Episode #204 - Wall To Wall

Don “The Amazing” Shan joins Brian and Eric for semi-comprehensive IFE ’24 coverage, featuring Larry Stevens, Jo Morris, Marcel Goebel, Wayne Wishnew, Lisa Sanderson, Jake Glaser, John Gaudette, Mike Robinson and many more! An important name was added to the wall this year, and the lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey was there. Plus, Earnest CEO Kirk Zehnder joins industry newsman Mike McNulty to dissect the stunning FDI report on the Fastener News Report (1:09:55). Newly inducted Fastener Hall of Famer Carmen Vertullo gazes into the future of fastener materials on the latest Fastener Training Minute (1:37:18).

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Wall To Wall

Introduction

It is Fully Threaded Radio, voice of the FCH Sourcing Network. If you buy, sell, manufacture, import, think about frequently industrial threaded fasteners. This is the predominantly fastener-related show you’ve been looking for. Everyone, Eric Dudas with you. I’m joined as always by the hardest working man in the online fastener game. He’s back from distributing boxes of FCH pens out there in Vegas, it’s Brian Musker. How are you doing, Brian?

I’m good. Thanks. I was watching the pen. I can always tell when someone sneaks past and tries to take more than one for someone who isn’t even faintly interested in Fasteners Clearing House.

Together, we managed to see through that giant box of them. That was pretty good. What we’re talking about here, folks, is the International Fastener Expo just took place in Vegas. That’s the big annual national fastener show. We just returned. We’re going to go wall to wall with that on this episode 204 of Fully Threaded Radio. The show was quite early this year, Brian, wasn’t it? We’ve had it in October and maybe even November once. This time, way early in September. What’d you think of that?

I’m not sure I like it quite so early, truthfully. It stacks a few things up against each other. You have to have a little bit of time to decompress and then get some things out of the way that run to work, but that’s just probably whining.

Others share your view on that. That’s an endless conversation, though, coming right off of the MWFA FSTNR Week, especially in jumping right into that. We do the best we can. It’s work after all. We all slugged out there. We’re going to talk about it. We’ve got two pretty good report packages. The lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey was out there on the show floor gathering words of wisdom from across the industry and along with us as we comment and look back on IFE 2024. It’ll be the amazing Shan. It’s Don Shan with Fastener Solutions Group. He’ll be with us soon.

On the Fastener News Report, Mike McNulty has got Earnest CEO Kirk Zehnder. They’re going to look over the latest, very exciting FDI. This came out right before we headed off to Vegas, Brian. A lot of people saw it. The number shot way back north of 50, which is good. However, offsetting that is a much less optimistic Forward-Looking Indicator. Kirk and Mike are going to talk about that.

Which people regard as much more realistic.

Newly-inducted Hall of Famer, Carmen Vertullo has the Fastener Training Minute for us. He’s going to take us into the future. He just returned from an IFI Conference that dealt with some space age materials he’s hoping are going to be introduced into the fastener industry very soon. He has that Carmen way of presenting it. It’ll be very informative. It’s a pretty tight show, but it’s going to go long. We’re not going to spend too much time warming it up here, Brian. We’re going to jump into our first break fairly quickly. First, there’s an important lineup of partners that help us make this show possible. Brian, that’s your area.

Most of these, if not all of these, we saw at the show in Las Vegas. These are our sponsors. We’re very lucky to have sponsors. We’re even more lucky to have them as great friends that we’ve known over the years. Our sponsors are people you can rely on, too. If you think of fasteners, you should try and think of these sponsors first because they make this show possible.

The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio, Brighton-Best International, Goebel Fasteners and Star Stainless Screw Company. Brighton-Best International, tested, tried and true. Goebel Fasteners, quality the first time. Star Stainless Screw Company, right off the shelf. Sponsoring also Fully Threaded Radio are Buckeye Fasteners, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, INxSQL Software, J.Lanfranco, 3Q Inc., Volt Industrial Plastics, Würth Industry USA, and Solution Industries, home of Solution Man.

Thank you. Reach out to us anytime. We’d be glad to hear from you, whether you have feedback on this episode or the show in general or if you just want to give us your impressions of what went down at IFE 2024. Maybe you like having no carpet. Who knows? Let us know. The email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com. Brian and I also get out to LinkedIn occasionally, so connect with us that way too, if you want to.

As we said, the amazing Shan will be with us riding shotgun to talk about Vegas 2024. We’re going to break and make a lot of room for the items we’ve got for you and some commentary. I know you’re going to enjoy it. We’re going to plug in a couple of messages here. We’ll be back to put a wrench to this one. It’s Fully Threaded.

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Industry Leaders Share Insights, Experiences, And Lessons Learned From Across The Country

Brian and Eric, back with you and back from Vegas. I had a lot of fun putting together Lynn’s floor interviews. you appear this time, Brian. You made a cameo, which was nice.

It might be the first time I’ve done that.

In a long time for sure. I also did a vignette with Larry Stevens, CEO of Würth. It was great to meet him finally in person there. We’ve communicated through email and stuff, but it was nice. That’s in our montages as well. Joining us to talk about what happened, reactions, thoughts, and comments. It’s the amazing Shan.

How are you?

We’re good. Thanks.

Safe travels. Everybody made it back safely.

The 2024 International Fastener Expo took place out there in Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, September 9th through the 11th. Very well attended, I would say, at least for the opener. Our topic is the show. Don, you’re here. You go every year, too. Overall, in summary, before we get to this first package of report, what was your overall takeaway from the 2024 fastener show?

It was a good, typical show. I don’t know exactly how the attendance was or the flow. I would think that it looked pretty busy in the aisles. I don’t know that the late afternoon crowd was as busy as a typical show is, but it looked well-attended. A lot of the big movers and shakers were there. It was good to stay in contact with the majority of that group. After watching the amazing match game, I was wondering if they were going to have a Price is Right or one of them shows down there. I didn’t know. It’s one of my new goals in life, to be in that fastener match game.

That was a lot of fun out there at the MWFA FSTNR Week for sure. We’ve got a lot of comments and reactions to that in Vegas. Who knows? I’m thinking a redux might be possible at one of these various events. You want to be a panelist or a contestant?

I’d rather be a panelist. The funniest part about the whole thing was your little background music.

That was a lot of fun. Let’s stay on topic though guys because we could talk about that one forever, too. We probably should. We should have a match game reunion show. This one’s covering Vegas. We’ve got a lot of report. The lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey was there and had a lot of highlights to cover. This isn’t a comprehensive review of the show. Again, the views and comments expressed on this episode are purely those of Brian, Eric, and the amazing Shan. Subject to interpretation and severe criticism as usual. We had a lot of fun, a lot of highlights. Why don’t we jump right into the report?

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I’m here with Brian. We’re waiting for the show to open. He’s going to tell me what his impressions are of the show.

It looks like there’s a lot of people here, exhibitors. It hasn’t opened. We don’t know who’s going to be wandering the floor, but there’s a lot of companies, newer ones I haven’t seen here before.

When I run around the floor, I’ll find out about that.

You will.

I’m over here at J.Lanfranco. I’m with Lisa Sanderson. What’s been the most exciting thing about the show?

Meeting all the people that are here. I loved the opening party, the welcome event by the pool. Many people turned out. Lots of different companies hosting cabins. Got to spend some time with the WiFi. We joined them for drinks and just meeting new people.

Did they have the cigar rolling?

They did have the cigar rolling. It was a nice addition to the event.

Did you get one?

I did get one.

I always get one.

Why not? I did. It was nice to meet them. It’s a nice addition. It goes with the Vegas style, so it was good.

How about the show?

This show’s been fantastic so far, so busy. It’s been great meeting a lot of different people. I’m hearing it’s bigger than the last time. A lot of movement. I’ve been able to walk through it, meet new people, learn some stuff. It’s been great so far.

Thank you. I’m over here at the session stage. We just went through Walking the Tightrope of Work-Life Balance. I’m here with the monitor, who is?

Zech Williams from Würth Revcar.

One of the audience members?

Jake Glazer here with Sherex Fastening Solutions.

How was monitoring?

It was great. The panel discussion went well. Our panelists had some great advice and great insight on work-life balance, what that means to your family, and also in your professional career. It couldn’t have gone better.

It’s your second time to moderate.

It’s my second time. I moderated last year as well.

Was it easier?

It was a little bit easier. It wasn’t quite as nervous stepping into it this time.

Sometimes, the second time is more nervous.

For me, I get nervous right up before it starts. As soon as you get going, it all falls away.

That’s good. You did a very good job up there. Tell me what you learned.

I echo Zech. We had some wonderful panelists up there with Adam Pratt and Taryn, focusing on the work-life balance. It’s forever, I won’t call it a struggle. It’s a forever goal. They touched on a lot of key points. What stood out to me was focusing on self-care. Ensuring that you are doing what you want to be doing in alignment for your own life goals and taking care of yourself along the way.

Work-life balance isn’t a struggle. It’s a lifelong goal—understanding who you are, what you want to achieve, and how your work supports that vision. Share on X

Understanding who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish. Seeing how work ties into that plan is very important. Another key takeaway for me, I do operate as a fully remote employee for our company. Some of the topics focus specifically around how you can ensure that you are maintaining your relationships when you don’t have that in office FaceTime presence. Putting intention behind that and making sure that you are engaging in communication with your teams. It’s super important and a good note that I took away.

That is a good note, communicating with your teams, how are you doing that? Are you doing that Zoom? Are you doing it face-to-face or AI face-to-face? How do you do it?

Truly every single communication medium that’s available, text, phone call, email. We utilize Teams as our primary exchange platform. A lot of video conferences on Teams but again, within our organization. We have our primary culture principles that we always refer to and lean back on. Communication is one of them. Ensuring that you are being an effective communicator is mandatory for the success of every single initiative that we have. Highlighting and focusing on that communication and being a good communicator, very important.

You’re a remote worker most of the time. You’re here at the IFE. Is it weird talking to people?

Not even close. I am lucky enough to get charged up by seeing my industry family and all of our friends around here. Truly, I can’t walk five feet without stopping to hug somebody and say hi.

Zech, how about you? Are you working remotely or are you in the office?

I work on a hybrid schedule. I usually do a day or two a week from home because I live far from the office. It’s nice to not have that commute for a couple of days, but I enjoy going into the office. They get the camaraderie with all your colleagues. It’s nice just to get out of the house and go somewhere, focus on work, and then get home. For me, I’m able to compartmentalize and focus on living my home life at home and not bringing work into it.

I’ve always wondered, and in my day when I was working, there was no remote working. We just didn’t have the technology. I was always afraid if I was remote working, I’d all of a sudden say, “I better go put that laundry in. I better go do this.” Does that happen?

It does and that is okay. As we talked about on the panel, flexibility within your rigid routine is okay. There are going to be times where you’re going to have to take a child to a doctor’s appointment or maybe care for a parent. Maybe you yourself have an activity that you want to partake in the afternoon. Giving yourself that grace and flexibility to know that you’re obviously here to do the best job that you possibly can. In order to do that, you have to take care of yourself.

Want to add anything?

If you have that healthy balance, I feel like you’re excited to get into the office and get things done. At the end of the day, you’re excited to go home and decompress.

Thank you.

International Fastener Expo 24. I’m walking the halls here. I run into somebody that I haven’t met yet in person. It’s Larry Stevens. He’s the skipper of Würth North America. How do you do?

Thank you. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eric. Greetings. I’m enjoying myself, first time ever at this show. Looking forward to going out, meeting some old friends, and seeing what’s happening out there.

I’ve been coming to these shows for a long time. It’s good to see Würth has a very nice footprint here. I see your marquee sponsors of the show right up there on the podium and that’s nice. Everyone knows that Würth is solidly behind the Fastener Training Institute. Thanks for all that.

We appreciate it and we love being associated with the Fastener Training Program. Getting out here and having a little bit bigger footprint. Doing a little bit more marketing, advertising, and getting our names out is one of the things we want to accomplish. As we move forward in the coming years, we’re trying to build our brand. Trying to change how we go to market and how we do things.

In the past, Würth bought a lot of small, powerful regional brands. These companies were very strong in their little regions. The markets changed and our customers are changing as well. Those little customers that we were serving so well are being purchased and bought by bigger companies. They need more of a global footprint. They need a company that can cover all the United States as well as the entire world offering the same systems, the same quality, the same processes.

Everything is the same, not the same price, of course. Anywhere you go, you should be able to have the exact same feel, look, and taste when you’re dealing with Würth industry. We’re working on that. We’ve got some major projects going on. We got a lot of exciting stuff. This is just part of it being here and seeing a lot of good old friends. Bumping in and starting some new friends here is exciting. Very happy to be here and thank you for asking.

I know it’s not fair to ask you this. You’ve only been down what you said two rows of the show so far. What are your impressions of IFE ‘24?

We were discussing this. I’m pretty impressed. I like it. It’s totally different from the Asian shows. I spent sixteen years in China. I’ve been to a lot of shows there. They’re a lot louder, there are videos playing, there’s music playing. Some booze will have ladies dancing. They don’t do so much of that anymore. They’re a lot more politically correct than they were in 2015-2016. So far, it’s been pretty fascinating. I’ve seen a lot of interesting things. I’m looking forward to touring the rest of it. We had some nice meetings last night. Our teams are meeting with people all day, a lot of fun so far. nice.

I’ve seen some Würth guys walking around. It’s always good to see them. You mentioned big things coming and big projects. Let me ask you this. We were speaking with Chapman about the new Roanoke facility. Sounds exciting. When’s it coming online? It’s online already, right? When’s it going to be full force?

We’re online and we got equipment on order. Our automation should be arriving within the next 4 to 6 weeks. We should be getting some stuff. By the first quarter of 2025, we should be fully up and running. We’ll be adding more and more to it. It’s going to be a nice facility. It’s a nice location, a beautiful country. It’s going to allow us to come in and do the things we want to do. It’s a perfect building for what we want to accomplish.

It should help us a great deal. Expand the whole East coast and do some neat things. We’re doing some stuff up in Brooklyn Park up in Minneapolis. We’re going to expand up there and do some additional things there. We’re also looking out West here as to where we can go and what we can do. We want to get our system completely linked together and automated as much as possible. It improves the quality, improves the processes and turnaround times, and everything that goes with it.

Würth is on the march. We already discussed that we’re going to be doing a feature discussion with you. That’ll be upcoming on an episode so that’s cool. It’s great to meet you, Larry Stevens.

It’s my pleasure. Thank you very much and appreciate the time.

I’m here with Robbie. We’re going to talk about Carmen Vertullo going into the Hall of Fame.

Best choice we made. We sat on the committee and we looked at all the people that had submitted applications. Carmen, by far, stood out among the rest. It was a unanimous decision. Great guy, great opportunities, great knowledge that he’s willing to share with everybody anytime.

I can’t say anything more. You want to talk about anything else?

Glad I’m here to show. It’s always good to be here. People are always nice, old friends and lots of new friends.

That’s it from Robbie. Can’t say anything else. Please set it all. Thanks Robbie.

Thank you.

I’m here with Lois Vertullo. How do you feel about this award?

I’m quite excited. It’s something he’s worked hard for many years. I’m just honored to see that he was recognized like this. I feel it’s well deserved. He’s done a great job over many years. It’s good to see it recognized.

Family members should be recognized too because even though you may not be in the fastener industry, you are in the fastener industry, right?

Yes, that’s for certain. I’m usually the one that has to make sure that everything gets there when it needs to be there, the behind-the-scenes person.

He gave you thanks in his speech there. That was very good.

Thank you very much.

I’m over here with?

Wayne Wishnew of XL Screw.

Jake Davis or BTM Manufacturing.

We want to talk about the FDI and the Forward-Looking Index. Wayne here has gut feelings, being so long in the industry, and Jake’s the data guy. Take it away, Jake.

As I said a little bit earlier, it matched. The FDI went up to 54. It’s over 50 the first time in about three or four months. Great news. It matched our distribution model with ISCO incorporated. Our August numbers were up versus July. To your point, the FLI went down, aspect of it. Happy to have that increase. It’s probably short lived, but everybody has shutdowns, vacations, things like that in July. They come back. They’re buying more, they’re selling more, thus the jump.

What’s the gut say?

First off, I want to say that I know in 2023 I said that I don’t listen to the FDI or whatever, but it’s a great tool. It’s just, basically I go by how I feel and what I hear. Customers I talk to and the general feeling that everybody’s slow. They don’t see that changing too much in the future. It’s an election year. There’s a lot of uncertainty, ocean rates. It’s slowed down. The manufacturing slowed down. I feel that it’s going to remain the way it is. I would say it’s slow but steady. I see it continuing at least through the elections. We’ll see what happens once people decide who they’re going to vote for.

Is the election going to impact the business that much? Whoever gets that?

Ultimately, from a tariff standpoint, tax standpoint, it certainly can. People just start to button up a little bit just to decide. Ultimately, Americans decide on the business of how it goes. A politician from a policy standpoint can try and set things to either benefit us or hurt us in some ways. The aspect of it is, people just, like I said, button things up. Try and wait to see what happens. Once a decision is made by the country, then they start to make decisions based on what the country decided. That’s how it affects it, but it’s pretty short-lived in that aspect of it.

It’s very difficult to plan for the future with some of the policies on both sides of the aisle. You have potential for a lot more taxes through the Democratic Party than on the Republican Party. You have threats of raising tariffs. I get that on certain products, there should be tariffs. There’s a lot of uncertainty about capital gains, unrealized gains or tariffs. Until things are, as Jake said, decided, it’s hard for people to grow and plan for the future. Buy a lot more product because you just don’t know what policies are going to get passed and what that’s going to do to the economy and businesses.

Uncertainty around capital gains, unrealized gains, and tariffs makes it hard for businesses to plan, grow, or invest confidently. When policies remain unclear, companies hesitate because no one knows what’s coming next for the economy. Share on X

This makes sense. Inventory is saturated. Everybody was so busy and we all overbought. Our customers overbought and then you have a slowdown. Our customers aren’t using the amount of inventory they were using and we have more. You just see that’s where the optimist side of the FDI for August is fantastic. You also had multiple months of contraction. As we get closer to the end of the year, personally, I think we’ll dip back into contraction just as we try and sort this all out. I’m hopeful in Q1 that things will pick back up.

That’s what we’re hoping for. November, December are generally slow months with the holidays. People don’t want to be bringing in a lot of inventory. Maybe the first quarter, January, February, things start to pick up. I’m hopeful. I would like to see that, but we’ll see what happens in the coming months.

On a side note, we had a great tour of XL Screw during the Midwest. Thank you very much. It was just absolutely wonderful. I’m over here with one of our favorites, Steve from E-Z Lok. Tell me, how many years have you been coming here?

This is my 24th show. Twenty-four years in a row we’ve done this. This 2024 is a good one.

Can you remember your first one?

I don’t. That’s how old I am. I don’t even remember the first show. It doesn’t stand out. Every year coming in that was, was that Paris a long time ago? They used to do it in Paris, I remember that. Now, we end up here every year. It’s all been a good show. I see the good people and have a good time. I always enjoy it.

If you added up through your years all the shows that you’ve done besides this one, how many do you think you have?

You’re putting the test to me again. Probably, 5 or 6 a year over those 24 years. Quite a few.

Do you have a favorite? Does a favorite show stick out?

Probably this one. You see a lot of the same people, the friends and familiar faces. It’d have to be this show for the industry, the industry friends and people you get used to seeing.

Thank you.

My pleasure. It’s good seeing you.

Susan Chen from the IFI team.

I understand that you took Carmen’s class.

That’s right. A basics fasteners workshop, which covered all the different products and information for each item that’s available in the industry.

It must have been very informative. How are you going to bring that information back to work?

To be honest, this was my first workshop and my first day. I used to go into Home Depot. Everything looked the same, but I loved walking out of there. Realizing that everything is made specifically for different kinds of applications and uses in daily life. I love being able to, with the images, understand how they function, how they exist in the real world. Things like rivets or things used in porta-potties or an upholstery, why they’re round heads versus flat heads. These very little niche-like descriptions. It makes sense in my head.

The class didn’t scare you out of fasteners, the industry?

Both. It did scare me but it’s because I have a personal relationship with fasteners versus going into a corporation. Having grown up around it, if that makes sense.

You’ve always grown up about it.

It scared me in the sense that I was having these revelations for these personal things, but their actual functional existence in the world, if that makes sense. I found the class very informative and useful. I felt like it was a zero to hero situation.

Would you take another?

I would. I don’t know what other classes are available. It was a very good intro into the industry.

Did you know that your teacher was going to be a Hall of Fame in the fastener industry?

I recognized him from the videos. He’s like a walking dictionary. You can tell he’s a bit like a legend and a wizard just by the information that he knows. I saw him as a bit of a celebrity, but as the course kept going on.

I like that term, wizard. I’ll have to think about that. It’s time to meet the neighbors. I’m here with?

Jamie Adams with NFDA and Pac-West.

What’s happening with either one of those organizations?

NFDA has the Executive Summit coming up in San Diego in October.

Isn’t Carver Labs one of the things?

They are. He has a tour at his place happening just before the meeting starts. Pretty exciting stuff.

Any other tours going on that day?

Not that I know of. I know they have golf that day and then we’re going to have the welcome reception that evening. Just a lot of good stuff, a lot of good networking.

Have you ever planned anything without golf?

Not really. Maybe if it’s in a city that doesn’t have golf courses and no green. Golf is pretty much mandatory.

Check it. Thank you.

You’re welcome.

We’re here at Meet the Neighbors across the aisle and right next to the NFDA. We have?

The Fastener Training Institute, with Jo.

How’s it going?

It’s good. It’s been a great show.

What fun things have you done in Vegas?

I did not gamble. I did go out for a great sushi meal. I’ve met a lot of new people. I listened to some live music. I have not run into all my friends yet. Look at you and I, we’re right across the hall from each other and we’re just now talking.

We’re still meeting the neighbors and these are our next-door neighbors. I’m here with?

Laurie Roberts with Perfection Chain.

Anthony Byrum with Perfection Chain.

You’ve got some pretty serious chains here.

We are a domestic manufacturer of weldless chains. We do the double loops, the sash chains, the plumber’s chains, as well as single loops.

Where are you out of?

Coleman, Alabama.

I could tell. Doing anything fun in Vegas?

I hit the Willy Wonka slot machine. That was exciting.

That’s right. You’re one of my gamblers who won.

I was up $400 and then I put $250 back. About $150, not a bad day.

Are you bringing that $150 home or is it going to go back into Willy Wonka?

There’s still time. It’s hard to say.

I’m over here at American Ring and I’m talking with?

Chris Berner.

Chris is a golfer and the American Ring has this golfing legend. Tell me what happened.

We played very well and had a lot of fun. Things were clicking for all four of us.

What were the scores?

To be honest, I don’t recall the final scores. Last time was 14 under where we finished at the Midwest Fasteners Association.

Do you guys play together only at these events or do you play together in your leisure time also?

We play together in our leisure time occasionally. Most of us play fairly regularly. A couple of guys are members at clubs so we get in our fresh air of golf.

How long have you been working at American Ring?

I am in Year 13 with American Ring.

How about the other guys on the foursome team?

Michael Morrissey is an owner and part of the family business so he’s been in it since he was a child. Dan has been coming up on about 30 years and Ken Chudy is going on about year eight.

I should be asking Shan if that’s interview questions to get a job at American Ring. Do you play golf?

Possibly. I don’t think it’s a pre-requirement. I certainly don’t think that it hurts anyone’s chances.

Everybody listened to that. If you want a job at American Ring, you better be a golfer. I have to ask because I’m from the Mid-West. What happened at Mid-West?

We played well, just got beat that day. Some days you’re going to win them and some days you’re not.

I hate to say it, but a lot of people were going. It was just pure jealousy, because you guys are so hard to beat. Someone mentioned something about a golf cart flipping over.

Thankfully not that of the American Ring. I don’t need that bill coming back home with us. I did not witness any golf carts being flipped this time, but I’ve seen videos of them being flipped.

Nobody said American Ring. It’s just the oddest thing that I asked someone what the oddest thing was. They said a golf cart. I want to clarify that. I don’t want to give you a bad rep there. Alright, thanks for talking with me.

I certainly appreciate you for stopping by.

I’m here with?

John Gaudette from Metric and Multistandard.

The big question is, keep it in Vegas or move?

I can’t answer that question, but I would be interested in what Eric and Brian could find out through the industry. I’m hearing a lot of scuttles from people that it is time to get out of Mandalay Bay and time to go to a different city.

Put the carpet down or no carpet?

As a tough one, I say no carpet. Although, people want the carpet. I see the waste factor. Just drive up the cost of the show and the material going into the landfill. I would say the no carpet still.

Keep Brian and Eric or send them away?

We have to keep Brian and Eric. That’s the only thing holding this show together.

Thanks, John.

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Show Floor Insights And Industry Reflections From IFE 2024

The great Johnny Reno of Metric and Multi points it out, Brian. We’re the only ones keeping the show together. What do you think, Don? What stuck out in your mind?

You’re the glue to the whole system. Thank God, you keep it all together.

How did this happen? What was the highlight for you out of that package, Don? Just in general, where do you want to jump into this year’s IFE?

I have some recommendations for the show and what we should and should not do. I could go that route. The show in 2025 is going to be in September also. I would like to see that move back. It might be the last year at Mandalay Bay, but I’m not sure of that. I know it’s in September. The industry should figure out where we want to be as far as scheduling these events so close to each other.

On the other path, I had the opportunity to speak in that fireside chat room, which was promoted a little bit. We got some air time on LinkedIn. They tried to promote that as much as possible, but we were in a bad spot. Put us back in the corner. I don’t know that a lot of people knew that we were even there. The person from Morgan Rudolph was talking about networking in the segment right in front of me. It was right around lunchtime.

I don’t feel that they knew, that the people walking the show knew that we were back there. I talked at 1:30 PM. At least, they had some little people coming back from lunch. That was good, but it would have been nice to have that in the middle where the presentations for the Hall of Fame. It was a little bit more put together rather than on fireside chats are a nice idea. They got to tweak that a little bit.

It’s always the problem though with any of the shows. People who are just walking the show generally may not read the struck agenda very carefully. They don’t know that some of these things are going on.

In that regard, everybody that goes to the show, whether it be a first-timer or somebody that’s been there forever, should have some agenda going into it. People they’d like to see, meetings they like to go. It’s very hard to come up with exact times to meet somebody at a booth only because there are so many distractions and so many stops you make that you lose track of time a little bit.

Fully Threaded Radio | IFE '24 — IFE ’24: Everyone who attends the show—whether it’s their first time or they’ve been going for years—should walk in with a clear agenda.

You should have an agenda. Especially a rookie going through should have an agenda, trying to meet as many people as you can. As far as I’m concerned, you’re there to set up meetings. You’re there to set up appointments for the future down the road growth in your company or whatever you want to. Most of the vendors you’re doing business with or you would like to do business with, you’re not going to get a full audience. You’re probably just trying to set up some time so that down the road you can get some in-depth conversation with particular vendors.

You can’t sit down and have a one-hour conversation because you’ve got people walking past the booth. You’ve got to break off to deal with them if they’re interested.

You’re a master networker, Don. I know you know the ropes in that department very well. I will say, though, that if you schedule a time to meet over in the meeting area, which they had a nice area set up with all these tables. I saw a lot of people utilizing it. We did that. If you have the discipline to show up there, you schedule ahead.

There was ample free coffee available thanks to Jake Davis and BTM Manufacturing largely. It was pretty good. We got some business done. I was happy about that. For us, that was an added bonus, but on the whole, what you’re saying is right. Let’s start at the top. Don, what did you think of the bash? How was the welcome party?

It was warm. In 2023, they had long lines at the bar as most people in this industry were there. It was a little bit different. In 2023, it seemed like they were running around a lot of appetizers. They had tape of people walking around with beer. They would hand off our wine samples. In 2024, you had a waiting line. It was a little bit different. As far as I know, no one splashed into the pool. I was offering discounts to anybody that would wind up in the pool, but I needed video.

Wasn’t that kind of party? They didn’t even have lifeguards. The fastener industry has been so well-behaved the last couple of years. They figured, “We’ll save the money.”

It’s almost embarrassing.

Apparently, the cigar rolling was a very major success again.

I saw them passing them out. A couple of my business associates were with me. I turned around, the next thing you know, they were talking on a cigar. Not too much of a cigar guy, but tweaked our own.

How about the music volume? Brian and I missed it. We need you to fill us in. Was the music volume permissible or would Brian have been upset?

It was fine. There were no problems with any of how the systems rolled. The music was fine. The thing with music is if you’re able to talk at a normal volume and you don’t have to scream at somebody so they can hear you. Everything was fine there. I had no issues with it. I didn’t have any issues in 2023 with it either. It’s done well.

I don’t know if they print the attendance. Some people miss it. Some people don’t think it’s worth going to. I personally think it’s worth going to. There’s a lot of networking. There’s a lot of people that you haven’t seen in a while all in one room and also in a very informal setting. It makes it good to see long-time friends and, hopefully, new friends.

Those events are very valuable. For the same reason we attended the Brighton-Best cocktail party after day one. That was again, very nicely done. Very generously set up. I enjoyed myself immensely and even got a chance to hand a gin and tonic to Peggy, which you don’t get to do that every day. I was honored to be able to attend and do that. I’d like to thank Brighton-Best. We had a ball.

Normally, we get our invitations at the Rosie, the Riveter sends these out. She never forgets us. I have to say that the prime rib was excellent. I’m sure it’s good every year, but this time, I particularly noticed that.

Brighton-Best always steps up every year. They make it as good, if not better than a year before. We should all give a round of applause to the things that they do as a company. They send a lot of people out there. That has always been a staple for years, that after party by Brighton-Best.

2025 is going to be a big one, I’m told. They’ve got a huge anniversary coming up, 100. They’re going to pull out all the stops. Who knows what they’ll do? I should have mentioned also that we had our new technology partner, Chris Reddick with Clarity. He joined us out there in Vegas. He’s seeing a lot of this stuff for the first time. He had a great time at Brighton, met a lot of interesting people. He was just blown away.

It’s a big room.

For someone in a different industry, he’s not in this industry. He’s not used to the fact that you can have a whole room of people largely who are in some form of competition with one another or sitting down drinking and talking to each other. That is the outstanding thing about this industry. You see it at the BBI show. You see it with all the people walking around because there are a lot of them other people who are lifted booths for twenty minutes to help put ground. I never leave the booth. I’m there from morning until dark.

Let’s go back to the show floor. That first day, the crush in the morning for us was pretty good. It was way better than average. I’ll just say in summary, we had the best Vegas show we’ve probably ever had this 2024. Not necessarily because of the attendance overall, but just because so many things were plugged in and going our way. People we were able to meet and stuff like that. For us, it was great. That first day in the location we were in the 500 aisle, we were in that aisle. Everybody was just lingering around all morning. It was just a continuous conversation. In that pocket, it was wonderful.

The way these shows work is that wherever the door is, that’s where people mainly stay. We happened to be in that row. This is the first time, I would say, ever. If you were ten miles away, it took a while for people to get there.

If I remember correctly, you guys were always in the back.

We were because we have a split personality. They can’t work out whether we’re fastener people or media people. We get usually put with the media, which is quite often the last place that they bother going to. This time, we were in a different seat. It was a cool place to be. It was very good.

As Hall of Famers, did you get any discounts getting in there?

We had it all worked out. Everybody was pretty satisfied with their side of the deal. There’s give and take that goes on. Our placement was perfectly good. I was happy with it. We weren’t blocked by a column, which is my big nightmare after that one a long time ago. Anything other than that works for me. As long as we’re on the floor, because I face it. I’m never in the booth anyway.

Eric’s out walking.

In terms of the Hall of Fame, let’s talk a little bit about it because that was a big highlight for me. Our good friend, Carmen Vertullo was inducted. It was a unanimously approved choice. You were at the ceremony, Don, what was your takeaway?

That was long overdue. I don’t know how he hasn’t been put in years ago, to be quite honest with you. He was already an icon, if you will, within the industry. Knowledge alone, I know he’s helped me over the years tremendously and in anything I’ve asked him to do. He’s very approachable. As far as the industry is concerned, he’s a wealth of knowledge.

He’s not afraid to share it with anybody that may ask him questions, regardless of how big or how small you were. I remember talking to him when I was just a little kid, being intimidated by somebody of his nature. For him to accept any questions and help as much as he could help is refreshing. Especially with some smaller people.

People that are maybe a little intimidated being rookies in the industry. No question was a dumb question. He’s a wealth of knowledge. He should have been there a long time ago. In fact, when I saw that he was elected, the first thing I thought of was, “Wasn’t he elected ten years ago?” Congratulations to him.

It was like that young lady said in that report, he’s a wizard. He was fun to listen to.

We have a very close and a very good and lucky connection to Carmen. Carmen provided our TV screen for our booth, dragged it all the way over from San Diego. We were trying to do it a different way this time. We were thinking of it in a different way, buying a TV set in Las Vegas and just leaving it in the booth. Bob GQ Baer as sure as us is the smartest way of doing it.

He helped us out a lot. That was very kind of him to do that. He popped it right down there in our booth. When we left, we didn’t worry about it one bit. Very helpful. He was cool.

Lynn did a nice job of being a roving reporter. That’s always fun. If you don’t know a lot of the people, you don’t know how to react. If it’s a little bit weird when somebody coaxes up here with a microphone and gives you, “We’re going live.”

The usual. The interesting thing was that usually Wayne Wishnew from XL Screw is usually fairly reticent and trying to hide from the microphone. She got Wayne and Jake talking. They had a lot of quite interesting takes on what the FDI and the FLI mean relative to just this moment in time. It was good. I was very impressed with how long Lynn managed to hold the microphone in front of Wayne.

I caught that too. She finally finessed him into the fold. Getting back to your comment, Don, you were a little bit of a media hound this 2024. I saw a clip on LinkedIn. You were one of the guys in the background. You were trying to horn in on that interview there momentarily, but then you pass by. You had that look on your face of a bemusement.

It wasn’t so much that it was, “Hey, there’s spies everywhere. You got to watch this industry.” I was looking like, “What’s going on here and why am I not involved?”

Let’s get into that then. There are always underlying themes on the show floor. If there’s anyone who’s aware of all the fastener subterfuge out there and so forth and unspoken themes, it’s you. What did you pick up?

I was more looking at getting a feel for what other people thought of where we’re headed industry wise, as far as business is concerned. The overall comments for me were, there was a lot of quoting going on. Same as us, we have a lot of quotes working, but a lot of reluctance on pulling triggers as far as placing orders. I don’t know if we’re waiting in the lull of the election and seeing what transpires before. I’m hoping that the first quarter of 2025 is when everything breaks out a little bit.

There’s been a lot of quoting activity, but also a lot of hesitation when it comes to placing orders. Many are waiting to see what happens after the election before making moves. Hopefully, the first quarter of 2025 brings a stronger breakout. Share on X

Both Wayne and Jake indicated that the inventories are sitting at high levels generally. They say that two things go together. One the end of the year when not a lot of buying is done. Also, the election time. It’s a bit of a slow-ish time.

My business is a lot of special projects, specialty items, and secondary processes. They’re unique to specific jobs throughout the country. Funding has a lot to do with when they pull the trigger and when they don’t. As soon as some of these jobs get funded, we’ll see some movement. I can quote material and jobs and not see orders for 3 to 4 months, depending on who it may be. The day-to-day items, the A and B items that are prevalent with the bright and best of the world. They get a little bit of a feel for volumes a little bit different for me. I’m more job-related, what’s being funded, and how we can help support via my customers distributor wise across the country.

Give us something more juicy, Don. You’re always into what’s going on. There’s a big acquisition on the horizon. Something’s brewing. What is it?

If there is, I feel like a reporter that has to scoop. I can’t divulge until I get some good inside guy that says it is true.

This sounds pretty cagey.

I don’t know what may develop. It’s funny that the whole picture, if you had a snapshot of the show from even 2014 to now, it’s completely different. I’m talking to some of the members of the LindFast group. Even walked them by there and I go, “In 2014, you were all out to kill each other. Now, you’re all under one roof.” Things have changed in that pattern a lot.

You’re definitely tuned into that. Obviously, you’re an old Solution Industries guy. That’s part of the LindFast group. They didn’t seem to have a very strong presence at all as an individual. They’ve rolled that all into one homogenized group. They’re looking good and strong, but it’s not the same.

As we’ve all said, the hedge fund business that’s involved in our industry, it’s a numbers game more than it is a people game. I did a talk on company culture. I always thought in this industry that talent was the winner. Regardless, if you get enough talent, you’ll win. I disagree with that. If you can create a company culture that thrives in this industry, you’re going to roll to the top.

The best distributors have a very good company culture. In order to have that, you have to be in tune with your employees. The hedge fund people, I get the feeling, are not as close to their respective people as I would like. Family-owned business companies are in tune to how to grow culture. Again, if you grow culture, you’re going to win most battles.

The best distributors have a strong company culture. To achieve that, you need to be in tune with your employees. Share on X

Don, you said everything’s different from 2014 years ago, and yes, it’s a new year. 2024 International Fastener Expo is what we’re talking about here. We’ve got the amazing Shan, Don Shan with Fastener Solutions Group. If you need it, just call the amazing Shannon. He’ll get you the stuff you need. We’re going to cut it right here.

We’ll do the news segment. We’ve got Mike McNulty joined by Kirk Zehnder of Earnest. They’ll be talking about the FDI. We’ll roll into Hall of Famer Carmen Vertullo’s Fastener Training Minute. Returning with the amazing Shan to talk further about this year’s IFE with another giant package of reports for you from right on the show floor. Thanks for reading everyone.

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Fastener News Report: Market Insights, Industry Updates, And IFE 2024 Coverage

It’s the news segment. We’ve got McNulty and Zehnder coming up in just a moment. We’re going to keep this one tight, too, because we spilled over so much with our IFE coverage on this one.

We had good coverage of this one.

It’s Fully Threaded coverage, semi-comprehensive, semi-fastener related. The news segment is brought to you by Volt Industrial Plastics, as it has been for many years. I saw Heidi out there in Vegas. She’s a fixture at the Vegas show. I didn’t get a lot of chances to talk with her, though. Probably, it was just one of those years, we kept passing each other. Did you have a chance to roll by her booth?

I did not. That’s the crazy thing. I didn’t have much of a chance to get out. We were so swamped with people on the most of the first day that I did a run around on the second day. I missed more people than I tried to see.

We talk about how too long the show is sometimes, especially at the ending. At the same token, you never get to talk to everyone you want to anyway. We’re here. Thanks, Volt Industrial Plastics. Pointing out the title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Star Stainless, Goebel Fasteners, and Brighton-Best International.

They were all out there in Vegas, too. We’re here talking about it. One news item I’ll drop before we get over to McNulty. The NFDA, that’s the National Fastener Distributor Association, is holding their 2024 Executive Summit coming up October 16th through the 18th. That’s happening at Lowe’s Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego.

This is a Board of Directors-style meeting for the early part. They have their full boat of content that they roll out. I believe that also includes a yacht or some kind of boat cruise around the San Diego Bay. It should be wonderful. One of the cool things is that Carmen Vertullo of Carver Labs is having an open house ahead of this conference.

On October 15th, he’s sponsoring a fishing trip. This is an offshore affair. He’s got several slots open. He’s inviting the industry to jump in with this, not into the ocean. I was talking to Morgan Wilson. He’s a very accomplished tuna fishermen, Pacific tuna. That’s a huge thing. I would love to try it. I’m on the bubble for this one, folks. I’m not committed, but I’d like to. I don’t know yet at this moment.

However, he tells me that around October 2024 is very likely to be some hot fishing. Carmen is just raring to go. He’s got some slots open. If you’re interested, reach out to him. He’s easy to find or just let us know. We’ll pass the message along. NFDA Executive Summit and the Carver Labs open house happening in October, San Diego. You can’t go, Brian.

I know.

I got so much stuff that we have been juggling during FSTNR Week in Vegas. I don’t think we’re going to get cleaned out until Christmas.

That’s way past Christmas. Let me tell you.

We showed a lot of people what we’re working on out there in Vegas. It’s coming to a website near you very soon folks. That’s going to be a news headline that we’ll be covering at length in the near future. For now, we’re going to cover fastener news. That’s with Mike McNulty. Please, do the honors.

Now, for news about screws that you can use, here’s Mike McNulty.

—

This is Mike McNulty from Fastener Technology International Magazine bringing you the Fastener News Report, which is sponsored by Volt Industrial Plastics, makers of the world’s finest plastic fasteners. In the span of just five days, I traveled more than 2,000 miles over ten different states twice to attend the 2024 edition of the International Fastener Expo in Las Vegas.

Which was held in oven-like temperatures the day after the opening Sunday of the 2024 NFL football season. I watched the Cleveland Browns lay yet another giant and embarrassing egg on national TV. I am still focused on fasteners and ready to deliver this Fastener News Report. In this episode, Earnest CEO Kirk Zehnder joins us to reveal the latest results of the Fastener Distributor Index, also known as the FDI.

In this broadcast also, we have our top story on national machinery. As well as newsmaker headlines from Field, Smalley, EJOT, Endries, Sherex, Volt, AFC, SunCore Stainless, Blackhawk Industrial, and more. On the back page report, we’re going to talk more about the Las Vegas Fastener Show, also known as IFE 2024.

The Seasonally Adjusted Fastener Distributor Index for August 2024 rebonded to 53.8 vs 47.5 in July. This was the highest FDI of 2024. The Forward-Looking Indicator, also known as the FLI, dropped for the second straight month to 47.4 vs 49.6 the previous month. This was the second lowest FLI of 2024. Fastener Distributor Index data is collected and analyzed by the FCH Sourcing Network and Baird. The FDI seeks to identify demand pricing and outlook trends within the American Fastener Distribution Industry. To get some insight on these results, we talked to Earnest CEO, Kirk Zehdner. Kirk, thanks for joining us on the Fastener News Report.

Mike, thanks for having me. Appreciate being invited.

You’re welcome. It’s good to have you back on. We want to give you a chance to tell the readers what you think about the latest FDI results.

The FDI in general is probably not for the faint of heart. You got to be ready to look at it. We have experienced a lot of what the FDI shows. We are not seeing the huge dip that I saw, but we’re certainly seeing a dip on the sales side. Having come back from the Vegas show, heard from most of the market, people are behind where they wanted to be for ‘24. Yet, still feeling optimistic about the future.

The timing was a good barometer to see what was going on out there. The last time you were on the show was November of 2022. The FDI was under 50. It was 44.3. The FLI was about the same as it is, 47.6. Reflecting back on the last almost two years. What’s your perspective there?

I will tell you the one thing that I always remind myself of. You have to remain optimistic if you’re going to run a business. Look at that data and say, “We’re going to use that as one data point.” Mike, I’m either running from the facts or just trying to find a set of alternative data. I’ll say data, not facts, to give us a look at some things. Some of the things that we’re seeing are, things are soft. Everybody’s experiencing that.

The main thing we’ve noticed is it seems to be the reduction in this frequency of what we call our 10X average. Anytime we see an order ten times the average, we note that. Those numbers have come down. The total number of orders is not as down as much as the large orders. The quantities we’ve also seen down. It definitely seems like the activity is there. Customers continue to buy. They’re just buying smaller quantities and not buying those large quantities that we’ve seen in the past.

Do you think some of that was caught up from years past?

I saw an article talking about the price of RVs. How you can buy a used RV for 70% below what it sold for and a new one you can get 30% off. There is some catch up going on. A lot of people just that post-pandemic boom when people were just buying everything. What it seemed like probably overbought and maybe we’re starting to see the bottom of that. As I said, optimist, so always get to see that we’re at the bottom and heading up.

That makes sense to me. There was a lot of catch up buying. Everybody rode the giant waves of ‘20, back end of ‘22 and ‘23. Now, it’s settled down. It’s funny you mentioned RVs because I go by an RV lot a couple of times a week. It’s got a lot of RVs in it.

It was listed. I read an article, Top 10 Things People Aren’t Buying Like They Used To. RVs was number one. Sorry for anyone in that RV space.

It was an episode a while back where some guy was talking about his adventures with RVs, but that’s a digression. Let’s get back to the FDI. My apologies. Most regular readers know that the FDI tracks sales, employment, deliveries, inventories and pricing. This time around, every number went up except for employment, which was flat. That’s what contributed to the big jump in FDI. Any comments there?

We are seeing something similar. We can pull all that data together to try to get an understanding of where things are headed. I would say we line up with all of those key points. It does look like the Forward-Looking Indicator certainly matches up with the past indicator. I’m trusting that it looks like we’re coming up out of that. Is that correct? Am I reading that the right way?

The FDI was up and then the Forward-Looking Indicator went down a little bit.

It’s been on an trend up for 2023s, isn’t that right?

This year was looking above 50 in June and in May and in April, also in January. It was mostly right around 50. The last two months it’s come down. I don’t know what the reason for that is. Maybe people are just scared with the end of the year. It’s set in the reality that 2024 is soft. Let us jump into the six-month outlook. That moderated or regressed a little bit. This time around, we had 32% of the people expecting business to be better in six months.

Thirty nine percent expecting it to be the same and 29% expecting it to be worse. The drop there that I’m alluding to is August. You had 39% expecting it to be better, 31% the same and 31% worse. It looks like some of the middle of the road people or some of the positive people went to the same level. That’s a little bit lower results. What are you expecting in six months, which puts us into 2025?

2024 is clearly soft, setting the context for the six-month outlook. Sentiment has eased slightly: 32% expect business to improve, 39% expect it to stay the same, and 29% expect it to worsen. Share on X

Again, Mike, I’m an optimist. I’m always looking internally at what we’re doing and knowing that this is going to lead us to a better spot. I wish I could forecast it and say, “This is exactly what we’re going to see.” I can’t. I don’t think anyone can. Certainly, having the show just wrapped up, a lot of folks do look out and say, “Q2 of next year, we’re thinking it’s going to get better.” Yes, for those data sources. Nobody has them. Again, optimism raining on that one. That’s okay with me. We’re still very positive about the business and about the market. I don’t see anything going away. We’re feeling good about where things will be. Data is tough to track.

There’s been smart people on this show before saying it’s hard to predict very far out. That’s a true statement, for sure. The only other data point we have put on the report here, the PMI or Purchasing Managers Index. In August, it went up to 47.2 versus 46.8 in July. That was the second worst of the year. It went up in the improved direction, but it’s still below 50.

A little bit below the low point six months or nine months out. Not much variation in that track.

Let’s move on to the respondent comments for the participants were as mixed as the data was this time, where we had the FDI going up and the FLI going down. Some people saw strong incoming orders and had generally positive outlook for the remainder of the year. The first few comments we have are on the positive side.

The first one is, “August incoming order rate was better than July, so that was good to see. High hopes for the final four months of the year.” The next comment was similar to that. It said, “In spite of several conversations with customers that lean toward pessimism concerning future sales, the orders keep coming in. Good month after month leaves us pleasantly surprised.” The final positive one said, “This was our best August in terms of sales in our company’s 50-year history.” That’s pretty good.

On the other hand, here’s where the mixed comments come in. We had one comment warning of slowing fourth quarter results. “Customers are warning about a slow fourth quarter.” Some other people saw very soft order sales trends, said much slower periods, sales fell off a cliff. The final comment was also on the negative side. “More weakening sales activity at this time, slightly weaker than expected.” All over the place.

Perhaps that’s where people are selling. Perhaps it’s things they have going on in the business. We always see some people have a good time when others are struggling. Sometimes it goes the other way. I’ve seen everyone consistently being up except post-pandemic or consistently down is what we’ve seen.

It depends what industry you’re in, what regions you’re in, and all of that stuff.

How well your business is running too, for sure.

Let’s go on. Unless you have anything else to add on the FDI or the FLI, we can jump in. You can talk about what’s going on at Earnest Machine as well as any news that you have out there.

Exciting for us. We had chatted about it just before this. We did something fairly out of the box, which Earnest is known for out-of-the-box thinking. After years of seeing our sales and purchasing teams run independently, some seasons well. Some are working close together. We decided to try something different. We combined leadership on that.

We hired Dave Walters to help us with a restructure of our sales and purchasing, bringing those teams together under the leadership of one person. It’s out of the box. Not everybody’s doing that. I understand that. When we looked at that and said “Okay, what happens on the purchasing side?” We’re building great relationships with suppliers. We’re managing our needs. We’re communicating with them.

We’re making sure things are showing up when they need to show up, ready to go, the right thing. When you look at the sales side, it’s very similar. We’re having conversations with customers making sure we have what they need. We’re going to be able to deliver it to them the way that they need it. You look at that and go, “That’s similar. Why do we have these two different teams that don’t work together, don’t work as closely together as we’d like them?”

Sometimes, they fight each other.

You’ve seen it. At one point they sit on either side of the building. We’re giving this a go. Dave’s been with us about three months. We’re excited about what’s going to come of this experiment.

You get that finger pointing. The sales guys or gals will say, “We can do this” and then the purchase say, “We can’t do that.” They get the same person. His full title is Vice President of Sales and Purchasing. It’s a hybrid role. It’s pretty clever.

Looking forward to see what that does.

Supply chain is a big deal, especially post-pandemic. It’s a good approach. Good luck with that and good luck to Dave. Anything else? I saw you briefly in Las Vegas, but you were in a serious conversation. I don’t know if you saw me, but I did. You touched on briefly, anything else to add with your experience in Vegas?

Vegas was always good to connect with each other. Learn about what’s happening, see what’s shifted in the market and where there might be some opportunities. One of the places that we’ve invested over the years is a division of Earnest that does that short run quick turn manufacturing, reworking existing fasteners, and making parts from the bar.

We’ve enjoyed that business. It’s getting better for us. It seems to be growing even during tough times. I certainly found people confirming like, “People aren’t doing this business like they used to. There’s still a need for it.” While machinists may be retiring and not being replaced at the rate that we’d like them to, the market still has a demand.

That was reinforced with everyone I talked to. We’re excited about that business. Like I said, about ten years old for us. We’re getting to that adolescent stage, just starting to figure it out, and make it work. It’s exciting, for a rise. It’s been good. We’re looking forward to making some news or making an announcement about that in the next couple of months.

We’ll look forward to hearing that. Anything else going on that you want to share with the readers?

We do have a lot going on. When things are a little slower, it gives you time to work. We have a significant upgrade coming to our eCommerce capabilities. I know we’ve been invested in that for a long time. We got to that point where the core infrastructure behind what was driving the site was outdated. Putting in a new ERP system in 2022-2023, we stressed that site. We’ll have a new eCommerce site launching at the beginning of the year as well. Long overdue and excited about the new features it’s going to bring.

That seems a point of a lot of interest. You could tell that in Vegas too with some more exhibitors coming into that space than I’ve noticed in the past.

It’s good to see.

On the personal side, I know in the past, you’ve been a runner and a biker. Anything new there?

Thanks, Mike. You’re forcing me to commit. I got my first 50 ultra marathon. I’ll be in Hagerstown, Maryland, if anybody wants to carry me to my car. I’ll be doing that. Still running. Great time to think. That’s why I do it.

I recall a lot of hills there in that area.

Good news, the first third is hilly, the last two thirds are on the towpath, so that’s nice and flat. Looking forward to that.

Good luck with that.

Thank you.

You’ve got a little month of training. As usual, it’s good to talk to you. It’s good to see you in Vegas, and good to share your insights with the readers on the FLI and your optimism. I want to thank you for joining us.

Thank you. Thanks for thinking of Earnest, thinking of me and great to connect with you guys.

That was Earnest CEO Kirk Zehnder. The FDI number for August 2024 was 53.8 versus 47.5 in July. Visit FDISurvey.com to participate in the process and get a detailed PDF copy of Baird’s monthly analysis. For our top story. I’m driving to the great American city of Tiffin, Ohio on Wednesday, September 18 to help National Machinery LLC celebrate 150 years of making metal forming machinery in the great state of Ohio.

The company started out with ten employees in 1874 in Cleveland, Ohio, with a plan to supply the industry with the very best and latest machinery for making bolts and nuts. Eight years later, it moved to Tiffin, where its world headquarters are located. National Machinery is recognized all over the globe as a leader in advanced cold-forming machinery, process technology, and customer support products and services.

Through its continuing research and development, advanced manufacturing capability, and a worldwide network of sales and service locations, National Machinery has firmly established its position as the “world leader in metal-forming technology.” It is safe to say that a significant percentage of the fasteners sold and in use each day in the world have probably been made on some type of National Machine.

To celebrate this incredible milestone, National Machinery organized a full week of events for customers and vendors, as well as for everyone in the Tiffin community and the surrounding areas. I will attend one day of the open house, which includes plant tours, technical seminars, and opportunities to talk with industry experts. As well as time for fun with great food, entertainment, a classic car show, and prize drawings.

In addition, a trade show and the like environment will be available during the lunch breaks where visitors can meet with industry professionals to learn more about their products and services. Product booths will be staffed by National Machinery, CTG Ransahoff, Smart Machinery, the Industrial Fastener Institute, Drawing Technologies, Condat, and Brandcamp.

You can read more about National Machinery in this great milestone in an article authored by Jerry Bupp, National’s VP of Sales and Marketing on pages 64 and 65 of the August and September 2024 issue of Fastener Technology International Magazine. Next up, the Fastener Newsmaker headlines. In corporate news, Field acquired Cascade Nut and Bolt.

Smalley launched an online store for wave springs and retaining rings. Prime Source Brands acquired Cobra Anchors. EJOT expanded its range of thread forming screws. Endries International acquired Servtronics and opened a new distribution center. Sherex Fastening Solutions added Desert Distribution Sales as its sales representative in the Southwest USA.

Volt Industrial Plastics expanded its inventory. Lynx Systems partnered with RaVisa Packaging. Applied Bolt Products was acquired by Powered Grid Components. Montage Partners invested in Military Fasteners. Hillman acquired Intex DIY, and Bolhoff achieved ISO certification and celebrated 25 years in China.

In Personnel News, AFC’s Industries named Joe Shoemaker, VP of Marketing and Chris Lloyd as VP of Operations. Suncor Stainless appointed John Tavares as Senior Regional Account Manager and Alisa Basewicks as Key Account Customer Service Representative. Blackhawk Industrial named Bob Miller, GM Fasteners.

FastSnap added Spencer Williams and Brett Hoover to its sales team. Genuine Parts Company announced Jen Hewlett as Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer. You can get details on all of these stories and more in Fastener Technology International Magazine and the Fastener News Report monthly newsletter, both available online at FastenerTech.com.

Let’s turn to the back page and talk some more about the Las Vegas fastener show, also known as the IFE 2024. This staging of the Industrial Fastener Expo featured over 600 exhibitors and thousands of folks from dozens of countries focused on fasteners. Ready to sell and/or buy a wide range of predominantly fastener-related products and services.

Highlights for me included seeing the exhibits, listening to the experts on the session stage, attending the marketing workshop put on by Rosa Hearn of Brighton-Best International and Haley Gibson of Threaded Fasteners. Networking at the poolside party, walking all over Mandalay Bay Convention Center and the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip.

Seeing the half-mast USA flags outside the perimeter of the New York-New York Hotel on September 11, 2024. Checking out several side gatherings, including ones hosted by Brighton-Best International, Optimus, and Eric Dudas of Fully Threaded Radio. I can’t report on the after-hours party on Tuesday night because it started several hours after my Eastern Standard Zone bedtime.

As always seems to be the case in Vegas, there was no shortage of excellent hospitable, clever and informative exhibits. In my opinion, Trueform equipment had the most operational machinery. Patriot Bolt had the best outfits. BTM Manufacturing gave away the freshest and hottest coffee. Würth Industry and Volt handed out the finest notebooks. Crossroad Distribution Source looked like they had the most fun.

On the session side, the Hall of Fame and Young Fastener Professional Award introductions and acceptance speeches for and by Carmen Virtullo and Jake Glazer respectively were very well done. As were the two panels I attended, the Walking the Work Life Balance Tightrope Session and the ASTM F16 Ask the Experts panel.

The technical theme talks were well planned and executed by the IFE staff and the speakers, including Andrew Pfeiffer of Adotech USA, Carl Wiggington of Matric Engineering, Anders Green of ALOX and Cole Wheeler of BoltWise. I also enjoyed unexpected random short and informal first name only meetings with a few new fastener people.

Including an early morning walk up to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center with Justin from McMaster Car in Illinois, who was headed to the Fastener Training Institute’s Fastener Basics and Beyond Workshop. An afternoon monorail ride with Steve from Quality Fasteners in Texas, who was going to find his colleagues at the New York-New York Casino before heading to the IFE networking party.

I don’t have actual attendance numbers, but my take is that attendance was decent. The vast majority of people were engaged and happy to be in the fastener industry and in Las Vegas at the same time. That being said, my take is that inflation has hit Las Vegas harder than the rest of the country. I am wondering where all the money comes from to keep Vegas functioning and growing. I heard some talk about potential changes for the long-term future of the show, but in 2025, it’s going to be back at Mandalay Bay Convention Center, September 15th to 17th.

Fastener Technology International Magazine will be there and wherever the industry goes in the years to come. Look for our full report on the show. Including some excellent images from the IFE 2024 staff, and the October, November 2024 issue of Fastener Technology International Magazine.This has been Mike McNulty of Fastener Technology International bringing you the Fastener News Report. Please send your news, pictures, comments, corrections or complaints to me at Mcnulty@FastenerTech.com.

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Fastener Training Minute: Exploring The Future Of High-Strength Fastener Materials

Welcome to the Fastener Training Minute. This is Carmen Vertullo coming to you from Carver Labs in beautiful El Cajon, California and the Fastener Training Institute. Our topic is a little bit technical. It’s very exciting to me because I’m going to go into the future and talk about some of the fasteners we might be seeing in the future that we don’t have now.

Using some not new materials, but new for fasteners that will make these fasteners much stronger and allow us to use smaller fasteners or fewer of them in high stress applications. I just returned from a conference at the Industrial Fasteners Institute in Cleveland, Independence, Ohio, near Cleveland. We had a symposium about this new material on the 27th, Tuesday of August 2024.

It was attended by about 50 people from around the industry, not just researchers who gave presentations, but also manufacturers of fasteners. Some of my clients were there. We had a young man from Stellantis. You all know who that is. Very interested in getting this new product into the water for the automotive industry. I am going to tell you what we learned at that conference and why I think it’s very exciting. Anyone that has an interest in the fasteners of the future should be reading.

We’re talking about a material that we have not used in fasteners yet, but we want to use it. It can’t get him from outer space. It’s steel, the same kind of steel that we make fasteners from now. When we make high strength fasteners, we heat treat them. The process by which they’re heat treated is called quench and temper. It’s universal for inch and metric fasteners. Grade 5, Grade 8, 12.9 socket screws, A574 socket screws and so on. Basically, we heat the material very hot, red hot, above 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, transformation temperature. It goes into a phase called austenite.

We quench it. That’s dumping into oil. It’s down to room temperature very quickly. That’s called the quench. At that point, the material was extremely hard and brittle. If you drop it on the floor, it might break like glass. We temper it back at a certain temperature. That temperature will determine what the final hardness and strength is. The higher the tempering temperature, the lower the strength and hardness. We would temper a Grade 5 at a higher temperature than a Grade 8. We would temper a 12.9 socket screw at a lower temperature than hardly anything. We have a tough microstructure called tempered martensite. We can identify this microstructure with a metallurgical examination.

There’s another type of microstructure very similar to tempered martensite. It’s called the bainite. This is this new application for fasteners. Bainite has been very commonly used in things like gears and other high strength forgings, castings, and machine parts. The heat treatment process for bainite is different. We still heat it up red hot, to the transformation temperature into the austenite zone. However, instead of quenching in oil to room temperature, we quench it in liquid salt, which is very hot, but not near as hot as that original temperature. We’re going to quench it in, I don’t know exactly what the temperature is.

Let’s say 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, put it in the liquid salt for some amount of time. We take it out and we let it cool at room temperature. That process is called marquenching. It’s a very typical heat treatment process for high strength parts. The result is we get a slightly different microstructure in the material. Whereas in tempered martensite, what we see is carbides in the metal. In the steel microstructure are long and sometimes cross-oriented. It’s not hard to identify tempered martensite.

In bainite, the carbides are more round. Not exactly round, but they have a sort of a uniform cross section. They are much more evenly distributed throughout the microstructure. The result is we have a higher strength material, much higher strength as a matter of fact. We’ll talk about that in a minute. More importantly to us than anything, it is less susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement.

For any of you that were counting how long it would take me to say hydrogen embrittlement, that’s about five minutes in. At our conference, we had speakers that are doing research on this. One of our biggest problems is how do we know we have bainite? How do we look at the microstructure and see? It’s not that easy for the untrained human being’s eye to tell.

A trained metalist can tell, but it takes a very special amount of experience to know. One of the researchers, a young lady, is working at McGill with Saleem. She has a computer program that will help us look at this microstructure with machine vision and categorize those carbides in terms of their size, their orientation, and their population density. Be able to let the machine tell us that we have tempered martensite or if we have bainite.

The proof in the pudding is the extra strength we’re going to get out of it and also the heat treatment process that we followed. As you know, our highest strength fasteners that we would see typically are property class 12.9 in the metric world, 1,200 megapascals. For our socketed cap screws in the inch world from ASTMA 574, that’s 180 KSI.

These new materials, we go from 12.9. We’re at 14.9, 16.8. That point, as you know, in the metric world tells us the percentage of the tensile strength that equals the yield strength. If you can imagine, we have a 16.8 property class, and the 0.8 is a slightly lower yield strength. That’s also what leads to give us great toughness in the material.

It’s a very exciting material. The people at Stellantis, the automotive world, are very keen on finding suppliers to create these new products. Make standards for them and get it into the automotive world, which is interesting. Up until recently, the automotive world was backing off of all these high strength materials, 12.9s in particular, because of the risk of hydrogen embrittlement.

Now that we have a way around that and some research is going on, anyone that’s not just in the automotive world, but anywhere where high strength fastening is important. We are going to be seeing this in the future where it’s the future of fasteners. Not just for automotive, but anywhere that we need high-strength fastening.

Now, you know a little bit about bainite. There was a lot more in that conference. We’ll probably have another one. I’m going to see if I can talk to the technical committee. I’m a member of the IFI technical committee, which is a brand-new committee. This is our first conference, our first project. We did a very fine job putting it together. It was a huge success.

Hopefully, we’ll have one in the future or as I was just going to say, I’m going to see if I can get the committee to do a Zoom call for other interested parties that weren’t able to attend the conference or who might have some questions about it. I’m sure somebody’s going to write a paper about it or a magazine article. Thank you for reading. This has been Carmen Vertullo with the Fastener Training Minute.

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IFE 2024: Day Two Floor Walks, Industry Voices, And Show Floor Energy

Brian and Eric, back with you, the online fastener party cabana. We’re talking about the International Fastener Expo. This is part two of our semi-comprehensive coverage. We’ve got the amazing Shan sitting in with us. Hey, guys.

Part two, semi-comprehensive.

Let’s jump right into this second package of report. We’ve got another great lineup. The lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey went out there and stuck the mic in front of attendees’ faces. You never know who she’s going to run into, what people will say, or what she’ll ask them. Let’s check that out. We’ll return for a little analysis and further prattle. Here’s part two.

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It is day two at the IFE. I love coming early and to hear the quiet. Let’s talk about the place that we’re in. It looks smaller to me, a smaller ballroom, but it’s easier to get to. It’s on the south side. We have our biggies. We have Century Fasteners here. We have Goebel here. We have BBI’s here. We have International Fasteners, Beacon, Pacific Bolt, EFC walking down the main aisle here, Advanced Components.

Everybody’s got to try to get people into their booths. There are enticements at the booths. Pacific Bolt and Fuller always set up a bar, which is very cool. International Fasteners has something. Advanced Components have games here and balloons and golf. Golf’s a biggie here. We have LindFast Group. I mentioned Brighton-Best is here in the house.

Looks like Beacon is going to be making their Bloody Marys. That’s always an enticement to come and say hello. INxSQL’s got a big booth. We’ve got WTC that has Darkboard Games, Industrial Rivet, MW components, Cotton and Arrows here, Edison manufacturing. We’ve got it all. Fry Steel Company. I talked to some of the steel companies. They wouldn’t go on record talking about the almost sale of US steel to Japan. They didn’t want to talk about that.

One of the enticements at Carmen’s thing, Carver is voting, so you get to vote early. You didn’t have to wait until November. Carmen just wants to see what the industry thinks of our two presidential candidates. You’re voting for that. We’ve got Ken Foraging again. They’re wonderful. They’re always sponsoring things, so it’s great.

Würth has sponsored the education stuff. We have back Buckeye Fasteners. Computer Insights here, INxSQL’s here. You’re all here. If you’re in the industry, you are here. Whether you’re walking the floor or whether you have a booth, then you go. We have the education session spot. We also have the education lounge spot, which is a little bit more closer and informal.

We have Asians here, we have India here. This show has it all. If you want to know somebody from the fastener industry and want to explore all the different companies, this is where you come. I’m here in the hall. We’re early to get into the exhibit hall. It doesn’t open until 8:30 AM. I cornered Baron Yarbrough with KT Bolt Manufacturing. What do you think? How’s the show?

Good. I was getting a little worried. This is the morning of day two. Day one right there around lunchtime, it got a little sparse. We had a good uptick in the afternoon, some good conversations. Hopefully, day two is a good day two and it’ll make it all worth it.

Do you think about the coming out with liquor? All of sudden the crowd increased was a thing that happened, a little cause.

It makes sure people after lunch show back up, that’s for sure.

What’s the most exciting thing you’ve done here in Vegas this trip?

Customer visits. I’ve been bored. I have not done anything outside of Mandalay Bay. I have not gone outside.

We went to Delano for dinner. That was about all we’ve done too.

Every year I always say I’m going to do something crazy like go to Fremont and take the zip line or what have you. Do a roller coaster and I end up just going home after the show.

Do you think it’s time to move the show?

I don’t know about that. There’s some people that come here because it’s in Vegas. There’s some people who come here in spite of it being in Vegas. I don’t know what percent wins out on that argument.

It’s early in the morning, so you’re thinking on your feet. It’s early morning on the second day and before we open, I happen to run into Anders Green of ALOX. I’m sneaking around seeing what’s happening. You gave a lecture?

I did. They got me up on stage and that was, “Which Hyped Technology is Suited for Distributors in the Fastener Industry.”

How did it go?

It was good. It was a survey course of many different technologies. We talked about the Internet of Things, cloud, AI, all sorts of things. It was a vast array of topics in a short half hour session.

Your one accolade that you gave a good talk was?

I had a good time. Which is half of my rating for, “Was It a Success?” The fellow doing the AV on the side who was in charge of cameras and production. He has to sit through all of the presentations. He said, “That was a good talk.” I was like, “If that guy thinks though, then it probably came off pretty well.”

There you go. Drop the mic.

I respectfully placed the mic on the podium. I’m trying to work with everyone. I’m not trying to make any enemies here.

We’re still meeting the neighbors. Here’s our other next-door neighbor. Craig Penland with Eurolink. Josh Winkler with Eurolink. What fun things have you done in Vegas? We’ve been to lots of these shows.

We arrived late Sunday afternoon. Josh and I went to see Kyle Martin’s The Piano Man. Half of his show is Billy Joel and the other half is Elton John. He sounded just like Billy Joel. It was a great show. We did that Sunday night, Monday night, obviously the welcome party. It was an early night. We went down to Fremont, to old Vegas, and hung out a little bit and had dinner. Kim and I are headed to go see Chris Angel before heading back tomorrow morning.

How was Fremont? I’ve had other people that’ve gone to Fremont. What were your impressions?

I believe it’s called the Fremont Experience. It was definitely an experience, that’s for sure. It was not what I expected. I’d say it was a little step down from the main strip in Vegas. Different clientele that was out there. Maybe that’s where it originally started. It was cool to see the light show and everything, but just not what I was envisioning, to be honest.

Would you go again?

I didn’t lose anything there, so I don’t. No need to go back. One and done.

How about you?

I’m one and done as well. I’m okay to never go back to Fremont. It was one of those you check off on your to-do list and you’re done. You don’t go back.

Thanks, fellows. I’m still walking around. I found Michael Robinson with LindFast Solutions Group. What’d you do?

I went out, had some dinners, stopped over at Fremont Street, and had a good time with some fastener friends.

Did you play golf?

I did. It was extremely hot. We had a lot of fun and then at the end, it got hot. We happily went back to the hotel to the air conditioning.

Did you do all eighteen holes?

We did. We finished all of them. Again, the last four or five were pretty hot. We were trying to find that shade that was about three feet wide from the top of the palm trees to hang out under so we stayed a little cooler. There wasn’t enough water out there or any type of drink to keep you cool.

A lot of the golfers have told me that. What do you think of the show?

So far, so good. We got the last day here. We had a lot of good conversations, a lot of good customers, lot of people swinging by our booth. We have our whole team here. Getting to hang out with some of our colleagues that we don’t get to see very often. As well as seeing all those good customers that are walking the show is good for us.

I know you’re an avid fan of Fully Threaded Radio. Is there any question you’ve been dying to want to ask either Brian or Eric?

I would ask them what was their favorite interview or best conversation that they’ve had? How many episodes? Two hundred and something. What was their best interview or best conversation and favorite episode?

Do you have a favorite episode?

I like them all.

Great answer, Mike.

There we go.

Thanks, Mike.

No, thank you.

I’m here at the show. I ran into Matt Boyd from Parker Fasteners.

Thank you so much, Lynn. Happy to be here and happy to be on the show. I’m just getting around, but I have a special guest with us. Ellie from Sleep in Heavenly Peace, the local chapter. I’m very excited to bring her around to all the industry contacts and friends that I have here. Introduce Sleep in Heavenly Peace to more people in the industry with BTM’s help and Parker Fasteners getting on board with the Fastener Bed Challenge. Looking to cross that threshold of a thousand beds built from our fastener industry across the nation.

That’s our Build-A-Bed in case you didn’t know, anybody didn’t know that the Sleep in Heavenly Peace is the formal name. We call it Build-A-Bed. We just finished Build-A-Bed. Introduce yourself to us.

I’m Ileana Privatare. I’m the delivery coordinator for the Las Vegas chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace. We deliver twin sites’ beds to children ages 3 to 17.

Those are the ones that we build so hopefully everybody in the Midwest we just did a big build out at Mid-West Fastener. What was the biggest bed build out here?

At Parker Fasteners, our largest has been about 132. The key about having a bigger bed-build event like we’ve had is we just get local community partners to sponsor with us. We’ve been able to partner with a local church. We’ve been able to partner with companies like McDonald’s and some other big-name companies.

We get a pool of resources and people. It’s in our local community. We’ll have 60-70 team members at Parker come out all in all. At our last bed build, we had 400 people out. We were able to do 130 beds. Here’s the thing, it happened fast. When you have that many people, that many resources, we were able to not only build.

We also organized a large delivery. We delivered over 100 beds that morning as well. It was just a special to serve the local community at Parker Fasteners in Buckeye, Arizona. Around is just a huge success. I’m just wanting to encourage as many people as possible that you don’t have to do it alone. You don’t have to raise a lot of money. You can just get other industry partners or local partners in your market to get together. Pull resources and put some beds in stock, deliver some beds for some families in need, and make a difference in your local community.

If someone wants to get involved, someone’s reading this on Fully Threaded Radio and they want to get involved, who should they be calling?

They should be going to our website SleepInHeavenlyPeace.com. It will give you an opportunity to find your local chapter and see how you can help your community. One of the best things about this is you’re going to donate your time. You can donate money. You can donate resources. This is going to impact your immediate community. You’re not giving into a bucket and not seeing where your efforts went. You’re helping people. You may be shopping next to them in your local grocery store.

I believe the volunteers, if you do volunteer to build a bed, you can also help deliver that.

We love it when they do that. Deliveries are near and dear to my heart. It’s important not only to make the beds and build them, but to see the fruits of your labor and see that come full circle. There’s nothing like taking a child literally off the floor on a morning that you come in to deliver a bed. When you leave, that may be the first bed they’ve ever owned.

They get everything. We build the beds but they get the mattress. Everything is provided.

They get a full bed frame, brand new mattress, brand new bedding sheets, comforter. When we walk out, they can sleep on those beds.

Come on, everybody. Let’s do this. Thank you so much. Guess who I just met in the aisle Haley Gibson with Threaded Fasteners.

We’re doing the marketing workshop. I’m co-hosting the two-hour workshop with Rosa Hearn from Brighton-Best.

What can we expect from the workshop?

All things marketing. The first half is going to be for the beginner marketer, getting your feet wet, not sure where to start, what to do. We’ll go all into the nitty gritty, the nuts and bolts of what marketing is and how you can get started in that. The second half, the second hour is going to be digging into how to up your marketing game. How to go to that next level, all the different things that you can do to build your marketing team from the ground up.

Spontaneous, just one minute’s notice here. What’s your best tip for marketing?

To do a website audit. Your website is your 24-hour salesperson. It’s the only thing that will work 24/7 seven days a week, 365 days out of the year. If your website isn’t up to par and where you want it to be, then you’re losing out on a lot.

How else can we find information about marketing?

You can come to our website ThreadedFasteners.com. You can listen to our podcast The Nuts and Bolts of Leadership on wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. We were just talking about how we developed the podcast internally for our teams to help build their leadership skills within Threaded Fasteners.

Billy Durin, our president, and I decided that a lot of people could learn from what we have to say and what other leaders across the industry and across the country have to say. It’s digging for those nuggets of wisdom and learning about all thing’s leadership from just fantastic leaders from across the country. That’s the Nuts and Bolts of Leadership wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

A lot of people could benefit from what we have to share, along with insights from other leaders across the industry and the country. It’s about digging for those small nuggets of wisdom and learning everything we can about leadership from truly… Share on X

I’m over here with Patrick with Continental Arrow. How long have you been in the industry?

Been in the industry about eleven years, last ten with Continental on the importing distribution side.

Sales all the time?

When I’m allowed to.

Do you like sales?

I love sales. There’s nothing better than helping a customer find a solution.

What solutions does Continental have?

Continental is a full-line industrial importer for lock nuts. We’re known for our purple insert lock nuts. What a lot of people don’t think about are things like stainless steel and brass solutions for plating’s on the nylon inserts for special patches and packaging programs for custom labeling. We’re trying to be an all-in-one solution provider to our customers.

How’s the show been?

The show’s been very good. Had a lot of good meetings with some of our key customers.

Thanks for talking. Thank you. It took me forever but I finally came over to Michael Topoleski with Perigee Manufacturing Company. I understand you attended the lecture.

There was an IFI division meeting at 7:00 AM. It was well-attended. It was regarding the state of the economy.

What is our state of economy?

It was very interesting. There are some mixed results but there’s some definite positives in the economy that are not necessarily expressed in what we’re hearing on the news. You look at the fundamental numbers, the underlying numbers. They paint a little different picture. It was a very interesting presentation. A lot of it made sense.

Did he forecast out? Did he talk about the future?

He did. No recession is pending according to him. There’s certainly some issues, especially with regard to, obviously, the debt and certain deficits.

Do you agree with it?

It’s very helpful to project as a business owner. You’re always looking ahead and seeing, “Where am I at? Where are we going relative to the general economy?”

Does the election influence your business that much?

I can’t say directly. Certainly, policy changes will have an effect, but we don’t know what they say and what ends up happening. It can be two very different things. We’ll wait and see.

Thanks for talking, Mike.

Thank you very much.

It’s day two and I’ve stopped by All American Threaded Products. I have Danielle Mays, Regional Account Manager and Tricia Gradofsky. How’s the show going, ladies?

It’s fantastic. It has been extremely busy, extremely exciting to have conversations with new customers, prospects, existing customers and new solutions, new products. It’s been fantastic.

Does anybody golf here? Did anybody do golfing?

No golf. I’ll drink the beer cart with you, but I don’t play golf.

That’s basically my golf game too. What else have we been doing here in Vegas?

I have been fully enjoying the world class restaurant options and walking the strip. It’s a fun place to walk around. The people watching, of course.

I checked out the Sphere and it lived up to the expectations. I’ve been hearing about it since 2023 when it opened. I went and it was fantastic, highly recommend.

How many times have you come to Vegas?

This is my fourth year at the IFE. That’s the only reason why I come. It has been a great experience every time and it just keeps getting better.

Fourteen years in a row other than I think the COVID year where it wasn’t a show. It just keeps getting bigger. More familiar faces and new faces. It’s the best fastener show. It’s the fastener show to come to.

I would agree with that. Everybody here, there’s a lot and there’s a lot to do. Tell me a little bit about All American Threaded Products.

We are a master manufacturer and distributor of threaded rod, studs, anchor bolts, U-bolts, and special bends. We are here launching our brand-new great rod line that Al Bate had the privilege of talking with Fully Threaded Radio about. It has been a huge success.

There’s no one else in the market producing what we’re producing and stocking the sizes, links and finishes that we have. We’re excited to have the availability that our distributors need.

You got a nice-looking booth. It’s a double and nice looking. It look like good giveaways. Everyone keeps coming up. It’s color I think.

That’s what we heard. We have a five-color highlighter. It looks like a little flower. That has been drawing so many people in. They have been a huge hit. The last couple of years, we haven’t had the greatest of giveaways, so we planned on it. It has brought so many people to talk to us. It has been so fantastic. We’re almost out.

Whose idea?

It was definitely a collaboration. We all came together with different ideas on what to have. I’m the highlighter girl, so I was like, “You have to have these.” Our marketing director, Connor, came up with the phone stands and Trisha loved the sunglasses.

It’s very popular. Thanks for letting me talk with you.

It has been such a great conversation. I hope you have a great rest of your show. We are going to just knock the rest of this out of the park.

I’m still over here at All American Threaded Products. I’m talking with Connor Coldway in marketing. I happen to notice that Connor was in the marketing class with Rosa Hearn and Haley Gibson. They were the lecturers. Tell me about the class.

It’s an awesome class, extensive. They went over basic principles as well as advanced fundamentals. covered a lot of topics, while being very focused on the threaded fastener industry.

I noticed I was in there for a little bit. When Rosa was talking about it takes 10 to 14 touches with a customer before you have them say, “You do that.” Would you agree?

The more, the better. If your message is genuine to your company, nobody’s ever going to get tired of it because those are your company’s values. You want them to see that as much as possible.

What was the strongest point you brought back?

That we just need to stick to our values and market that and communicate it more.

Is there anything you’ll go back to the company and try to change or you think you guys are steady-eddy?

We’re steady-eddy. It’s just more of what we’re already doing. Organizing those ideas and then pushing those out.

Thanks for talking. I’m manning the booth. It’s like, “Where’s Brian? Where’s Eric?” I don’t know, but guess who stopped by?

It’s Parker Jensen with Atlas Distribution

Malcolm Camp with Atlas Distribution.

We don’t need Brian and Eric when we have Lynn.

There you go. This is why he’s my favorite. Tell me what you’ve been doing.

We got in early Sunday. Ready for the Sunday slate of football games, week one, lost about every bet possible. I’m very good at losing. That’s what I found out in Vegas.

If you want to lose money, bet on the Panthers. That’s all I’m going to say.

What else have you been doing? That was Sunday.

Monday, we golfed.

Monday we were out in the hot sun, golfing for eighteen holes, having a good time, drinking some warm beer.

What was your score?

We shot nine under. It was about half halfway the pack. We weren’t in the top ten or anything like that, but we had a great time and it’s good.

Malcolm was on the A team. I was on the B team. We were horrendous. Talk about losing again. Lost on football, lost on golf. Is Eric doing the Busch Light for the highest score? I might have had the lowest score.

You didn’t get the Busch Light.

Where’s my Busch Light, Eric?

If you had to ask Eric or Brian any question in the world, what would that question be?

What do you put vegemite on?

I know but I’ll let Brian answer that hopefully. Would you like vegemite? I’ve got some.

I’ll pass.

What are you guys doing?

Big steak dinner with a valued partner and then probably going to hit Old Vegas and see if I can start winning. I’ve done a lot of losing, Lynn. I’m ready to start winning.

Old Vegas and eat some food tonight and try to win some money for sure. Spend some time together.

What makes Old Vegas old?

It was Vegas before this Strip was Vegas. It was Frank Sinatra, RatPack, gangsters, and mobsters. What made Vegas Vegas was Fremont Street.

Is it only “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas only in New Vegas?”

It’s all Vegas.

It can be applicable anywhere.

Thanks for stopping guys.

—

Vegas Show Wrap-Up And Industry Reflections

Parker has a very good way of summarizing everything. Though this time, what happened in Vegas is being discussed on this show. I don’t know how accurate he was, but he’s a very interesting dude. Atlas Distribution, those guys were out there in full force. What’d you think, Don, of package two with Lynn?

Lynn should get a raise. She does a good job of trying to hunt down different aspects of the industry, which is always good to hear from different people. She had a few people on there that were semi-rookies within the industry. It was good to see that they were able to network and find real value in what the purpose of the show is all about. That works well. All the veterans we already know hide from Lynn when they see her coming down the aisle.

There’s two, Wayne Wishnew and Vic from Cambridge.

They’re good at high tailing it away when they see her coming down the aisle.

Every now and then, they fickle given because he knows it’s just a matter of time. Lynn does make a point of trying to find people who she hasn’t seen before to see what they think of it. That’s the old thing about rookies.

We didn’t mention it at the top of the show, but we had Marcel Goebel open everything up for us. He is a very smart guy. He’s never that thrilled to talk on mic either, but they got him. They have such a huge thing going on at Goebel with this new facility they’re opening, that World Riveting Congress coming up. It was good that she got him to talk a little bit. They had excellent traffic at Goebel. They were front and center with a very nice-looking booth. They have a growing team. I was very pleased to hear him speak.

I was able to interact with some of them. They did a talk at the fireside chat. The attendance was slow there. We were able to have a little bit of one-on-one time. I was impressed with the amount of advertisement and support that they have put in throughout the show. Almost everywhere he went, you saw Goebel from the opening to the pool. They sponsored a lot of that. Certainly, you saw signages and everything for what they’re trying to get their brand out through the show, which is always good.

Did you slug down a few mugs of U-Bolt blend, Don?

I didn’t. I did stop there and asked for some. He had some right on the table, but I did not grab any. I was one of them. Even carrying anything was a pain for me, so I didn’t partake in any giveaways. That’s how a lot of things have changed. A lot of people don’t like carrying a lot of that stuff with them.

That’s not my experience. There’s the professional ones who walk past every booth and pick up something, even if they’re not famous for their interests and what it is. I see them. They’re the ones who I stand in front of the pens. They don’t get a chance. I missed one or two, but I went out one morning looking for coffee. I couldn’t remember where Jake’s booth was. Jason from J.Lanfranco dragged me over to the BTM booth, which was only one aisle away and opened up the whole coffee thing.

Jason was looking sharp. He is back in full force. J.Lanfranco is doing gangbusters up there.

They’ve got a lot of expansion plans.

They do. They’re bringing people on. He had the eye of the tiger.

It is hard to find. There’s more than a few people that I talked to that finding good people within the industry has been an issue all the way around. It’s even an issue for us. We’re always looking for some experience within the industry. It’s hard that they’re hard to find and people give up real quick. Either you get in. We said this before.

Once you get in the industry, after a certain amount of time, you can’t usually stay in it. A lot of people looking for inside help that can’t find anybody that’s worthwhile. If you get a young kid and you train them, and you got to figure you’re going to train them for a year at least before they have any decent value. They start to get it. The game slows down a little bit so that they understand where they’re at. Therapy, I’m still learning things every single day. That tells you how long it takes to get a hold of the industry.

The other problem is that we dealt with 2023 at the Las Vegas show. It was a fascinating session, which was how do you attract young people in the industry? They pointed out that the fastener industry is completely not set up to keep younger people because the culture that they’re looking for is a different culture than what is general in the industry. They’re to sit in front of their desk in front of a screen and to bang away on a computer. Younger people don’t understand this or how they do. It’s not how they do anything.

When I started in this industry, I didn’t even know what culture was. You develop a culture with teamwork and wanting to work for the employer that you’re working for. If that’s the case, it’s just different, but that’s okay.

Which just means we’ve got to move to change with it.

Speaking of the youth, we had the Young Fastener Professional of the Year simultaneous with the Hall of Fame. That was Jake Glazer. He was in part one of our report. Lynn mentioned that he was the recipient of that award, but that guy’s everywhere. He lights up every room he walks into. That was another excellent choice.

The YFP group is rolled into the NFDA. I know that they’re doing a lot more with that whole mentor program through the YFP than a lot of people are aware of. I became aware of it. We’re going to have to dig into that a little bit more. That’s a very good channel for cultivating new talent. I’m not sure what the volume of it is, but it seems like a pretty worthwhile program. Do you guys have a feel for that at this point?

I don’t at all. I know they had. It’s been going for a while, but I saw a little thing from the Traveling Salesman who basically had the List of 30 under 30 in the very first year of 30.

From 2014?

Exactly. If you look through that, I didn’t check everybody out, but at least half of them, if not more, no longer in the industry. It’s hard to keep them enriched into moving forward. For example, a person you hire that’s 25 years old had different needs than that same person who’s 30 years old. The employees that strive in this industry understand that person has different needs. Whether it be marriage, kids, or time away. You have to be in tune to what makes them tick. That’s how you create the culture nowadays. It’s difficult, but 30 under 30, that was young fastener professionals are. That’s a 40 under 40 already.

You look around the show floor and you definitely come to that conclusion.

When Lynn and I were at the show in Chicago, we met a woman when we were our last night with drinks, who was one of these mentors. She told us that she had never met the person she was mentoring and then we saw him walk by. The guy who runs Solution. We saw Tim and started talking to him. We asked him about the mentoring and he was talking about it. I said that the lady who’s mentoring you is in the bar at the moment. He didn’t know that we took him over and introduced him. They had a great session.

That was when we were visiting Big Bolt on the MWFA tour.

It’s a program that is extremely rewarding for both the mentors and the mentees as far as I know.

The mentors will be a perfect fit for anybody in this industry if you get the right people together. You almost have to put the work in. It’s like anything else. If you put the work in and if the mentor is calling his mentee, maybe once a month, just to see how things are going. Things of that nature, what can we help with?

It’ll help them navigate the world. They’re all a little bit intimidated, a little bit scared. We all had mentors when we were young kids. Especially in this industry, we all had guys you looked up forward to and how they controlled the room and how they made presentations. It’s like the first time I was on Fully Threaded Radio, scared to death. Eric is intimidating.

Be afraid, Don.

I had a mentor. When I was working for an Australian company, he was an American guy. When I started off, he was my boss. I disliked him intensely when I first was introduced to him, because I thought he was like a failed car salesman. As I got to know him and how he managed things, I learned so much from him. I loved him. I would have crawled across broken glass to join him anywhere he went. He was an amazing man.

It’s difficult, as a young person, to ghost somebody just to see how they work the room or work. It’s hard for them to just get in and do it themselves. I hate to say this, but in any industry, I’m convinced it takes a while. That’s why you have experience. It’s how you get experience in this industry. The people that have it are worthwhile, worth their weight in gold.

We drifted away from the discussion of the IEF. We may be running out of things to bring up at this point, which is fine. This is turning into a monster show as it is, but I appreciate you guys both jumping in on it. We’ll wind up with the major question that we always walk away with. It’s always a thumbs up.

Everybody wishes that the show would close a little earlier on day two. We could get the hell out of Dodge. For whatever reason, they make it go to four. Everyone leaves at two anyway. I would say that we’ll leave it with the proverbial question. Should it stay in Vegas or not? Before we do that, Don, what’s going on with Fastener Solutions Group?

We’re doing a lot of things. We had opened up a new branch in PA. We have a lot of new packaging equipment. We have a lot of new threaders and CNC products cut thread in all under one roof. We’re doing a lot of things. We hired some new talent. We hired some old talent. We got another 30-year-old experienced guy. We’re ready to rock and roll. We have a lot of capacity. It’s a matter of getting our name on the street a little bit more than it is. It’s my problem. I’ll work on that. If anybody needs a hold of me, it’s D.Shan@FastenerSolutionsGroup.com or call Eric. He’ll tell you how to get hold of me.

What kind of guys should be calling you, Don?

Anybody that’s doing specials, secondary process work, material handling. If you have to handle any material at all and you want to buy your material complete, you need to be calling me. It’s a lot simpler. If you have a part that’s going to say, for example, plated and patched. You have a lot of soft costs in there that go unnoticed. You could buy material from me, you get it complete, one invoice, one packing slip, one inspection.

It’s all complete with a quality inspection package. It makes life easier for any fastener distributor that has a VMI related account. Any other distributor that has one-off specials that need help with rather being reworked or plated of anything that’s of a material handling special. Anything packaged, anything polybagged is another added feature. Literally you can buy your product no matter what you may need from A to Z. You won’t have an issue at all.

We just got out of the elevator with the amazing Shan. Pack that one away for when you need it, folks. We’re going to go to the main question that everyone wants to know. Where do you stand on the Vegas or no Vegas question? Do we move out? If so, where does it go? We don’t need to spend hours on this. Just a quick take. Where do you come down?

My take is Rosemont, Chicago. Perfect. It’s got the space. It’s got more than enough room. It’ll be cheaper. It’s in the middle of the country. It’s a no-brainer if you ask me.

I like that. Direct to the point.

I’m going to be more wishy-washy. I don’t like Las Vegas. It’s sleazy. I’d prefer to be anywhere else. I don’t quite know where, but it has to be somewhere near California for those people.

That was pretty wishy-washy, Brian, but duly noted. We know Vegas isn’t your cup of tea, but until you come up with some good likely alternative. Our judges can’t accept your answer.

It’s too bloody expensive, the hotels and everything. Everything’s too expensive.

That’s the drawback that everybody realizes. However, again, because of all the other trade-offs, you have to say something for momentum. You have to say something for tradition. You cannot deny that Vegas is well set up to accommodate large groups of people. There’s an exciting atmosphere. There’s a lot of draws there.

Things can be done differently. I have to come down on keep it in Vegas. That’s a reluctant keep it in Vegas because I’m not fond of the city either, but it does offer so much. That momentum’s worth a lot. I’d love to see it go somewhere other than Mandalay though. The costs are going to catch up with you eventually anywhere you go. There are cheaper places, but again, the trade-off is the momentum and also the ability of a wide range of people from across the country to get to it. That’s where I come down. We can talk about it forever.

I know. There’s no great solution.

I would like to see a show go to Columbus at some point though. I don’t know who would do it, but it would be great.

I would too. That’d be awesome.

I told the Emerald team about that, but in the final analysis, I got to stick with Vegas, sadly.

You make a good point in some instances. Tradition alone is worth something, but I’ll tell you, the Rosemont group got the space in any other. You got people hanging around more together, out of the Columbus show way back then when everybody was in the same place. Big networking pool and you don’t get that aspect in Vegas.

That’s where someone has to roll up their sleeves and figure that part of it out because people need something to congregate around. I don’t have that answer, but I will say that I’m also a huge fan of Rosemont. Those early Fastener Tech shows rocked. They were great. I wish something like that would come back. I know Fastener Faire’s in the mix. That’s the big stalking horse behind this whole thing too. A lot of stuff is going on.

My biggest complaint, and I think a lot of people share this, is the timing. September is just not right and everyone knows it. There’s only so much Emerald can do because as I understand it, they’ve gotten forced out of the preferred time slot by these Grand Prix races in Vegas, which blow out the whole city.

They must make a lot of money on that because it stymies everything.

One way or another, we’re going to be there in 2025. It’s another one in the can. Don, I appreciate you coming on here with us and giving us a little bit of your perspective. It’s always appreciated and valued.

We’ll see you guys soon. I’m sure.

The amazing Shan.

—

Episode Wrap-Up

Before we sign off, I want to go back and cover one thing that I didn’t get a chance to cover. It was relative to the first set of Lynn’s interviews. Lynn interviewed a couple of guys after the very first session on the first day. It was a session, walking the tight rope when the work-life balance. It was very interesting. She interviewed Zech Williams from Würth Revcar and Jake Glazer from Sherex.

It was Zech who was the moderator, but it was quite an interesting discussion. They talked about the different methods that companies use to try and keep people in sync and in connection with each other. Mainly in the new world of having people working from home some of the times. The comments came down on the side of you. You have to go back and meet these people occasionally. The online only doesn’t quite do it. I just thought it was a very interesting set of questions and a very good set of answers that these two guys gave.

These are two youthful voices of the fastener industry. It’s pretty obvious that they’re very comfortable with this hybrid style approach where they’re in the office some of the time. They acknowledged the need to be there. They also see the flexibility and working from home is a very big part of their work experience. It’s a new way of thinking about things for sure.

One of the questions was, what do you do when you say, “Sometimes I’m at home working and I’ve got to do the washing.” Jake said, “This is life.” It’s as important as other things that you do for work. You just have to work out how to put them all together.

Quietly, many people, especially people who grew up before this became regularly accepted, are thinking to themselves. This all works well as long as you’re dealing with highly motivated, responsible people. It’s a system that is subject to very severe abuse by some people. Obviously, Zech and Jake are not those guys. They’re heart charging people.

They’re the exact people who fit this perfectly. It was a very interesting set of comments. I just should have put it in when we were talking about the first set of recordings.

Perfect way to wind down this episode of Fully Threaded Radio. We spilled over on coverage for the International Fastener Expo. We felt like going wall to wall was the way to go on this one. No carpeting reference intended. We’ll thank the amazing Shan, Don Shan, for sitting in with us to talk predominantly about that, as well as Mike McNulty and Kirk Zehnder, who aired out the latest FDI.

Again, a pretty intriguing set of numbers that came out of August. Hall of Famer Carmen Vertullo had the Fastener Training Minute. Thanks, one and all. Let’s not forget the lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey too, Brian. She did an amazing job out in Vegas. We had a couple of experiences where technical issues prevented us from doing a lot with the show interviews. This time, it looks like we got everything smoothed out, I’m happy to say. Thanks so much to everybody who put their voice down on Lynn’s mic.

Others who didn’t get a chance. I was with Lynn when she was texting backwards and forwards with Morgan, trying to get an interview with him. They could never make a time that worked for both of them.

As always, there are several people who we try to get on. We just can’t make it happen. We can’t use all the material either. The stuff we ran with was pretty representative. I’m pretty happy with it. The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Brighton-Best International, tested, true, Brighton-Best. Goebel Fasteners, quality the first time. Go Goebel. Star Stainless Screw Company. Right off the shelf, it’s Star.

Fully Threaded is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, Fastener Technology International, INxSQL Software, J.Lanfranco, Solution Industries, 3Q Inc., Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry North America. Würth was a major sponsor of International Fastener Expo 2024. They’re a huge part of the Fastener Training Institute also. It’s good to have them on the team. Reach out to us anytime. The email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com. We’re always excited to hear what you think of the show.

I want to also say we’re always thankful that we teamed up next to our buddies from Eurolink. In the quiet moments, I can get to talk to them about various standards that are metric standards that I’m not that sure of.

They were right next to us in Vegas. It’s just like in this episode. We didn’t talk to them very much at all while we were on the floor. I’m glad we got Craig included in that report because Eurolink is and has been a very strong supporter of the show too. Thanks for mentioning it. Thanks also to all of you for reading the Fully Threaded Radio. We received a lot of support at Vegas 2024.

I said it before, in many ways, this was the best one we ever attended. Overall, the show gets a thumbs up from us. We’ll look forward to seeing you at the next one. We’ll also look forward to seeing you, or at least speaking to you, on the next episode of Fully Threaded Radio. Thanks so much for reading this one, everyone.

We got a lot to talk about folks coming up with FCH big stuff. We’re going to look forward to future episodes. With that, we’ll put this one in the can. For Brian Musker, this is Eric Dudas. Get out there, sell some screws, and we’ll talk to you next time. So long folks. See you next time.