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I spent most of my career framing with solid-sawn lumber before the more stable, denser, and stronger engineered stuff started sliding off the truck. Now, my company, Framing Square in Albuquerque, N.M., works with engineered products all the time–laminated strand lumber (LSL), laminated veneer...
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Engineered lumber does everything solid-sawn lumber does, except better. It's stronger, lighter, straighter, and more stable. But working with I-joists and laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is different than solid-sawn lumber, so check out these tips for getting better, faster results.
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When you're working with historic buildings, there's one thing you can depend on: You can't depend on anything. Over the last 150 years, changes in hardware, trim details, and other product introductions and evolutions (weather stripping for example) have led to the need for a versatile tool like a...
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This month members of the tool industry will descend on Baltimore for the annual convention and trade show of the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association (STAFDA), an organization made up of manufacturers and distributors of construction/industrial products. The benefits for you and...
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Side Job
The only time I used to touch vinyl siding was to tear it off an old Colonial or Victorian I was hired to rescue, or to hang it on unremarkable buildings like strip malls, multifamily units, or a shotgun ranch. So, I was shocked when a client asked for vinyl on a new $700,000 custom home.
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In my snowboard manufacturing shop, we use a circular saw primarily for cross-cutting hardwood lumber to rough lengths prior to laminating it into blocks. This operation is all about speed. With thousands of feet of lumber in 16-foot lengths delivered at once, we really need to move through the...