guided by cam followers on a steel frame that is raised and lowered by a hydraulic cylinder. A console with the saw controls moves with the saw assembly along a track positioned using a manual “V” wheel geared drive or optional Hydraulic drive

www.woodtechsystems.com

The V2k is unlike other imported systems that are basically a Portable Yard Saw on a cutting rack with a best cutting accuracy of +/- 1/8″ (meaning up to ¼” accuracy variance between units of lumber). The V2k from L-M provides +/- 40 thousands, assuring consistent PET precision from unit to unit.

Another advantage L-M has over the competition is their commitment to personal service with unlimited phone assistance and technical help. Their team has traveled the country working on crosscut saws for many years and they know their equipment inside and out. L-M is a familyowned business that prides themselves in doing the job right and building long term relationship that is vital to their business: “Built to last as long as our customers since 1946”.

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Machinery. Parts. Service.

Maintaining and maximizing productivity is necessary for successful component manufacturers. This could involve a simple and affordable solution to keep a line running, material handling systems to keep things moving, or a necessary investment made to replace or introduce a new line or technology to your plant.

Eide Machinery Sales has been in the Wood Product and Fabrication industries for over 96 years; serving the Component Manufacturing Industry since the beginning. Your business is our business and we’ve built a successful reputation building and strengthening relationships with our customers through proper placement of the right equipment, parts, service, and support.

The truss industry relies on 3rd party quality assurance services to provide random visits to review the plants Quality Assurance program along with their operations. If your plant needs to comply with the IRC, IBC and to those who depend on solid, experienced QA expertise, we ask you to consider selecting Timber Products Inspection, Inc. (TP) as your choice for 3rd party inspections.

Proudly serving the forest products industry for over 50 years, TP brings the expertise you need to ensure your business is successful. As a responsible partner, TP delivers to clients, employees, and the industries we serve the confidence to drive value through the effective use of our diverse professional team.

TP would like to welcome the following authorized agents to our inspection team, each of whom have many years of experience in the truss industry!

• Al Coffman

• Jean Hart

• Curt Holler

• Chuck Ray

• Glenn Traylor

• Elliot Wilson

If you have questions about how you can make this selection, please contact your authorized agent above or Glenn Traylor at 919-280-5905 or trusguy@gmail.com.

https://www.tpinspection.com/ https://www.tpinspection.com/auditing-services/truss

By Glenn Traylor

What is the Best Way to Handle Defects Under the Plated Area?

Everyone who uses lumber in trusses understands that defects in lumber can impact truss performance in different ways. Some defects are not important but others will affect truss performance and can even cause truss failure.

In the first photo, the result of using a heavily waned floor truss web has yielded a serious manufacturing non-conformance that most likely would have resulted in failure.

This truss was designed as a girder truss and once installed would carry multiple trusses and very high concentrated loads. Fortunately, an inspection caught this truss before it was shipped.

In the second photo, a roof truss was on the table getting ready to be pressed. Most of the area under the connector was wane. The result would have been a significant loss of tooth count.

The decision to use a web or replace the lumber needs to be made quickly and often. Without specific guidance, several things could happen, including

• Trusses are built with non-conformances that can result in failure, create call backs, and even cost you customers.

• Truss builders decide to cull any lumber with defects, resulting in a significant loss of profit due to the high cost of goods.

When properly trained, truss builders will make good decisions regarding wane. They will understand when to cull lumber and when to upsize the connector, which will reduce risk, maximize profits, streamline operations, and eliminate additional work.

Things to Consider

Although solutions depend greatly on fabrication tolerances used to specify the connector, these general rules can be used and adjusted based on your plant situation.

1. If the wane in the connector area is 1/3 to 1/2 of the face, then upsizing the connector to make up for loss of tooth count may be all that is necessary.

2. Decisions are dependent on software settings, but it is normally a good assumption to set fabrication tolerances at 10% or higher.

3. If the wane in the connector area is less than 1/3 of the face, then fabrication tolerances set at 10% would not normally require upsizing the connector.

4. If the wane in the connector area is 1/2 or more of the face, regardless of the plate tolerance the lumber should be culled.

5. The cost of replacing lumber is generally much higher than upsizing the connector, but if the lumber is deficient then upsizing the plate has little impact or improvement.

6. You should validate your methodology by reviewing your selections using the plate placement method or counting the required teeth.

7. Replacing floor truss chords can have a significant impact on material cost.

8. Balancing the cost of upsizing the connector versus replacing the lumber is key to guiding your truss builders.

The final photo is a good example of 50% wane. What would you do?

An ANSI/TPI 1 3rd Party Quality Assurance Authorized Agent covering the Southeastern United States, Glenn Traylor is an independent consultant with almost four decades of experience in the structural building components industry. Glenn serves as a trainer-evaluator-auditor covering sales, design, PM, QA, customer service, and production elements of the truss industry. He also provides project management specifically pertaining to structural building components, including onsite inspections and ANSI/TPI 1 compliance assessments. Glenn provides new plant and retrofit designs, equipment evaluations, ROI, capacity analysis, and CPM analysis.

casters for mobility, the counterweight system keeps the saw carriage in the desired position when loading or unloading panels. Features dual 4″ dust collection ports with nylon brush surrounding the blade for superior dust collection from the front and the rear side of the panel. 115v, 1-phase electrical required.

$6,799 FOB AZ

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

NEW!

2023 Northfield Model 410 Upcut Saw

NEW 2023 Northfield model 410 upcut saw available for immediate shipment. 90/90 degree cuts to 4″ x 10″ capacity (fence forward position) to 2″ x 14″ (fence rearward position). Saw is configured for material from left to right, with 3″ x 6″ air operated cylinder, filter, regulator, lubricator, 10 HP motor, enclosed steel base with cast iron table, magnetic starter and adjustable operating speed from 20 to 60 CPM. Includes optional two-palm controls, additional 4″ dust outlet, NEMA 12 electrics with fused disconnect and two 18″ diameter 60 tooth blades with 1″ diameter bore. 460 volt, 3 phase electrical required.

$18,630 FOB MN

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

2005 Alpine SpeedCut Express Pull-Arm Saw

2005 Alpine SpeedCut Express pull arm saw, model 650H. From OEM literature: “Saw uses information created with truss design software, featuring automatic set up for both length and angle for every piece. On-screen graphics show the orientation of the lumber while the saw sets up for the next cut. Machine movement occurs after the blade is returned to a safe position behind the fence. Minimum angle is 5 degrees and the maximum angle is 135 degrees. Maximum scarf cut is 22 inches. Setup is digital. Angulation and length measure are powered.” Includes 5 HP motor, 16″ diameter blade, 12″ wide x 20 foot long infeed and 12′ x 10 foot long outfeed conveyors and a manual. Computer operating system is Windows 2000. 480 volt, 3 phase, 15 Amp electrical required. The computer requires 120 volt, single phase electrical service. 80 PSI at 7 CFM air required.

$19,497 NOW $12,997 FOB WA

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

1995 Clary Model 324 4-Blade Component Saw

Reconditioned 1995 Clary model 324 4-blade component saw configured to cut 16″ 4-angle floor webs and 12″ square cut blocks. Lengths from 12″ to 16-ft. 230 Volt, 3 phase electrical required.

$24,997 FOB OH

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

All your machinery needs are covered by our expert service team!

When you invest in high quality precision machinery, you want to know you’ll get the same level of quality for servicing and maintenance.

That’s why we have 25+ dedicated, experienced and responsive service agents across the world.

New Monet

DeSawyer 2000

Component Saw

New, Monet DeSawyer 2000, computerized, five-bladed component saw, sets up in 15 to 17 seconds, can run in manual mode, downloads projects from a network or manually using display screen controls. Features all powered movements, cuts from 15" 90/90 cuts to 20 foot length, 2 x 3" to 2 x 12" lumber depths and internal brakes are standard. Options include enhanced servo controls featuring autocalibration, catcher's display and either shaker or belt scrap conveyor and incline. 440 volt, 3 phase electrical.

www.woodtechsystems.com

2021

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

2008

2008

and difficult

any wall panel operation – plate cutting and panel layout. At the rate of 1,000 linear feet per hour or more, uses data from the design software and accurately marks stud, cripple and jack locations, job and panel number, subcomponent and window/door locations, and even sheathing locations on both top and bottom plates simultaneously with ink-jet printing.

$8,499

www.woodtechsystems.com

•

•

•

•

Edmond Lim, P.Eng. LimTek Solutions Inc.

Batch Cutting vs. Cut By Truss

What weighs more, a pound of muscle or a pound of fat? In truss jargon, the question would be: What produces more trusses, 200 pieces of batch cutting or 200 pieces of cut-by-truss cutting? The answer, of course, is that both cutting methods produce the same number of trusses. So what’s the difference?

Truss fabricators are the original offsite component manufacturers (CMs) circa 1960, promoting a proud industry that has had automated sawing and truss jigging for many decades. What started the push for automation was the complexity of trusses and CMs’ passion to provide customer service to produce trusses for setting onto top plates in the correct (collated) order.

Automated component saws fueled higher throughput of batched cutting. Cut by truss on a component saw depended on the minimum quantity of the same truss before it was unproductive. Material handling of lumber to component saws has not changed much, and the majority of component saws are still being fed lumber with forklift-picked lumber to this day.

Batch cutting resulted in extra set-up time at the truss build tables which are now easily “million dollar tables” with auto jigging and laser projection. What is the ROI of 30-second jig set-ups when you have to account for material staging in front of the tables? Experienced truss builders would know to down-stack lumber in front of the tables from the batch cutting to help them build more efficiently, especially on longer span trusses.

Collated trusses for setting onto top plates

The linear saw quickly became the saw of choice for many CMs because of the number of different truss set-ups. Linear saws and the appeal of “lumber optimizing” also known as “lumber stretching” resulted in “mini batches.”

A linear saw with lumber optimizing allowed CMs to get lazy with material in-feed, cutting from just 4 to 6 bunks of lumber in front of the saw. However, lumber optimizing created a mess behind the saws, which would be left to the truss builders to descramble and hunt for pieces at the tables. Mini batches resulted in a lot of additional paperwork and a lot of starting and stopping getting carts out of and back in front of the truss build tables to set up for the next truss. But this reduced some of the material staging time required.

With a little more labor, time, and effort at the linear saw at the expense of throughput, two carts could be used to re-organize and stack the lumber collated for the truss builders.

When a CM phases out their component saw and puts all their cutting into the linear saw basket, they eventually wish they still had a component saw. The 240 pieces shown in the third photo will slow down a linear saw and will need to be down-stacked at the table in order to build productively.

Now it’s clear that cutting alone is not enough – you need to consider the whole process.

About 100 pieces of cut-by-truss optimized lumber

About 100 cut-by-truss pieces per cart, stacked for a left of table cart and right of table cart

Example of batch cutting that you should NOT do

Don’t

These lumber carts are only “half full,” so entire roofs can be built as per top plate placement in front of the same jig.

Shown on the left side of the photo below is a pallet jack and skid of small parts cut on another saw (the RetroC will not cut less than 2 ft in automatic mode). In this situation,

With the magic of the Enventek SpeedCatch, you can optimize your cutting process. Shown in this photo are about 200 collated cut-by-truss pieces spread out over 32 ft. They require no down-stacking, no hunting for lumber, and no excessive repeat travel. And, all of this is accomplished with no lumber-catching labor, in a process that’s standardized to boost truss production at all tables.

the truss builders don’t even bother moving the pallet jack to the right side of the jig, as the front of table truss builder only needs to gather 13 small pieces to carry back to the right side of the truss.

Most importantly, an Enventek Lumber PickLine can feed any component saw cut-by-truss lumber, eliminate saw idle time, reduce forklift operating costs, and boost truss production. For more proof, see my article, Feed Any Component Saw With a Lumber PickLine.

An Enventek Lumber PickLine can also feed any linear saw to get the best of both worlds by reducing lumber optimizing while improving cut-by-truss lumber collation. For another real-life example, see my article, Optimize Your Saw with a Lumber PickLine

Lastly, a Fully Loaded RetroC with SpeedCatch is the ultimate in-line truss production system, as shown in my article, In-Line Truss Production Starts With Lumber Picking. When you’re ready to Feed Your Beast and see these efficient and effective systems for yourself, let us know! https://limteksolutions.com/#solutions

Used Hain Quick Rafter Cutter

• Reconditioned in December 2020

• Board Sizes: 2x4 and 2x6

• Motors: Two 1 HP / 220 Volt or 440 Volt / 3 Phase

• Saw Blades: 7 1/4" Carbide Tipped (set at 45 degrees)

• Angle Adjustment: Manual Rotation with Air Brake

• Air Supply: 90 PSI

• Carriage: Steel Rails with Steel Dual

V Rollers

• Pedestal: 3/16" Formed Steel

• Saw Housing: 1/2" Billet Aluminum

• Covers: 10 Gauge (1/8" thick) Steel

• Fully Enclosed for Safety

$12,500 FOB AZ

Wasserman & Associates 800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

2000 Automill 5-Blade Component Saw 2000 Timbermill model 343H, five (5) blade component saw cuts lumber from 2″ x 3″ through 2″ x 12″, lengths from 18 inches to 20 feet, including 4″ x 2″ four-angle floor webs from 18 inches. All powered movements, includes computer controls, (1) 30″, (1) 20″ and (3) 14″ blades, analog scales, shaker scrap conveyor, scrap incline and extra set of blades. 480 volt, 3 phase electrical required. 90 PSI air required.

$24,997 FOB ON Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

REPRESENTATIVES

Monet FWA 500 CA Automated Floor Web Saw

In answer to the demands of high-volume customers comes the Monet DeSauw FWA 500 CA (Automated Controls) floor web saw. The 500 CA is perfect for component manufacturers who routinely run floor trusses in high volumes with variable web geometry. Another primary feature is enhanced safety through automation which eliminates the need to open the saw motor cabinets other than for periodic service. The 500 CA includes automation for all blades, including the fixed cut-off blade for minimal waste. Lumber infeed speed is variable up to sixty (60) boards per minute, while the powered carriage utilizes rack and pinion drive with airlock for set accuracy throughout the production run. Your operator will easily download batches to the 500 CA saw from your design software via an ethernet connection to a MS Windows 10 industrial PC with a 17″ monitor housed in a stand-alone console. If you frequently batch floor web cutting, and if enhanced safety with increased productivity are a concern, then an automated Monet FWA 500 CA may be the right selection for you. Mofe information Here

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

New Monet DeSawyer ESC (Servo Controlled) Component Saw

Monet DeSauw model Desawyer ESC enhanced servo-controlled ( ESC) component saw with touch screen user interface with backup mechanical controls. Includes three operating modes: Auto (download setups from LAN or USB), Semi-auto (touch screen setup entry), and Manual (backup push-button switches for powering all movements). Includes over-travel protection, comprehensive setup screens, auto sequencing, auto-calibration and pneumatic brakes on all five () blades. One (1) 30” blade and four (4) 16” blades. Manual cut limits are 18” min., 11” min. square edge blocks, 20’ max cut. Belt under-saw waste conveyor. Voltage: 480 volt/3 phase/60 Amp. Air: 50 PSI at 5 CFM. One-year warranty included. Can be paired with a model PD-6 lumber feed system at an additional cost. Heavy duty 80 RIV chain feed system. 16’ wide x 20’ long x 36” deck height. Transfers 3’ to 20’ lumber. Includes auto-feed control, foot pedal override, forward & reverse, variable speed control with HD double-bearing construction. Other additional-cost options include, inkjet marking, label printing, backside screen display, spare blades and incline scrap conveyor.

$349,900 FOB MO

By Ed Serrano Managing Director VektaUSA

OFocusing on Safety with Vekta and Dahlsens

ne of the central goals of the frame and truss sector is that everyone goes home safely every day. And while the Razer has been designed from the initial engineering stage with safety at the forefront, some customers, like Dahlsens, require more stringent safety aspects, so we customize solutions that are specific for that site or customer.

“The problem is that anyone can lose focus for a moment,” says Andrew Sternberg, Truss & Frames Systems & Technical Manager at Dahlsens Building Centres. “So our job is to design ways to take the risk out of those moments, and we’ve found Vekta to be a very active partner.”

Dahlsens bought its first Razer saw about a decade ago. “We sat down with Vekta and did a full safety audit,” says Sternberg. “There hadn’t been any known safety problems with the saw, but we looked for any point at which someone could injure themselves and worked to make it completely foolproof.”

Vekta worked with Dahlsens to add light curtains, fencing, rubber spacers around pinch points, and safety cords that could perform an instant emergency stop from anywhere around the machine.

“It was great to work with Vekta and say ‘here’s what we want to do’ and have them show us how that could happen,” says Sternberg. And we were very happy to be able to collaborate with our customer. That audit and upgrade became the model for other Vekta saws in Dahlsens’ 13 plants.

Photo 1: Safety fencing around the Vekta Razer saw helps stop workers getting into dangerous zones. Safety cords (at top of photo) can be reached even if the operator has fallen to the ground, and deliver an immediate emergency stop.

“Every time I place an order for a new saw, I’m able to tell Vekta ‘We want the same safety upgrade as the previous saw, or that plus A, B, and C,” Sternberg says. Along the way, the safety standard has been tweaked based on Sternberg’s team’s observations and feedback from the saw operators.

One big change was on the outfeed side of the Razer. “You’ve got pieces of timber coming out and you need to able to grab them,” says Sternberg, “so a light curtain wasn’t going to work because it would constantly stop the machine. Originally, we put mechanical fencing across that area, but we had compliance issues with staff stepping over it. So I designed a gate that would swing over the outfeed and stop people from walking around it, but still allow the timber to come through. The moment it swung open, the machine stopped.”

They discussed their prototype gate with our Vekta team and then had a local fabricator manufacture it. “Once it proved its worth, I sent the photos, rough drawings, and details through to Ed,” Sternberg says. “He drew it up in in CAD and started to produce it, and now we’ve incorporated it into the upgrades for our new stores.”

There were multiple advantages to having Vekta deliver the component. “It’s the same on each machine, rather than different versions made by local manufacturers,” says Sternberg. “It’s supplied with the machine and part of the machine’s warranty and safety record; if there’s ever a problem, we can call Vekta and they can troubleshoot it.”

Photo 2: The outfeed protection gate designed by the Dahlsens team and put into production for their orders by Vekta.

Recently, Dahlsens acquired Riverstone Frame and Truss, which was running an older Razer saw. It received the standard set of Dahlsens upgrades, including a Safety PLC in the electrical cabinet, plus software upgrades to suit the new systems. Importantly, even though that saw was 11 years old, all our safety improvements are backwards compatible, so they can be fitted to our machines of any age.

We were able to work off the standard that Andrew and the Dahlsens team built and tailor it to suit the site and the age of the saw. Our goal is to meet our customers’ needs, so any safety requirements we do that are customized for a site or customer are sold at cost.

For Dahlsens, the effort is very much worth it. “When WorkSafe inspects, they can see that we’ve gone above their safety standards,” Sternberg says. “If we ever do have an incident – and we’ve never had an incident on a Razer saw, but if someone worked out a way to hurt themselves – I have no doubt that we’re covered. But the most important thing is our staff. We want them to know we think their safety is worth the money. It’s not just that we want each one of them to go home safe every night, we don’t want people going home with even the smallest injury, because that can still be a pain.”

For Vekta, the effort is also very much worth it. We are always 100% committed to fulfilling the needs of our customers, so we are always willing to take any extra steps if needed to meet performance and safety goals. When you work with Vekta, your priorities become our priorities. Please reach out to me or anyone on the Vekta team when you’d like to discuss what Vekta could bring to your operation.

Photo 3: Regardless of the age of a Razer saw, Vekta makes sure all safety upgrades are backwards compatible, including software updates and Safety PLCs.

2024 WORKSHOP

Register by 3/15 & SAVE!

A PRIL 17-19 CHARLOTTE, North Carolina

Fairfield Inn & Suites Charlotte Uptown

201 S. McDowell Street

Charlotte, NC 28204

Hotel Deadline: April 3

Wednesday, 4/17

Golf Outing

Social Hour

Independent Dinner

Thursday, 4/18

Educational Sessions

Tours

Dinner at Bowlero

Friday, 4/19

Educational Sessions

“The sessions are all uniquely informative and beneficial. The Workshop is set up to cover MSR in its fullness – from production through use and logistics – as well as why it’s the product of choice. They covered all aspects in full.”

—Adam Beck, Drexel Building Supply

“I would encourage other component manufacturers to attend the workshop because it is an opportunity to gain a better understanding of MSR and how it can be used. That makes you a more responsible customer because you know how to maximize its use in the design of your product.”

—Porter Clark, Hiwassee Builders Supply Inc.

SAWS

Custom 3-Arm Infeed Decks

Two custom-built powered infeed decks, 3-arms each, 12′ x 12′ footprint each, touchpad controls and chain conveyors. One deck has a 5 HP drive and the other has a 10 HP drive. 480 volt, 3-phase electrical required.

10 HP price is $7,993 & the 5 HP price is $6,993.

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Eide Machinery Sales, Inc. 612-521-9193

www.eidemachinery.com

2006 MiTek Cyber A/T Component Saw. Frame #521, Fully automated five-blade component saw, cutting performed by 2-16″ x 7 HP, 2-20″ x 7 HP, 1-32″ x 13 HP. Windows 7 PC in enclosure for fully automated or manual part input, all powered movements, cuts 2×3 thru 2×12 plus 4×2 lumber. Lengths cut from 14″ to 20 feet. Minimum 4-angle cut 22″ (17″ in manual mode) Belt scrap conveyor included with short incline (approx 4′). Includes skate wheel outfield conveyor and optional “Catcher Display”. Includes all available spare blades, spare parts, and manual with schematics. 2480v, 3ph power required.

765-751-9990

$89,990 FOB VA

www.woodtechsystems.com

board at a time. Call for pricing, FOB MO

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

2006 MiTek Cyber A/T Component Saw

IF ONLY YOU COULD NAIL EVERYTHING IN LIFE THIS EASILY.

With a Terminailer XP, it takes only one person to drive between 30% and 70% of the framing nails in any given job . And all this nailing is done within a secure enclosure, so your people are protected from costly nailing injuries while eliminating literally millions of repetitive motions ( 4,001,398 repetitive motions to be exact , judging from the total nail count tallied recently on a two year-old Terminailer XP).

That’s a lot of nails successfully installed to be sure, and a lot of debilitating repetition your workers’ hands are spared, without any complicated training, software or lengthy setup time required.

Developed by people who know wall panel production, Terminailer XP boasts multiple repeat buyers, 20-plus machines performing exceptionally in the field and tens of millions of nails installed. Thoroughly field-proven, Terminailer is ready to drive greater productivity for you. Contact us today for more information.

Carl Villella, CLFP President, Acceptance Leasing & Financing Service

A Closer Look into 2024

Over the last few months, we have seen rates drop for those seeking to finance new or used equipment. Economists are pointing to even lower rates as the year goes on, but of course that will depend on whether the economy continues its downward inflation trend or not, on its way to the 2% target.

Lead times for equipment delivery continue to be more reasonable. We are no longer seeing the “one year out” delivery dates for some equipment. The supply chain problems that plagued the economy for so long have seemed to lessen substantially.

A good piece of advice as you plan ahead for 2024 is to consider combining your purchase bucket list under one larger financing agreement. Instead of financing various pieces of equipment over a period of time, you can take advantage of one approval process under a “master agreement” and lock in an often more attractive rate. An added advantage of the master agreement is that it can accommodate multiple vendors on one agreement.

There are so many advantages to leasing: The paperwork to get started and approved is minimal (a one-page application, 3 months of bank statements for the most part up to $250,000); no financial reporting required once the equipment has been financed; the only collateral is the equipment being financed. No blanket liens.

Feel free to contact us at 412 262-3225 to discuss the many financing programs available. We can assist all types of borrowers, from start-ups to long-established businesses.

We are Acceptance Leasing and Financing Service, Inc. We are in our 32nd year of business in 2024. Established in 1992, we pride ourselves on our Certified Leasing and Financing Professional designation. We are a member of SBCA and a frequent attendee of the BCMC tradeshow. We can provide financing for any new and, regardless of age, used equipment.

www.acceptlease.com

BUILT STRONG BUILT TO LAST

At ACER, we don’t cut corners. Every component is carefully designed , built, and tested to deliver the productivity and return on investment you expect. To prove the strength of t he truss that forms the backbone of the Ranger RS, we suspended a 3400-pound car from it.

Looking to feed your linear saw reliably? The Ranger RS won’t let you down.

·

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

2005

$17,991

2005 PCS / MiTek Twin Axis Sheathing Saw

ALLTHINGSWOOD

By Frank Woeste

SSubstantial Wood Truss Content at Virginia Tech Course

ponsored by the Virginia Tech Continuing and Professional Education program, a three-day program on light-frame and mass timber construction design topics will be offered on May 14–16, 2024 in Blacksburg, VA. Joining me as instructors this year are Scott D. Coffman, PE, John Holland, MBA, John “Buddy” Showalter, PE, and Scott Miller, PE. Together, we will address twelve topics, most of which relate to light-frame design with an emphasis on wood trusses and walls, including the following.

• Artificial Intelligence Potential and Challenges for Wood Truss Design and Manufacturing

This unit will focus on demystifying some of the magic around the process of artificial intelligence (AI). Participants will leave with a practical understanding of how machines can “learn” and of the exciting potential of this technology in the wood truss industry. Participants will be led through industry-specific machine learning optimization examples that will illustrate some of these possibilities as well as current limitations of AI today.

• IBC 2021 Code Conforming Wood Design

Based on the publication Code Conforming Wood Design, this unit will address design of wood structures for fire resistance and height and area allowances for different types of wood construction. Reference will be to the 2021 International Building Code (IBC).

• Design of Load-Bearing Tall Wood Studs for Wind and Gravity Loads

Proper design of wood structures to resist high wind loads requires the correct use of wind load provisions and member design properties. A loadbearing stud wall design example based on the allowable stress design methods outlined in AWC’s 2018 National Design Specification® (NDS®) for Wood Construction and 2018 Wood Frame Construction Manual (WFCM) along with ASCE 7-16 Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures will demonstrate standard design checks for limit states of strength and deflection.

• Interpreting Truss Design Drawings, Design Assumptions, Members Forces, and Truss Repair

Whether you are an engineer designing a complete building that utilizes trusses or designing a retrofit of an existing structure with trusses or designing a repair due to damage to a truss, it is critical to understand the design parameters on a truss design drawing. In this unit, the design data given on a truss design drawing that includes the truss geometry, loading and spacing, lumber sizes and grades, plated connections, and design assumptions used for the truss analyses will be presented and discussed in the context of the ANSI/TPI 1 truss design standard and the truss design software used.

• Wood Connector Testing, Load Rating, and Hanger Performance as affected by Nail Type

Building or component engineers tend to rely on the printed or digital catalogs of structural hardware suppliers for the values of the connections they specify. In this session, the basis of the tabulated and code-approved design values will be reviewed. Specifically, the instructor will explain how the connector engineers use Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to evaluate new connections to speed up the development process. Finally, the different nail types affecting the performance of the connections will be presented.

• Truss King Post Failure Analyses

Methods of analysis and conclusions reached for a metal-plate-connected wood scissor truss failure are often inaccurate or erroneous for trusses that have had a history of satisfactory service. An approach for field assessment, analysis, and evaluation of a king post web and plate connection as a potential cause of failure will be presented.

• Covered and Multi-Story Deck Design

Prescriptive information from the 2021 International Residential Code (IRC) will be used to begin the process of sizing the framing components or to assess the structural adequacy of an installed element for a covered and/or multi-story residential deck.

• Mass Timber Buildings and the IBC

The 2021 and 2024 International Building Code (IBC) allows for the construction of tall mass timber buildings with larger heights and areas than previously permitted in Types III, IV, and V construction. Mass timber includes any product currently permitted for use in Type IV (heavy timber) construction such as cross-laminated timber (CLT), structural composite lumber (SCL), glued laminated timber (glulam), mechanically laminated decking (aka nail-laminated timber, NLT), and large section sawn timbers. Research and development conducted in support of new tall mass timber construction Types IV-A, IV-B, and IV-C in the 2021/2024 IBC will be presented.

• Demys tifying Loads for Building Code Officials

As the 2024 IBC Chapter 16 references ASCE 7-22, the purpose of this unit is to understand changes to structural loads encountered during the plan review process. Loads per the 2024 International Building Code (IBC) and the IBC-referenced 2022 ASCE/SEI 7 Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE 7-22) will be discussed.

From the IBC, example of load combinations used in structural design work

• Lumber Design Values for Species/Specie Groups/Multi-Species and Specifications

Due to additional grade-marked products entering the U.S. from other countries over the past 20 years, it is important for users of lumber products to be aware of subtle differences in design values that can impact structural designs and expected performance of members and connections in-service. In the advent of new grade-marked products from Europe, a simple layperson’s description may no longer clearly communicate to other parties what lumber products and associated design values were used by the RDP, required, and specified in the construction documents.

The additional two sessions are Professional Engineering Ethical Standards as a Roadmap for Living and Balcony and Deck Design Considerations.

Please consider joining us! The course is being held at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center, located at 901 Prices Fork Road in Blacksburg, VA. Contact me at (540) 951-0469 if you would like more specific information on the course content.

Frank Woeste, P.E., is Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech and a wood construction consultant. Frank, along with his colleagues, has developed and presented continuing education programs for more than 30 years. He is a member of the Virginia Building and Code Officials Association, AWC Wood Standards Design Committee, and serves as the ALSC Consumer Representative (Alternate). Comments are welcome and can be sent to fwoeste@vt.edu.

The Inn is located on the Virginia Tech campus and offers convenient surroundings and state-of-the-art technology.

Imagine using software that works the way you do.

©

Bring everything into view with Simpson Strong-Tie® Component Solutions® software. Driven by customer input, it’s designed to support the way you actually work. CS Director™ streamlines project management and collaboration from quote to invoice. CS Truss Studio™ is an intuitive truss layout solution that designs components and specifies connectors and fasteners. CS EWP Studio™ combines 3D layout, member design and material reporting for engineered wood products. Backed by our expert service and support, these open-platform tools integrate with popular industry systems and extensions, so you can move ahead with greater ease, control and efficiency.

Design, specify and manage with one software suite. To learn more, visit go.strongtie.com/componentsolutions or call (800 ) 999-5099.

Used - Metra Cut Radial Arm Saw (2x) Parts Machine

$500 – Make Offer Eide Machinery Sales, Inc. 612-521-9193

www.eidemachinery.com

Component manufaCturing

Used - 2005 Model 305 Infeed Conveyor

Designed for use with all component saws. To include: Soft Start ~ Soft Stop Inverter System. Programmable load sensing; Overload / Jamb sensing shut down feature. Gear motor providing conveyor speed of 36' per minute. Forward and reversing controls for location at both ends of conveyor unit. Material capacity range - 4' through 24' lumber. Chain deck pedestals 20' long with cross bracing. Staging area at the saw independent of the live deck system. 30,000lb. Deck capacity. Call for pricing

Eide Machinery Sales, Inc. 612-521-9193

www.eidemachinery.com

We create transformative website and app experiences

Since 2006, we've been helping businesses of all kinds build their online presence. We make websites and software for the construction industry to empower companies to reach a wider customer base and engage their audiences. Companies all around the world work with us to make websites and apps that people actually want to use. Reach out to Wolf X Machina if you're a business and you want a website that actually drives results.

WOLF X MACHINA

www.wolfxmachina.com

info@wolfxmachina.com

•

• Opening can be set at 1 1/2" or 3 1/2" (roof or floor truss)

• Front & Rear Safety Bars

• 208 Volt / 3 Phase - 7.5 HP

•

•

•

$23,500 FOB IN

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Mid-90's Mitek

14' Finish Roller - Pending

• 14' Long x 24" Diameter Rollers

• 208/230/460 Volt - 3 Phase (currently wired at 208 Volt)

• In working condition but could use a new chain

$35,000 FOB ND

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

• Tee-Lok 14'-6"

• Floor Mounted Steel Rail

• (8) Tee-Lok 6' x 14' Tables with Pop-Up Ejectors

• Steel Top at Bottom Chord, Balance is Fin Form (wood) Top

• Unistrut Jig Rails

• Excludes: Powered Exiting Conveyor, Jig Hardware & Bridge Plates

• Tee-Lok 15' x 24" Diameter Finish Roller

• 14 Each - StakPro Truss Booms

Equipment Details

• 4 Each - Stacking Zones, Master Control Panels, Automation Kits and Remote Controls

• Outfeed Truss Rollers with Control Panel (12 Powered & 11 Non-Powered Rollers)

• 2 Each - Truss Stack Rollers with Contol Panel (8 Four Roller Sections on Each Side of the Outfeed Rollers)

• 8 Each - Pop-Up Stripping Posts

• 2 Each - Outside Stack Rollers (4 Four Roller Sections)

• 480 Volt / 3 Phase

Layout PDF Click Here

By the MSR Lumber Producers Council

SOpportunities Abound at 2024 MSR Workshop in Charlotte

pring is in the air and that means it’s time to register for MSRLPC’s annual MSR Workshop! Join attendees from across North America as they convene on April 17 in beautiful downtown Charlotte, NC, for three days of valuable learning and networking opportunities with an incredible lineup of speakers and activities. Let’s take a closer look at a couple of Workshop attendee favorites.

Component Manufacturer Panel

Designed to put seasoned manufacturers front and center to share knowledge with their fellow CMs, as well as open dialogue with lumber manufacturers, the addition of a CM Panel was a clear highlight of last year’s Workshop in San Antonio. This year’s panel will present a closer look at the positive results of ongoing advancements in manufacturing automation. The group will also discuss how new technologies and improved processes invite continued collaboration in the supply chain and new opportunities for the use of MSR Lumber.

• Sean Kelly, Owner/President of Automated Building Products in Marshfield, WI, will be discussing how automation has helped his plant with labor retention, growing personnel from 70 to 180 in six years with exceptional retention. Sean has more than 31 years in the industry and is a long-time attendee of the Workshop. He says there are many reasons he keeps coming back: “Lumber is your #1 used item – you need to know what you’re buying and using. The knowledge I gain about the lumber market and the forecast for the coming year is invaluable to my business.”

• Mike Momb, Technical Director for Hansen Pole Buildings in Browns Valley, MN, has owned or managed wood truss plants for over two decades and served five terms on MSRLPC’s Board of Directors during the course of his career. He agrees that the MSR Workshop is a great place for new users to learn about the product, for seasoned users to develop and foster relationships with their suppliers, and for everyone in the supply chain to learn from one another. “Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know,” says Mike. “Getting together at an event like the Workshop gives everyone a chance to keep their ears open for new opportunities and ways to become more efficient.”

• Ross Harter, General Manager of Drexel Building Supply’s brand new truss manufacturing facility in Wrightstown, WI, has more than 20 years of experience in the industry, specializing primarily in offsite construction and component manufacturing. He is new to the Workshop, but says the process of building a new plant helped him see why it would be advantageous to spend time with lumber suppliers in this way. “We need to talk about the future because it’s changing so quickly,” says Ross. “Both CMs and lumber suppliers need to hear both sides of the story from an automation perspective as it relates to lumber. CMs will start having different needs as a result of increased automation. Coming together for productive conversations will help everyone better understand ‘the WHY.’”

Plant Tours

Tours have always been a mainstay of the Workshop, and we were fortunate to have not one but two forest products companies agree to welcome us into their facilities this year. Attendees will spend the afternoon of April 18 touring both Boise Cascade and Roseburg Forest Products in Chester, SC, where they will witness the art and science of forest products manufacturing.

Opened in October 2019, Roseburg’s engineered wood products plant is the most technologically advanced manufacturing facility of its kind, featuring the highest-capacity laminated veneer lumber (LVL) press in the world. Boise Cascade’s Chester Plywood has a long history of producing SYP plywood – a meticulous, hands-on process that makes for an interesting tour.

“Tours have always been an important aspect of the Workshop because it’s beneficial for CMs to tour other types of facilities where they can see the use of automation, labor, and other manufacturing processes they potentially haven’t seen before,” explains MSRLPC Board Member George Hamilton of Roseburg Forest Products. “Sometimes the tour is related to the forest products industry and sometimes it’s not, like last year’s Toyota tour. Regardless, it’s interesting and helpful to watch technology advancement in the world of manufacturing. I’ve also heard people say they see and learn about safety protocols they’ve never thought of before.”

Roseburg’s engineered wood products plant is the most technologically advanced manufacturing facility of its kind, featuring the highest-capacity laminated veneer lumber (LVL) press in the world.

Boise Cascade’s Chester Plywood has a long history of producing SYP plywood – a meticulous, hands-on process.

That’s Not All

In addition to these fan favorites, the 2024 MSR Workshop will include a golf outing at Verdict Ridge Golf & Country Club, a hosted dinner outing to Bowlero Charlotte, and more stellar educational sessions:

• At the Crossroads of MSR Lumber and Mass Timber: Gain a better understanding of where MSR Lumber and mass timber intersect, with a specific look at where the glulam industry and engineered wood products that use MSR lumber went down separate paths. Russ Vaagen, founder and CEO of Vaagen Timbers, will explain how the Europeans use E ratings to provide grades of glulams and how North America is still using visual grades to produce the same products from 30 to 40 years ago. Russ will also give an overview of the current mass timber market and what is developing for the future.

• Analyzing Trends in the 2023 MSR Production Survey: Take a deep dive into the most recent MSR Production Survey with Crystal Gauvin from Forest Economic Advisors (FEA). Since the MSR Lumber Producers Council (MSRLPC) began tracking data in 1994, this annual production survey has become a valuable tool for both monitoring the progress of the industry in North America and promoting the use of MSR lumber worldwide.

• Growing Timber for MSR: An opportunity to see the forest for the trees, this session will introduce how the art and science of silviculture affects solid wood strength. Jesse Moore, Lumber Production Manager for Charles Ingram Lumber Company, will provide a brief history of forest management as well as explain how plant spacing, fertilization and herbicide applications, and thinning methods are all important to growing timber that is well suited to become MSR lumber.

• MSR and MEL – A Testing Primer: From the Southern Pine Inspection Bureau, Linda Brown will provide attendees with a valuable overview of how machine graded lumber is produced with special emphasis on the testing that is performed by producing mills. A great session for those still learning about machine-graded lumber, she will cover how it is produced as well as the similarities and differences between it and visually graded lumber. The session will include videos of lumber being tested.

• North American Timber Outlook: Join FEA’s Crystal Gauvin to explore timber supply in North America and get FEA’s near-term forecast for log pricing. She will take a look at which regions are facing the greatest constraints to softwood log supply, where the market is seeing the largest shifts in log demand, and how the record-breaking wildfire season affected logging and mill operation in Canada.

The Workshop will once again wrap up with a lively discussion on the most relevant topics covered at the Workshop. Led by Dan Uskoski from Metriguard Technologies, this roundtable session is a great way to assimilate all of the valuable content from other sessions as well as participate in conversations on other significant issues affecting the industry.

Full details and registration information are available on the MSRLPC website. The Early Bird Deadline is March 15, so register today and SAVE! To see a list of MSRLPC members or to join, visit the MSRLPC members page.

2022 Vekta Stakpro Horizontal Roof

Truss Stacker

Bi-Directional, 4-Zone system features 14 low-profile booms (seven each direction) combined with an integrated Smart Roller Conveyor featuring 27 (11 powered / 16 idle) pedestal conveyor rollers aprox 4.5″ dia, x 13′ 2″. Conveyor and booms combine to stack trusses on both sides in multiple stations depending on truss length (truss lengths from 15′ to 60′). Each hydraulic boom has a lifting weight of 180 lbs, and a cycle time of 45 seconds. System features Pop-up pneumatic truss stripping posts for quick adjustment for different truss configurations. System includes (4) multi-function remote wireless controllers, and electrical control panels. Includes the Truss Stack Transfers (low-profile) powered/Idle rollers qty: 34 idle / 34 powered with two (2) control panels. System is installed inside a climate controlled facility and is in excellent working condition, 480v, 3Ph power required.

TruStance Portable Field Repair Press

This is the first, self-contained, truly portable FRP unit used to press metal truss plates into dimensional lumber at virtually any location. Wood component (roof and floor truss) manufacturers, as well as builders, frequently require a tool to repair metal plate connected, wood truss components. The complete unit is mounted to a wagon built from square tubular steel. Extremely compact at only 28” wide and about 32” long the wagon features four wheels on soft-rubber solid tires, and a steering axle on the front with a handle that makes the unit easily maneuverable. The wagon contains the hydraulic power unit and an area for a portable gas generator. A rack in the back securely stores the C clamp, a standard 25′ hydraulic hose, and an electric power-supply cable.

The clamp is manufactured from T1 steel, cut into a C-shape with a steel tube welded to the front that securely holds the hydraulic cylinder. Pressing is easily performed with a 4×4 magnetized steel platen that holds and presses the truss connecter plates. The C-clamp that weighs less than 30 pounds, features a throat that opens to 4-1/2” inches to accept either 4 x 2 or 2 x 4 lumber. It has a push on and release off switch to cycle the unit. A 10,000-psi electric-over-hydraulic power unit pumps hydraulic fluid through a 10,000-psi hose to activate a 10-ton hydraulic cylinder with a 3.9 inch stroke. The unit can be powered by 120v electric power or an optional 120v, 2200-amp, gasoline powered generator, which can also act as a portable power supply out in the field for other single-phase equipment.

• Pressing Capability: 4.5” throat opening presses 2×4 through 4×2, includes a standard 25-foot, HD 10,000 PSI hose, with a 10 TON, 4”x4” magnetized pressing plates

• Electric/Hydraulic: SPX Hydraulic Technologies – Rockford, IL USA 10,000 PSI / 700 BAR. 10 ton pressing capability

• Power Source: 110V Dual Power via outlet plug in and/or optional gas-powered inverter generator at an additional price. Optional generator is a Honda EB 2200i Industrial, inverter motor, manual start, GFCI Protected,120 VAC at an additional cost of $1,450.00.

• Warranty: One year from date of purchase on manufactured unit, OEM warranties on hydraulic and gas motor.

765-751-9990

$9,779 FOB MT

Hain Systems Framer

www.woodtechsystems.com

TElectrical Supply: 110 VAC

Motor: 1/4 HP, 110 VAC, Linear Actuator

Highly Accurate: +/- .010 Inches

Stop Rail: 2 x 4 x 1/4 Aluminum Extrusion

he Hain Systems Framer (HSF) will help you build square and accurate wall panels for residential or commercial construction applications. It will help you cut building costs by saving time and improving your quality. It’s a reliable, efficient and proven system that features a ruggedly simple design. The HSF is based on a proven design with over 20 years of actual production use and maintenance experience. It comes fully assembled and is designed for portable job site framing or in-plant permanent installation. The table has many optional attachments and will support Mylar Tape wall layout or any other type of layout. The optional gun rails can also be retro-fit to any table.

Stops: Jig Bored Steel

Stop Blocks: Machine Billet Aluminum

Details:

Internal Components: Hardened, Ground and Polished Steel and Billet Aluminum

Dimensions:

Table Construction: Thick-wall Structural Steel Tubing, Jig Welded for Accuracy

Length: 5 feet (60”) to 60 feet (720”)

Height: 12 inches

Air Supply: 90 psi (10 CFM Air Flow Recommended)

Depth: 12 inches

Electrical Supply: 120 VAC

Powder Coat: Industrial Gray

Dimensions:

Height: 43”

Length: 16’ or 20’

Width: Adjustable 8’ to 10’ or 8’ to 12’

Shipping Weight: 3000 lbs

If you are looking for the fastest, most consistent way to measure and cut your product, then the Hain Measuring System (MEA) is your answer. The MEA changes from one length t any length instantly, up to 60’, without changing the operator’s position on the line. It is also highly accurate (+/- .010) and quickly moves from one length to the next in seconds. The MEA is designed for quick and easy setup and is simple to use. Even a first time user will be productive with little or no training required. It can adapt to any saw and can be mounted to any surface so that you can integrate the MEA with your existing setup. The MEA is versatile allowing “left” or “right” handed operation and measurement in “feet and inches” or “inches” depending on your preference. The MEA is also available in a “Skid Mounted” version.

6125 Enterprise Drive, Unit 9 | Diamond Springs, CA 95619 530.295.8068 | sales@thehaincompany.com

Build more with WizardPDS®

Nothing beats WizardPDS® for more speed, more accuracy, and more flexibility in 100% automated truss table jigging. Used in more new and existing truss table brands than all other systems combined. With 15 second setup, (2) automated pins spaced 24” o/c, and the ability to add more WizardPDS® automation in the future, you’re on your way to more production... and profits.

» Reduces your jig setup time by 99%

» Any truss setup in 15 seconds or less

» Multiple setups per table

» NO manual jigging required

» Snap-to pin relocation for locating interior webs

» Fits any new or existing truss tables

» Industry tested and proven

Your table, automated.

We bring the best together!

612-521-9193

2018 Clark Mini Barn Press

2018 Clark Mini Barn Press, builds rigid frames for sheds from 8 foot to 14 foot spans, to 3′-6″ height. Builds mansard and rafter shapes. Includes (5) track mounted heads with 8″ x 10″ platens, material clamps, 10 HP hydraulic power unit with manifold for air and fluid, ball valve controls, mounting track and all available jigging. 460 volt, 3 phase electrical required.

$19,997 FOB TX

Wood Tech Systems 765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Pacific Peak Up Stacker

Used-as-is Pacific Automation 60’ peak up stacker / (4) lift arms with indexing heads / Adjustable pop-up platform / Target for triggering stacking cycle / Powered truss conveyor as shown / Center rolls can be moved to unload from top chord side / Control panel with auto and manual stacking mode.

$13,950

Eide Machinery Sales, Inc.

612-521-9193

www.eidemachinery.com

2007 Clark Industries

Horizontal Truss Stacker

Model HVS, Two Unit, 2-Zone, 14’ Horzontal Stacking System. Two lifting units (one master and one slave) with integral electrics. A truss sensing system consisting of adjustable laser sensors mounted on slide rails. One indoor electric control enclosure & panel w/PLC and manual controls. A stacker-conveyor interface package comprised of (1) mounted 3-push button enclosure and (1) remotely mounted 2-push button enclosure (pause/ emergncy stop). Hand-held Wampfler Remote Control System. 8 stacking rails and 4 stripping posts. Stack 1 5/8” thick x 14’ tall trusses up to 30 high. Stack a truss in approximately 40 seconds (cycle time). Stack up to 55’ or longer trusses on each side of the conveyor with minor assistance for truss sag, shorter lengths can be stacked unassisted. Excludes 77’ Walk Through Conveyor System. Two systems available at $25,000 NOW $19,900 Each. FOB NE.

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

WESCANA FLOOR TRUSS MACHINE

• 7' x 40' Table with 3/4" Steel Table Top

• Two 5' Park Sections

• Truss Depths from 12" to 26"

• Truss Flip-Over Arms

• Side or End Ejectors

• Bui lt-In Camber for Clamping on Both Sides

• Air Cylinders Under Table

• 2 Contr ol Valves for Clamping

• 1 Contr ol Valve for FlipOver Arms

• 1 Control Vlave for Ejectors

• 24" Diameter x 1" Wall Thickness Roller

• 10 HP / 3 Phase Gear Motor

• Front & Rear Emergency Shut-Off Bars

• Joystick Control

• 2' per Second Travel Speed

800-382-0329 | www.wasserman-associates.com

EMSI Field Repair Press

EMSI 10 Ton Field Repair Truss Press System. Complete with: 1/2 HP, 115 Volt, 50/60 Cycle Universal Motor – Operates at voltage as low as 60 volts. 10,000 PSI

Portable Power Pack with Two Speed Operation – 200 cu in/min @ 0–200 psi, 20 cu

By Thomas McAnally TheJobLine.com

ROn-Site Homebuilding with an Off-Site View

eflecting on the journey of building my on-site home versus years of off-site manufacturing, several insights have surfaced. While many may hesitate to do it again, I remain optimistic. Why the enthusiasm? Because every challenge I faced was met with a manufacturing mindset honed by the systematic approach I learned in off-site manufacturing. Though another home build may not be in my future, this project indulged my OCD manufacturing-guy nature.

A recurring issue that plagued most of my problems stemmed from placing too much trust in subcontractors’ assurances regarding on-site standard practices. Particularly concerning was the floor framing, where I saw a potential for undersized floor framing members. Despite the subcontractor’s confident assurances of design compliance, I failed to seek outside validation—an oversight, in hindsight. This resulted in the incessant rattling of china cabinet dishes as we passed, remedied only by makeshift bracing. Looking back, more diligence in the floor design, perhaps through consultations with other design managers, could have been beneficial.

Similarly, clashes arose with the framing project manager over my demand for proper house-wrap sealing practices, such as the application of seal tape on house-wrap seams and roof flashings. Leaks during downpours before the siding application underscored the importance of adhering to manufacturer installation

requirements, which mandated all seams and flashings be taped. He relented after persistent nagging and reference to contractual documentation that guaranteed materials would be installed per manufacturers’ requirements. This episode showed the necessity of persistence when you know you’re right.

While the majority of framing impressed me, had this project been built off site, electrical input on fixture placement and allowances in framing would have occurred in pre-production meetings. Most fixture placements were satisfactory, but some were awkwardly positioned due to excessive framing. In the plant, the wall department would have electrical drawings to refer to and would accommodate for fixtures. It wasn’t until after drywall installation that I noticed a few that could have been better placed. While understandable, these oversights could have been mitigated with better coordination.

The septic tank placement was the most budget-busting issue, directly obstructing our side garage’s path. Despite my protests, the installer insisted it was fine and there was plenty of room, citing health department approval. When installed in the problematic location, we accidentally drove over the outlet line in the too-tight turn-around, causing drainage issues and a backup. While the original contractor fixed the backup, he refused to acknowledge the location issue. Ultimately, a new contractor identified a suitable location, and the health department agreed. My lack of on-site experience in this area was an expensive lesson learned.

Overall, this journey serves as a reminder of the need for consistent quality control and proactive oversight as the on-site General Contractor. What I didn’t know proved to be my biggest obstacle, and I should have conducted more thorough research and relied less on contractor assurances. Nevertheless, we are pleased with the outcome and overall cost.

While off-site construction has challenges too, on-site practices could benefit from some of the off-site processes and controls to make each project more efficient and cost effective. This was one home built in a rural area with limited subcontractor availability. Most were owner-operators with little business experience beyond working for themselves, so I can’t be too hard on them. If there is a next time though, I will be better prepared to manage the process and the trades. Building, whether off site or on site, remains a labor of love.

2-TABLE EXTERIOR LINE

INCREASE PRODUCTION. MAINTAIN A SMALL FOOTPRINT. EXPANDABLE.

Consisting of a Framing Station and Sheathing Station, the Exterior 2-Table Line frames and sheathes wall panels while maintaining a small footprint, perfect for those with limited space. This system is a great starting point for customers planning on adding more equipment as their business and budget grows.

PANEL EQUIPMENT

2007 VIKING 16' X 12' SQUARING TABLE WITH SHEATHING BRIDGE

• 16' x 12' Squaring Table with Powered Width Adjustment & Powered Chain Conveyor

• Wall Panel Lengths up to 16', Wall Panel Heights from 4'-0" to 12'-2"

• Swing Gates at Both Ends of Squaring Table

• Automated Field & Edge Nailing Driving by Panel Pro Event Software & Your Programmed Nailing Patterns

• Simple Touchscreen Controls

• 2 Tool Carriages for Sheathing Nailing with Tilt Function for Seams

• 2 Paslode Nail Guns with High Load Coil Tray

• Auto Sheathing Bridge Return

• Includes 4 Pallets of Magnum Coil Nails (2 3/8 x .113)

• 480 Volt / 3 Phase

$29,900 FOB KS. Wasserman & Associates 800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

• Excludes: Electric Hoist &

Bridge Crane

$1,950 FOB NE

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

2021 Triad Router Bridge & Portion of V-Track

2021 Triad Routing Bridge with approximately (20) feet of v-track. Fits over tables that build up to 12′ nominal height wall panels. Includes powered automatic bridge return, powered vertical router movement, manual fine adjustment wheel, manual vertical router travel with chain drive and (1) Milwaukee router, catalog #5625-20 120 volt, 1 phase, 15 Amp electrical required. No table included.

$28,970 NOW $5,000 FOB BC

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

IBS Tool Bridge & Router Bridge

IBS multi-tool bridge with (24) tool stations. Bridge features auto-return, button controls and laser guide mount. Fits up to 12′ nominal rail centers. IBS router bridge features (1) router, laser guide mount and lever-switch button controls. Fits up to 12′ nominal rail centers. Sold as a pair. Includes all available floor mounted, v-rail. Both bridges missing laser sub-assembly. 120vac, 120psi air.

$15,975 NOW $5,995 FOB UT

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

New Panels Plus Floor Cassette Framing Station

Price: $Call for pricing

FOB: MN

New Panels Plus floor framing machine, supports the structural members creating floor sections from 2" x 6" LVL through 2" x 10" to 2" x 12" dimensional lumber, 20" deep wood floor trusses or engineered wood / I-joists. Standard footprint of floor panels (cassettes) up to 12' wide x 45' long. Table consists of a fixed section and a track-guided, moveable section controlled by either a foot switch or push-buttons.

Includes a series of color-coded locator pins at 16", 19.2 and 24" on-center spacing and clamping with squaring feature including foot pedal control. The locators individually flip down if a joist comes out on top of them. After the floor is complete and unclamped, the floor section can be raised up on skate-wheel conveyors and rolled out or lifted off the table using an overhead crane. Table height is 24.5", OAL 45.5 ft, OAW 14.5 ft. 120 volt, 1 phase, 15 Amp electrical required. 90 to 120 PSIG at 15 CFM air required.

Geordie Secord, Senior Recruiter TheJobLine.com – Canada

ADesign Connections Designing for Resiliency

s I write this, I am sitting inside a warm office in Northern Ontario, looking out the window at near blizzard conditions, with heavy snow falling and –35° wind chill. Although it is very unpleasant outside, this isn’t necessarily unusual weather for this location, but what is unusual is that just a couple of days ago it was several degrees above freezing and felt more like a spring day. In many parts of the world, it has become common to see weather extremes that have rarely, if ever, been seen before. Recent weather extremes that come to mind include several feet of snow falling in western New York prior to the NFL playoff game, flooding in California, increased tornado and hurricane activity, and extreme heat events in British Columbia and parts of Europe last summer. Regardless of the cause, although my belief is that it is largely human caused, all indications are that we will continue to experience conditions that have not been part of our lives in the past.

How does this pertain to truss design? Well, as an example, here in Canada it generally isn’t necessary to design for wind loads on residential buildings. Personally, I’ve always found it strange that our code bodies essentially say that we could design two small identical buildings, sitting side by side, with one residential and the other some type of commercial use. The commercial building would need to be designed for both heavier design snow loads and wind loads, while the residential building would have lower snow loads and no wind load. Does the wind know not to blow on the house? Does the snow pile on the roof differently because there is a business operating inside rather than a family?

I do understand that code decisions are made in part in an effort to balance safety and affordability. Building homes that resemble bunkers capable of resisting every type of extreme weather condition would be expensive, and might result in some very ugly, utilitarian dwellings, but making homes more resilient could be accomplished at minimal incremental cost. In areas such as where I live, snow loading would continue to be the governing condition in almost all circumstances, but including proper anchorage of the roof to the walls, and on down to the foundation, would reduce damage due to wind.

We all work in a competitive environment, so unilaterally deciding to add wind analysis or unbalanced snow loads to the projects we quote could result in being uncompetitive versus our competitor who is doing only what the code requires. To be clear, designing only to the code requirements is not wrong. I have had building owner clients ask how they could improve their home’s performance related to the roof and these are some things that I would typically suggest:

• Design the roof for wind or at least require that hurricane ties of some type be installed.

• Increase the heel height if necessary to allow for full depth insulation, along with ventilation space above, to extend to the outside walls.

• If you are concerned about snow accumulation, design for unbalanced snow loads.

Each of these will change the truss package price somewhat, and ultimately the person writing the checks gets to decide. As I am beginning to plan for the construction of my own home, you can be sure that I will include all of these suggestions into my own home. Is it overkill? Maybe, but I plan to be in that home for 20–30 years, and I want to be confident that it will perform well even in the extreme conditions that seem to be more commonplace each year.

What are your thoughts? Is this something that you hear your clients talking about? Do you offer any type of truss package upgrade suggestions to your customers? How proactive do you think the various code bodies should be in addressing this changing world that we are living in, especially considering that getting code changes in place can often be a 5–10-year process? Please share your thoughts with me.

If you want help finding that next perfect component designer or design job in Canada, please contact me. If your work is in the mass timber world anywhere in North America, I’d love to talk to you about connecting you to that next great job or candidate. You can reach me at secord@thejobline.com, or 800-289-5627 ext. 2. I’m also happy to engage at: LinkedIn.com/in/geordiesecord. www.thejobline.com

SWING GATES

Swing gates bolt onto either end of the Panels Plus stations and allow subcomponents and wall panels to roll freely from station to station without having to be lifted.

The swing gates allow walk-through passage between stations and can be swung back into place to prevent product from dropping between the stations. This allows the operator to move from one side of the line to the other without having to walk around the entire system line.

Wall Panel Lift

* 8’- 12’ Wall Height

* 1,000 LB Capacity

* Easy Adjustment

* Hoist and Crane Sold Separate

Handle Bar Router

* 8’ - 12’ Wall Height

* 2 Person Operation

* 3 ¼ hp Production Router

* 120 Volt /1 Phase/15 Amp

Lay-Up Tables

* 10’ x 10’ Working Area

* Lift & Extend Rollers

* Squaring Lip

* Gun Holster And Nail Tray

Skate Rollers

* 15’ Standard Length

* Adjustable Height

* Sturdy Stands

*

New Panels Plus Wall Panel Framing Equipment

Consider Panels Plus wall panel assembly equipment for manufacturers of wood or steel wall panels, floor-panels, and related framing components. Panels Plus is an employee owned, ISO certified, manufacturing company that builds state-of-the-art equipment featuring durable construction, with fit and finish second to none in the structural building component industry. The referenced base framing table allows you to assemble from 7-12 foot wall heights, at industry standard 16 foot lengths, at a working height of 29 to 32 inches. This framer design includes controls at each end of table, squaring stops and pneumatic clamping for consistent wall panel quality. Frames 2x4 or 2 x 6 walls, with color-coded, steel stud locators at 16 and 24 inches O.C. spacing. Includes pop-up skate wheels for easy transfer of completed wall frame. Framing table can be configured to receive wall framing light bars, other options include custom buildable wall heights, lengths and auto-indexing of optional 2 or 3 tool carriages.

Additionally from Panels Plus are sheathing tables with features that include foot pedal control at squaring end of table, with squaring stops, roller conveyors at both sides, single pendant controls for bridge, tool spacing at 6 inch centers with 3 inch bridge shift for offset nailing. Tool bridges can accommodate from 2 x 4 to 2 x 8 walls, with seam tilt being standard equipment Panels Plus Tool Bridges are available with single beam or dual beam design for two different tool mounts on one bridge.

Squaring stations, sub-component tables, conveyors and panel lifts are also available to complete the configuration of the wall panel assembly line. Price includes factory installation and training. 50 CFM at 120 psi air. 120 or 230 volt, 1 phase electrical.

Hain Systems Framer

TElectrical Supply: 110 VAC

Motor: 1/4 HP, 110 VAC, Linear Actuator

Highly Accurate: +/- .010 Inches

Stop Rail: 2 x 4 x 1/4 Aluminum Extrusion

he Hain Systems Framer (HSF) will help you build square and accurate wall panels for residential or commercial construction applications. It will help you cut building costs by saving time and improving your quality. It’s a reliable, efficient and proven system that features a ruggedly simple design. The HSF is based on a proven design with over 20 years of actual production use and maintenance experience. It comes fully assembled and is designed for portable job site framing or in-plant permanent installation. The table has many optional attachments and will support Mylar Tape wall layout or any other type of layout. The optional gun rails can also be retro-fit to any table.

Stops: Jig Bored Steel

Stop Blocks: Machine Billet Aluminum

Details:

Internal Components: Hardened, Ground and Polished Steel and Billet Aluminum

Dimensions:

Table Construction:

Thick-wall Structural Steel Tubing, Jig Welded for Accuracy

Length: 5 feet (60”) to 60 feet (720”)

Height: 12 inches

Air Supply: 90 psi (10 CFM Air Flow Recommended)

Depth: 12 inches

Electrical Supply: 120 VAC

Powder Coat: Industrial Gray

Dimensions:

Height: 43”

Length: 16’ or 20’

Width: Adjustable 8’ to 10’ or 8’ to 12’

Shipping Weight: 3000 lbs

If you are looking for the fastest, most consistent way to measure and cut your product, then the Hain Measuring System (MEA) is your answer. The MEA changes from one length t any length instantly, up to 60’, without changing the operator’s position on the line. It is also highly accurate (+/- .010) and quickly moves from one length to the next in seconds. The MEA is designed for quick and easy setup and is simple to use. Even a first time user will be productive with little or no training required. It can adapt to any saw and can be mounted to any surface so that you can integrate the MEA with your existing setup. The MEA is versatile allowing “left” or “right” handed operation and measurement in “feet and inches” or “inches” depending on your preference. The MEA is also available in a “Skid Mounted” version.

95619

The Raked Wall Extruder is a Game Changer!

Designed to assemble and simplify the process of making raking wall frames. The Raked Wall Extruder can also produce common wall frames, making it a Spida all-rounder.

Automating what is currently a manual operation in most plants - the Raked Wall Extruder is the start of the most efficient and productive Frame Line in the market.

FAST ACCURATE SIMPLE TO USE EFFICIENT VERSATILE

of the Raked Wall Extruder in

“We’ve worked with Alpine in creating top quality products surpassing customer expectations since 1984. Over the years Alpine team members have become more like family and we couldn’t do this without them!”

— Tolga Adak Florida Quality Truss Inc.

Craig Webb President, Webb Analytics

Deals Report 2023: Tracking the Openings, Closings, and Acquisitions

The construction supply industry saw high lending rates and a relative lack of big transactions result in 22% fewer deals involving 2.6% fewer locations in 2023 vs. 2022. There also were 10% fewer buyers, with several big players barely present. But greenfield openings, while down 5% from 2022, remained well above earlier years. Among business sectors, gypsum saw more action than did lumber (plus components) or roofing.

Webb Analytics’ Deals Report 2023 contains more than two dozen maps, charts, and tables. The 24-page PDF reveals the biggest deals and biggest dealmakers. There are breakdowns based on business type and state, as well as commentary on how 2023’s numbers compare with the previous five years. And there’s special attention given to Builders FirstSource, US LBM, SRS Distribution, ABC Supply, Kodiak Building Partners, and Beacon.

The Big Picture

Let’s start with some historical perspective. The Webb Analytics Deals Database counts only construction supply facilities—i.e., locations where a home builder or remodeler would be likely to shop. Among those stores, we’ve seen 3,053 facilities acquired since 2018. Nearly 40% of those acquisitions were lumberyards or components/truss/millwork facilities, while another fifth were gypsum operations. Of the 945 new stores to pop up since 2018, only 20% were lumberyards or components plants while 30% were roofing or siding businesses and 22% were hardware stores or home centers. The closures number likely is much higher than the 354 listed here as most closures don’t get reported.

In 2023, Webb Analytics recorded 774 facilities that changed hands, opened for the first time, or were closed. That’s 6.7% fewer than 2022’s 830 facilities and far behind 2021’s 1,058, the year that Builders FirstSource absorbed BMC.

Which Kinds of Companies Were Purchased?

As a general rule, lumber-centric companies (with the exception of 84 Lumber) tend to buy existing firms rather than open greenfield sites, while flooring and hardware stores are much more likely to build anew. Thus, the general decline in acquisitions most affected the lumber and components categories, which saw a 50% drop from 2022 in the number of facilities acquired. The number of gypsum stores sold shot up five-fold, mainly because what’s usually viewed as a lumber

company—US LBM—sold 46 drywall special units to ABC Supply’s L&W Supply. As for roofing, it is seeing both lots of acquisitions and lots of greenfield openings.

Lumberyards and Component Plants

Until US LBM bought Manning Building Supply of Florida’s five yards and three truss plants, Builders FirstSource’s purchase of the five Noltex Truss plants was 2023’s biggest single deal in the lumberyard and components space. US LBM also made the list by selling five Direct Cabinet Sales locations to Express Kitchens.

There were lots of two- and three-unit sales, such as when Bliffert Lumber bought three Chase Lumber and Fuel stores in Wisconsin, Riverhead Building Supply acquired two Lakeville Kitchen & Bath stores in New York, and Nation’s Best Holdings picked up Adams Building Supply’s two lumberyards in Georgia. All told, 28 of the lumberyard and eight of the components acquisitions involved just one location.

The components category includes both millwork and truss plants. BFS bought millwork operations in Alaska and Florida, Foundation Building Materials took over KCI Doors & Hardware of Phoenix, and Windows, Doors & More bought two Island Sash & Door sites in Washington state plus another in Oregon.

To download the complete 2023 Deals Report, visit https://www.webb-analytics.com/2023-lbm-deals-report

About Webb Analytics

Webb Analytics is a data and research consultancy that helps executives in construction supply spot the trends, threats, and opportunities that matter most. It’s led by Craig Webb, one of the nation’s best-known industry figures and the former editor-in-chief of ProSales, the construction supply industries most honored publication. Aside from the annual deals report, Webb Analytics also produces the Construction Supply 150, consults with dealers, publishes research reports, and speaks at industry events.

•

•

Used Triad G2 Wall Assembly Equipment

Used Triad wall assembly equipment includes 16 ft x 12′-3″ max height framing station, model G2, with (2) two-tool dollies, squaring/ sheathing combo table, model G2 SH-SQ, with multi-tool mount nailing bridge and separate manual-drive router bridge, quantity of (6) 10 ft long x 2 ft wide idler roller conveyors with (4) legs, and Triad model FTCN component nailing station with four Hitachi NR83A nail tools.

Framer includes 16″ and 24″ color-coded stud locators, pop-up skate wheel conveyors, tool dollies have two tool mounts each (no tools) and powered height adjustment. Sheathing bridge includes joy-stick controls, tool offset, tool tilt, laser guide, power return and mounts for up to (23) Hitachi nail tools. Router and all available spare parts included. 120 volt, 1 phase, 30 Amp electrical required. 100 PSI air required.

PANEL EQUIPMENT

TRUCKS & TRAILERS

New

Used - 2014, R157 48” Roll -Off Precision Trailer

Tandem Axles | Air Ride Suspension : Air Operated Load Control, Air Operated Pin Locks | Mesh Between Rollers | Beaver

Tail | Strap Locks and Winches | LED

Lighting | 11.4 Ton Self Contained Power | (1) Heachache Rack

$29,900

Eide Machinery Sales, Inc. 612-521-9193

www.eidemachinery.com

2007 Panels Plus Combination Table, allows you to frame, square and sheath wood wall panels on one,16 foot long table x 12 foot framer for wall heights from 6′-9” to 12’-4”. Builds both 2×4 and 2×6 walls. Clamps wall prior to nailing. Table includes push button controls, color-coded stud locators at 16 inches & 24 inches o.c. spacing, squaring stops, motorized telescoping arms, skatewheel ejectors and powered tool bridge. Sheathing nailing bridge includes powered travel, joy-stick & key pad controls, air manifold, manual fine tuning, tilt and seam nailing. No tools or mounts included. 30 CFM at 120 psi air required, and 120 volt, 1-phase electrical required.

$49,991

NOW 39,991

FOB TN

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

TRUCKS & TRAILERS

Used - 2014, R156 48” Roll -Off Precision Trailer

Tandem Axles | Air Ride Suspension : Air Operated Load Control, Air Operated Pin

Locks | Mesh Between Rollers | Beaver

Tail | Strap Locks and Winches | LED

Lighting | 11.4 Ton Self Contained Power | (1) Heachache Rack

$29,900

Eide Machinery Sales, Inc. 612-521-9193

www.eidemachinery.com

1995 JDH Trussmaster 42'-60'

Stretch Roll-Off Trailer

• Hydraulic Front End

• Sliding Tandems

• Spring Suspension

• Roller Locks

• Headache Rack

• DOT is Current $22,900 NOW $19,900 FOB MN

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

2001 Iron Steer 37' Gooseneck Roll-Off Trailer

• 37' Bed Length, 46'-6" Overall Length

• Tandem Axles with Dual Wheels

• Hydraulic Bed Tilt (Battery Powered)

• Split Rollers

• Roller Pin Locks

• Electric Brakes

• Price in US Dollars

$20,000 FOB SK

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Wall

ProStack

Panel Stacker

Developed for commercial wall panel production facilities this is the remarkable ProStack, fully automated wall panel stacker. The ProStack relieves your build team from creating a stack of wall panels and keeps them building walls instead. Stacks 2×4 through 2×8 walls up to 20′ in length and up to 12 feet in height. The ProStack automatically centers each layer including multiple wall segments on the same layer, and the ability to “create” fork lift pockets for ease of loading in your yard or on the build site. It can stack left, right or center-justified. Designed without any overhead frame or apparatus, so no crane inspections are required. The ProStack is “event driven”, so there is no need to read a file. See the video link. 208 volt, 3 phase, 43 Amp base model electrical required. No air required. Footprint is 26′-5″L x 19′-3″W.

ProStack II can operate with your existing powered conveyors or select optional matching conveyors.

ProStack Wall Panel Tilt Infeed Conveyor:

System can tilt wall panels (12’W x 16’L) to approx. 75º for working access to install blocking, windows, or inspection/repair of “shiners” on sheathed wall segments. System utilizes hydraulic power from an existing ProStack wall panel auto-stack system. 208 volt, 3 phase, 52 Amp

Powered Infeed

Conveyor section, Chain drive under top and bottom plate for access to inspect sheathing fasteners – 12’W x 16’L, adjustable working height from 28” to 34”. 208 volt, 3 phase, 52 Amp

Powered Out-Feed

Conveyor section, full-width, HD roll-top for easy access to banding operation. 12’W x 16’L, adjustable working height from 28” to 34”. 208 volt, 3 phase, 52 Amp

For additional features of the ProStack Wall Panel Stacker, click here.

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

2007 Panels Plus Combo Table with Multi-tool Bridge

2003 JDH TRUSSMASTER SIDEOFFLOADING TRUSS TRAILER

10,000 Lb Tandem Axles (Dual Wheels). 26,000 GVWR. Deliver Trusses Vertically. Stretch from 18' to 38'. Raise Loads Hydraulically. Air Brakes.

$6,900 FOB CA

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

2001 Moffett M5500 Forklift

2001 Moffett M5500 forklift features 48″ forks with side shift, 12′ maximum lift height, 5,500 lb lift capacity and has 2,440 hours on it. Kubota 4 cylinder Diesel engine and Hydrostatic transmission.

$24,990 NOW $19,890 FOB OH

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Reconditioned Lakeside

36'-51' Stretch Roll-Off Trailer

• Self-Contained Hydraulic Front End

• Sliding Tandems

• Roller Locks

• Headache Rack

• New Axles (Undercarriage)

• New Wheels, Tires & Brakes

• New Hydraulic System

• New Wiring & Light Sockets

• Sandblasted & Epoxy Painted

• DOT is Current $40,000 FOB ME

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Don’t

You Saw it in the

TRUCKS & TRAILERS

1995 Pines 45' Chip Trailer

• Modified by LMI TENN

• 8" Floor Cross Members

• Reinforced Roof

• 22.5 Tubeless Tires

• Sl iding Tandem Axle (for weight distribution) (FOB PA) $9,900

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Used Truss Roll-Off Trailers in Florida

• 2003 Pratt 48'-70' Roll-Off Trailer

• 2006 Pratt 48'-70' Roll-Off Trailer

• 2005 JDH Trussmaster 48'-70' RollOff Trailer

• 2006 JDH Trussmaster 48'-70' RollOff Trailer

• 2005 JDH Trussmaster 42'-60' RollOff Trailer

• 2004 Pratt 53' Roll-Off Trailer

• (2) 2005 JDH Trussmater 48' Roll-Off Trailers

Call for pricing

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

1999 JDH Trussmaster 48' Roll-Off Trailer

• Hydraulic Front End

• Sliding Tandems

• Roller Locks

• Roller Brakes (not working)

• Winches & Straps

• Headache Rack

• Tires & Brakes are Good

• DOT is Current $19,900 FOB GA

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

1997 Lakeside JDH Trussmaster 36′51′ – Lakeside trailer features 5th-wheel connection, sliding tandem axle, locking rollers and hydraulic lift neck. Current DOT inspection September 2023. 50% brakes and 50% tire tread remains. 26,000 GVWR

$28,997 FOB MO

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

1993 JDH Trussmaster 48'-70' Stretch Roll-Off Trailer

• Fixed Tandem

• Spring Suspension

• Roller Locks

• Winches & Straps

• Headache Rack

• Tires are Good (less than 5,000 miles on tires)

• DOT is Current

• Video available upon request $19,900 FOB IN

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Trailer

• (2) 12,000 Lb Axles

• Hydraulic Disk Brakes

• 4" Pipe Rollers

• Hydraulic Roller Locks & Brakes

• Support Rollers Over The Gooseneck

• Diamond Metal Plate Between Rollers

• (8) Winches & Straps

• Single Cylinder Scissor Hoist

• Self Contained 12 Volt Hydraulic Pump

• Remote Control

• Lightly Used

• Ready for immediate delivery $49,900 NOW $42,900 FOB IN Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Current DOT inspection September 2023. 50% brakes and 50% tire tread remains. 26,000 GVWR.

$33,495 FOB MO

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Stretch Roll-off Trailer features near-flat profile, sliding tandem axle, split locking rollers, hydraulic lift neck, and ABS brakes. Trailer is currently DOT certified and all lights are working. Brakes have estimated 90% life remaining. 6 of the tires have an estimated 75% life remaining, 2 tires will need to be replaced soon. GVWR 68,000 lbs. As-IS Where-Is.

$35,990 FOB IA

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

$14,997 FOB QC

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

1997 Lakeside JDH Trussmaster 42-60 ft Stretch Trailer (BL-2)

1997 Lakeside JDH Trussmaster 42′60′ – Lakeside trailer features 5th-wheel connection, sliding tandem axle, locking rollers and hydraulic lift neck.

1997 Lakeside JDH Trussmaster 36-51 ft Stretch Trailer (OR-1)

2023 Stoll 40' Truss Tran Gooseneck Roll-Off

2005 Lakeside JDH Trussmaster 42′-60′

Stretch Roll-off Trailer

2005 Lakeside JDH Trussmaster 42′-60′

1993 Wabash 48-ft Roll-off Trailer

1993 Wabash model T-30 roll-off trailer, 48-ft long, 60% tire tread remains, 60% brakes remaining. Includes locking rollers, hydraulic lift, sliding axle, headache rack and ABS brakes. GVWR 68,000 lbs.

EMSI Teeter Cart

Width – 46” / Length – 73” / Load Capacity – 2850 pounds / Pneumatic tires – 14.5 inch / Maximum utility in truss plants, panel plants, and lumber yards / Quick Assembly by bolting parts together / All hardware is supplied / Upright 2 x 4’s not supplied / Medium duty tires rated at 1500 lbs each are included.

Call for Price

Eide Machinery Sales, Inc. 612-521-9193

www.eidemachinery.com

Eide

www.eidemachinery.com

New Hain Company Micro Mini Measuring System

Video Here

$3,499 FOB CA

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

2005 Koorsen Connector Detector (For Repair or Parts)

6 detection zones to locate missing plates. Horn & zone lights indicate missing plates. 12" to 60" adjustable height from floor. 110 Volt / 1 Phase. New control panel switches & lights in 2014. Needs circuit board repair or replacement and new tower light. Includes 4 extra detection zone boxes.

$2,500 NOW $1,500 FOB NE

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

NEW GALVANIZED STEEL STRAPPING

1 1/4" wide x .035 thick. $159 per coil. $2,950 per skid (21 coils). FOB PA.

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

AMI Industrial Floor Carts

Hain 20' Powered Measuring System

Adapts to Any Saw. Left or Right Hand Operation. Feet & Inches System (Stops at 12” Centers) or Inches System (Stops at 10” Centers). Motor: 1/4 HP Linear Actuator (110 Volt). Stop Rail: 2 x 4 x 1/4” Aluminum

Extrusion. Stops: Jig Bored Steel. Stop Blocks: Machine Billet Aluminum. Optional Lengths from 5’ to 60’. Optional Gang Stop. Add $890 per 10’ Section of Heavy Duty Roller Conveyor with Stands $8,990

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Sweed Scrap (Band) Chopper with Stand

www.eidemachinery.com

2022 Powermatic Dual-Bag Dust Collector

2022 Powermatic Dual Bag Dust Collector. Industrial dust collector, dual-bag, 1800 CFM with 6″ port. Includes supply of 6″ flex hose. System has 10 Cu. Ft. capacity. 3HP, 3Ph, 5 amp, 460/V with onboard starter.

$5,497 FOB VA

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

AMI's industrial floor trucks (material carts) are designed of hardwood construction, fitted with space-age phenolic, roller-bearing wheels, and ball bearing swivel casters for strength and durability. AMI's phenolic wheels resist shock without chipping. They are non-sparking, non-marking, and can be operated continuously between -50℉ and 260℉. They are unaffected by grease, oil or debris on your shop floor.

Series "B" AMI Industrial Floor Truck

Our swivel casters are precision built with perfectly aligned raceways. All cold-form parts are made to exacting tolerances from heavy-gauge steel, and are hardened for severe service and long wear. Series B-4 carts include four casters, one at each corner, to prevent "tri-cycling" of long lumber loads. Standard Models Available

1/2 HP Motor (115/208-230 Volt)

$1,900 NOW $1,750 FOB NE.

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Used Teeter Carts

Steel teeter carts, quantity of (16), for moving bulk material for production staging, can be used to deliver full units to sawyer or long cut material to an assembly area at a convenient working height. Size 72″ long x 46″ wide x 32″ high, 2,500 lb. load capacity. Feature (2) pneumatic tires/ steel wheel, and (2) swivel casters.

Units shown without large tires: quantity of (3) at $500 each.

3260

3660

3672

4072

3696

4896

*Other models and sizes are available on request. FOB NC.

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

By Paul McEntee

Up to the Test: The Heavy Seated Knife Plate Beam Hanger for Mass Timber

In response to the increasing demand for mass timber construction, Simpson Strong-Tie has created mass timber solutions for these builds. These product additions include our Heavy Seated Knife Plate (HSKP), ACBH concealed beam hanger, and CBH concealed beam hanger. Gain insights into the design, testing, and efficiency of the HSKP in achieving high loads with fewer fasteners. The article underscores the structural mechanics and the ongoing process of pushing connector limits in mass timber construction

More than 10 years ago, I wrote Do 50 Kip Wood Construction Connectors Exist, which discussed how we’d designed and tested some rather large glulam connections.

These were custom hangers that we developed and fabricated for some specific projects. The expansion of mass timber construction has increased the demand for high-capacity connections, with the additional need to conceal these connections for fire protection. The heavy seated knife plate (HSKP) is a convergence of several innovations to achieve high allowable loads with fewer fasteners than our CBH and ACBH™ concealed beam hangers. I’d like to take some time in this article to discuss the technologies employed in this exciting new hanger.

First up, angled fasteners.

I discussed the benefits of angled fasteners in Developing HighCapacity Tension Straps for Mass Timber Engineering. Using an angled fastener with a high withdrawal capacity results in a stronger, stiffer connection than perpendicular fasteners alone can achieve. We use angled StrongDrive® SDCF Timber-CF screws in our ACBH concealed beam hanger to achieve higher loads than our CBH concealed beam hanger, which uses a similar number of perpendicular Strong-Drive SDS screws. In the comparison table, our ACBH3x15.37 uses (48) SDCF fasteners and achieves roughly double the load of our CBH2.37×9.75 with a similar number (46) of SDS screws. Further down in the table, our smallest HSKP5.75/14.5 with (22) SDCF screws achieves an even higher load than the ACBH.

Test set-up

Both HSKP and ACBH are using angled fasteners, so why is the HSKP using less than half as many screws? The difference is the HSKP transfers vertical load from the beam to the hanger through bearing on the hanger seat, which eliminates most of the screws into the beam.

In addition to testing ( How We Test ) the HSKP, the building code also requires that we calculate that bearing stress in the hanger seat. To provide enough bearing strength without making the seat too large, we needed to increase the compression capacity of the wood. This brings up a second technology incorporated in the HSKP design—compression reinforcement.

Our Technical Engineering Bulletin (TEB), SDCF Timber-CF as Compression Reinforcement, details a procedure for using SDCF screws to increase the perpendicularto-grain bearing capacity of glue-laminated timber (glulam), cross-laminated timber (CLT), and heavy timbers. The design procedure presented in the TEB produces solutions that are consistent with NDS allowable stress perpendicular-to-grain requirements. The reference values used in the calculations are compression strength perpendicular (Fcp) from the NDS supplement and SDCF withdrawal values published in ESR-3046.

HSKP beam to column installation

Designing compression reinforcement with SDCF screws models the screws as beam-columns on an elastic foundation. Compression forces transfer by bearing on the screws and the wood. The first two limit states involve compression strength of the wood plus the minimum of either screw buckling or screw embedment. The third limit state is compression resistance based on the effective bearing area formed at the points of the screws. A more detailed discussion of these limit states and the basis of the analysis is contained in the TEB.

I’m excited about the HSKP as an innovative solution that creates a highcapacity connection for mass timber. The only thing I don’t like about this connector is that it is concealed, which makes the testing photos look like a bunch of wood. Testing these hangers is exciting, though. We don’t regularly see ultimate loads above 200 kips on a connector test setup.

The article, Up to the Test: Introducing the Heavy Seated Knife Plate Beam Hanger for Mass Timber, appeared first on Simpson Strong-Tie Structural Engineering Blog. To sign-up to receive the Engineering Blog in your inbox, go to seblog.strongtie.com/subscribe

Copyright

HSKP close up of seat bearing

HSKP download testing

Alpine Lumber Carousel

• 7 Bunk Capacity (up to 12' Lumber)

• Pushbutton Control Station

• 10 HP / 3 Phase Motor

• In working condition when removed in August 2023

$11,900 FOB Manitoba

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

Compressor

• Model GX11FF

• 15 HP Rotary Screw Air Compressor (230/460 Volt - 3 Phase)

• 13,443 Hours

• 51.7 CFM at 128 PSI

• 80 Gallon Tank

• Built-in Air Dryer does not work

• Includes separate 2012 Pneumatech AD-50 Air Dryer (1 Phase)

$4,250 FOB TX

Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

36"

22 Available at $325 Each

for all Wasserman & Associates

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

You Saw it in the

SL-Laser Model ProDirector 7 Projection System

Improved model ProDirector 7, green-color laser projection system from SL-Laser. Projects roof truss, floor truss and wall panel design images accurately onto building surface for faster setup and fabrication times. New employees are productive more quickly, with less training required. Each laser head provides 21′ projection length (at 15-foot ceiling heights). New model PD7 projector heads are smaller in size than previous models, have diodes that are easier than ever to swap out and maintain, and project an even clearer line onto the building surface.

System includes projector heads, cables, mounting hardware for attachment to customer’s structure, factory installation, training, and options for computer controls. Works with each connector plate manufacturer’s design software. Modular nature of the laser heads allows for easy future expansion of system length. 120 volt, 1 phase.

FOB NC

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

2010 SL-Laser PD-4 Laser System

2010 SL-Laser model ProDirector-4, 4-head system includes four (4) projectors with universal mounts, two (2) PC terminals with stands and all available cables. Green laser projection. In working order when decommissioned. Replacement cards no longer available. Projectors can be used to prolong the life of an existing PD-6 projector. 120 v, 1 phase electrical required.

$26,875 FOB QC

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

2017 L-M Double End-Bump Rollcase. This unit serves an integral part of precision package cutting. The heavy duty steel fabricated main frame of the Rollcase is assembled with 10 bed rolls, machined from 5″ steel pipe. All ten (10) rolls are driven together with RC80 roller chain. Back up rolls are also mounted on the main frame to align the package squarely to the bumping surfaces. A hydraulic 40 gallon power unit delivering 20 GPM is used to power bed rollers that are driven to pound the package of lumber against a reinforced steel face, to flush up one end which either eliminates or reduces end trims. A variable speed drive allows for precision control during the bumping process. Includes 15 HP electric motor, motor starter, strainer, relief valve, return filter and all available accessories at the hydraulic unit. 230/460 volt, 3 phase electric power required.

$34,997 FOB OH

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.co

2021 All Lift Stand-Alone Jib Crane

2021 All Lift 3-Ton floor mounted jib crane with 18-ft span, 16-ft reach and 10′-6″ working height, with a 360° rotating boom, this heavy-duty jib crane can provide service to large areas. All Lift jib cranes feature a heavy wall structural steel pipe mast with a 78″ diameter reinforced base plate, allowing for continuous alignment and minimal deflection. The rolled steel I-beam features a tapered flange for smooth trolley travel, and safety end stops at both ends of the boom. (must be mounted on a 4′ deep cement foundation with rebar). System includes an electric 3-Ton capacity hoist with a trolley connecting to a Panels Plus panel lift with 12′ wall height capacity. New, this complete system costs approx. $25,000 (with “soft costs” that included freight and install, approx. $30k total). 230 volt electrical required.

$19,997 FOB az

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.co

2016 5-Bay Ranger LRS, with (4) Magazines

2016 Ranger LRS designed to fit the MiTek Blade linear saw, includes (5) lumber carts, (4) lumber magazines, overall beam length of 50-ft with end column supports, footprint of 50′ x 52′. Pick head is screw-type. Includes light-curtain perimeter beam, operator’s console, perimeter safety fencing and rails for carts.

www.woodtechsystems.com

2002 Atlas Copco Rotary Screw Air

2017 L-M Double End-Bump Rollcase Station

Used

Carts

Wasserman

800-382-0329

3’x5′, (10) 3’x5′ heavier duty, (10) 3’x6′, (8) 3’x7′, (4) 4’x4′, & (1) 4’x7′, Configuration of frame and wheel size may vary.

$300 ea. FOB OH

Wood Tech Systems

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

$59,900 FOB OH As-Is Where-Is

2008 Genie GTH-1056 Telehandler

Genie telehandler lifts up to 10,000 lbs over 10 ft high, and up to 5,000 lbs 56 ft high. Can also extend out 42 ft. carrying up to 3,000 lbs. Features a 74 HP diesel engine with 3 speed transmission. Also features 3-mode power steering (2-wheel, 4-wheel coordinated and crab), frame leveling +/- 10º, and Full time 4WD with front and rear limited slip differential (LSD). Vehicle weight is 31,900 lbs. 4,618 hours on the telehandler.

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Door Machining Center (DMC)

New Builders Automation Machinery

“Ovation” series, door machining center (DMC). Fully programmable, two-stage door machine featuring (27) axes of operation. Can be specified with either two or four front machining heads. Machine is side-eject, direct-drive with helical gear racks and gear protection from dust. The door loader is driven by an absolute encoder; no stepping motors, belts or exposed ball

More information Click Here

Price based on configuration Wood Tech Systems 765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

800-382-0329

www.wasserman-associates.com

www.wasserman-associates.com

Builders

Machinery (BAM)

Hain Systems Framer

TElectrical Supply: 110 VAC

Motor: 1/4 HP, 110 VAC, Linear Actuator

Highly Accurate: +/- .010 Inches

Stop Rail: 2 x 4 x 1/4 Aluminum Extrusion

he Hain Systems Framer (HSF) will help you build square and accurate wall panels for residential or commercial construction applications. It will help you cut building costs by saving time and improving your quality. It’s a reliable, efficient and proven system that features a ruggedly simple design. The HSF is based on a proven design with over 20 years of actual production use and maintenance experience. It comes fully assembled and is designed for portable job site framing or in-plant permanent installation. The table has many optional attachments and will support Mylar Tape wall layout or any other type of layout. The optional gun rails can also be retro-fit to any table.

Stops: Jig Bored Steel

Stop Blocks: Machine Billet Aluminum

Details:

Internal Components: Hardened, Ground and Polished Steel and Billet Aluminum

Dimensions:

Table Construction: Thick-wall Structural Steel Tubing, Jig Welded for Accuracy

Length: 5 feet (60”) to 60 feet (720”)

Height: 12 inches

Air Supply: 90 psi (10 CFM Air Flow Recommended)

Depth: 12 inches

Electrical Supply: 120 VAC

Powder Coat: Industrial Gray

Dimensions:

Height: 43”

Length: 16’ or 20’

Width: Adjustable 8’ to 10’ or 8’ to 12’

Shipping Weight: 3000 lbs

If you are looking for the fastest, most consistent way to measure and cut your product, then the Hain Measuring System (MEA) is your answer. The MEA changes from one length t any length instantly, up to 60’, without changing the operator’s position on the line. It is also highly accurate (+/- .010) and quickly moves from one length to the next in seconds. The MEA is designed for quick and easy setup and is simple to use. Even a first time user will be productive with little or no training required. It can adapt to any saw and can be mounted to any surface so that you can integrate the MEA with your existing setup. The MEA is versatile allowing “left” or “right” handed operation and measurement in “feet and inches” or “inches” depending on your preference. The MEA is also available in a “Skid Mounted” version.

6125 Enterprise Drive, Unit 9 | Diamond Springs, CA 95619 530.295.8068 | sales@thehaincompany.com

BAM Stair Wedge Saw

Builders Automation Machinery (BAM) model 2220, stair wedge saw station automatically produces wood wedges used to lock stair treads and risers into slots cut into the stair stringers…

Price based on configuration

FOB FL

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

BAM Pre-Hung Door Machine Titan Series

Builders Automation

Machinery (BAM) Titan series pre-hung door machine. Designed to produce between 150 and 250 doors per day. Multi-function door machine capable of doors 1′-6″ to 4′-0″ in width, and both 6′-8″ or 8′-0″ door heights. Processes both 1 3/8″ and 1 3/4″ thick door slabs. Machines the door, hinge jamb and strike jamb all at the same time. Capable hinge sizes include 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″, 4″ x 4″, 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ with 5/8″ radius. Cycle time with flush hinge routing is 45 seconds. 10′ long x 7′-6″ wide footprint. Shipping weight 4,000 lbs.

More information Click Here

Price based on configuration

765-751-9990

www.woodtechsystems.com

Builders Automation Machinery (BAM) staircase assembly clamp, model 2210, accommodates up to 20 foot long stringers with a maximum width of 54″…

The truss industry relies on 3rd party quality assurance services to provide random visits to review the plants Quality Assurance program along with their operations. If your plant needs to comply with the IRC, IBC and to those who depend on solid, experienced QA expertise, we ask you to consider selecting Timber Products Inspection, Inc. (TP) as your choice for 3rd party inspections.

Proudly serving the forest products industry for over 50 years, TP brings the expertise you need to ensure your business is successful. As a responsible partner, TP delivers to clients, employees, and the industries we serve the confidence to drive value through the effective use of our diverse professional team.

TP would like to welcome the following authorized agents to our inspection team, each of whom have many years of experience in the truss industry!

• Al Coffman

• Jean Hart

• Curt Holler

• Chuck Ray

• Glenn Traylor

• Elliot Wilson

If you have questions about how you can make this selection, please contact your authorized agent above or Glenn Traylor at 919-280-5905 or trusguy@gmail.com.

https://www.tpinspection.com/ https://www.tpinspection.com/auditing-services/truss

Safety First!

Meeting Topics

From State Fund, CA.

Accident Investigation

Accidents are unplanned and unexpected events that cause injury, property damage, and/or financial loss in the workplace. Incidents or “near misses” don’t result in loss, but have the potential to do so.

Ideally, safety programs focus on preventing accidents and incidents, but if one occurs, have an accident investigation procedure ready and train your employees how to use it. Investigate ALL accidents and injuries; the severity determines the extent of the investigation. Handled properly, accident investigation helps you look at problems, solve them, improve your safety programs, and prevent future accidents.

Accident investigation should prevent recurrence. Adhering strictly to fact finding in a neutral, nonconfrontational manner identifies the true attitudes, behaviors, and other factors that led to the problem. Analyzing facts and asking a neutral “why” question helps find the root cause of the accident. For example, if employee error caused the accident, dig further to determine why the employee made the error.

Accident investigation should not be used to blame, punish or exonerate workers and managers; true facts will not emerge in this environment. If you investigate an accident just to complete paperwork and satisfy insurance requirements, you will erode confidence in the system and you won’t achieve your goal of prevention and loss reduction.

Investigación de accidentes

Los accidentes son eventos no planificados e inesperados que causan lesiones, daños a la propiedad y/o pérdidas económicas en el lugar de trabajo. Los incidentes o “casi accidentes” no causan pérdidas, pero tienen el potencial de hacerlo.

Idealmente, los programas de seguridad están dirigidos a prevenir accidentes e incidentes, pero si uno ocurre, tenga listo un procedimiento de investigación de accidentes y capacite a sus empleados en su implementación. Investigue TODOS los accidentes y lesiones; la gravedad determina el alcance de la investigación. Si se conduce correctamente, la investigación del accidente le ayuda a identificar problemas, solucionarlos, mejorar sus programas de seguridad y prevenir futuros accidentes.

La investigación del accidente debe prevenir que éste se repita. La adherencia estricta al hallazgo de los hechos de una manera neutra y sin enfrentamiento identifica las actitudes, los comportamientos y otros factores reales que condujeron al problema. El análisis de los hechos y hacer las preguntas en un “por qué” neutro ayuda a encontrar la raíz del accidente. Por ejemplo, si el accidente fue causado por error de un empleado, averigüe más a fondo para determinar por qué el empleado cometió el error.

A supervisor in the affected area is the best person to conduct an investigation because they are most familiar with the tools, equipment, and people involved. Experts in equipment, outside agencies, and other technical resources may also be needed.

Start your investigation by securing the scene, placing equipment out of service if necessary, and taking photos. Interview victims and witnesses. Collect evidence and records and document your observations. Find the contributing factors to determine the accident’s root cause. Document the recommended corrective actions, the people assigned to complete them, and a due date for completion.

La investigación del accidente no debe usarse para culpar, castigar o exonerar a trabajadores y gerentes; en ese ambiente no saldrá a la luz la verdad. Si investiga un accidente simplemente para completar el papeleo y cumplir con los requerimientos del seguro, erosionará la confianza en el sistema y no alcanzará su objetivo de prevención y reducción de pérdidas.

La mejor persona para conducir la investigación es un supervisor en el área afectada, porque es el más familiarizado con las herramientas, los equipos y las personas afectadas. También puede que se necesiten expertos en equipos, agencias externas y otros recursos técnicos.

Comience su investigación resguardando la escena, retirando de servicio equipos y, si fuera necesario, tomando fotos. Entreviste a las víctimas y a los testigos. Reúna pruebas y registros y documente sus observaciones. Encuentre los factores contribuyentes para determinar la causa que dio origen al accidente. Documente las acciones correctivas, las personas asignadas para completar las mismas y la fecha límite para terminarlas. The

March 1 – 2

CalENdar of EvENts

MARCH 2024

International Housing Assoc. (IHA) Annual Meeting Las Vegas, NV

March 5 – 7 Lumbermens Merchandising Corp (LMC) Annual Houston, TX

March 6 – 8

March 10 – 12

National Frame Building Assoc. (NFBA) 56th Annual Frame Building ExpoDes Moines, IA

North American Wholesale Lumber Assoc. (NAWLA) Leadership Summit Tucson, AZ

March 12 – 14 Ace Hardware Spring Convention Dallas, TX

March 13 IDEAS Lumber and Building Material Trade Show King of Prussia, PA

March 18 – 19

March 18 – 20

March 18 – 20

March 19 – 21

Frame & Truss Manufacturers Assoc. of Australia (FTMA) National Conference Geelong, VIC Australia

Modular Building Institute (MBI) 2024 World of Modular Orlando, FL

National Institute of Building Sciences (NIST) Building Enclosure Science and Technology Conference (BEST6) Austin, TX

Atlantic Builders Convention (ABC) Conference & Expo Atlantic City, NJ

March 19 – 21 Lean Summit 2024 Carlsbad, CA

March 19 – 22 AGC—The Construction Association Annual Convention San Diego, CA

March 20 – 22

March 20 – 22

March 20 – 22

AGC—The Construction Association Contractors Solutions Expo San Diego, CA

NASCC: The Steel Conference San Antonio, TX

Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Assoc. (SLMA) and Southern Forest Products Assoc. SFPA) Spring Meeting & Expo

New Orleans, LA

March 21 BLD Connection – 2024 Wisconsin Connection Conference Baraboo, WI

March 21 – 23

March 23 – 25 Do it Best Spring Market 2024 Houston, TX

March 24 – 27 Build24: AWCI’s Convention + Expo

March 26 – 28

March 26 – 28

March 26 – 28

Lake Buena Vista, FL

International Mass Timber Conference Portland, OR

National Hardware Show Las Vegas, NV

Structural Building Components Assoc. (SBCA) and National Framers Council (NFC) Open Quarterly Meetings Fort Worth, TX

March 27 – 28 Pennsylvania Housing Research Center (PBHRC) Housing Conference State College, PA

March 27 – 28

April 8 – 12

April 9 – 10

April 10 – 12

April 11 – 18

April 14 – 16

Residential Building Design and Construction Conference (RBDCC) State College, PA APRIL 2024

Southern Pine Inspection Bureau (SPIB) Week of Quality Spring Training Courses

National Lumber & Building Material Dealers Assoc. (NLBMDA) & Window & Door Mfrs Assoc. (WDMA) Spring Meeting & Legislative Conference

Pensacola Beach, FL

Washington, D.C.

International Wood Products Assoc. (IWPA) 68th World of Wood ConventionSan Diego, CA

Structural Building Components Assoc. (SBCA) European Offsite Tour 2024

UK, Germany, and Denmark

Western Wood Products Assoc. (WWPA) Annual Meeting Vancouver, WA

April 17 – 19 MSR Lumber Producers Council (MSRLPC) Annual Workshop Charlotte, NC

April 18 – 21

April 23

Associated Building Material Distributors of America (ABMDA) 41st Annual Convention Austin, TX

Northwest Truss Fabricators Assoc. (NWTFA) Spring Expo Richland, WA

April 24 – 26

Assoc. for Mfg Tech (AMT) Manufacturing for Growth MFG2024 Orlando, FL

April 28 – May 1 LBM Advantage 2024 NextGen Leadership Conference Denver, CO

April 29 – 30 National Framers Council (NFC) Regional Meeting & Golf Tournament Ellicott City, MD

April 29 –May 1 American Building Materials Alliance (ABMA) 2nd Annual Advocacy Day Washington, D.C.

MAY 2024

May 1 – 2

May 6 – 8

May 6 – 9

May 14 – 16

May 14 – 16

May 20 – 22

July 9 – 11

October 7 – 11

Forest Economic Advisors (FEA) –DANA International Forest Investment Conference New York City, NY

Builder 100 Conference Dana Point, CA

University of Texas Building Professional Institute (BPI) of Texas—North Texas Irving, TX

Structural Building Components Assoc. (SBCA) and National Framers Council (NFC) Open Quarterly Meetings Ashville, NC

Virginia Tech Short Course: Structural Design Topics in Wood Construction Blacksburg, VA

Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute (CFSEI) 2024 Annual Expo Tucson, AZ

JULY 2024

Structural Building Components Assoc. (SBCA) and National Framers Council (NFC) Open Quarterly Meetings Bellevue, WA

OCTOBER 2024

Building Component Manufacturers Conference and Framer Summit (BCMC | FS) Milwaukee, WI

Don’t see your event? Increase attendance and participation by listing your industry focused events here! E-mail details and event web-link to

. We can’t guarantee space for all events, but all industry related events will be added on a space available and interest to our reader priority.

Are you a skilled Truss Designer or Wall Panel designer seeking a better work-life balance? Look no further! Our client is offering a unique opportunity for talented designers like you to thrive in an environment that respects your personal and professional needs.

In this position, you'll have the flexibility to choose from various working arrangements to accommodate your lifestyle. Some of our employers offer a 32-hour workweek with full benefits, allowing you to strike a perfect balance between your career and personal life. You can work in the office, remotely, or in a hybrid setup, depending on your location and skill level.

More Details Here

mail@thejobline.com

please visit our website www.thejobline.com

Truss Designer - MiTek J15327

Florida (Central or Eastern Time Zone Candidates)

Remote Truss Designer J14203 Indiana

Truss Designer J14136 South

Truss Designer J11629 MO

Truss Designer - 32 hour week* J15310

Remote

LGS/CFS Estimator J14141 TN

CFS Truss Designer | Wall Panel Designer J15323 Midwest

Outside Sales - Wall Panels, EWP & Trusses Eastern Ontario

EWP Designer-J15283 Eastern Ontario

Senior Truss & EWP Designer - J15320 AB, BC, ON

Remote Senior Truss Designer - Truss J15266 South

Truss Plant Operations Manager J15318 Florida

Assistant Truss Plant Manager J15311 Central Florida

Production Manager/Inside SalesJ15316 Southern Ontario

Senior Truss Designer - J15315 Southern Ontario

EWP Designer - J15314 BC

Remote Truss Designer J15313 New England

Truss Designer J15285 New England

Truss Designer J14164 Florida

Truss Designer - MiTek - Remote or OS J15312 Florida or Remote (Central or Eastern Time Zone Candidates)

Remote MultiFamily Truss Designer Wall Panel Designer J5309 Central Timezone

Outside Sales - Multifamily Turn Key Framing J15308

Houston

Remote Truss Designer J15307

Full Time Remote

Implementation and Support Specialist J15306

100% Remote - Northeast

CFS Truss Designer J15269

Remote or in the Midwest

Remote Wall Panel Designer - J15304

Remote - Eastern US

Remote Truss Designer - MiTek J15303

Florida or remote

Remote Truss Designer - MegaMultifamily J15302

Central time zone

Hybrid Remote Truss Designer - Single Family J14212

Remote or in office (IN)

Senior Mega-Multifamily Designer J15301

Northern California

Remote Truss Designer - MiTek J15228

Florida

Residential Order Tech J15232

South

Truss Designer J15250

South

Truss Designer J15251

South

Truss Designer J15286

Indiana

Truss Designer J15290

Ohio or Hybrid Remote

Remote Wall Panel Designer - Production Builder Market J14107

Remote Indiana

Truss Designer J14165

Carolinas

ID: C10968

Senior Wood Truss Designer - Part Time

Relocation: REMOTE, Florida, Alabama, Georgia

Candidate desires to use his career long industry experience to be the best Part Time Remote Designer you have. Prior truss plant owner for 10 years, strong production and operations management background, and JobLine Senior Designer rating in truss design using MiTek software. Also has FASTBeam experience. Products: floor & roof trusses. Markets: Single family custom, multi family, tract and light commercial. Was successful in creating strong teams in production, design and customer service, but the local economy and overwhelming competition was more than he could overcome from a small plant perspective.

Degree: BSEE

Compensation: Based on employee or 1099 status.

Thom's Notes: I have worked with this candidate as an employer for years. Very detail oriented. Fair, honest, and customer service oriented. Very design/liability conscious. Scored 98

ID: C18659

CFS Truss Designer | Wood Truss Designer - Remote/Full-time or Part-time.

Relocation: Florida, Georgia, Louisiana I have accumulated nearly 40 years of experience in the truss industry. Initially, I served as a truss layout draftsperson for the first two years of my career, gradually progressing to roles such as estimator and truss designer. I enhanced my skills by completing truss design courses and seminars offered by MiTek Industries, a globally recognized software and hardware company. Throughout the majority of my career, I specialized as a wood truss designer. In the last 8 to 10 years, I assumed the role of a lightweight truss designer.

Over the course of my career, I diversified my responsibilities, undertaking roles such as estimator, field and job site inspector, plant supervisor, coordinator, and customer service representative.

Compensation: $30-32hr

ID: C10186

Remote CFS, LGS Designer - Multifamily/

Commercial

Relocation: Texas

One of my best CFS designers, the candidate has 20+ years experience in commercial, multifamily, and pagoda style structures. Want to know more, give me a call or make an inquiry.

ID: C10853

Remote Design Manager | Remote Offshore Design Project Manager

Relocation: Texas, Georgia, USA - South

Top level Engineering/Design Management

candidate, 14+- years experience Truss, 4+- Panel experience. Has experience building and integrating offshore design resources with internal design departments and training design managers to better utilize offshore capabilities. Large volume manufacturer experience. MiTek Sapphire design/layout proficient. Too confidential to go into more detail.

Compensation: $120k+

ID: C18549

Remote Wall Panel Designer

Relocation: USA - ALL States

Wall panel designer with 10 years' experience including production builders, single family custom and small to medium multifamily projects. MiTek Sapphire software experience.

ID: C18426

Remote Truss Designer

Relocation: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Maryland, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, REMOTE, Costa Rica, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Washington DC, Rhode Island, Saskatchewan, Oregon, Ontario, North Dakota, New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Nevada, Montana, Mississippi, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Delaware, Conneticut, California, Arizona, Alaska

Offshore Truss Designer with MiTek experience. The candidate is a civil engineer with 6 years' truss design experience for companies in Texas and Florida. Prior work for BFS and smaller manufacturers. Bilingual Spanish/English with a company set up to make paying easy. Scored 89 on our truss design skills evaluation, which is near the senior designer level. He is also SBCA I & II certified. He is willing to go to work immediately.

Compensation: $65-75k as a subcontractor, no benefits or taxes.

We haven't represented offshore candidates in the past but feel this candidate is worth a shot. Please contact Thom for additional details.

ID: C11370

General | Plant Manager/OperationsTruss/Panel/Framing Package Relocation: Texas, Arizona

20 years' experience. Started in production, advanced to Saw Supervisor, Production Manager, Plant Manager, now General Manager. As General Manager operated a $125M truss plant. Tripled output and reduced errors and labor cost. Developed and implemented standards and procedures to manage quality and costs. As Plant Manager (4 years), manage all the operation of the manufacturing plant, such as Productivity, logistics, efficiencies, costs.

As Production Manager (12 years), manage all the areas of the manufacturing across the plant. Safety, quality control, efficiencies, HR, etc... Software: MiTek, Word, Excel, OptiFrame. Products: R & F Truss, Panel, Framing package. Markets: Single Family, Multifamily, Custom Homes. Bilingual English/Spanish spoken and written. Degree in Industrial Engineering.

Compensation: $90's+ bonus ($100k min)

ID: C10897

Design Manager/Senior Designer/PE/ Optimizer - Truss/Panel/EWP Relocation: REMOTE

30 year industry veteran, started as a Truss Designer, earned his way to Design Manager over 20+ designers. MiTek - Advanced, AutoCAD proficient. BSCE - PE.

Compensation: Open??

Thom's Notes: PE with Mid Atlantic seals

ID: C18565

Designer: Truss/Panel, Wood/Steel, BIM

Relocation: North Carolina

Material take-offs, proposals, job-site meetings, Submittal Tracking, Excellent Problem-solving Skills, Material Ordering, Field Measuring, 3-D Modeling Program (3-D and 4-D BIM in-house), Generated material take-offs from the BIM model, Coordinated RFI's thru the BIM model, Clash detection between wood trusses, structural steel and LVL's. 3-D Scan's of job-sites. Scheduled / Distributed work to 6 designers Cross-trained all designers in roof floor and wall panels for whole-house design.

ID: C18370

Plant | Location | General ManagerTruss/Panel

Relocation: California, Nevada Highly experienced (20+ years) roof and floor truss, and wall panel manufacturing manager. Started in the plant as builder, then sawyer, supervisor, truck driver, maintenance manager, designer, outside sales, plant manager, operations manager, and general manager. OSHA trained, developed and implemented safety programs. Successful turn around experience, hands on ability to work with departments to combine individual strengths into one team effort, lower costs, and meet quality and volume expectations. Past experience negotiating better vendor programs to lower costs and improve inventory turns.

ID: C10507

Senior Management - Truss/Panel/ Lumber/Installed Services

Relocation: USA - Western

I am a Diverse driven individual seeking a position in the fast paced construction component industry where my professionalism in sales, business and leadership skills along with a strong proven

background in, General Management, Operations, Sales Management, strategic alliances, business development, team building, P&L experience and Customer Satisfaction will play an integral part in growing new business, nurturing existing business or developing company operations to meet the highest level of efficiencies, standards and safety while having fun doing it!

ID: C11834

General/Regional Manager - Truss/Panel

Relocation: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ontario, Vermont

As District Manager: Responsible for the financial performance of three wood truss and wall panel plants, two Millwork and door assembly facilities and one installed labor location in multiple states. Group revenues increased from $50 million/year in to $70 million per year. Devised a “buy versus make” purchasing protocol in to ensure that internal truss and Millwork plants were operating at capacity before using outside vendors that supplied similar products. Spearheaded a “hub and spoke” organizational structure for three truss plants. This plan optimized scarce design talent, reduced clerical expenses, and synchronized output at each plant. Restructured the installed labor division to include material estimators, lumber salespeople and cost accounting methods in 2005. The changes resulted in a 400k gain in profits. Drafted corporate training material for fall protection and new hire safety orientation.

As General Manager: Won “Gold Store” award for exceeding company goals in profits, sales growth, and ROA. Served on a corporate manufacturing audit and operating performance team that made

A dverti $ er

Component manufaCturing m

The recommendations to under performing truss plants. Two of the facilities audited became “Gold Stores” the following year. When the sales of three district stores were allocated to the truss plant, the lost business ($1.5 million/year) was made up and organic sales grew by over 10%. Sales volume grew from $11 million per year to over $15 million per year.

ID: C18459

Remote Wall Panel Designer | Wall Panel Designer

Relocation: Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario

8 Years' experience as a wall panel designer. Uses HSB CAD, AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit. Everything from Single family custom to multifamily and modular.

ID: C18387

Division Manager, VP Operations, President - Truss | Panel | Building Materials | Pro Dealer

Relocation: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Texas, USASouth, Virginia, Washington DC, Wisconsin

Executive level manager, VP, President with $1+B P&L responsibility. Lumber, building materials, trusses, wall panels, and CFS background. Inquire to discuss this candidate.

ID: C18449

Estimator | Designer - Truss, Panel | Prior carpenter

Relocation: Ohio, Pennsylvania

Prepare and distribute estimates to competing bidders. Calculate labor, time, and material estimated per individual job. Read, analyze, and interpret residential and commercial blueprints. Ensure projects meet the proper building codes and standards for the industry. Communicate with prospective bidders both over the phone and in person. Design and engineer roof trusses, floor trusses, pre-fabricated wall panels, and EWP. Gained first-hand experience setting trusses in the field during prior construction job. Design roof systems to be most efficient and inexpensive when being constructed in the field. Design complete models in MiTek Sapphire. Design and engineer roof trusses and transfer loads throughout the structure as need. Also design and engineer beams and hangers when necessary.

ID: C12414

Truss Designer | Wall Panel Designer | All Hats

Relocation: Arizona

Engineered panel and truss design, developed material take off for turnkey build up, worked in coordination with multiple plants and design teams, worked closely with material suppliers on take offs and estimating.

I've worked for decades in the construction industry. Not only in new construction,

but additions and remodels as well using innovative designs for added value and to drive down cost. In addition to experience with MiTek, Wallbuilder and other design software packages, I have extensive manual trig/math skills. I use these to back check questionable loads as well to design from scratch in the field when needed. I have also written tutorials for the training of others and checked other designer's work as a Design Manager at a Panel Plant. All things being equal, I love working in components whether designing, cutting, building or setting components at the site.

ID: C18430

Truss Designer | Remote Truss Designer

Relocation: USA - South, USA - Southwest, USA - ALL States

Extensive experience in truss estimating and design. Proficient in designing roof and floor trusses for a variety of projects including: custom homes, track homes, multi-family, mega-multifamily, and light commercial projects. I always get everyone involved with the project like architect, engineers, homeowners, and sales personnel Many times I go to the job site for the convenience of the framer and see what kind of condition or changes they might have; this way we will be working on the same page. Also included in my experience is purchasing material, negotiating contracts, setting up deliveries, steel and cmu detailing for steel columns and beams, with almost 25 years of experience in the construction business. MiTek Sapphire.

ID: C18367

Wall Panel Designer | Remote Wall Panel Designer | Mega-Multifamily

Relocation: Utah

Remote wall panel design for medium to large scale MF. Remote estimating using MiTek Sapphire to get a more accurate material count. 100,000 - 500,000 sq ft MF projects primarily in the New England Market with the panel plant being in New Brunswick. Also worked on projects in the Arizona, Texas, and California markets.

Compensation: $70's+ (45+- hours)

ID: C18365

Intermediate Canadian Remote Truss Designer - Sapphire

Relocation: Ontario

Remote Truss Designer available.. Currently provides technical support and designs to lumber distributors for roof systems for residential and commercial applications. Provides technical assistance and support to the distribution staff to meet client demands for engineered wood structural applications. Ensures that wood truss fabricators, lumber distributors and specifiers have adhered to established building standards, codes and practices. Maintains extensive knowledge of structural analysis programs such as MiTek SAPPHIRE Structure design software. Analyze/prepare engineered

wood designs and details for Design Engineer review and approval. Generate manufacturing information and quotations for sales team and management. Prepares the job for production. Canadian codes and standards experienced.

ID: C15958

Operations/Plant Manager - Millwork |

Doors | Ply | Flooring

Relocation: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Wyoming

30 years' experience starting in production and advancing to multi-plant operations manager. Door experience includes managing three Production Managers and five Production Supervisors, consisting of 300 hourly employees producing 11,000 doors and 10,000 face frames per day. Responsible for the manufacturing functions of all mill operations, five frame component machining cells, three frame assembly operations, four door component machining cells, three door assembly clamps, three door profiling lines, two wide belt sanding lines and specialty machining and assembly cells.

Flooring experience: Responsible for all plant functions including budgeting and P&L. Managed six Department Managers: two Production Departments, Quality Assurance, Materials, Human Resources including SHE, and Plant Engineer/Maintenance Manager including the CI program. Their staffs consist of eleven Supervisors and 330 hourly employees. The door plant operation dries lumber, cuts dimension stock, assembles and sands the doors. The panel plant produces the veneered flat and raised center panels, by cutting engineered wood and veneer from flitch and pressing the veneer to the substrate. Both plants are equipped with finishing lines.

ID: C15995

Truss Designer - MiTek Relocation: Florida

Truss Designer. Primary duties: design, layout, optimization, and cutting/production documents. Secondary duties: checking others work. Software used: MiTek and AutoCAD. Component experience includes floor trusses and roof trusses. Market experience includes single family, multifamily, light commercial, and agriculture. My volume was varied depending on projects. 2 years experience, MiTek software.

ID: C10789

Production Manager/Supervisor - Truss/ Panel

Relocation: Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, USA - Northwest, Wisconsin 20 years experience. Responsible for all aspects of truss and panel production, inventory, performance reviews. 65

workers, $9M year. WTCA quality control certified.

ID: C18277

Professional Engineer | Engineering Manager - Engineered Wood Products, Components Structural Hardware | Codes & Compliance

Relocation: Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, USA - Eastern, Virginia, Washington DC

Experienced and successful professional engineering manager with over 25 years experience in improving productivity and resolving structural problems for engineered wood product and truss manufacturers and developing innovative design software programs. Also skilled in building outstanding teams and relationships among sales, manufacturing, and engineering stakeholders. Highly educated with exceptional employment history & experience.

ID: C18250

Remote Senior Light Gage Steel Truss/ Panel Designer.

Relocation: Texas

Top level Light Gage Steel Senior Remote Designer with Truss and Panel and well as metal frame commercial project experience. Alpine, Truswal and Keymark experience.

ID: C17230

Remote Wall Panel Designer - Sapphire Relocation: Newfoundland

My objective is to be part of a team/company and prove I am reliable, show my ability and my willingness to learn! In addition to being a newer wall panel designer, I have learned software such as Mitek Sapphire, Revit 2017, Bluebeam Revu 2016. I have recently done jobs such as designing garages and adding on additions to homes. Jobs I have worked in wall paneling include a massive wall panel job for the US (500,000+ SFT) and designed units for a senior complex. In addition to wall panels...I also add in blocking, windows, doors, etc. I also do bundling and paperwork as well.

ID: C16152

Mega-Multifamily General Manager

Relocation: Florida

Mega-Multifamily General Manager. Apply to discuss this candidate. Highly confidential.

ID: C13445

Truss Designer | Wall Panel Designer | Truss Cutting Technician

Relocation: Texas, Arizona

2 years' experience. Perfect entry level candidate. Design light gauge steel walls and trusses for residential homes and small commercial buildings. AutoCAD certificate with Architectural focus. From the candidate: I have a strong architectural background and come from a construction family. I've seen or worked in most facets of

The

Component manufaCturing m

A dverti $ er

the construction field. From masonry work to framing to roofing since I was a teenager. I'm very passionate about what I do , self motivated and always strive to be the best. Very picky with my work and I don't like to do anything wrong and failure is not an option for me. I always try to do whatever is needed to achieve company goals.

ID: C11781

Truss Design Manager

Relocation: New York

Worked on the most complicated custom projects, commercial buildings, and apartment complexes. Quickly became a team leader and was considered company wide as an expert in truss framing and computer applications. Provided training for a group of 30 experienced component designers in topics including load tracking, truss and layout optimization, and hardware specification. Optimization training helped to reduced material costs by 5%. Developed departmental procedures to increase consistency and accuracy of all designs and estimates. Reduced errors on repetitive projects by 25% by creating the master project file database, which organized and provided fast and easy access to project information. Streamlined estimating process for commercial construction projects. Analyzed the final cost of completed projects and applied results to new estimates. Reduced estimating time by 75% Managed up to 10 designers/sales reps. Software: MiTek, AutoCAD.

ID: C15999

Outside Sales - Truss | Wall Panel | EWP | Installed Sales

Relocation: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia

16 years' experience in outside sales of trusses, wall panels, engineered wood components, stairs and other building materials. Projects range from tract to high volume multifamily apartments. Has developed new territory, improved sales in lagging markets, and met or exceeded sales goals in most years. Has turn key installed sales experience, and has limited design skills from the past. Please inquire for additional information. Easy relocate.

ID: C15857

Senior Truss Designer | Remote Truss Designer | Design Manager

Relocation: California

Truss Designer. Primary duties: design, layout, optimization, cutting/production documents, and takeoff. Secondary duties: checking others work, scheduling, repairs, customer service, inside sales, and field measurements. Software used: MiTek and AutoCAD. Component experience includes floor trusses, roof trusses, I-Joists, EWP, and hardware. Market experience includes tract, single family, single family custom, multifamily, and light commercial. My volume was varied depending on projects. Has used

MiTek, Alpine, AutoCAD, and Microsoft Office programs.

The candidate has been out of the industry, working in parallel jobs, and wants to return to a design position. Scored Senior Designer using an HP calculator, 8 years after his last truss design job. Speed was faster than average too. It may take a little time for him to get up to speed on the latest software. Ranked 5 out of 5 in our system.

ID: C10810

Designer/Inside Sales - Truss

Relocation: Virginia

6 years design experience, 1 inside sales. Primary duties: design, layout, optimization, cutting/production documents, and takeoff. Secondary duties: scheduling, repairs, customer service, inside sales, and field measurements. Software used: MiTek, AutoCAD, and CAD - Other. Component experience includes floor trusses and roof trusses. Market experience includes tract, single family, single family custom, multifamily, light commercial, and agriculture. My volume was varied depending on projects. Past carpenter and framer. Has an engineering related associates degree/ drafting

Compensation: $45k+

ID: C10234

Outside Truss Sales/Technical | Estimator Relocation: Colorado, Wyoming

35 years construction experience, 25 in truss sales. Sells Trusses wholesale. Sells Trusses to Builders and Owner Builders and service the account through Design, Pricing, Production, Delivery, Installation, and problem solving. Also service National accounts which involves solving all the in-field problems. Dealing directly with the project Supervisor on missing trusses, damaged, missing plates, trusses don't plane, don't work, design errors, bad deliveries, dealing also with the building inspectors, and project engineers.

Will also consider a remote estimator position.

Compensation: Mid $30's base plus commission.

ID: C15679

LGS Truss & Panel PE

Relocation: USA - Eastern, USA - South

As Engineering Manager I was responsible for oversight of all technical and engineering engagements. Design of light gauge metal trusses, wall panels, shear walls, for hotels, retirement homes and other commercial and residential structures. Making jobs viable by replacing red-iron with light gauge metal was key to solidifying more projects. I was actively engaged in computer software development of truss design and coordinating overseas programming efforts

into truss layout.

As Senior Technical Services Engineer, I held the nation-wide responsibility for all light gauge cold-formed steel truss engineering including field applied repair design. I provided technical advice and counsel to our staff and functioned as a subject matter expert (SME) for all three product divisions. As a result, I augmented my professional registrations to include 38 States, 1 District, and 1 Canadian Province.

ID: C15673

Outside Sales - Truss/EWP/I-Joist

Relocation: North Carolina

I was responsible for calling on builders and retail lumberyards selling floor and roof trusses, LVL, EWP and hardware. I would talk to the builder or lumberyard salesperson to see what there exact needs were and would then do a hand takeoff to generate pricing. I was also available do make job site visits if there were any situations that needed resolved. I went to my new employer as an Account Manager we used Mitek along with management software. I was able to take 95% of my existing customers that knew how good a job I always did for them. I was able to grow the market from $0.00 to $2,500,000. I worked with track builders, custom home builders and light commercial. With my education and passion for the building industry it was easy for me to do my job. I enjoy dealing with people, reading blue prints and being able to provide my customers with valued engineering, a quality product and outstanding customer service.

ID: C14490

General Manager | Operations Manager

| Turn Around

Relocation: Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington DC, West Virginia, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas Full P&L turnaround of a family owned light gage steel panel manufacturing company. Turned it form a mom and pop, into a large, functioning manufacturing company that had systems, KPI programs, personnel development, and a growing customer base. Ready to help take your company to the next level.

ID: C11976

Design/Estimating/Sales - Truss/LGS Relocation: New York

Experienced wood & cold formed steel truss designer with 12 years experience using MiTek Industries and Aegis Metal Framing products and software. Seasoned sales professional with 8 years experience selling; wood roof & floor trusses and accessories, metal roof trusses and accessories, and the sale of component design and engineering

services. A highly motivated designer and sales person with a proven track record for achieving excellence, building long term business relationships, and providing impeccable service to contractors, engineers, architects, and developers throughout New York and New England. Specialize in design build and defense contracting from early pre-bid/qualification stages through installation.

ID: C11895

Designer - Truss/I-Joists, EWP

Relocation: California, USA - ALL States, Texas, Alaska

Designer. Primary duties: design and cutting/production documents. Secondary duties: checking others work and field measurements. Software used: Alpine and MiTek. Component experience includes floor trusses, roof trusses, I-Joists, EWP, and hardware. Market experience includes single family, single family custom, multifamily, and light commercial. BS Civil Engineering. Software: Alpine, MiTek, AutoCAD, Word, Excel.

ID: C11501

Production/Plant/Location ManagerTruss/Panel/I-Joist/Framing Package

Relocation: North Carolina

20 years experience. Managed 6 different locations over 12 years. Started 2 panel plant from scratch.Increased production at all plants I managed. Was promoted to Manufacturing Manager in 2009 over multiple plants. Worked closely with the designers, became proficient with the MBA and MVP programs. Trained 3 different people to become plant managers. Can operate all saws, computer systems, forklifts, trucks. Started up a Panel Plant in 2004. Plant Manager of the year two out of the three years the program was in place. Only Manager to go two years in a row, at different locations with no accidents.

Compensation: $50-70k+ incentive with future opportunity for more.

Single-Family Starts will Rise in 2024 but Supply-Side Challenges Persist

Posted February 27, 2024 on NAHB Now | The News Blog of the National Association of Home Builders Reprinted with permission.

While higher interest rates pushed single-family starts down in 2022 and 2023, production should move on a gradual upward path in 2024 as the Federal Reserve is on track to cut rates during the second half of the year with inflation slowing, according to economists speaking at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas today.

“While the Fed’s fight against inflation is building progress, the lingering inflation challenge is housing inflation,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Shelter inflation—rent and homeownership costs—are still rising at a 5.4% rate, and for the past year, more than half of overall inflation in the economy has been shelter inflation. The only way to tame shelter inflation, and get overall inflation lower, is to build more housing.”

With a nationwide shortage of roughly 1.5 million housing units, increasing the nation’s housing supply will not only help tame inflation, but also ease the nation’s housing affordability crisis by moving toward a healthy supply-demand balance in the for-sale and rental markets.

NAHB is forecasting two or three Fed rate cuts of 25 basis points each during the latter half of 2024, which should put mortgage rates on an uneven downward path. With economic data stronger than expected at the start of the year, mortgage rates increased from about 6.6% to 6.9% by the end of February per Freddie Mac, indicating that even with rates expected to moderate in the months ahead, it could be a bumpy path forward.

“By the end of this year, NAHB projects mortgage rates will be below 6.5% and by the end of 2025, we expect rates to be in the high 5% range,” said Dietz. “This is good news for builders, housing demand and housing affordability.”

But as single-family home building expands in 2024, the market will see growing supply-side challenges in the form of higher prices and/or shortages of lumber, lots, and labor.

“Home builders continue to contend with elevated construction and regulatory costs,” said Dietz. “Indeed, regulatory costs, which include complying with building codes, zoning issues and other costly challenges, make up almost 24% of the final sales price of a newly built single-family home, or $93,870 per new home.”

NAHB conducts a survey on the regulatory costs of home building every five years and the latest survey shows that regulatory costs for an average home built for sale increased by 11% from 2016 to 2021, faster than inflation.

The Forecast

As interest rates moderate, single-family starts are forecast to increase 4.7% this year to an annual rate of 988,000 units and rise an additional 4.2% in 2025 to a 1.03 million pace. “We need to build more than 1.15 million single-family homes a year to reduce the nation’s housing deficit,” Dietz noted.

On the multifamily front, NAHB is expecting multifamily starts to fall 19.7% this year to a rate of 379,000 because of tight credit Continued next page

INdustry NEWs

conditions. There are approximately 1 million apartments under construction – the highest rate since 1973 – and as these new apartments come to market, rent growth will slow, which will help ease inflation. However, this new supply will put a damper on the apartment market until it stabilizes in 2025 with a 2.3% gain to 388,000 units. Meanwhile, residential remodeling activity is expected to remain relatively flat this year followed by a 2% gain for 2025 as the existing home sales market improves.

More Builders are Bullish

With the mortgage rate “lock-in” effect contributing to existing home sales falling to near a 30-year low in 2023, and new homes sales accounting for more than 30% of the single-family market (compared to a 10-12% average rate), the new home sales market appears poised for another solid year in 2024.

“Eighty percent of builders anticipate starting more homes this year, and more than half (51%) expect that starts will be up more than 10% compared to 2023,” said Zonda Chief Economist Ali Wolf.

And amidst a shortage of buildable lots, there is close to an even split about charting future land acquisition strategy. A Zonda survey shows that 49% of builders are moving “full steam ahead,” while 46% plan to cautiously move forward. There is a similar split with how builders are seeing land prices, with 49% reporting land prices are moving higher compared to a few months ago while 42% said that prices remain relatively flat.

On the demographic front, there has been a big shift in buying among millennials and baby boomers. Among the generations, boomers accounted for the largest overall home buying share in 2023 at 39%, up roughly 10 percentage points from the previous year. Meanwhile, millennials led the generational home buying share in 2022 with more than 40% of the market, but that rate plummeted to 28% last year. A major factor could be the generational wealth effect, as the share of all-cash sales hit a nine-year high in 2023, and averaged well above 20% in several major markets.

And in helping to understand what today’s new home buyer wants, Wolf noted the top answer buyers gave in considering a purchase is to “avoid renovations or problems,” with more than 40% citing this reason. This was followed by a lack of inventory of previously owned homes and the ability to choose and customize design, which were both cited by about 25% of respondents. Energy efficiency and smart home features were at the back of the pack, under 10% and 5%, respectively.

Housing is Past Peak Unaffordability

While housing affordability remains a serious challenge, the market appears to have hit its peak unaffordability level in October last year, according to Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.

“The monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced active home listing reached a high of $2,405 in October 2023, which represents 29.1% of the share of a median family income,” said Hale. “In January 2024, the payment amount was $2,101, or 26.8% of a median family income.”

Like the other economists, Hale said that more housing inventory is needed to address nationwide shortfalls and ease affordability woes. Citing Realtor.com data, she pointed out that 2023 inventory levels were 36% below the 2017-2019 average, and that a 56% surge is needed just to catch up to that past rate.

Inventory trends vary widely across the nation, Hale noted, with many markets in New England and the Midwest continuing to have an extremely limited supply of homes available. For example, in January 2024, Hartford, Conn. had 81% fewer homes for sale compared to the 2017–2019 period, and it was followed by Rochester, N.Y. at 71%. Other major markets including Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, and Baltimore had well above 50% fewer homes available for sale over the same time period.

The story is different in the South and West, where many markets have recovered or are within 15% of the average 2017–2019 forsale level. Three Texas metros – San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth – actually had more homes for sale in January 2024. New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver, and Houston had inventory levels in January 2024 that were slightly in the red compared to 2017–2019.

NEWs

Simpson Strong-Tie Timber Drive™ Wins 2023 Golden Hammer Award

February 17, 2024, Pleasanton, Calif. — Simpson Strong-Tie, the leader in engineered structural connectors and building solutions, is excited to announce that its new Timber Drive™ structural screw fastening system has been honored with the prestigious 2023 Golden Hammer Award.

Presented by HBSDealer, the Golden Hammer Awards have a tradition of recognizing the best of the best in home improvement products. Winners are selected based on innovation, overall value, and shelf appeal, making this accolade a true testament to the exceptional qualities of the Timber Drive system.

The Timber Drive structural fastening system stood out among a competitive field of nominees for its groundbreaking features and technological advancements. It is a revolutionary tool for stand-up operation that drives large structural screws in a variety of lengths and diameters. It’s ideal for heavy-duty jobs that require repetitive fastening. The ergonomic design of Timber Drive makes it a faster, easier way to work — with less fatigue.

For more information about Timber Drive, visit https://www.strongtie.com/products/go/fasteners/timber-drive

About Simpson Strong-Tie Company Inc.

Simpson Strong-Tie is the world leader in structural solutions — products and technology that help people design and build safer, stronger homes, buildings, and communities. As a pioneer in the building industry, we have an unmatched passion for problem solving through skillful engineering and thoughtful innovation. Our structural systems research and rigorous testing enable us to design code-listed, value-engineered solutions for a multitude of applications in wood, steel, and concrete structures. Our dedication to pursuing ever-better construction products and technology and to surrounding our customers with exceptional service and support has been core to our mission since 1956. For more information, visit strongtie.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Timber Drive Structural Screw Fastening System Shown For Multi-ply Truss Installation

MiTek® Expands Its Reach in the Homebuilding Market By Acquiring TrueNorth Development

February 22, 2024 – Chesterfield, MO. – MiTek, a Berkshire Hathaway company, announces today that it has acquired TrueNorth Development, a global provider of Lean processes and methods to the construction industry, targeting home builders. TrueNorth Development, founded by Scott Sedam in 1997, helps home builders incorporate Lean methods and improve their bottom-line savings while enhancing the final product by uncovering waste in their processes. The acquisition supports MiTek’s mission to advance the adoption of off-site construction and expands its offerings to enable greater productivity, efficiency, and collaboration across the building process.

“This step marks a significant achievement in our collective growth and journey toward enabling more efficient and sustainable building methods,” says David Sell, Chief Innovation Officer at MiTek. “Through this partnership, we can enhance our customers’ experiences and provide exceptional solutions and services to meet their evolving needs.” The partnership involves a more collaborative exchange among builders, component manufacturers, suppliers, and trades to preserve profits and enhance relationships – for everyone involved.

TrueNorth Consulting uses lean construction methods to help builders build more homes with fewer resources and improved quality, starting with product design and including all company functions to participate in a LeanBuilding™ workshop. The key stakeholders from this group become the primary drivers for implementing significant cost reduction.

Despite many innovations, the way construction is done hasn’t changed much in the last 100+ years. The lack of collaboration among specialists at the beginning of construction projects creates several problems for architects, engineers, builders, subcontractors, and customers. MiTek is endeavoring to reimagine and reengineer the entire construction process.

“Many construction businesses have existed for multiple generations, and they only know how to build homes the way they do today,” says Joe Murphy, Senior Director of Business Development, Homebuilding Innovations at MiTek. “The homebuilding industry has the lowest productivity growth since World War II and negative productivity efficiencies since 1970, which is why we need to help change the entire system of how homes are built.”

The TrueNorth offerings and staff remain the same, including their commitment to existing and future initiatives. Scott Sedam and his facilitators continue to serve the business as part of MiTek. “We are confident this acquisition brings added value to our customers’ experience with us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership together,” adds Sell.

Builder Sentiment Posts Third Consecutive Monthly Gain

Posted February 15, 2024 on NAHB Now | The News Blog of the National Association of Home Builders

Reprinted with permission.

Expectations that mortgage rates will continue to moderate in the coming months, the prospect of future rate cuts by the Federal Reserve later this year, and a protracted lack of existing inventory helped provide a boost to builder sentiment for the third straight month.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes climbed four points to 48 in February, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today. This is the highest level since August 2023.

“Buyer traffic is improving as even small declines in interest rates will produce a disproportionate positive response among likely home purchasers,” said NAHB Chairman Alicia Huey, a custom home builder and developer from Birmingham, Ala. “And while mortgage rates still remain too high for many prospective buyers, we anticipate that due to pent-up demand, many more buyers will enter the marketplace if mortgage rates continue to decline this year.”

“With future expectations of Fed rate cuts in the latter half of 2024, NAHB is forecasting that single-family starts will rise about 5% this year,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “But as builders break ground on more homes, lot availability is expected to be a growing concern, along with persistent labor shortages. And as a further reminder that the recovery will be bumpy as buyers remain sensitive to interest rate and construction cost changes, the 10-year Treasury rate is up more than 40 basis points since the beginning of the year.”

With mortgage rates now below 7% since mid-December, more builders are cutting back on reducing home prices to boost sales. In February, 25% of builders reported cutting home prices, down from 31% in January and 36% in the last two months of 2023. However, the average price reduction in February held steady at 6% for the eighth straight month. Meanwhile, the use of sales incentives is also diminishing. The share of builders offering some form of incentive dropped to 58% in February, down from 62% in January and the lowest share since last August.

Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 35 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

All three of the major HMI indices posted gains in February. The HMI index charting current sales conditions increased four points to 52, the component measuring sales expectations in the next six months rose three points to 60 and the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers increased four points to 33. Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the Northeast increased three points to 57, the Midwest gained two points to 36, the South rose five points to 46 and the West registered a six-point gain to 38.

HMI tables can be found at nahb.org/hmi. More information on housing statistics is also available at Housing Economics PLUS (formerly housingeconomics.com).

Housing Starts Decline in January on Multifamily Weakness

Posted February 16, 2024 on NAHB Now | The News Blog of the National Association of Home Builders

Reprinted with permission.

A sharp decline in multifamily starts pushed overall housing starts down in January even as single-family production showed signs of a gradual improvement later this year as interest rates continue to moderate.

Overall housing starts decreased 14.8% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.33 million units, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The January reading of 1.33 million starts is the number of housing units builders would begin if development kept this pace for the next 12 months. Within this overall number, single-family starts decreased 4.7% to a 1 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. However, single-family starts are up 22% compared to a year ago. The multifamily sector, which includes apartment buildings and condos, decreased 35.6% to an annualized 327,000 pace.

“Moderating mortgage interest rates in 2024 will ultimately lead to gains for single-family home building this year,” said Alicia Huey, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder and developer from Birmingham, Ala. “However, tighter lending conditions and higher costs for construction and development loans are holding back some construction at the start of the year.”

“Multifamily construction is forecasted to post a large decline in 2024 as the number of units currently under construction is near the highest level since 1973,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Meanwhile, single-family production, which is currently running at a 1-million-unit annual rate, is roughly in line with builder sentiment that remains right below a breakeven level, according to our latest surveys. We are forecasting single-family starts to post a modest gain in 2024 as mortgage rates moderate on expected interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve later this year.”

On a regional basis compared to the previous month, combined single-family and multifamily starts are 20.6% lower in the Northeast, 30% lower in the Midwest, 9.7% lower in the South and 15.7% lower in the West.

Overall permits decreased 1.5% to a 1.47 million unit annualized rate in January. The disparity in permit growth between single-family and multifamily construction is consistent with the outlook for each submarket. Single-family permits increased 1.6% to a 1.02 million unit rate, the highest since May 2022. Multifamily permits decreased 7.9% to an annualized 455,000 pace, the lowest since April 2020.

Looking at regional permit data compared to the previous month, permits are 19.4% higher in the Northeast, 6.6% higher in the Midwest, 7% lower in the South and 1.5% higher in the West.

The number of apartments under construction dipped below 1 million for the first time since May 2023, with additional declines expected in 2024. In contrast, the number of single-family homes under construction stood at 680,000 in January, matching the best reading since June 2023.

NEWs

Multifamily Developer Confidence in Negative Territory in Fourth Quarter

Posted February 22, 2024 on NAHB Now | The News Blog of the National Association of Home Builders

Reprinted with permission.

Confidence in the market for new multifamily housing was in negative territory in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to results from the Multifamily Market Survey (MMS) released today by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The MMS produces two separate indices. The Multifamily Production Index (MPI) had a reading of 41—below the break-even point of 50—while the Multifamily Occupancy Index (MOI) reading was 77.

The MPI measures builder and developer sentiment about current production conditions in the apartment and condo market on a scale of 0 to 100. The index and all its components are scaled so that a number below 50 indicates that more respondents report conditions are poor than report conditions are good.

The MPI is a weighted average of four key market segments: three in the built-for-rent market (garden/low-rise, mid/high-rise and subsidized) and one in the built-for-sale (or condominium) market. In the fourth quarter, sentiment about production of mid/high-rise apartments was weaker than the other market segments. The component measuring garden/low-rise units had a reading of 51, the component measuring mid/high-rise units had a reading of 26, the component measuring subsidized units had a reading of 41 and the component measuring built-for-sale units had a reading of 43.

The MOI measures the multifamily housing industry’s perception of occupancies in existing apartments on a scale of 0 to 100. The index and all its components are scaled so that a number above 50 indicates more respondents report that occupancy is good than report it is poor. The MOI is a weighted average of three built-for-rent market segments (garden/low-rise, mid/high-rise and subsidized). In the fourth quarter, sentiment about occupancy in mid/high-rise apartments was weaker than the other market segments. The component measuring garden/low-rise units had a reading of 80, the component measuring mid/high-rise units had a reading of 64 and the component measuring subsidized units had a reading of 88.

“Tight lending standards and the high cost of development loans continue to impede the financing of new multifamily projects,” said Lance Swank, president and CEO of Sterling Group, Inc. in Mishawaka, Ind., and chairman of NAHB’s Multifamily Council. “Developers in many parts of the country have also become cautious as they see a substantial number of new apartments being delivered and more that are ready to come online.”

“An MPI below 50 at the end of 2023 is consistent with the weakness in multifamily starts the Census Bureau reported in January,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz “NAHB projects that multifamily production will be down in 2024, as the number of apartments currently under construction is near its highest level since 1973.”

Because the previous version of the MMS series can no longer be used to compare with this quarter’s results, the redesigned tool asked builders and developers to compare current market conditions in their areas to three months earlier, using a “better,” “about the same” or “worse” scale. Fourteen percent of respondents said that the market is “better” than it was three months earlier, while 63% said it is “about the same” and 23% said it is “worse.”

For additional information on the MMS, visit www.nahb.org/mms. For more information on the NAHB Multifamily program, please visit NAHB Multifamily

NAHB Partnership Revives Technical Education Training in Schools

Posted February 1, 2024 on NAHB Now | The News Blog of the National Association of Home Builders

Reprinted with permission.

NAHB members fondly remember shop class or their vocational education, which in recent years has evolved into Career and Technical Education (CTE). CTE encompasses various in-demand careers for the 21st century, including the building trades. A lack of skilled workers is a persistent challenge for the residential construction industry. NAHB’s national partnership with the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) will help address the pressing need for qualified professionals.

“ACTE is providing educational leadership to develop the workforce needed for today and tomorrow. We are so grateful for our partnership with NAHB and other employer-focused organizations,” said LeAnn Curry, executive director of ACTE. “Together, we work side-by-side to ensure America’s future and the future of individuals who will help drive our economy forward.”

ACTE is the nation’s largest not-for-profit association committed to the advancement of education that prepares youth and adults for successful careers. NAHB’s partnership with ACTE will:

• Connect home builders’ associations (HBAs) and member leaders to schools;

• Provide educators with access to industry professionals; and

• Establish relationships between students and educators with all levels of the Federation.

A critical partnership benefit for the Federation is direct access to ACTE’s vast network of school administrators and skilled trades instructors. NAHB’s workforce development team can connect any HBA to contacts at area high schools, community colleges or universities to establish a student chapter and introduce them to the Home Builders Institute’s Skills to Schools grant program and their nationally recognized, patented Pre-Apprenticeship Certificate Training (PACT) curriculum.

Schools that partner with an HBA will be able to expand career exploration opportunities for their students. NAHB members have worked with schools to generously donate their time for job shadowing, internships or apprenticeships, job site visits and guest lecturing, and provide funding for tools and equipment.

Beyond the classroom, schools can raise the visibility of their CTE programs by working with HBAs to prepare and send student teams to the International Builders’ Show to participate in the NAHB Student Competition. For more information on NAHB’s workforce development national partnership strategy or to establish a connection with a CTE program in your community, contact Greg Zick

Brigham Young University NAHB Student Chapter

NEWs

84 Lumber Celebrates New, Bigger Sarasota, FL Location

EIGHTY FOUR, Pa. (Feb. 22, 2024) — 84 Lumber, the nation’s largest privately held building materials supplier, celebrated the opening of its new location at 1315 17th Street East, Palmetto, Florida during a circus-themed event at the site on Feb. 21, 2024.

Formerly a Ringling Bros. property, the location is comprised of three buildings on 10 acres, with each building at approximately more than 20,000 square feet. The entire location employs over 60 associates. 84 Lumber had been operating in Bradenton, Florida since 2006 before the relocation.

“Our Florida presence has had a great impact on our business for many years,” said 84 Lumber owner and CEO Maggie Hardy. “Outgrowing our Bradenton location is proof that we are not only determined to bring in more business but that we are dedicated to doing everything we can to make our customers successful and satisfied. This new store location will allow us to continue to give this market exactly what it needs.”

“We are very excited,” said Buzz Bowman, the store’s general manager. “This larger footprint will provide us with the tools to continue growing in the market and we look forward to a bright future ahead.”

Attended by 84 Lumber customers, associates, vendor partners, and officials from state and local governments –including representatives from Sen. Marco Rubio’s office, Sen. Jim Boyd’s office, and Rep. Vern Buchanan’s office, as well as city of Palmetto Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant – guests enjoyed a circus-themed celebration that included food and entertainment such as funnel cakes, popcorn, a caricature artist, and a hi striker bell ringer. Guests were given the opportunity to tour the newly finished facility.

During the ceremony, 84 Lumber donated $100,000 to the Fisher House Foundation’s Bay Pines Fisher House. The organization is currently working on opening a second Fisher House home, allowing military families and veterans staying at the C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center a place to stay while loved ones are receiving care. The second house will allow Bay Pines to provide more than 9,000 nights of lodging for families each year, saving more than a million dollars annually in lodging and transportation costs.

This donation is 84 Lumber’s continued symbol of support and dedication in giving back to our veterans and military service members.

Fisher Houses have provided free, temporary housing to more than 450,000 military and veterans’ families since the program’s inception in 1990. There are currently 96 Fisher House homes across the U.S. and Europe, with dozens more planned or under construction.

To learn more, visit www.84Lumber.com or follow 84 Lumber on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Builders FirstSource Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Results; Provides 2024 Financial Outlook

February 22, 2024, IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Builders FirstSource, Inc. today reported its results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023.

BFS Highlights, All Year-Over-Year Comparisons Unless Otherwise Noted:

• For the fourth quarter, net sales were $4.2 billion, a 4.7% decrease, primarily driven by a decline in core organic net sales of 1.3% and commodity deflation of 5.0%, partially offset by growth from acquisitions of 1.6%.

• For the fourth quarter, net income was $350.7 million, or $2.83 earnings per diluted share, compared to net income of $384.5 million, or $2.62 earnings per diluted share, in the same period a year ago. The 8.8% decrease in net income was primarily driven by lower net sales.

• For the fourth quarter, Adjusted EBITDA decreased 1.6% to $685.5 million, primarily driven by lower net sales. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 50 basis points from the prior year period to 16.5%, attributable to higher gross margin, partially offset by reduced operating leverage. The Adjusted EBITDA margin has remained in the mid-teens or better for 11 consecutive quarters.

• For the twelve months ended December 31, 2023, cash provided by operating activities was $2.3 billion, and cash used in investing activities was $0.7 billion. The Company’s free cash flow was $1.9 billion.

• The Company repurchased $1.8 billion of shares in 2023, reducing its total shares outstanding by 12.2% in 2023.

“I’m proud of our fourth quarter and full year results, which demonstrated the strength of our broad product portfolio and continued execution by our resilient team members. Despite a challenging operating environment in 2023, which saw a significant reduction in single-family starts, we delivered a high-teens EBITDA margin. We accomplished this through operational rigor and by closely partnering with our customers to help address their pain points through use of our value-added solutions, solidifying our position as the easiest to do business with across the industry,” commented Dave Rush, CEO of Builders FirstSource.

Mr. Rush continued, “As we turn to 2024, we are excited about the opportunities in front of us. As we outlined at our recent Investor Day in December, we remain focused on our consistent strategy of growing our value-added products and services, investing in digital innovations, operating effciently, and compounding long-term shareholder value.”

Peter Jackson, CFO of Builders FirstSource, added, “Our fourth quarter and full year results demonstrate the effectiveness of our operating model through the cycle. Our fortress balance sheet, strong cash flow generation, and ability to prudently deploy capital to the highest return opportunities, including acquisitions and share repurchases, continues to position us for long-term success. We are leveraging our sustainable competitive advantages and strong financial position to drive future growth and value creation for our shareholders.”

To continue reading, view the complete 14-page press release online.

Education and Support Encourage Innovative Light-Frame Projects

Sixty-six percent of WoodWorks’ 2023 reported projects were light-frame wood, a construction type that is tried-and-true, with light-frame projects making up 86% of the wood market for non-residential and multifamily buildings, according to Forest Economic Advisors’ 2024 U.S. Outlook.

Light-frame construction is also complex and evolving as design teams use it for taller and more advanced applications. WoodWorks supports issues ranging from detailing to code compliance, accommodating shrinkage, and the nuances of light-frame/mass timber hybrids. As with all construction types, WoodWorks’ staff facilitates these innovative light-frame projects with a mix of one-on-one support, education, and resources—giving practitioners direct information where needed, along with the knowledge and tools to resolve future issues independently.

In 2023, for example, WoodWorks hosted or spoke at 129 events featuring innovative light-frame topics that attracted a total of 13,143 attendees. Adding to these numbers, WoodWorks events also include many blended sessions covering both lightframe and mass timber topics. WoodWorks strives to provide a balanced education lineup that is relevant across audiences, building types (multifamily, institutional, commercial), and wood products, demonstrating the value of wood generally and reinforcing the message that there is a cost-effective wood solution to almost any project. This approach helped propel WoodWorks to nearly 80,000 education hours in 2023—a program record.

Presentations in February include:

• A New Path Forward for Tall Wood Construction: Code Provisions and Design Steps

• Mid-Rise Multi-Family: Exploring Light-Frame and Mass Timber Solutions

• Designing and Detailing Mass Timber Projects for Acoustic Performance

• Opportunities for Wood Use in Low-Rise Commercial Buildings.

For more information on these and other presentations, visit the WoodWorks Presentation Archive

NEWs

UFP Industries Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2023 Results

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024 – UFP Industries, Inc. today announced net sales of $1.5 billion, net earnings attributable to controlling interest of $103 million, and earnings per diluted share of $1.62 for the fourth quarter of 2023. The company also announced net sales of $7.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of $8.07 for fiscal 2023. Fiscal 2023 results reflect the impact of one less week compared to fiscal 2022.

“Our teammates produced solid results in 2023 and built the foundation for future growth in sales and profits,” said Chairman and CEO Matthew J. Missad. “Our operating margins and robust cash flow continue to surpass historic levels and allow us to remain on offense. We have the capital to make significant investments to grow, both organically and through acquisitions, while continuing to enhance our value-added product offering. This gives us the confidence to raise our long-term targets for growth and profitability.”

“As we look to 2024, we expect market conditions to remain challenging in the first half of the year before improving in the second half,” Missad added. “We are committed to make each aspect of our business better as we work toward greater efficiencies, lower costs and more innovative products and services. The team’s commitment to winning contributed greatly to our success in 2023 and positions us well for the future.”

Fourth Quarter 2023 Highlights (comparisons on a year-over-year basis; results reflect the impact of one less week of operating activity in the fourth quarter of 2023):

• Net sales of $1.52 billion decreased 20 percent due to a 10 percent decrease in prices and a 10 percent decrease in organic unit sales. The organic unit growth decline was due, in part, to the impact of one less week of operating activity in the fourth quarter of 2023, which resulted in a 6 percent unit decline.

• New product sales of $142 million decreased 18 percent, largely due to lower lumber prices. New product sales comprised 9.2 percent of total sales in 2023 compared to 8.9 percent last year.

• Earnings from operations of $124 million decreased 26 percent.

• Adjusted EBITDA1 of $166 million decreased 22 percent, and adjusted EBITDA1 margin declined 20 basis points to 10.9 percent.

UFP Construction

Fourth Quarter: $511 million in net sales, down 16 percent from the fourth quarter of 2022, due to a 13 percent decline in selling prices and a 3 percent decline in organic unit sales. One less week of operating activity in the fourth quarter of 2023 resulted in a 6 percent unit decline.

Full Year: $2.16 billion in net sales, down 31 percent from the previous year due to an 18 percent decline in selling prices and a 13 percent decline in organic unit sales. One less week of operating activity in 2023 resulted in a 1 percent unit decline.

For the year-over-year Fiscal 2023 Highlights and to continue reading, view the complete press release online

Miller Elected as TPI President at End-of-Year Board Meeting

Scott’s vision is to showcase TPI’s engineering prowess and expand the organization’s reach both within and beyond the wood truss industry.

February 27, 2024—The TPI Board convened in sunny Phoenix, AZ in December 2023 for their annual end-of-year meeting and Scott Miller, P.E. was elected as the new TPI president for the upcoming two-year term. Scott’s vision is to showcase TPI’s engineering prowess and expand the organization’s reach both within and beyond the wood truss industry. He firmly believes that TPI possesses a wealth of technical knowledge that is not yet widely recognized.

During the meeting, the TPI Board had the opportunity to collaborate with the TPI Engineers. Together, they reflected on the successful completion of various projects in 2023, delved into ongoing technical initiatives, and laid out ambitious plans for 2024. Notable achievements from the previous year included the release of the new ANSI/TPI 1-2022 standard, the finalization and publication of the TPI 2 truss testing standard, and the update and publication of the Commentary for the revised ANSI/TPI 1 standard.

The group also engaged in discussions about a range of testing projects that the TPI Engineers have been working on. These projects encompassed a diverse array of topics, such as a investigation into plate backout and repressing, which promises to shed light on grip strength change in re-pressed connector plates affected by weathering.

Furthermore, the TPI Engineers presented preliminary data from ongoing testing projects that originated from the TPI 1 update project. These included investigations into the impact of a 1/8-inch gap on connector plate shear strength, as well as comparisons between roller press and hydraulic press connector plate grip values. The engineers plan to continue these projects throughout 2024, with the goal of summarizing their findings by year’s end. TPI is looking forward to another productive year in 2024.

48,000 SF Expansion to A-1 Industries of Florida Manufacturing Facility in St. Lucie County

FORT PIERCE, Fla. – A-1 Global Holdings, Inc., an industry leader in pre-engineered building components, proudly announces the completion and grand opening of its latest expansion, a 48,000 square-foot addition to the A-1 Industries of Florida manufacturing facility in Fort Pierce. This significant development is a strategic response to the Company’s record growth and increasing customer demand.

President of A-1 Global Holdings, Jan S. Beck, expressed enthusiasm about the Company’s trajectory. “Our growth has been nothing short of phenomenal in recent years. This expansion allows us to significantly enhance our production capabilities for roof and floor trusses, proprietary EZWALL® Innovative Framing SolutionTM, and meet the surging demand for engineered wood products. It’s pivotal in our commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction.”

The addition, built adjacent to the current 83,200-square-foot production facility, houses the Company’s floor truss and EZWALL® framing solutions departments and contain state-of-the-art manufacturing technology. It also includes a 1,600-square-foot office, a 1,250-square-foot break room for A-1 employees, and “A-1 University”, a nationally recognized hands-on Design training program.

As part of A-1’s strategic growth plans, this most recent addition follows the opening of A-1 Industries of Georgia’s 180,000-square-foot facility in Bainbridge, Georgia, in early 2022. “No other Company in this industry has the land resources of A-1. We can easily and quickly expand, without stopping operations, to accommodate future growth. This is a huge competitive advantage for us,” said A-1 Founder and CEO John Herring.

About A-1 Global Holdings

Founded in 1977, A–1 has over 440 employees and is a leading manufacturer of pre–engineered wood trusses and EZWALL® Innovative Framing Solution™. The Company reorganized last December as A-1 Global Holdings, Inc., the new parent company for A-1 Industries of Florida, Inc., and A-1 Industries of Georgia, LLC. A-1 currently has manufacturing facilities in Fort Pierce, Fla., and Bainbridge, Ga., and multiple employment opportunities in both locations for candidates who share the Company’s Core Values – Own it, Passionate, Honesty, and Respect. A-1’s employees are eligible to participate in the Company’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

Wolf

West

For Information on Any of these Job Opportunities

Visit: The Hiring Zone

Wood Floor and Roof Truss Designer 24-0201-1

Employer: Truss Tech Industries, Inc.

In office position for Mide level, Senior level designer with the Mitek software program experience single family and commercial projects.

CFS Wall Panel Estimator 230920

Employer: Client Confidential

We are a fast growing Midwest company that is looking for someone with at least 5-10 years experience doing costs estimates, takeoffs, and bids for commercial cold-formed steel load-bearing wall panel projects. Our niche is in the hospitality and assisted living/ retirement industries and we are in our 3rd year of consecutive record sales and profits.

Remote Truss Designer J15228

Employer: Client Confidential

Details: Our client in the Southeast is looking for Remote Truss Designer. Work remote, or in an office location. They need senior level Remote Truss Designers and Intermediate level may be considered. Fantastic benefits, compensation is very competitive, and they use MiTek software. Remote is an option if you have a home office and remote experience, or you can work in one of their offices. They may consider someone without remote experience, just depends on the skill level. Must be in the Southeast

Remote Truss & Panel Designer J15290

Employer: Client Confidential

Truss Designer for Single Family Custom and Production Builder projects. Products include floor and roof trusses, I-Joists, wall panels, MiTek. Panel experience is a plus! JobLine Senior Designer rating is preferred. Remote or hybrid remote may be available, depending upon skills and experience.

Hybrid Remote Truss Designer - Single Family J14212

Employer: Client Confidential

If you are a mid to senior level Truss designer, able to design for mostly single family custom and production builder type projects, able to design in savings and create packages that work in the plant and on site, this is a job you should consider. The company uses MiTek but will consider other truss design software experience. This job requires someone who is used to working with repetitive tasks, but also finding savings and minimizing errors.

Truss Designer J15286

Employer: Client Confidential Products include floor and roof trusses, I-Joists, wall panels, MiTek. Panel experience is a plus! JobLine Senior Designer rating is preferred. This is an In-Office position only. No remote, but part time remote may be available, depending upon skills and experience.

Thom's Notes: One of my "A" list employers, great benefits, competitive compensation plus very competitive bonus program. When I place someone there, they stick! Very tight specifications for this employer. Relocation assistance is available.

Regional Mega-Multifamily Truss Designer

Mega-Multifamily Estimator/ Designer needed to support multiple plants. Duties include modeling for estimating and full designs of multifamily projects. Intermediate or advanced skill level will be considered using JobLine's Truss Design Skills Evaluation. This job is local, remote (Eastern Time Zone), or hybrid. Relocation assistance is negotiable if you plan to work in the office. Please inquire for additional details and to be considered for this position.

Compensation: $33-43hr based on skills and ability. average 45 hours a week. Can interview onsite or remotely.

Remote Mega-Multifamily Estimator J15227

Employer: Client Confidential

Remote Mega-Multifamily Truss Estimator opportunity. Qualified candidates will already know the general duties and skills needed for this position and additional details can be obtained prior to approving presentation. Employer will consider 3+ years single family design experience. Training and position is remote. Expert level Remote MMF Estimators are afforded top consideration but the employer is very willing to train experienced single family designers wishing to become MMF Designers. This position is a stepping stone to a MMF Design job if you are interested.

Truss Designer - MiTek/ Multifamily J14173

Employer: Client Confidential

JobLine Senior Designer ranking and MiTek software experience (Sapphire preferred) is highly desirable for this position. Prefer someone with commercial and multifamily experience but strong Single Family Custom will be considered. Bring your friends! In-office position. Remote is not an option.

Maximize production with integrated off-site technologies

Increase the productivity of your component manufacturing operation with the latest off-site solutions and prefabrication technology. From software that manages many aspects of your business to machinery that maximizes your output, MiTek is committed to the growth of your business and the industry. Together, we’re unlocking the power of off-site construction. Together, we are innovating to meet the needs of an evolving market. Are you ready to maximize productivity of your operation? Talk to a MiTek Representative to get started.

MII.COM/CM

TheLastWord

Removing the Achilles Heel of Jigging

Until recently, vertical members have been the bane of all jigging systems, whether they occur on the perimeter or the interior of trusses. And they are found more than ever on apartment and residential designs. Handling these members without human intervention has been the Achilles heel of fully automated systems that endeavor to replace puck-driven jigging. Even so, innovative jigging mechanisms have been developed that allow for unattended operation.

Auto-Puck Systems: Most jigging systems rely on vertical channels with automated or manual pucks, which have served the industry for thirty years (see my previous article, Sixty Years of Machines, Part IX: Automatic Setup). For instance, Alpine’s patent drawings include a truss with verticals on both ends directly abutting pucks, which would be an exceedingly rare occurrence. As is well understood, however, one of the verticals would have to be manually jigged.

With pre-robotic auto-puck systems, workers are already at the table, and they can affix telescoping end stops to one of the channels. However, with a robotic system, workers must penetrate the light-curtailed area with tools, hardware, and measuring tapes, adding significantly to setup time. And because roofs are becoming flatter, there are many more vertical members to address, especially on large apartment roofs.

Automated Jigging Systems: In comparison, the Trussmatic system overcomes this shortcoming by allowing jigging to be placed where it is most effective, anywhere along the perimeter or the interior of a truss. Its jigging also overcomes the inherent limitation of the pucks themselves, which are only able to work on the narrow face of members. Contrarily, Trussmatic jigging is purpose-built, and can work on the wide faces as well, considerably enhancing its functionality and precision. This is possible because the Trussmatic jigging offsets the truss from the jigging surface, which is a vertical steel wall free of obstructions.

Joe Kannapell, P.E.

Because of this unique design, jigging has been adapted for three purposes:

EX: Extendable “C” Clamps handle chords, tightly gripping them in their jaws, and holding them at a fixed offset from the webs until all the webs are set in position. Then air cylinders are activated that push the chords inward until they gain tight contact against the webs, while also removing gaps at joints.

WL: Web Locators affix interior members by impaling them with a protruding spike while they are being forcibly set by the robot’s End-of-Arm Tool (EOAT). In addition, these locators are able to secure members that do not intersect with perimeter chord members (see the “internal member” labeled on the right in the diagram).

End Stops extend to tighten end verticals. As shown in the diagram on the left, the stop is fully retracted, while in the diagram on the right it is fully extended, removing the gap between the end vertical and diagonal web.

This truly automated jigging works well because it allows for lumber imperfections. By contrast, in auto-jigging systems, the pucks are set along the theoretical perimeter of the truss and workers often have to force truss parts into the jig or to adjust the jig, which takes extra time and may risk out-of-tolerance results. Poor-quality lumber has always been the principal challenge for automated systems, however, this Trussmatic approach minimizes the disruption it causes.