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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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March 2021 #13260 Page #10
Sixty Years of Machines Part XVI: DePauw Decade
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s I stood in the small office waiting for the saw deposit check, the fax machine began running. I was stirred by the bold headline on the unfurling document, “…Timbermill’s Advantages Over Easy Set ...” Then I watched large bullet points cascading out of the machine. At that moment, owner Doug Brandt’s assistant handed me the $26,000 check, and I walked into his office to get it signed. My heart pounded until he handed it to me with the signed order. Then I executed the Gene Toombs maneuver, “say thank-you and get the hell out of there.” Never give them time to change their mind, he had reiterated. Especially now! However, Mr. Brandt stopped me and asked that I speak to his shop foreman.
Joe Kannapell
I raced to the truss shop behind Berlin’s lumberyard, did my duty, and headed to my vehicle. Suddenly, the intercom blared out, “… return to Mr. Brandt’s office.” Now I had to go back and face the music. Thankfully, Mr. Brandt did grill me on each of our alleged shortcomings but kept to his word. Then he savaged my competitor, handed me the offending fax, and sent me down the road. Such was the “dog-eat-dog” saw competition as we finished the 1980s. Timbermill had owned the component saw market across my Virginiato-Maine sales territory, and they knew it. But our new entry into the fray, the Easy-Set 1000, began to make its mark. We traded heavily on Art DePauw’s good name and his proven components: saw frame, quadrants, inclined infeed, and most mechanisms. To these we added the winning features of Idaco (which we now owned), proven over 25 years: vertical centerline adjustments, segmented hold-downs, belt conveyor, and more. We had also replaced Art’s imported DC motors with Baldor AC Motors controlled by VFDs. And we installed most controls on a panel that the sawyer could swing around, close to his working position (see photo below). Now, armed with the competition’s talking points, I descended from the hills of Central Pennsylvania to the outskirts of Philadelphia, to visit S & F Manufacturing. This plant was part of an oldline lumberyard, owned by the third generation of Shelly’s (the “S”), which retained the initial of founder Frank Fenstermacher (the “F”). Here I met Ken Slotter, for whom I had engineered trusses ten years earlier. After hearing his preference for the Timbermill, I was unable to make much headway with my counterpoints. Then we went to his cramped saw room and measured the available space. Continued next page
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