Special Report: Fastener Fair USA 2025 Floor Interviews

 

Fastener Fair USA in Nashville was a big success with strong traffic, numerous education and networking opportunities, Nascar simulator competition and a down home after hours event. The lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey gathered reactions and commentary from show attendees from across the industry, including Josh Winkler, Louis Speedon, GHIII, Heidi Volltrauer, Tim Vath, Kim Penland, Bob Chiricosta, Henning Cybulski, John “Cool Hand” Butler and many more. Run time: 01:08:27

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Special Report: Fastener Fair USA 2025 Floor Interviews

I’m still here at Fastener Fair. I happen to run into one of our Canadian friends.

I’m Hans Fuller of Fuller Metric.

Do you forgive us? Are you talking to us?

It was tough to get down here now, because at the Toronto Airport, they have a little section where they want to make sure you’re not smuggling stuff in. You have to take your clothes off. You’ve got a basic strip search. That’s uncomfortable. That delays things. I had some Canadian coins in my pocket, so they said, “Where is the smelting on that?” I wasn’t sure, so they charged me 15% on my Canadian coins. They tariffed me on the steel and on the coins because I couldn’t prove where it was smelted.

We’re so happy you’re here.

I barely made it.

He’s teasing, everybody.

Yes, there’s no strip search.

How has business been?

It’s been strange because everyone is hanging on. No one knows about tomorrow. It’s not terrible, but everybody is in a weird spot. Who would have thought the good old days were the good old days?

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A Post-Show Roundup Of The Fastener Fair USA 2025

What would a fastener show be without a few comments from Hans Fuller, Fuller Metric? We’ll get him on the show, hopefully in the near future, to give us some expanded comments. Thanks for showing up this time, Hans. I know it’s not been too easy for you. Everyone, Eric Dudas, with you. Special edition of Fully Threaded Radio. As you know, we always like to do a post-show roundup after the big fastener events.

Fastener Fair USA took place on May 28th and 29th in Nashville, Tennessee. Blanca Delgado is the show director. She told me that they haven’t released the final numbers yet. That will be coming, so we’ll go without it. You’ll hear in an interview on this short show wrap-up with Bob Chiricosta from Reed Exhibitions. He hints about what the footprint was in 2025. Let’s say it this way. It was a big success. Most people were very satisfied with it. 

The lovely and talented Lynn Dempsey was out on the floor gathering up interviews and commentary. I’ve got two bundles of interviews to present to you. Pretty much, I’m going to roll these the way that she did them. There may be one or two out of sequence, but mostly, it was the way she picked them up. It’ll give you a good flavor of what went down in 2025 in Tennessee at Fastener Fair USA.

This special report and Fully Threaded Radio are made possible by our title sponsors. 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 Radio is also sponsored by Buckeye Fasteners, Ohio Nut and Bolt Company, BTM Manufacturing, Eurolink Fastener Supply Service, Fastener Technology International, INxSQL Software, J.Lanfranco, MW Components, Solution Industries, Volt Industrial Plastics, and Würth Industry USA.

Most of our partners were out there exhibiting this time. The few that weren’t had a presence out there, but the action was so fast. I don’t think I had a chance to talk to everybody. Every time I went over to say hi to Jason over at J.Lanfranco, for example, he was busy working with people who would stop by the booth. I saw Vince from Würth and a couple of other Würth people out there, but again, ships passing in the night. It was that kind of show. Let’s jump right into these floor interviews. I hope you enjoy. Thanks for tuning in.

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Fastener Fair has started. It’s early in the morning.

Fastener Fair USA 2025 Day 1 Floor Interviews

This is Bob Baer from Abbott Interfast.

How was the wait outside? Were there crowds getting in?

Not too bad, actually. I got here a little bit early to do some last-minute changes to our booth, but it was definitely starting to fill up. It looks like the show has started. The aisles are crowded. It looks pretty robust. I am very excited about the show.

Eric was very excited because it’s fully carpeted.

The nice thing about it is there’s a defining line between our show and the aluminum show. The carpet color changes. I already noticed that.

I didn’t know that. What color carpet do they have?

I don’t remember whether gray or blue, but there’s definitely a dividing line, which is nice. You know where you are at all times.

We had coffee, so we’re all kind of perky.

You have to admire a show that lets you avoid the Starbucks line in the morning.

It’s too early to say, “How’s the show?” because it’s opening up. Let’s get to business. How is business?

Business is a little off. That’s the case across the board. It is a nice break from tariff hell. We’re all in it. We’ve been in it. It gets better. It gets worse. It depends on the day and Trump’s mood. Getting through it, talking to people, and finding out possibly what strategies they’re using and what they’re doing with their customers and suppliers, it’s going to be nice to talk to other people about it. I expect it not to last. We expect business to pick up. We’re pretty busy. We actually started cold-forming domestic nuts. We’ve been slammed with requests for quotes and orders, which is great. We’re hoping to expand that if Mr. President will drop the tariffs on equipment coming in as well.

I’m anxious to hear what everybody has to say about the tariffs. Let’s talk about one more big thing that businesses have had to deal with, which is cybersecurity. Have you had any trouble?

We have a pretty good IT team. I am not knee-deep in any of that, except to know that we’ve been okay. We haven’t been hacked. We’re pretty protective. We have employees around the nation. They connect every day. We’re pretty secure.

I’ll have to come over and see the booth. I’ll have to go over and check the aluminum’s different color of carpet. We’ll see you for coffee.

If you look for our booth, you have to look for Abbott Metal Werks, which is our manufacturing division, not Abbott Interfast, the distributor.

It’s funny that you should say that because we were having a big fight about that. Brian was like, “Look up Abbott Interfast.” I said, “No, there’s only an Abbott Werks in the directory.”

We have a number of companies at our address in Wheeling, Illinois, at our headquarters, but that is our manufacturing division. We actually have been manufacturing for decades, CNC, screw machine assembly, and now we’re cold forming nuts. I am very proud of it. 

I’m definitely going to get over there and see the manufacturing side of your business.

I appreciate it. Thanks for the interview.

Thank you. I’m over here at Fastener Fair. I went to the first lecture. The lecture was about alloys and stuff. It was way over my head, but I did find someone who could explain it.

This is Paula from SAF. The lecture was on Carlo Salvi, who is owned by Hatebur in Basel. Carlo Salvi has been in business since 1939. What they focus on are machines that create fasteners that primarily have warming and cooling capabilities, which sell into quite a bit of the aerospace industry. It is because that specific ability to be able to warm metals and parts to a degree where their technical capabilities aren’t lost is extremely important and also extremely hard to do. What they talked about for the most part is a new kind of machine that they have that does two dies and four blows. It helps run production cheaply and produce a lot more at once compared to the traditional one die and two blows, ultimately making production more efficient.

 

Why is that important to your company?

What SAF does is automate quoting for a good number of companies that sell into the aerospace industry. What we tend to understand here is that the projects that aerospace companies are sending to suppliers, to distributors, and to people they procure machines for are a lot more in-depth at once. What that means is getting quotes correct and getting specific machining and tooling correct on the first try, in terms of understanding what your production run needs for an accurate invoice. For better financials, it is done sooner.

I’m so happy I ran into you. You explained it beautifully. Federico had a great Italian accent, wouldn’t you say?

He definitely did.

Thank you so much. I’m over here at Alloy & Stainless Fasteners with Louis Speedon, Houston, Texas. What do you think?

The show is great. We have a lot of traffic coming through here for the first day. I am looking forward to more. Everybody knows Alloy & Stainless Fasteners. They want to assure that Alloy & Stainless Fasteners is here for the long run, and will continue to be for the long run, and to make the fasteners great again.

You guys are confident in that.

Yes, ma’am. We have a branch in Houston, Telford, Pennsylvania, Portland, Oregon, and one in California. We service all branches. We actually have a global division as well that services the world besides the United States.

Is everybody worried that you’re not going to be around because of things going on now?

The tariffs? No, that’s for probably the newcomers and the new bolt-and-nut companies, but there are ways around it. Everybody is moving away from China, and we are as well. There are other countries out there that we do import from, but 80% of our products are made locally and domestically from domestic manufacturers. I would say anything from the stainless to the alloys to the B16s, it’s definitely made in America.

What do you think is going to be your number one that you’re going to have to worry about in 2025?

Probably prices, the stainless, because stainless is so up and down right now. You never know what the market is going to do. You always have to be one step ahead as far as stainless. Nickel is a key component of stainless. If you can get your hands on the nickel, nickel is what’s going to drive the stainless market. Like I said in stainless, nickel is everywhere.

Nickel is a key component of stainless materials. Get your hands on it because it will be a huge driving force in the stainless market. Share on X

Are there big nickel mines in Ukraine?

Probably not so much. No more. Nickel 410 stainless, yes, but no more. We’re done with Russia. We’re done with Ukraine. We’re not doing anything with those two and China.

It’s like, “What’s next? Who’s left?” I appreciate you. Thank you. I’m here with one of our good friends.

Nick Penney with Vogelsang Fastener Solutions.

The weight loss, you look great.

Thank you very much. I have been working at it for a little over a year. Slow but sure.

It shows, so that’s great. What do you want to talk about? What’s happening over there?

The market is very mixed on what’s happening out there. We have different industries that are doing extremely well, and we have other ones that are not. We have tariffs that are causing some issues. We have decided to split the costs with the tariffs with our customers. We’re passing some of that along. We actually have problems because we have three different tariff amounts on the same part that came in on different weeks, which has caused a lot of confusion. Our product that we bring in comes from Europe, which is at 25%.

That could be a nightmare.

It makes it very confusing. It’s also something we’re trying to make not be by the price. We’re actually doing it as a separate item that’s showing after it. It’s showing as a tax. We had to get programming done for our computer system on that. That way, the people know what their piece price is, so that when this finally goes away and settles down, they’ll know where they were at.

Do you find customers waiting, hoping that the tariff thing goes away, that maybe they can work without the product?

There are very few customers right now who are waiting. The customers who need the product are. The biggest impact we’ve had is that some of our product goes directly into Canada. We’re actually eliminating it from coming into the States at all. We are losing the dollars out of the United States and having it directly shipped from Germany into Canada and New Mexico.

The FDI in April was 47.6. Do you think that was a knee-jerk reaction to what’s going on, or do you think that’s telling what’s going to happen in the future?

That was a knee-jerk reaction. The market is actually showing that it’s getting stronger. There has been a rebound from the election that we expected to see. If we start getting certain areas of the commodity prices in line, I know that that will help in certain areas out there. I do believe that there are some positives that are going to come out of all this. It’s going to be an up-and-down road while we get there.

Let’s talk about where we are now. How do you like the show?

Fastener Fair so far has been outstanding. This has probably been the most solid, high-volume lead that we have gotten at a show in my Fastener time.

We’ve had a great turnout. You’re over here in 200. We’re in 300. It was very busy.

We have customers coming here with specific parts, specific prints, and quantities. This has been very successful. At this show, we specifically try to promote our specials and our engineered products, and those are the products that the customers are coming through with.

That’s great to hear. Thank you for talking.

You’re welcome. Enjoy your day.

You, too. I ran into Brianna Rodriguez.

Travis Hawk.

Hodell-Natco.

They attended Fastener 101. Tell me about the class.

It was fantastic. Laurence Claus was the instructor. He did fantastic. He had real-world examples that put it into perspective.

A lot of the things he brought up were engaging and more intuitive questions that actually make you think about outside of a bolt or what kind of bolt it is. It got you thinking about the physics of it, torsion versus torque, and stuff like that. Instead of “A307,” it’s like, “What is this going to do in the real world once it’s applied?” It is bringing the real world to theory.

How many years in the fastener industry do you guys have?

I myself have four and a half.

I have five.

Did you go to class thinking, “They’re not going to tell me anything that I don’t know.”? Did you guys have that attitude? What do you know?

Not really. From all these classes, you’re always going to come away with something new, whether it’s a new perspective on a certain issue. I had a Carmen class. That was a complete, full, new education on a lot of things that I didn’t get technical details on. This one with Laurence was more thinking outside the box on the day-to-day with working with fasteners. It makes you more fluid and flexible with it.

I’m always going to learn something anywhere I go. It was nice getting to learn from Laurence himself.

Are you guys going to go back to work and say, “I went to class 101?”

Yes.

Walking the show, I see a big bag of giveaways here. What’s the best giveaway?

Let’s run down.

I got a racecar toy. That was fun. Continental Aero.

I’m a little biased. I’m a BBI fanboy, so I got a hat. I’m pretty happy with that, but I could be swayed. We still have half the show to go.

You guys find more. Come and let me know because I walk on the show all the time. I’m over here at the Eurolink booth. I’m here with Josh Winkler. Josh is going to walk me through Tariff 101.

I’ll give it my best shot. There are a lot of things that go with tariffs. Trump has put a lot of different things in place, but for those that didn’t know, each different fastener has its own HTC code, its own duty that’s applied to it. A dowel pin, for instance, has 2.8% duties. An 8-mm hex head cap screw has 8.5% duties. Nuts and washers are free. Machine screws are free. Depending on the type of fastener that you’re importing, it has a different duty rate. On top of that, Trump has put 25% on any country that you import from other than China and Turkey.

 

Turkey currently has a 50% duty rate plus the normal rate. Chinese goods have 77.5% plus the normal duty rate. All of that is factored into anything that anybody is importing. There’s no way of getting around it. Whether a customer imports it directly themselves, they’re paying for that. If they buy it from us, our quotes and orders always include all freight taxes and duties from Europe to our door, so the price that they see, the price you pay. There are no hidden fees and no hidden charges. It’s pretty interesting, a lot of stuff to know, but I’ve been doing it for ten years. It’s ingrained in my head all those different percentages and what they are.

Thank you very much. We hear the 1:30 session here. Thanks, Josh.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Lonni Kieffer from SmartCert.

What’s happening at SmartCert?

This has been a great breakout year for us in aerospace. Moving beyond fasteners, the vision of expanding supply chains has always been a part of our roadmap. We’ve had a lot of enthusiasm around traceability, which comes with all the data we’re collecting, and trying to add some security to supply chains, including the fastener industry.

The Material Handling Institute was talking about how cybersecurity is big. Do you find that to be true?

People are trying to find ways to avoid getting hacked and create more security around proprietary information. Looking at CMMC requirements, if you’re working with the DoD, it also falls in line with shoring up how you’re storing information. It’s a pretty critical piece of protecting yourself and reducing your risk.

What about natural disasters? Do you guys have to worry about that at all with your certificates?

We talk a lot about the risk of holding tons of filing cabinets of paper, like the fire hazard that creates not only in the space you have to pay for. As far as partnering with Microsoft, we have a lot of confidence in our partner, our security, and where we’re storing our data. As the years go by, that’ll be a bigger part of the conversation.

You guys don’t have anything to do with tariffs now. Do you have to worry about that on your certificates?

We’ve had a lot of companies reach out to us with interest in using the data. If they’re receiving certs in from suppliers and they want to understand country of origin or want to dig into understanding their tariffs, a lot of our data, as we are receiving it in documents, could help provide a lot more visibility to that. That’s to the extent that we’ve had conversations.

Josh from Eurolink gave me a Tariff 101 class. You should be doing a little happy dance. 

We are starting to see a lot of the challenges that are going to present to the industry. Hopefully, it will be temporary.

That’s what we’re all hoping. Thanks for stopping by.

Thank you.

I’m here with John Butler from Martin. He’s going to tell me how to use that Skidmore machine.

Thanks for putting me on the spot there, Lynn. I appreciate it. Great to see you here. It was fantastic watching Carmen up there and describing using the Skidmore wheel home. One thing I looked at and thought about was the lubrication. They were talking about how it varies. The amount of torque that is applied that you need to apply depends on the lubrication.

One of the main points that they talked about was that on the job site, the barrels need to be sealed or put into a container so that the bolts don’t rust themselves because that will change the amount of torque that you need to apply. It shouldn’t have been called tension. It’s the torque that’s applied. It was a very good session. There were probably about 30 people here. It was well attended. Great information was always out of Carmen. It’s always great to see Fully Threaded Radio here.

I know it. How about it?

We have solutions. Was Darlene from Solution Industries up there next? I think she was.

I’ve got to get over there. Tell me what’s happening at Martin.

At Martin, we are expanding. There are some new product lines that I have been tasked to bring out, which I will be releasing shortly. I’ll come on the show and talk about that. It’s always great when a company believes that you can be a true asset. Martin is a great place for someone with my skills, limited as they are. Martin is a great company to work for. We have about 30 locations throughout the United States and five fastener locations. We’ve expanded.

It sounds pretty good. You were walking the show. You used to be good at giveaways. I don’t see any bag.

I’m an old bag. I’m actually here because I want to touch base with a lot of distributors for my new product line that we’ll be bringing out. Also, we can get into the aluminum show here. They’ve partnered with them. As I was walking through, there was also an inland marine expo that was here as well. I saw that downstairs. I was talking with them about it and what type of people they attract. They are allowing us to go in there with our current badges to walk the show as well. We have three shows here. That’s fantastic. Great return on investment.

I’m over here with our Buckeye Fasteners friends. I’m with Rich Gogolek. What did you guys do?

We walked Broadway. We went to several different establishments. We had dinner at one of the fabulous barbecue places. It was so good. I love Tennessee. It’s my first time I’ve been here. I’ve never been on Broadway. There’s every kind of music possible that you could imagine. We had a good time seeing a lot of fastener people out there. Everyone is enjoying themselves.

Do you remember the barbecue place? We went to Puckett’s.

You put me on the spot. I didn’t remember the name of the barbecue place.

First day of the show?

The first day of the show went well this morning. We had a lot of people that were coming through, new people, people trying to sell you things, and us trying to sell other people things. There is a little bit of everything here.

Tell me about Die Co.

Die Co. is one of the fastener industry’s newest subsidiaries. They handle our nut retainers, U-nut, J-nuts, and Buckeye fasteners. We’re the distributor. We do the weld fasteners. We’re under the fastener industries umbrella. They’re new to the company. They’re trying to get their foothold in the business, try and stay with us, and help distribute our parts as well.

Have you guys ever seen Larry?

Yes. We see Larry all the time. He’s still involved. He pokes his head in now and again. I believe he had his third grandchild, so he’s a grandpa.

How come Tony’s not here? Where’s Tony?

Tony actually had his second child. He had another baby boy, so he decided to stay home with Mom and help take care of the new arrival.

That was good for you, Tony. That will get you points.

Tony is a great guy. He’s got a bright future ahead of him. He has a lot of family in the company. Tony is actually my cousin as well. His great-grandfather and my grandfather were brothers. He’s got a lot of family in the fastener industry. My father retired from this company as well.

You don’t hear about a lot of family.

You don’t hear a lot of people staying. I’ve personally been here 38 years myself. My dad was here for 36 years. There’s a lot of longevity in the company.

How did your dad feel that you went more years than him?

Unfortunately, he passed away, so I didn’t have a chance to ask him. I’m sure he’s proud.

He would have still been working. Thanks for talking.

Lynn, thank you for talking to me. Have a great show.

I am Boris Elbaum of Mr. Washerman, located in Houston, Texas.

Boris here has a different opinion about tariffs. Tell me about it.

It’s going to be very good for American manufacturers because it will level out the business field for manufacturers. We wouldn’t be shocked by the influence of communist China and other countries that subsidize manufacturing in their country.

 

Boris, Mr. Washerman, you’re a manufacturer. Where do you get your raw materials?

We’re buying raw materials from American distributors. We don’t see any increases or anything that would alert us. So far, everything is fine. I don’t see, and I don’t expect to see, any serious problem for American manufacturers. 

You are worried about communism and America, right?

That’s correct. We moved our company out of California because California has become a very communist place. California tries to control the people. California works against the free market and against of free will of the people. That’s bad.

That’s why you took the company, your family, and everything and moved over to Houston, Texas.

That’s exactly right. We did this in 2021.

How is Houston treating you?

Excellently. Houston is great. Texas is great. It’s great to be back in America. When I came to America in 1989, California was pretty much America. It was not the most conservative one, but a pretty decent one. It took only 30 years to completely fall into becoming a communist conclave. It’s a short time span.

Let’s direct our attention to the show. Are you having a good one?

We’re definitely having a good one. We communicate with new people. We communicate with our existing customers. The most important thing, we enjoy that because by enjoying that, you bring business. If you don’t enjoy your business and you don’t enjoy your customers, nobody is going to come to you. That’s the only thing. People are not buying from you because you want them to buy. People buy from you because they remember at the right moment that there is such a guy who can do this for you. That’s what the show is for, for you to make an impression. That’s the only way.

By enjoying your business, you bring in business. If you do not enjoy your customers, nobody will come to you. Share on X

They also give chocolate, which is an added thing.

The chocolate is small pieces of our heart, packaged as a chocolate candy. 

We’re ending it there. Thanks, Boris.

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Boris from Mr. Washerman is a smooth operator. It is always fun to talk to him. We were neighbors of his for one year. Those chocolates sure are a good piece of his heart. I believe it. He and his wife are sweet people. We were giving out Vegemite again at the FCH booth. What does that say about us? I don’t know. One of our neighbors was Bill from Loss Prevention Fasteners. Right before the show opened on day one, Brian walked over there with a sample. Bill snarfed it down right out of the package. There are at least a few Vegemite lovers out there in the fastener industry. Lynn covered a lot of ground on day one, but not as much as on day two. I’ve got most of the interviews that she picked up the next day.

We’ll kick this one off with Bob Chiricosta’s comments. He is the former director of the show. You might remember he announced his retirement, but he was back on the show floor. A lot of people were glad to see that he’s doing some consulting work for Reed. It was very nice to see him. We’ll kick off the second package with him. After day one, you’ll hear some references to the party. It was three stories of music and jammed nightlife activity that many people I heard liken to the old Columbus days. If you’ve been around the industry for a while, or if you’ve heard the legends, I caught the tail end of the Columbus shows. I’d have to say that I agree. Fastener Fair 2025 struck that chord. 

A lot of people appreciated it. If you know how to work a floor, you could have covered a lot of ground that night, even though it was super crowded. A lot of people did. There is one guy who has been making a huge networking splash in the industry. If you’re on LinkedIn or other social media platforms, you know this. It’s Anders Green with ALOX4. He caught up with me on the third floor and involved me in this impromptu LinkedIn thing. I didn’t even know what it was. They shot a little video. I got a few comments on that. That was fun. Thank you, Anders. As with a lot of this stuff, I don’t know if it helps our sales at all, but it’s fun.

Hopefully, you find this episode of Fully Threaded Radio fun. Brian, Lynn, and I appreciate you tuning in. We appreciate it when you get out to the FCH Sourcing Network at FastenersClearingHouse.com. We’re doing what we can to help out where we can as the tariff situation impinges on the supply chain. Something north of 1.7 million listings out there these days. Get out to FastenersClearingHouse.com. We’ll get back to the action on day two. I said we’re going to start with Bob Chiricosta. We’ll start with Brian and Lynn. They crept onto the floor early, as you’ll read in a moment, then we’ll play that one with Bob.

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Fastener Fair USA 2025 Day 2 Floor Interviews

It’s the start of day two. I’m walking with Brian Musker. We are almost alone in the hall. You can see everything. When you set up, and when there are so many people in here, you can’t see how great the booths look and everything. We’re walking down our aisle. We’ve got Buckeye at the cornerstone and stuff, and our red carpeting.

There is the very well-organized EuroLink booth with a great big green stripe right across the top of it.

It’s quiet and wonderful on the second day. I’m going to run over to NASCAR. Come on, Brian. We’re going to go over to NASCAR. Hopefully, I can sit in it. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see if anybody is guarding it. I won’t be able to drive it, but I’ll sit in it. Here we go. It seems like a smaller show, but I don’t know. We’ve got a lot of booths close together. We’re usually spaced out. We’ve got different colors. It’s the red color for the public in Fastener Fair, and then it’s green when you get into the aluminum people. I’ll be checking them out later. There’s the car. Number one.

I guess we’re going to find out if they have locks on. We thank Craig for bringing this to us, being a sponsor for it. We made it to the car. It’s not locked. There are no locks. I was able to sit in it. Brian took so long to get the camera out, but I do have a picture. I might post it on LinkedIn, so stay tuned. We’re here over at the aluminum because they have the coffee. Hopefully, they don’t mind sharing with us. This is pretty big out here. Aluminum is pretty big. I don’t think it’s bigger than the fasteners, but it’s big. I’ll have to hang out around here. There is the Irwin Car and Equipment. I finally found him to find out all about the statistics and everything with Fastener Fair.

I am Bob Chiricosta. Hi, everyone. 

It has been a great show. Has it been a great show?

We’ve started day two. Day one was unbelievable. We had the most attendance we’ve ever had. The show has more USA-based exhibitors than we’ve ever had before. Our Asian exhibitors were down a little bit from the past, mostly due to tariffs and things. The US exhibitors, every year, there’s more and more. The show keeps getting bigger.

Everyone raved about the party. You want to tell me more about it? I’m sorry. I missed it.

We’re known for our parties. We’ve always had good parties. We know the fastener industry loves to network, get together, have a good time, and have a drink or two. We were at a place downtown Nashville called Honky Tonk Central. We rented the entire building, which is three floors. We had three floors of activities going on, three different bands, one on each floor. The first-floor band, when you walked in, was more of a rock and roll band.

The second band was a country music band. They had some brass in there, too. I love the saxophone and all that. It was good. The top floor had another band. They were more acoustic, so it was a little quieter up there. The place was packed. We had over 700 people. Almost 800 people came to the party. I’ve had reports all day that it was one of the best parties ever or the best party ever. It was terrific. It worked out well. Everyone had a good time.

What about NASCAR here? I had fun talking to the guy who was there. I didn’t know the person who came in number one. We have to find out which company it was.

I don’t know who won, but it was sponsored by Eurolink. What a great sponsorship. It was a NASCAR simulation. You’ve got to go in and actually drive the car. You’re looking at a video screen, but you’re in a car. You’re driving on the course. They gave away tickets to a NASCAR event to people with the fastest time driving this course. It was a great sponsorship. They had this neat-looking car there. It was a great one for Eurolink. It’s promoting that we’re going to be in Charlotte, which is the home of NASCAR in the US. That was one of the reasons for tying it together.

I’ve heard from being on the floor, IFE is all of a sudden going to be the last time they’re in Vegas, and next in Phoenix. Any thoughts about that?

Who’s that now? I don’t think I know them. I did hear that they’re looking at Phoenix. So many people have said to us, “We love that you move because every time we go to a different city, our attendance changes. We get different people.” They say when they’re in Las Vegas year after year after year, they see the same old people year after year after year. They come to our show. They meet different people. One guy told me, “I’ve been in the business 30 years.” I met a guy. He came into my booth. He’s been in the business for 30 years. I didn’t know him. He didn’t know me. Now, he’s buying from me. He said, “This is a great show. I get to meet new people and get new customers here.” That’s why we move. Las Vegas figured that out. They’ve come around.

They saw your business model and said, “They’re very successful.”

I think so. I don’t know if Phoenix is the best place, but that’s where they’re planning to go. We’re excited. In 2026, we’re going to be in Charlotte. We’re excited about Charlotte. We’re supposed to be there in 2020, but because of the pandemic, we had to cancel the show. We didn’t have a 2020 show. That’s the only year we haven’t had a show since we launched back in 2018. We’ve been wanting to get back to Charlotte. Finally, in 2026, we’re able to. We’re looking forward to Charlotte in 2026.

By all accounts, everybody I’m talking to is saying, “Yes, we’re going to be there. We’re excited about going to Charlotte.” We also had another record. On the first day of the show, we had 7,000 square feet signed up for the next show in Charlotte. These are people who are here in 2025 and immediately want to sign up for 2026. We had a strong day, lots of visitors, and record signups for the next show. There was a line of people signing up for booths in 2026 as well, so it’s going to be a good year again.

Bob, aren’t you retired?

I retired in 2024. Blanca Delgado is now the show director. She’s doing a fantastic job, doing a lot of things I always wanted to do. She’s getting around to doing them, taking the show to another level, and continuing the growth year after year. I’m still around. They asked me to help out with a few different things. I was recently at the SEFA conference down in Tampa. I’m here at the show. I continue to help them out whenever they need someone to do something for them. The show is in very good hands with the staff they have now. They’ve improved the marketing staff. They’ve improved the operational staff. I believe the show is going to continue to grow and grow. Hopefully, I’ll help them along the way when I can.

You know what you’re doing. Congratulations on a great show.

Thank you very much. I was hoping to see everyone over in Charlotte.

I’m over here with Eurolink’s better half. Happy 25 years. NASCAR’s sponsor here.

I’m Kim Penland. I’m in HR with Eurolink. I’m glad to be here. I’m glad to be able to celebrate our 25th anniversary here at Fastener Fair.

You are in a new booth, which looks spectacular.

Thank you. That was Craig. He had the vision. We were able to find a team to see that vision come to life. I’m glad it turned out as well as we’d hoped, and actually even better.

You must have had a lot of people come and buy stamps because you have to. For the sponsors, there are two, one on the aluminum side and one on the fastener side. They have to get their stamp to drive that simulator. The NASCAR guy that I was talking to said there were over 500 drives. You saw a lot of people.

We have seen a lot of people. By the time we had gotten over there, he said it was over 500 to 600 at that point. They were anticipating as much. It’s a fun way to engage people and get them interested, not only in our show, but also in the aluminum, the partnership that’s going on there. Everybody seems to be having a blast with that. I know our guys from our booth. They had their turn as well. Josh, our Inside Sales Manager, tied with another gentleman for the tie score of the day.

It wouldn’t be fair for me to ask you how Fastener Fair is going because you’ve seen over 500 people. They all had to come and get a stamp, so everybody, think about that. That’s a good way to draw them in. How has the fair been?

It has been wonderful. It started strongly from the very beginning. We’ve had the opportunity to talk to some folks that we’ve not met before. Even for those who we’re not necessarily a good fit for, we’ve had some good conversations about how we can partner up and offer up resources to each other or be a resource for another company. I’m having a blast and meeting new people.

Let’s talk about Craig’s award from the Coalition.

It was the Social Media Award. This is the first one they’ve offered. I know I was tickled. He was shocked that they even thought of him for this. What a blessing that we’ve had somewhat of an impact, or Craig has had an impact. I do say we because somehow I end up in a lot of these vlogs, too. I’m not sure how that happens, but it does. Craig’s creativity, having fun with this, and trying to contribute to the industry, but giving something that people can relate to, it’s fun to see that resonate with folks to the point that they wanted to give him an award. I’m looking forward to seeing how this progresses moving forward, who is going to get the award next, and how they’re going to do this process.

Maybe we’ll have social media wars or something. See who can outdo the other. Guess who came to visit?

Baron Yarborough with KT Bolt Manufacturing.

What’s happening over there?

We’re doing good. Bookings are up. We’ve already done the hard part, which is selling it. We’ve got to make it and ship it out the door. Always good stuff.

There’s not a big shoe thrown in there called tear-offs.

Fully domestic steel, fully domestic manufacturing. It’s a good life for me. I know it hurts some people, but it’s a good life for me.

You guys are doing a little happy dance.

Maybe in closed doors. We’re not promoting it too much. We don’t want everyone else to feel bad.

I remember reading the link. You guys did an acquisition?

Yes, Anchor Bolt in the Midland-Odessa area. I think half the Birmingham team watched Landman, so we decided we needed to get a location out there. We got with the Anderson guys. We have the Anchor Bolt out that way.

What are you doing tonight?

I haven’t decided yet. I am probably going to the party a little bit and then see what the night might bring.

Music all around us, isn’t it?

Yes, ma’am.

It’s the second day. I’ve ambushed.

How are you doing? Mike Robinson with LSG.

Mike, tell us about your new promotion.

I’m the General Manager of our solution industries, Hi-Q Fasteners and Merco Tape Divisions.

Do you want to talk about tariffs?

It’s a little early. I had not read the news, so I’m not sure if anything new has happened. There’s a chance it has, so mum’s the word for right now.

Let’s talk about the show.

The first day was great. We had a lot of traffic through our booth. We were busy the whole time, so a lot of good conversations and a lot of good customers. All our fastener friends are here. It’s a good day.

What’s the biggest challenge that you have right now as the new guy at the solution?

I’m getting used to some of the people, but at the end of the day, they’re fasteners. We’re all fastener nerds at one point in time. Fasteners are fasteners. We love it all.

Do you miss stainless steel?

We still get to do different patch platings on stainless, so it’s not completely out of my life.

Thank you, Mike. It’s day two, and I happen to run into Anders Green and Brian Jones, American Ring. I understand you two fellas went to the after-party over at Honky Tonk.

That’s right. I saw Brian over there on the third floor. There were three floors of activities, with different bands on every floor. Where did I run into you, Brian?

It would have been on the second floor. I was on my way back from getting drinks. We took a selfie together.

Describe the party.

It was absolutely packed. As you said, there were three floors. Every single floor was full of people. It seemed like there were more people there than there were here.

It was an amazing quantity. It’s fantastic that they stuffed so many people in such a space. It’s a legendary bar. The Fastener Fair brings that energy of having a big celebration of the community. Good work there.

It’s the fastener industry that they would be at a big party. It does not surprise me at all.

It was well attended. It was a great venue for it, too.

Was it loud? Brian is in the younger set.

It was very loud even to my nascent ears.

There’s a lot of volume and a lot of cowboy hats and cowboy boots, so it worked. I had my cowboy hat on. It’s Nashville. You’ve got to come prepared for how you’re going to party.

Did you have a cowboy hat on?

No, I did not. It was all imaginary. It was in my head. It was more of a vibe than a physical attire.

Is this your first show?

My first Fastener Fair? No. I’ve been to a couple of the Cleveland ones because we’re in the area. We’ve been to this one before.

You should have brought a cowboy hat.

I know. There’s only so much space.

Brian, you’re with American Ring. What stuff do you guys do?

We manufacture and distribute retaining rings, snap rings, Belleville disc rings, pins, that stuff, so non-threaded fasteners.

That’s not what you guys are noted for. What are you guys noted for?

Golf?

Yes.

Not so much me, but a lot of our other sales folks. Our ownership is very proud of their golf prowess.

Be proud of that. You guys shake everybody. “American Ring’s in the golf tournament.”

It’s not me, but some of them are pretty decent.

Business is done with people that you know. That’s a pretty legit way to make sure you come into contact with quality people. American Ring does a great job there.

Business is best done with quality people you genuinely trust. Share on X

It is Meet the Neighbors. We’re on day two. It’s still early. Here are our next-door neighbors.

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening in all time zones not yet complemented. Bill from Loss Prevention Fasteners, having a great time. Thank you very much for the Vegemite.

You’re welcome.

My name’s Kevin Brown. I’m with Ultra Fasteners USA. Once again, I loved the Vegemite. I love Fasteners Clearing House.

I know you’re a full-time listener of Fully Threaded Radio. Eric and Brian thank you for that. Tell me a little bit about your business here.

Loss Prevention Fasteners sells anti-theft screws, nuts, and bolts, anchors, Penta products, breakaway nuts, breakaway bolts, shear nuts, shear bolts, and anything to prevent theft and tampering.

I mainly focus on made in the USA domestic products, made in North America, metal from North America, and metal from the USA. Anything made in the USA works for me. Hopefully, I can help you guys. I’m in the non-security division. I deal with everything standard and regular type fasteners.

I want to ask you guys. Loss Prevention, you’re right next door to us. What happened to our cups? I’m kidding. Thank you for being great neighbors. We’re still meeting the neighbors.

This is Jake Kemperas with KEYENCE.

What does KEYENCE do?

We are a global factory automation company. We have various product lines. At this show specifically, we brought our automated optical comparator to show off.

Have you been showing it off?

Yes. Customers love it. People stop and buy. They’re interested in it because it can take your measurements quickly. In about three seconds, you’ll get a measurement accuracy of two microns.

Is it your first show for any of you?

Yes. Funny enough, this is actually going to be our first show at Fastener Fair. We had a great turnout, so we might be coming back.

I would love to hear that. Thank you. It’s day two. I’m over here on the green carpet, the aluminum side. I searched, and I found Plibrico.

My name is Pamela Gall. I’m the Director of Marketing for the Plibrico Company.

How is the show going for you guys?

It’s going well. It’s nice to see friendly faces. It’s nice to reconnect with people that we deal with and see out in the marketplace, but don’t always physically see them. Sometimes, we’re talking on the phone or connecting through email. It’s nice to put names with faces and humanly connect.

You also had the distinction of being a co-sponsor with Eurolink on the NASCAR simulator. How did that happen?

I am excited about that. I actually came across it as one of the sponsorships. We were excited to see that. It has been a wonderful traffic driver for us. We’ve been able to see more faces because people stop by to get stamps and are excited to try the simulator. It’s the bonus of the two free tickets to NASCAR if they’re the fastest lap. A lot of people are excited about that as well.

I have to stop by at NASCAR. He’s searching for the winner of the fastest lap. I know nothing about aluminum. What does your company do?

We’re actually a refractory company. We manufacture and service refractories that are used in the processing of aluminum. What refractories do is basically keep the molten metal hot and keep people safe on the outside. The heat stays in. Everybody stays cool on the outside. All aluminum processing companies use refractories.

Thank you very much. I don’t have a follow-up question because I don’t know what to ask after that. I’m amazed, but I don’t know where to go with that. Thank you so much. Walking the show, and I stopped over here at NASCAR. I’m talking to Jeff Cordell with Cordell Racing. He’s with Brandon Cox. Tell me how NASCAR went.

It went great. We have a NASCAR activation here. We have sponsors that sponsor the simulator and bring it in here. The attendees have to visit the sponsor’s booths and get a ticket stamp. Once they get the ticket stamp, they bring it back over here, climb in a real NASCAR car, and do three laps on Bristol Motor Speedway. The fastest lap of each day wins two NASCAR tickets in any race in the country. We had a lot of great guys and women racing. They were laying down some laps, but Dustin Rosley blistered a lap of 17.810 seconds, which is good. He won two NASCAR tickets to any race in the country. The contest starts back over. We got a clean slate, so we’re ready for some new action going on here in the NASCAR booth.

We’ve got to find out what company Dustin Rosley works for.

I’ll find that out. You have to go visit the Eurolink booth and the Plibrico booth to get your ticket stamped. They’re our sponsors for the event.

I’ve got my ticket stamped.

You got your ticket stamped.

It’s Meet the Neighbors again. We are lucky enough to be with Heidi Volltrauer from Volt Industrial Plastics. What’s happening at Volt?

We are pushing our American-made products. We’ve always been proud of being an American manufacturer, but I feel like with the tariffs in place, not in place, and question marks floating around, I want to remind people that Volt makes everything in-house right here in the USA.

You’re doing the little happy dance. You don’t have all these other issues that the tariff companies have.

Luckily, our sourcing is all within the US. We make all of our fasteners in-house. Our plastic material and our steel are also bought within the US.

That’s very good for Volt. Congratulations on that. How has the show been?

It’s been good. It was great until about 1:00. It slowed down a little bit, but we’ve met a lot of new prospects. People are looking for other sources. It has been going good.

On your banner here, I see, “Buy American.” That’s very good.

I mean it.

Did you do anything interesting last night?

I was talking about that with some of my fastener friends. No, Pam and I went to dinner. We went to the Honky Tonk, the party. That was fun. That was the three stories. I went to every story, saw a lot of people, had a couple of drinks, had a great time, and then went to dinner. I was bored. I went to bed, so I have no stories.

We’re the same, except we didn’t even make it to Honky Tonk. I said, “You have to feed me before I drink.” By the time we got done with dinner, it was like, “Let’s go on the rooftop.” Our hotel has a little rooftop. We sat out there. It was great.

That sounds nice. We’re on the same page, but who knows what tonight brings.

A drive home for us. I’ll have to get back with you and see if you had an exciting night. Thanks. I came back to our booth. We’ve got two Fully Threaded Radio listeners here. I’m here with Henning.

I’m from Germany. I work in the Netherlands.

Michael Topolewski, Perigee Manufacturing, Detroit, Michigan.

Eric is going to be so happy with this recording here. You guys are Fully Threaded Radio fans. Tell me about it.

I always listen to new episodes on my bicycle when I’m riding to work. You asked me before what my favorite episode would be. I would say the one with the interview we both had in Cleveland. Every time a friend of mine, Craig Penland, shares the information on how it is on the European market, that is what I would say.

How about you, Mike?

Congratulations on 200-plus episodes. That was a big one for sure. Speaking about the tariff, it affects our industry. We’re all wondering what’s going to happen. It’s changing daily. It’s good to be informed. Fully Threaded Radio does a very good job of that.

Other listeners think here’s the perk. You come by the booth. You might get recorded.

I wanted to say thank you also for Fully Threaded Radio, because for me, as a European and living in Europe, it gives me a very good overview of the market and how things are going here. Many thanks. Happy birthday again for your anniversary with the 200th episode.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you also. I hope that we will meet again in 2026 in Charlotte.

I’m a little late, but I did get over to the WIFI booth. The scholarship winner is here. The scholarship winner is?

Angela Norman from Spokane, Washington.

Tell me about the scholarship. Tell me what you’re doing. Tell me how long in the business. Tell me everything.

I’ve been in the fastener industry for about a year and a half. I’ve been itching to learn a little more. I decided to apply for the scholarship. I got chosen, which was a huge blessing, being able to be in a room full of like-minded people.

Aren’t you amazed at how many fastener companies there are?

I didn’t realize how much you can connect the dots about fasteners to everything. If you stop to look, it’s all around you, whether you realize it or not.

 

In my past life, I never even thought about fasteners or how this table is held up and everything, and then I got into this industry.

I was picking the airplane apart on the way here. I was like, “I’ve seen that at work. I’ve seen those at work,” as I’m looking at the chairs in front of me and things.

I understand. That’s very good. What do you do specifically for your company?

I work at Empire Bolt & Screw.

What do you do there?

I work at the warehouse and do packing and orders.

That has been a year and a half. You’re getting to know more about fasteners. Where do you hope to go in the company?

Wherever the Lord will lead me.

Congratulations on your scholarship. Congratulations on your first show. Hopefully, we’ll see you in 2026.

Thank you, Miss Lynn. I appreciate you and your time.

I was at North Coast. I kept trying to get an interview with this guy on the side of me here. They were rocking away in these rocking chairs over here at Fastener Fair. Here is Tim Vath, Lindstrom. Tell me about this promotion.

I moved over to the Division President role at Lindstrom. It is still under the LindFast Solutions Group. I am very excited. It’s an awesome opportunity with an awesome company that I’ve been familiar with for a long time and worked alongside for a while now. I am excited to get in the weeds here. That’s what I’ve been doing, drinking from a fire hose a little bit.

How has it been going?

It is good. Luckily, I’ve had relationships with most of the people at Lindstrom for a while now. I am getting more in tune with them and building that relationship. First and foremost is learning as much as I can, coming in with my own thoughts, and what I can do here. It has been a lot of learning, and then we start to implement what we see. It’s a great company. Lindstrom has an awesome business model and fits in the industry. I don’t want to come in and flip over any tables or anything like that.

Are you guys all in the same building now? You didn’t have to move, did you?

I personally didn’t have to move. We are consolidating a lot of different facilities around the country. For example, our Chicago facility in Elgin. The three core brands are all under one roof, Lindstrom, Stelfast, and Star. By late summer, LA will be the same. Lindstrom, Stelfast, Star, and then Hi-Q Fasteners as well. A couple of other locations, we have our Texas area. We have a shared facility. We’re slowly but surely consolidating on the back-end operations and trying to do what we can to make it more efficient for us internally. More importantly, it is the customer experience. A long-winded way of saying me personally, I’m still in Cleveland, Strongsville. I still get the same office. Luckily, I didn’t have to move. My wife is happy about that.

I bet. What does this do to your music career?

I was going to say this does not change your music career, but I am a little busier these days. I am working a lot, transitioning, but also personal life. I got another one on the way. I am busy, but we’re still making time for the music career. The gigs are there. I got a couple in a few weeks here. We’re trying to balance it all.

Not too many people can say they played at the Rock Hall of Fame.

That was an experience. I’ve had a lot of people in Nashville come up to me and say, “Why aren’t you playing here?” It’s very kind and flattering. That would take a lot to bring all of our equipment down here for the show. There are so many good musicians here, far better than I am. We’re good on musicians here.

Good luck over there. I’m happy to finally get you. Next time we talk, I’m asking the hard questions, maybe the T ones.

I owe you those. I said the first one’s got to be an easy cakewalk. I owe you the hard ones.

Thanks, Tim. We’re still at Meet the Neighbors. These are our other next-door neighbors.

Conn Wright with USA Fastener.

Robert Gaston, USA Fastener.

Conn, you’ve been reading Fully Threaded Radio, right?

Yes, I grew up in the industry, tuning in to Eric and Brian. A lot of dashboard time in Houston, getting context on an industry that was new to me.

That’s great to know. You’re going to be a Fully Threaded Radio listener after this. Who wants to talk about the show? How has it been?

It has been positive. Day one, we had a lot of traffic in the morning, reconnecting with some existing customers and folks that we didn’t have exposure to.

You guys have been busy over here. The times that I’ve been around, you’ve always seemed to have customers coming by. Tell me a little bit about USA Fastener.

We’ve been in the oil and gas stud and bolting business for over twenty years. We’ve expanded our capabilities to manufacturing and also domestic. We can offer fast turnaround on any of a customer’s oil and gas bolting needs. Our capabilities also spill over into construction. Our alloy steels and our stainless steels work in waterworks and chemical plants. We have an excellent Quality Department.

Anything to add, Conn?

We’re doing hot-heading, roll-threading, a lot of machine components, and a lot of per-print parts. We’re solving a lot of different problems every day.

Thank you for being our neighbors. I’m over here at BBI with GHIII. Hopefully, everybody knows who this is. Let’s talk about some tough questions here. What’s happening? The FDI was 46.9. What are your thoughts about that?

It’s a little down. Brighton-Best was pretty good. The market was relatively steady in Q1. We were excited to see some of the growth that we made through Q1 and Q2. You definitely see a slowdown in markets like construction and ag. We’re going to be optimistic. We’re going to move forward. Hopefully, we’ll come out of this okay and have a good Q3 and Q4. 

Have you stopped any capital expenditures, or have you stopped hiring?

No, we haven’t stopped doing anything. We’re moving forward. We’re trying to seek every opportunity that we possibly can. Are we more mindful of how we spend our money? Absolutely. Quite honestly, any corporation or business should be doing that every single day, no matter what the market is. We’re trying to dot our I’s, cross our T’s, and make good decisions.

Be mindful of how you spend your business money every single day no matter the state of the market. Share on X

How has your time been in Nashville?

If you have a bad time in Nashville, something is wrong with you. Couple that with industry friends and a great show that Fastener Fair put on. You can’t go wrong. I say this all the time. You’re included. I’ve talked to you about this. We work in probably one of the best industries this country has. I’m so proud to be in it for 27 years and have the friends that I have. I look forward to making more along the way.

—

An Insider Scoop From Lynn

Brian, I’ve got something to tell you that I found out while running around doing interviews.

This is not the right place to be springing that on me, don’t you think?

The person who told me this is the guy who always runs away from me with a blue shirt.

Vic?

What’s wrong with you? You’re not supposed to say that.

Who is it then? Sorry.

He told me Vegas in 2026 is in Phoenix. They’re going to rotate every year like Fastener Fair.

I didn’t know that at all. I can deal with Phoenix. That’s cool.

It pays to have people running around for you.

I don’t have anyone doing that. All I do is sit in the booth all day because you and Eric are always roaming around the floor.

Why are you sitting?

 

Important Links

• Fuller Metric
• Abbott Interfast
• Sunland Aerospace Fasteners
• Alloy & Stainless Fasteners
• Vogelsang Fastener Solutions
• Hodell-Natco
• Eurolink Fastener Supply Service
• SmartCert
• Martin Supply
• Buckeye Fasteners
• Mr. Washerman
• Loss Prevention Fasteners
• Fasteners Clearing House
• NASCAR
• KT Bolt Manufacturing
• LSG
• American Ring
• Ultra Fasteners USA
• KEYENCE
• Plibrico Company
• Cordell Racing
• Volt Industrial Plastics
• WIFI
• Lindstrom
• USA Fastener | MW Components
• BBI
• Perigee Manufacturing
• Empire Bolt & Screw