Travelers

 

Jo Morris of Desert Distribution and TJ McFarland of Brikksen travel far afield in their fastener endeavors, jamming in as much fun as good business will allow (4:28). Thread guru Carmen Vertullo discusses thread stripping on the Fastener Training Minute (21:26).

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Important Links

• Jo Morris on LinkedIn
• Fastener Training Institute
• Desert Distribution
• TJ McFarland on LinkedIn
• Brikksen
• Carmen Vertullo on LinkedIn
• Sleep in Heavenly Peace
• Pac-West
• NCFA
• FTR Special Report with EVP Larry Stevens – Previous Episode
• FTR Episode 205A: Footprints – Previous Episode
• FTR@FullyThreaded.com

 

Travelers

Introduction

Eric Dudas with you again. It’s Fully Threaded Radio, voice of the FCH Sourcing Network. This is episode 205 part two. If you checked out the last one, you know that we’ve compressed the format a little bit. We’re doing some experimentation. As promised, here’s the second half coming to you this time, October 30th, 2024. A tight episode once again. It’s a conversation with Jo Morris of the Fastener Training Institute and Desert Distribution, along with her buddy TJ McFarland with Brikksen.

They’re two fastener folks I’ve had a lot of fun with since I’ve been around in this business. You’ll enjoy this conversation if you need to pull away from all the serious subject matter that’s out there in the world. In this episode, it’s the Fastener Training Minute. Carmen Vertullo brings us his take on thread stripping. It’s our universal headache in the fastening world. Carmen will point out the causes, ways to detect it, and ways to prevent it.

We couldn’t bring you the show without the great support of our partners. The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Star Stainless, Goebel Fasteners, and Brighton-Best International. 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.

I love to hear what you think of the show, folks. Let us know. The email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com.  If you have any ideas for the new format, throw those along, too. Thanks so much in advance. Thanks for clicking into Fully Threaded Radio. We’re doing so much behind the scenes here at FCH, trying to get everything ready for the new release. Brian’s full time on that. He won’t be on this episode at all. There won’t be much of just me either. We’re going to get to a quick break and then come back with this conversation with Jo and TJ.

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Fastener Fun, Vegas Memories, & Industry Gatherings

In the pursuit of avoiding any of the serious subjects that are so abundant in the world, the fastener world, and otherwise. I decided to try and just lighten things up. Have a little fun. There are two fastener folks I think of when I think of fun and fastener good times. They’re with me. Jo and TJ, how are you?

Outstanding. I’m honored that we’re on the list. TJ, you should be, too. We’re on the fun list.

I try to have fun everywhere I go.

For folks who haven’t been in the fastener industry very long, that’s Jo Morris of the Fastener Training Institute and Desert Distribution, TJ McFarland with Brikksen. We ran into each other quite a bit during the fastener events, didn’t we? The latest was Vegas. Not at any of the big parties there. We didn’t attend those, or we just didn’t see each other. We saw each other a lot, but not at the parties.

You didn’t see me at the pool party?

How could you miss TJ’s blazer?

I wasn’t there.

I saw TJ several times with at least three signature Brikksen cocktails in his hand. One was typically for his wife. One was typically for me. One would have been for you. He’s sporting the Astro’s blazer.

What did you think of 2024 Vegas, overall? We talked about it as the title said “Wall to wall” last episode. Very quickly, what was your take, Jo?

I thought it was great. I got more out of it than I did in 2023. Every year it’s great. Day one of the show, I couldn’t make it through the aisles, which was a testament to the people that were there. I’ve heard a lot of mixed feelings about less exhibitors. There was a great buzz on the show floor both days, but especially day one. The festivities, I liked that there were a little bit fewer people at the pool party.

There were circles of people that we all knew where everyone was going after hours as well. You have your group that goes to the bar. You have your group that goes to the top of the restaurant. You have the group that goes to carnival. You knew your way around. You were always running into people. It was productive. It was really good for us, for me personally.

You didn’t go to that party at the top of the Mandalay though, did you?

I did not. I had dinner up there the night before with a supplier and a customer. I did not do the after-hours party gig on day one of the show. I know one person that did. I talked to her afterwards. That was Madison from Allied Titanium. Other than that, because I’m old, I didn’t venture out to the after hours. My group stayed closer to the casino, my age group.

I was hanging out with you and Johnny Reno for part of that time. I remember texting somebody who was up there and saying, “We’re going to head up. Where is it?” They said, “It’s a little loud. We’re coming down.” We all looked at each other and said, “Well.”

It’s a good idea. I’ll put it this way. It’s great to try new things, if you don’t push the envelope or try something. They’re always trying to attract a new age group and new blood to the show. I don’t know what the feedback is if it’s a do-over. I like the idea of trying something new.

It’s great to try new things—if you don’t push the envelope or try something new, nothing changes. Share on X

We need to hear from the YFP on this. Don’t get me wrong, Jo. You’re one of these people who’s locked in time. Your age is static. It hasn’t changed since I first met you. I can’t say that for everybody, TJ, but Jo falls into that category. The YFP should bring something to the table with this. Let us know what needs to be done in the party area.

It’s probably not a bad idea.

You need to interview somebody, Eric, who actually did attend it and find out. Would they do it again? Did they meet anybody? Maybe they need some old folks up there with them, showing them the ropes.

Did you ever make it to any of the legendary Star Stainless parties?

Yes, I did. It’s been a while, but I sure did.

They’ve never invited me to those.

When you came around though. When did they stop doing those?

I don’t know. Probably before my time.

Before you got to Brikksen TJ, there are other reasons you weren’t invited. Same reason I wasn’t invited either, although I lobbied hard for it.

Eric, you’ve never been?

Never got in.

I’m sorry.

No, I was not a high enough member of the Thread Radio to achieve that. I sure have heard a lot of stories over the years about the good times. Bruce Wheeler and his wife put so much energy, love, and attention into building that thing. The music was carefully selected. He shipped in musicians from all over the place for that annual event. It’s legendary.

Russ Doran and I were involved with Pac-West on a member benefit. We were building some videos on just pearls of wisdom. We were interviewing people across different arms of our industry on pearls of wisdom, on sales, just on anything. We had specific topics, procurement, supply chain, etc. Russ and I were at the Pac-West Conference in Denver. Was that Bram Palace? I think you were there, TJ.

We interviewed Bruce. The question was something very structured and simple. It ended up morphing into a 45-minute interview on my cell phone. He expanded about how the Vegas party started, how it grew. I never knew all the efforts and all the levels. They had the real deal. The entertainment was top-notch.

I’ve only gone to two, maybe three of them. It was years ago. I can’t say anything negative about it. I never really paid attention to the music and the food. This was a full-time job for them, preparing for it every year. Pac-West has that interview. It’s a great interview. I don’t have it anymore. We should talk to Brian Wheeler.

As you’re telling this story, I’m remembering you told me about this in Vegas. We were going to try and chase that down. I would love to put that out on the show. That deserves to be presented.

I don’t have it anymore. We need to reach out to a few people because it does exist. Russ and I just sat there listening. It was just fun hearing about it. We do need to find that interview, Eric. I will put you in touch with some people that can resurrect that for you.

Maybe Vicki knows.

I think Vicki does know. You got to get to her.

We’ll look at that.

What we need to do is come up with the next best great event for our fasteners. You know what it could be? It’s the Brisket Fest. We’ll be interviewing you on how that came to be.

That was fun in 2023, wasn’t it?

That was a good time.

I’m glad both of you were in attendance. That’s for sure. You were a pit master, TJ.

I didn’t do brisket. I did ribs. They turned out pretty good.

All was really good. When did you start the ribs? Were you one of the ones that started twelve hours? Was that a twelve-hour?

No, it was five or six hours prior.

The first one to get his pit lit was Rob with INxSQL. He was dead serious. He hoofed all his own gear down from Michigan. This took place right outside of Cleveland in semi-rural Northeast Ohio, at Shagbark. Rob brought all his gear down. He got there at 1:00 AM the night before, set up all his stuff at 7:00 AM, and had the smoke billowing out.

He set up his hammock, promptly took a nap under one of my trees, and just let that baby cook. It was great. It was low and slow, the way it should be. Carmen was another one of the pit masters. He had a different approach. His was the last-minute brisket. Mine was right in the middle. They all turned out right. Everyone had fun. The side dishes that showed up that I didn’t expect. Did we have a spread or what?

It was phenomenal. That was good. It was fun.

Even the frisbee golf was amazing, which I had never played before. I didn’t really play much there. I did get to watch some people fall down throwing a frisbee, which I thought could never be done.

Who was our winner? Was that Vince?

Vince Dimora from Würth was the overall champ. He was as shocked as everyone else that he took it home. It was a pretty nice pot, too.

Who knew? That was fun. That was a highlight.

We split that pot. Half of it went to the Sleep in Heavenly Peace charity. The Fastener Disc Association should feel pretty proud about all that. That was a lot of fun. That led into that whole week of fun that we had. The next day was the NCFA event. That rolled right into the Fastener Fair and all that. We just keep going from one thing to another. That’s why I invited you guys on, because I always associate you with fun.

With partying. That was part of NCFA. The boat trip was great.

It was phenomenal. That was really good. The weather was perfect.

I don’t want to say this out loud. That was almost better than the show. The show was great. The networking, you’re there with everybody on the boat. You could talk to people. It wasn’t too loud. Every corner, you ran into someone. That was just a great idea. Kudos to anybody who thought of that, to the crew.

That was a good job. Somebody drove the boat. Who was that?

That was Dan.

I looked up there. I wanted to walk up there too, but there was a German shepherd. He looked at me. I looked at him, and I was like, “Nope, not going.” I looked around the corner. I saw Dan up there with his Gilligan hat on, just driving away. I thought, “If he can get up there, I could definitely get up there.”

You didn’t have the right outfit on.

Anyone who knows Dan Duffield knows he’s a hardcore fisherman. He fishes St. Clair on a regular basis. He’s a tournament ice fisherman as well.

Did not know that.

That’s his thing. He’s just into it. I’m telling you, he’s a serious dude when it comes to all that. Before I even knew that he was going to be piloting the boat. I don’t know how long he did that or how he achieved that. I made sure that I checked with the management to see if we couldn’t run a few trolling rods off the back. It would be great if we had a fishing derby during the whole thing. Raise a few dollars for the Bed Build and everything.

That would be a great idea.

It would have been great.

Are you kidding? They wouldn’t let you do that?

The fun police were out.

That’s one cool thing about you and the chunk of people in our industry, always thinking how we can give back to our charities. What’s their next opportunity?

One of the great things about people in the industry is they're always thinking beyond business, asking how to give back and what the next opportunity is to make a difference through charity. Share on X

This 2024, we should make a bigger deal out of this. This is just my one humble idea, nothing too big. I excel at activities that make zero extra revenue for the business but are fun to do. Sometimes, I provide a good source for charities. We should do the team disc event, rather than have an individual. That’ll chew up way more time.

I should say this in advance. The NCFA announced the upcoming Distributor Social, which is their flagship event. Always a lot of fun. In 2023, it was the boat. This 2024 event is going back to the conventional meeting at the hotel on a Thursday. We’re doing Brisket Fest the following day on a Friday. The Social’s on May 8th, Brisket Fest will be on the 9th. We’ll have a whole day to be low and slow, to throw those discs and maybe raise some money. What do you guys think of that idea?

That’s a great idea. Maybe you can do it by company even if we can get it out there early enough.

I typically try and schedule Fastener Training Week in conjunction with the Social. I love to have NCFA host it for us. Maybe we can coordinate having Fastener Training Week in the same week at the same time. That means I would miss part of Brisket Fest.

You got to make some sacrifices, Jo.

Go teach, do something else. I just like the idea of having a bunch of industry events in one location, just another opportunity to pull us all together.

It allows more people to attend when you have more stuff like that. They can justify the multiple social events, too. It helps them get in touch with other people that they don’t get to see as often.

That’s a good point. What happens weather-wise, Eric, back there then?

You roll the dice is what happens. The Social is happening a week or two earlier than it usually happens. I got that feeling. I’d have to really look in history and see to confirm that, but it feels like it’s a little earlier than usual. It can be nice. It can be really crummy. You don’t know. You got to roll the dice and see. I’ll have the tent again. If all else fails, we can stand around the warmth of the pits.

I’m just going to roll with it. It was great last time. It’ll be great this time, no matter if it’s cool or not. It’ll be a different experience. If it’s cold for the next one, maybe it’ll just be a different experience, instead of it being so nice and warm. Maybe we can make snowballs instead of throwing frisbees.

We’ll make the best of it.

We’ll figure it out.

I do like the idea of the fire pits.

It’s going to be great, Jo. Year 2023 was just a warm up. You’re on the A list. I’ll keep you posted. There’s a lot more with our friends Jo and TJ after the Fastener Training Minute.

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Thread Stripping: Causes, Prevention, & Detection

This is Carmen Vertullo with the Fastener Training Minute, coming to you from the Fastener Training Institute in Carver Labs in beautiful El Cajon, California. Our topic comes as usual from a person who sent me a question and some pictures. It’s not the first time we have discussed this topic on Fully Threaded Radio. I’m sure it may not even be the second time. We may have done it several times.

Each time it comes up, there’s a different reason. It is a very important topic and worth redoing. The topic is thread stripping. What causes it, how to prevent it, how to detect it, and so on. It is, as a matter of fact, one of the more common fastener failures that we see, thread stripping. I’ll tell you how to prevent it, how to detect it, and maybe a little bit about how to solve the problem when it occurs. Anyone who has ever assembled anything, a bicycle, a car, a piece of equipment, or done much wrenching around, sooner or later, you end up with a thread stripping problem.

Typically, properly made fasteners, properly assembled, should never strip. We should not see that. When we do see it, there’s always a reason for it. We want to detect the reason. More importantly, one of the things about thread stripping that makes it insidious is it may go undetected. In other words, you may think you’re tightening your fastener. The torque would be going into stripping the thread. You really don’t have a very reliable joint. When thread stripping occurs, we want to know it. What’s the first most common cause of thread stripping?

The first most common cause is we simply cross threaded the nut when we put it on the bolt. We cross threaded the bolt into the hole. This is not that easy to do. You can do it on purpose if you try. If it happens, it generally is going to result in an awful lot of excessive torque. You would know it, but not always, especially if you’re using some kind of a power tool or an impact wrench.

It usually occurs more often with fine threaded fasteners than coarse threaded fasteners, either inch or metric. That’s one reason to avoid fine threaded fasteners whenever we can. The most common cause is we simply had a mechanic who put the screw in sideways. That can happen. Another very common cause is also called galling. Galling has to do with stainless steel fasteners. That’s a completely different topic.

In fact, when galling occurs, that’s exactly what we get. We get thread stripping. Threads of the nut smear onto the threads of the bolt and they become one. This also can go undetected until such time as you try to disassemble the fastener. If we suspect thread stripping in any fashion, either by galling or otherwise, one of the things we can do is simply try to disassemble the joint. Make sure it will come apart and go back together again.

I’ll step outside the Training Minute for a second and give you a quick story from my distant past. In the 1980s, I was building test equipment for the Tomahawk cruise missile designed by some engineers at General Dynamics. I later got to redesign it and much improve it, but that’s another story. This particular part of the equipment was a thing that slapped onto the tail cone of the cruise missile. It was shaped like an X.

Its job was to detect the deployment of the tail fins as they were executed with high pressure helium from the missile body. They were supposed to deploy in less than a half a second or something like that. This engineer designs this thing that is basically a plug that goes into the tail cone. It’s about ten inches in diameter with these long standoffs to get behind the tail fins.

They were about two feet long with some tubes and then this X-shaped thing with these visual detectors on it. He said, “Put this together with these three 1/4 inch by 24-inch-long socket head cap screws made out of stainless steel.” There were only four of them. We’re only making two of these things. There’s no such animal as that off-the-shelf.

First, I had to have them specially made. That took a while. Come in, put them together with nylon insert lock nuts. We get the first one on. It stops. It won’t go any further. It galled. We could not get it apart. We had to destroy the unit in order to get it apart because this socket head was in a counterbore. The nylon insert lock nuts were down inside of a channel.

It was my first experience with thread galling and thread stripping. It was horrible. To make matters worse, here’s another. Just a design thing you might want to think about if you’re an engineer. There was no need for us to use socket head cap screws on this. We could have easily just used a threaded rod with nuts on either end. There was also no need for it to be stainless steel.

I’ll get back to the Training Minute here where we talk about thread stripping. Another cause of thread stripping could be overtightening. Typically, if we overtighten the fastener, we expect it to break because we want the nut to be stronger than the bolt. The bolt will break, and we’ll know that we had that condition.

That’s no guarantee because even though the nut should have a proof load greater than the tensile strength of the bolt, that doesn’t mean that the nut proof load can’t be on the low end. We don’t really know where it is exactly. We just know it’s better than some number and that the bolt might not be excessively strong.

We have an excessively strong bolt, a nut that just barely passes the proof load. We can end up with thread stripping by over tightening, which usually comes. We’ve done something unaware such as adding a lubricant to the threads causing the K-factor to go down, causing us to get way more tension for a given amount of torque. Be aware of that.

Another cause of thread stripping is because we may have a dimensional issue with the fasteners. This occurs sometimes with structural bolts because we use over tapped nuts with hot-dip galvanized A325 structural bolts. We need to accommodate that thick coating that’s on the bolts. This almost 100% of the time works fine.

Occasionally, those nuts are over tapped too much or the coating thickness on the hot dip galvanized bolt is thinner than expected. We have too much clearance. The fact that these fasteners get tightened to a very high level can lead to thread stripping. As a matter of fact, that is the email that I got that brought this topic up.

A very gnarly picture of this strip. These were actually tension control bolts. When that happens you’re in a quandary because you have to get the thing off somehow. The nut’s not going to come off no matter how much torque you put on it. You might get lucky and be able to snap the bolt. That’s probably not going to happen.

You got to get in there with some kind of a saw grinder machining operation to extract that bolt. That really sucks. In this particular case, I believe what the manufacturer may have done is used mechanical zinc hot-dip galvanized TC bolts. You’re not allowed to hot-dip galvanize them. They used hot-dip galvanized nuts which would be over tapped. There was too much clearance. That’s my theory on that.

Another cause of thread stripping could be that we have a material defect, not a dimensional one. The most common material defect is decarburization. Decarburization is caused by a heat-treating error where we allow the carbon in the surface of the fastener to come out of the surface and go into the atmosphere of the furnace.

 

That’s usually because we did not put a sufficient carbonized atmosphere in the furnace to keep things balanced. As a result, we lose carbon at the surface of the fastener. Carbon is in direct relationship to hardness and hardenability. If we lose the carbon, we lose the hardness at the surface. The threads cannot handle the load.

This is usually evidenced first by they’ll torque up before we get very much tension on them. High torque, if we take it apart, we’ll notice that the threads actually bend a little bit. If you look at them on the comparator, they’ll no longer be an even 60-degree threads with 30 on either side. The pressure flank will have bent.

That decarburization is always required to be tested for with all heat-treated fasteners and tapping screws that are heat treated. We do a decarburization exam, which is a micro examination. We look for either visual evidence of decarburization, or we can also indicate it with a micro hardness test. There are some other weird causes of thread stripping that I probably should not go into. They’re a little bit esoteric, but things don’t use impact wrenches.

If you use a flange nut, you’re less likely to have issues with thread stripping. If you use a reduced diameter body bolt where the body of the fastener is smaller than the root diameter of the threads, that will guarantee pretty much the bolt is going to break before the thread strip. That’s why we see these fasteners in critical applications such as racing engines, cam bolts, cylinder head bolts, and piston rod bolts.

I did write an article years ago called The Cause, Cure, and Prevention of Thread Stripping. If you’d like that article, let me know. I will be happy to email it to you. If you’re troubleshooting the problem, check the thread geometry. Check the thread condition. Sometimes, some pretty serious thread lapse or discontinuities in the thread, nicks and such can cause thread stripping. Not very common, usually it goes right over that.

Check your tightening method and your torque. Make sure you don’t have lubrication that’s not supposed to be there. If you do all that, you should be happy, healthy, and homeward bound with no risk of thread stripping. This has been your Fastener Training Minute with Carmen Vertullo. I hope you learned something. Thanks for listening.

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Fastener Industry Travel, Events, & Tight-Knit Connections

You two travel continuously. I see everywhere I go, coast to coast. You’re doing your own things. You always show up wherever I am, it seems like. We always have great times. Let me ask you this, because you travel a lot more than I do. How far in advance are you planning your schedules out normally? You have these events that everybody knows about. You do a lot of just day in, day out, traveling, meeting up with customers and stuff. How do you plan that all out?

I try to do it well in advance. It’s funny that you say that we travel a lot. We were traveling together. I was in Canada. I try to do it at least three weeks in advance. If I travel with Jo or someone else to go see customers, it gives everyone time to set up visits and things like that. You always want to try to plan ahead. That way you can, hopefully, save some costs to the company you’re traveling for too. Especially for flights and hotels and things like that. I always try to plan at least a month or so in advance. Most of mine are typically planned around industry events, unless there’s something that pops up.

I’m the same. Industry events drive it. Fastener training drives it. If it’s a class, I can plan that well in advance for Desert Distribution. At least three weeks in advance, but some things come up. Luckily, my territory can get pretty quickly to where I need to be even if it’s a week out. It seems like this fall, it’s been week after week after week. We’re somewhere.

It’s been busy. I’ve got over 35 trips done this 2024 for sure.

You’re the big time teach. Before we turn the recorder on you guys, as we were warming up. You guys were talking about something or other. I didn’t know that you were actually doing business together. Are you working on a project? How does that roll? I knew you were friends. I didn’t know you were actually operating together. What’s up?

Go ahead, Jo. Do you want to tell them?

Yeah. I wear two hats. I help with FTI. I’m also with Desert Distribution, where manufacturers rep and we represent Goebel. I work with TJ at Goebel. We also represent Brikksen. I still have TJ and his wife. When he left Goebel, I’m like, “I’m going to miss Jana.” He’s like, “No, you’re going to keep Jana.” We worked together for several years and we’ll continue to.

Wait a sec. Does your wife work at Goebel?

No. I’ve had the pleasure and the ability for her to go to some of these events with me. Jo met her before. They’ve just been buddies ever since.

I misunderstood.

With Christian, she traveled quite a bit with me there. Goebel also is just a tight knit group. This fastener industry is always, to me, very tight knit. It’s like a big family. She doesn’t work, but hopefully she helps with my relationships within the industry. I haven’t heard anything negative. If there is anything negative, I’ll be sure and tell her that she should not listen to this show.

There could never be anything negative. I love TJ’s wife.

She’s the boss.

That’s how we met. TJ’s also involved with Pac-West. He’s joined us with a fastener training class. We run in inner circles.

I definitely enjoy being on the Pac-West Board and being able to help make a difference there as well. I love it.

All these overlaps in the fastener industry, people who are in it for a few years, begin to realize this. It’s amazing because it doesn’t happen in very many industries that I know of. Let me ask you this then guys. With these connections to Goebel, they just wrapped up their World Riveting Conference. I was looking at it. There were so many pictures on LinkedIn. Very impressive. TJ, you must’ve been at your old buddies on the back after seeing those.

I shot Christian a message on LinkedIn and on Facebook as well. I’m super proud of them. Christian’s done a fabulous job as well as the team there, Justin and several others, of course. They’ve got a lot of good backing. They’ve done a great job. The reps, Desert Distribution included, all the reps for them have done a fantastic job pushing the products here in the US. This has been a long time coming for them. I wish them all the best in trying to do what they’re doing and reshoring the rivets there in Germany. Hopefully, that really lands here in the US well.

I know a handful of their reps from the US made it out there. I don’t think I saw anyone from Desert Distribution. It was obviously a pretty big deal to travel all the way to Europe for this thing. It was good to see that he brought people in from all around the world. He had a big room full of people. I was impressed.

That was very cool. I was really happy for him. The pictures are, when you hit it, tons of people there. They were from all over the world. That’s impressive. I’m proud of them.

Marcel is always go big or go home. He looked like he really did a good job of putting that together and not just him. I know that Elias played a large role in that. I’m sure several others too. Again, I’m not connected to them anymore, but it looked fantastic. There’s no doubt they will probably knock it out of the park.

They’ve had a lot of growth too. I was in a presentation with Christian. It was funny listening to him. He’s like, “When I joined the company, it grew 3,200%.” I was like, “Holy cow.”

“I got to be a part of some of that.” I’ll tell you, Christian will work circles around many people. He has no quit. That company owes Christian a lot.

You are a big part of that, too.

I left there on good terms. It’s no big deal at all. I want them to be successful. If I ever get a chance to throw Goebel a bone for some rivets, I’ll definitely do it.

Our events are just getting bigger and bigger. They’re world-renowned.

Christian’s a man of a few words in many cases, but don’t underestimate the man.

He’s always thinking.

What’s the most surprising thing that ever came up with Christian when you were first getting to know him a little bit, TJ? I know what it was for me. What was the revelation moment when you’re like, “I’m starting to get this guy.”

When he told me that he owned a Harley Davidson, I was like, “Oh, okay.” I’ve known Christian for a long time. We go back to the old gas days.

That’s how he looped you in then when he was looking for a good man.

He found me.

I got to tell you. To me, when I first saw that he was sleeved up, I was shocked. He hit it very well. All of a sudden, one day he showed up. I might’ve been at the Tough Mudder. He’s just flashing that ink. I couldn’t believe it. He just didn’t seem like the kind of guy.

He’s got a good story behind all of it. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to some of them for sure. He’s got good stories behind. That part of it doesn’t surprise me at all actually. That he would just some stories on. He’s a thinker. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he has a story behind each one of it. It looks great. It’s not for me, but it looks great. He did well with it.

I have to quiz him on the stories.

There’s a lot of guys out there that have ink. A lot of it, believe it or not, is fastener related. Early on in the show, when tattoos were much less socially acceptable, it was still a little stigmatized. Fourth graders have them and Sunday school teachers. In those days, it was still a little edgy. We actually did an episode, let’s just say 25 screw tattoos. We were challenging people in Vegas to go and just have an impromptu, fastener-related tattoo. I forgot what the ploy was going to be.

There are a lot of people out there with ink—more than you’d think—and a surprising amount of it is related to fasteners. Share on X

Did anyone take you up?

There were some threats. Ultimately, people did get tattoos. We never really formalized it or anything, but I remember having a lot of fun with it. Fast forward, there’s a lot of threading out there. You’d be surprised.

I am not one of them. Although, I did try in college on a bachelor party. We all decided to get tattoos. The guy was like, “You ladies are way too drunk.” I sent us home. I’m still without a tattoo.

To this day, do you thank that guy?

I’d even entertain a family tattoo, we all get it. It has to be really inconspicuous, on my ankle or something. What about you guys? Do you both have tattoos?

I’ve got a few. I’ve got four, maybe.

You’re a US Marine, TJ. It’s almost required.

Most people that join do end up getting a tattoo of some sort to brand themselves.

That’s one of those things that completely justifies ink. I have no reason whatsoever. Is there a term for guys like me who are just au natural?

That’s old school. Jake Davis has got a really great one on his arm that’s got a lot of thought behind it. He’s got a really nice one.

When you were talking about fastener tattoos, he’s the first person that popped in my mind. He got one, didn’t he? It’s for his mom or dad?

To commemorate his dad. He’s going to add a little something more to it. When I was talking to him, he was going to add something else to it. It’s very tasteful. It’s got a great story behind it. To each their own.

One of the classics is John Riddell with his Solution Man and his various Solution Man-related tattoos that he got as the company kept growing. After he got the giant one with Solution Man on his calf, he got an offer to buy the whole thing.

That’s dedication.

There was a thing with John Butler, too. As many people know, John Butler was the voice of Solution Man there on our spots. John Riddell had promised Butler that he would pay for the tattoo. That was all in the works. Before that happened, I believe is when LindFast came and bought Solution. I don’t know if Coolhand ever wound up getting that ink or not. We’ll have to ask him. I don’t think he did, but I’m not positive. Do either of you guys know?

I’m not sure.

That was a close call. I don’t know if it would be a regretful thing because of that or not. He’s still the voice. We’ll have to ask Coolhand next time we see him. He would be a great panelist on Fastener Match, don’t you think, if we ever do that again?

It would be a good one.

A lot of different panelists. For those of you who don’t understand what we’re talking about right here, we did the Fastener Match Game in August 2024 at the Midwest Fastener Association FSTNR Week, the week with no vowels. We did a Fastener Match Game really to fill up the lunchtime period. Jo, you were one of the panelists and Mallory from Advanced Components, Rich Cavoto, Charlie Kerr. Who am I missing? Jill Lewis and Jake.

What made it fun was Matt deLauter. You guys were the show. We were the sidekicks.

You guys were the foils. Matt was Johnny Olson. He was fantastic.

I liked the prize, the toaster.

That was the consolation prize.

This is what I wasn’t positive about. Were our answers supposed to be fastener-related?

They were supposed to match what the contestants wanted.

What they first thought?

They got a point. The questions were predominantly fastener-related, weren’t they? I had one in there about hydrogen embrittlement.

It’s a match game. You got to get something a little off color in there. It’s PG 13, put it that way. You weren’t offended, were you, TJ?

No. It’s pretty hard to offend me. I’m usually the offender.

Does that mean you’re a panelist next time?

I’d be happy to be a panelist, but somebody is going to have to sign off on a waiver.

We’ll talk to Francesca about that. Who’s the dream panel then? We already got Don Chan that is saying he wants a slot. We got five left.

Same show?

If it was the same format, who would be the dream panel? I’m not saying we’re going to lock it in here. Let’s just throw out some nominees. I had Traveling Salesman lined up for it early on. He had to bag out because he got a customer visit or something that he had to do in lieu of that. There’s a lot of colorful personalities in this industry. Who do see up there?

Do you know Mickey Matheny?

Lay it on us.

Mickey Matheny is an independent rep down in Florida. He’s got some very colorful stories. I know that he would lie. He would be on fire for it. Matt Giles got a colorful personality as well.

I like that guy. We had a great time meeting him at Brisket Fest. I got to know him a little bit better since then. He’s a great choice. We’re going to put his name in the hopper.

He’s got that Matthew McConaughey voice. I don’t know what it is. He doesn’t look like Matthew McConaughey, but he doesn’t act like it. He’s got that Tennessee Southern voice. He makes fun of himself.

He does always have that smile on his face.

He would be a good one for sure.

You need some women on there though. Let’s see.

Kelly Layman? That would be a good one.

Kelly Layman would be great.

I would love to get her out to a Midwest event. There’s no lock with the Midwest either. We could actually pull this off anywhere that they roll out the welcome mat. We haven’t had that welcome mat extended, but you never know.

Are you members of Pac-West?

If you’re not, we should talk about this.

We crash their association meetings occasionally.

That’s what I thought. I’ve seen you out there at the meetings over the years, Eric.

I usually just walk in, nobody asks. They hand me a name badge. It’s cool.

You and Traveling Salesman have wandered in. I remember you in Scottsdale. We ran into each other. I remember seeing you working out. That was a long time ago.

We’ve run into each other at various gyms around the country. We ran into each other one time at the Trump Tower, in the gym there. That was a really nice place.

Various gyms, typically where there’s an event.

You were not going to find me in those things.

You used to. I remember picking you up for a sales call and you were like, “I got up and I ran a mile this morning.” What is the plan for next year with Mud Run? Is there any event with FSTNR Week?

We’re waiting for a ruling from GQ and Valdez. They’re a little bit hung up on the timing because the Mud Run is a little later than they’d like to have FSTNR Week. They’re deliberating about whether to move the thing back a week and that makes it closer to Labor Day. We’ll figure that out eventually. There will be some kind of a race again. Those first three years were something else. 2024 was a little bit of a different thing. It was still fun, but it wasn’t a mud race.

 

It was fun, but it definitely was not a mud race.

Even you would have appreciated it, Jo.

It’s not that I don’t want to do it. It’s just too long to be away from my family.

We know you have triplets to tend to. You can’t be away for extended periods. You do a lot. You can’t do it all.

I have my own fun mud run at home. It’s not that I don’t want to participate and join you guys in something great like that. I would love to. It just extends it too long.

They might be old enough to do it with you.

We did one here and one of my daughters did it with me. We did the Mud Run in Colorado Springs. You’re right. They are. I’d have to fly them to Chicago and I don’t want to do that.

You should connect with Jill Lewis because her little munchkins were participating. They have a kids version for moms with younger kids. I’m not sure what the details are. Maybe loop in with her. That’s coming down the pike. There’ll be a lot of discussion on this show and elsewhere when something is known about the next mud race coming up. We got a lot of people that were wondering where it was. I hope we didn’t lose momentum.

It was a much different group this 2024. It was still a very good and lively group, but different. We’ll see what happens. We’ll be running around the fastener industry like crazy people until we can’t do so anymore. What do you got lined up in the near future, Jo, that you can tell us about either with this Desert Distribution or the Fastener Training Institute? Where should people keep an eye out for you?

I will be everywhere, whether you like it or not. We’ve got coming up Pac-West after hours. I’ll be up there in the Bay area in early November 2024. I will be in Cleveland for Faster Training Week. I just chatted with Mike Robinson. We’re going to coordinate a joint networking cocktail party with NCFA and FTI. Stay tuned for that, Eric. I’ll probably be there. I hope you’re there. We’ve got San Diego and the FDA in October. I’m saying these out of order. I have to go to Buffalo, that’s for work. Pretty much pick a month and pick a part of the country and you’ll find me.

John and Jo Morris, she’s going to be somewhere. If you don’t see her around, then look in the hotel gym. That’s where she might be hanging out, or the bar. TJ, how about you? You got a full calendar coming up too.

I’ll be a couple of weeks from now in San Diego at the executive summit for the NFDA. The week of November 6th, I’ll be in Elk Village for the scholarship awards and elections up there. I’ll go up there for that.

That’s MWFA?

Yeah. There’s a holiday party for Pac-West. That’s December 11th in the LA area. I’ll be there for that. That’s, for the most part, my normal travel schedule. There’s usually a couple of things that pop up in there between all that.

I’m glad to hear that it’s not overly brutal. You’ll still be able to focus on the important things in life, such as hunting.

That’s right. Hunting opening bow season for me happened. I didn’t go. That was because it was just too hot. I’m going this weekend. Matter of fact, I need to put in for a vacation day tomorrow to go.

You sent me that trail cam photo. You got my mouth watering. You got some huge animals down there.

Some big hogs. We had a couple of shots of some nice whitetail, which I’m anxious to go look at. I don’t think I’m going to shoot any of the ones that I’ve seen so far. I’m excited just to get out in the woods. I enjoy it. My kids enjoy it. It’s a good time. Decompression.

Keep me posted. Kids, this has been fun. We successfully avoided all serious topics, kept it somewhat predominantly fastener-related. Our work here is done.

Awesome. Thanks for having me.

Thank you for the invite.

Anytime, you guys. I always think of you when I think of fun. TJ McFarland with Brikksen, Jo Morris, Fastener Training Institute and Desert Distribution. See you at the next one, guys.

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Seasonal Safety, Listener Thanks, & Signing Off

I don’t know about where TJ is down in Texas. Up here in Northeast Ohio, it’s that time of the season where you have to pay extra attention for the deer going a little crazy. Everybody in the forest is getting a little frisky. I’m not talking about just the hunters. It’s that time. Be careful when you’re driving around up in the North country, everybody. Be careful in general. How about that?

Hope you enjoyed this episode and this compressed new format. We’ll be doing a lot more tinkering. I plan to do a lot more special reports, too. We had a lot of positive feedback on that special episode we did with Larry Stevens. If you haven’t heard that, go back, check it out. JR Prahl was in part one of 205. Thanks to everybody who was on that one and this one, Jo Morris, TJ McFarland, and Carmen Vertullo. Thanks to you also for reading, everyone.

The title sponsors of Fully Threaded Radio are Brighton-Best International, tested, tried, true, Brighton best. Goebel Fasteners, quality the first time, Go Goebel. Star Stainless, 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.

The email address is FTR@FullyThreaded.com. Your input is welcome, especially that we’re gerrymandering the format. Who knows where it’ll wind up? Hopefully in a place that makes it even more conducive. In that vein, it’d help us out a lot if you share Fully Threaded Radio with your friends and business associates.

Our best way of expanding is through word of mouth. As you know, Brian doesn’t spend too much time out on social media. I’m very limited so thanks for passing the word. Thanks for clicking in. That’s going to put this one in the can. This is Eric Dudas from semi-rural Northeast Ohio. Get out there and sell some screws. We’ll talk to you next time.