View Case Study - Zimmerman Metals

coverstory
THEY
JUST KEEP
GOING AND
ESE Machines photos
GOING...
Most operators expect their roll former to keep running long after they retire
By Jim Austin, senior editor
E
very roofer has a favorite tool or piece of equipment. Usually it’s a money-maker — something
that generates revenue or saves them money. It’s
dependable, he’s had it a long time and plans to keep
it even longer. It’s almost irreplaceable.
Those who own and operate portable roll formers
will invariably put that machine at or near the top of
the list. They depend on their roll formers because
there’s not much they can do without them. So the
manufacturers of roll formers have to make them to
last. From the stories that follow, it’s safe to say the
manufacturers are doing their job. We were able to get
in touch with five veteran roll former owner/operators
who have some of the first equipment put out by their
trusted manufacturer. From what we know about roll
formers, the stories shouldn’t surprise us, but they did.
One owner told us his machine is “over-built.” That
about sums it up.
ers hand-formed panels or purchased them from manufacturers who operated large roll forming machines
in a warehouse or factory. What is possibly the first
portable roll former is still in operation today.
“Looking at it, a lot of roofers wouldn’t even know
what it is, but at the time it was cutting edge technology,” says Wes Graham of L.M. Martin in Ephrata, Pa.
L.M. Martin owns and operates the first pan former
built by Ewald Stellrecht of ESE Machines. (Above)
That’s a roll former?
Nowadays, it seems like a simple idea — a portable
machine that forms roof panels. For generations, roof36
METAL ROOFING | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007
new machine. I have no idea how much it cost or what
was said. They were old friends and that’s the way they
did business.”
Careful scheduling allows two crews to share the
machine, but there has been discussion of purchasing
another roll former. “We use it hard and if it ever gets
to the point we need another machine, we won’t go
anywhere else to deal with it,” Graham says. “It’ll be
an ESE machine.”
Tested in the cold
Back in the late 1990s, folks started calling Bear
Lake Roofing in Rice Lake, Wis., to inquire about
standing seam metal roofing. Back then, owner Larry
Miller was installing asphalt shingles and nothing else. As the metal inquiries grew, so did Miller’s
curiosity about metal. That curiosity led to a visit to
Zimmerman Metals in Denver, where Miller saw firsthand how these machines are put together and tested.
He bought his Zimmerman Metals roll former in
1999 and now he installs almost only metal roofing.
“I do maybe one or two asphalt jobs a year, but that’s
it,” he says.
Jim Austin photo
Graham says L.M. Martin works about a 100-mile
radius and has carted the original ESE former as far
away as the Jersey shore and Baltimore. “It’s gone
though several different trucks,” Graham says. “I
shutter to think how many pounds of coil have run
through that machine.”
The original ESE pan forming machine is the ultimate in portable — Graham says three guys can pick
it up and move it around rather easily. “The heaviest
thing on it is the motor,” he says.
In 1976, Stellrecht was a machinist in Coatsville, Pa.
He wasn’t in the business of building roll formers and
related equipment as he is today. Leon Martin, who
passed away six years ago, challenged Stellrecht to
build a machine that would form 1-inch standing seam
roofing panels. Stellrecht took on the project and provided Martin with a machine that’s kicking out roofing panels yet today, though not as often. Graham says
the industry standard is for 1-1/2-inch standing seam
and there’s less call for the 1-inch.
“We get it out a couple times a year, rarely more than
that,” he says. “We use it when we’re trying to match
in to a 1-inch standing seam roof we did, replacing
some panels. We’ll use it for dormers over bay windows when someone wants copper standing seam. It
still works great for copper and light-gauge metals.”
Graham says when the original machine comes out
to a jobsite, the young guys who have never seen it
start snickering. “They look at it and they’re not sure
how to operate it,” he says. “That’s when the old-timers who have been with us since we purchased that
machine push them out of the way and show them
how it’s done. They sweet talk it a little bit and it will
run anything they want it to run.”
L.M. Martin has since purchased a second ESE
machine — a 1-1/2-inch former. Close to 10 years ago,
Graham visited the ESE office to pick up a decoiler
and was asked if he had a company catalog. “Ewald
told me to give it to Leon but not to let him order anything until they could talk about it,” Graham recalls.
“The two of them went to lunch one day and we had a
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Jim Austin photos
“It’s just well-built,” Miller says of his roll former.
“There are so many small details within the machine,
but everything in there is top-of-the-line quality. I
honestly can’t imagine what could go wrong with it.”
Miller doesn’t even reach over to knock on wood
when he says that. He has run his Zimmerman Metals
roll former pretty darn hard for years and has made no
major adjustments or replaced any parts — until this
summer. “We had to buy a new vinyl cover,” Miller
admits. “We run it all winter long and that cover takes
a beating in the colder months.”
That’s it — one vinyl cover.
Even in the coldest Wisconsin winters, the crews
of Bear Lake Roofing keep on working. “Even at 10below it starts right up,” Miller says. “We let it warm
up a little bit and then we go. I just wish that machine
came with a gauge so we knew how many feet of roof-
ing we’ve run off it. I’d really like to know.”
Miller has had occasion to contact Bruce Pearson at
Zimmerman to ask for some assistance if there is any
kind of problem with the machine. “He can talk me
through it right over the phone,” he says. “He always
knows what I’m dealing with.” That’s the kind of support a businessman looks for.
“Buying that machine is the best thing I ever did,”
Miller says. “We take good care of it, but it’s just PM
— preventative maintenance. We keep it clean, blow it
out once in a while. We bolted that thing on to the
trailer in 1999 and that’s been it — although we did
have to buy new tires for the trailer.”
Miller, 60, has no doubt his roll former will be running strong long after he retires. “My son won’t work longer than that machine,” he says of the 31-year-old heir to
the Bear Lake Roofing business. “There’s no way.”
No. 1 in the Sunshine State
The original machine sold by Englert continues to
amaze its owners. Keith Van Dyne of Anco Roofing
Systems in Ft. Myers, Fla., owns and operates the first
portable roll former set up in Florida — it’s a Knudson
machine, running the Englert 1-1/2-inch standing
seam profile, built in 1978.
“It still runs a great panel, we use it all the time,”
Van Dyne says. “I’ve got three other Englert machines
and they’re a little faster, but a lot of guys like the old
machine. They know it and they know what it can do.”
Van Dyne says the machine has been all over Florida,
including to jobsite visits in Destin — more than 10
hours away. Jobsites in Georgia and North Carolina
have also hosted Florida’s first and Englert’s first portable roll former. “We’ve sold a lot of roofing with that
machine,” Van Dyne says. “What’s even more amazing
38
METAL ROOFING | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007
Englert photo
is that we’ve replaced one bearing in all that time and
a hydraulic pump. That’s it. This machine is over-built
and what I mean by that is that it’s designed to form
down to 22-gauge, but it could probably handle 16gauge. I’d never try it, but it’s a heavy-duty machine.”
The original motor, from Wisconsin Robin, started
giving Van Dyne problems a few years ago — at about
the same time his company was preparing for a huge
job on a Florida school. Being a smart businessman,
he ordered a new Briggs & Stratton motor so he’d have
it when the original motor finally quit. About the time
the new motor showed up, the original Wisconsin
Robin motor started running fine again. The new
Briggs & Stratton now sits in a box on the shelf
— where it’s been for the last six years. “At this point,
we’re going to run it until it blows up,” Van Dyne says.
“We’ve changed over to a synthetic oil. Otherwise, it
still runs a tight panel. The newer machines are a little
touchy. With this one, I could take coil, throw in the
lake, take it out and wrap it around an oak tree — that
machine wouldn’t care. It would run perfect panels.
It’s so damn tough.”
Boyle says very few components of his SSP have worn
out and it’s running 20 days a month. U.S. Metals, with
its offices right next door to New Tech, purchased a
second SSP about five years ago to handle the increase
in volume. “We needed a second machine,” Boyle says.
“Right now, we’re rolling an average of about 200,000
square feet a month. Some guys run a panel, install it
and then run another panel. When we get a machine
to a jobsite, we run all the panels and then get it to the
next jobsite. If it’s not running panels all day long it’s
an expense. We’ll roll 20,000 square feet in a day.”
The original SSP has outlasted two trucks that have
dragged it around Colorado for an estimated 150,000
miles. Carting a roll former through the mountains of
Colorado can be a challenging task, but U.S. Metals’
SSP has survived close calls with cliffs, the heavy snow
of winter and the muddy roads of spring. U.S. Metals
works through the winter unless snowfall prohibits it.
“We’ve got to pay rent, too,” Boyle says. “So we keep
working”
That’s why he operates the old New Tech roll former.
“It’s a money-maker; it was a good investment,” he says.
“So was the second one.”
The biggest difference between the new machine
and the old one is the new one has a computer controller. That kind of technology may be what ultimately
leads Boyle to park the original SSP for good. “We may
choose to upgrade to a more efficient model,” he says.
“I’m sure it would run another 20 years, but if we can
get something bigger, faster and more efficient, we
may. When New Tech comes out with that machine,
that could lead to the demise of our original SSP.”
Odds are, someone else will purchase that SSP and
run it for years.
Armed with a money-maker
40
New Tech Machinery photo
U.S. Metals owns and operates one of the original
SSP roof panel roll formers manufactured by New
Tech Machinery. The machine, which is capable of
producing three different profiles, is about 10 years
old.
“We just installed some new shear blades,” says
Elliott Boyle of U.S. Metals in Denver. “We swapped
out the original blades. We sharpened those old ones a
few times, but now they were just worn out.”
METAL ROOFING | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007
Roll former seminar at
METALCON
New Tech Machinery photo
Metal Roofing Magazine is sponsoring a seminar at
METALCON International in Las Vegas this year.
Senior editor Jim Austin will moderate the seminar,
“Is Onsite Roll Forming Your Next Big Thing?” on
Wednesday, October 3.
A panel of at least eight roll former manufacturers
will be on hand to answer your questions about
purchasing a roll former, operating a roll former
and running your roll forming business. Never
before has a seminar like this been presented at
METALCON. For more information or to register,
visit www.metalcon.com.
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Wayne Kidd, Inc. photos
Metal by the millions
The day we caught up with Bootsie Kidd, owner of
Wayne Kidd, Inc., in Madison Heights, Va., it was a
typical day. He receives 82.3 phone calls a day (yep, he
keeps track) and he had to put us on hold once to listen to a weather forecast — a tornado touched down
about 15 miles from where he was forming panels on
his Quadro Standing Seam roll former.
It was just another day in the life of a roll former
operator.
“The serial number on my Quadro is 00012,” Kidd
says. “And there’s never been a glitch. I’ve replaced
the trailer it’s on and I’m on my third Chevy half-ton
truck in the last five years. I put on 50,000 miles a year
hauling that machine around. That’s a helluva job for
a retired guy.”
Kidd sold his roofing business and retired at the age
of 49. “My friends were all still working and I needed
something to do,” he says. He got into the portable
manufacturing business. He bought his Quadro from
MetalForming in 2000. Since then, “it’s just me, my
lovely bride and the Quadro,” he says. He’s still retired
— his wife and the Quadro do all the work.
He forms roofing panels regularly for about eight
customers. He also has equipment from MetalForming
to produce tapered and curved panels. Those skills and
42
his reliable Quadro keep him busy. “I ran about a halfmillion feet of roofing panels last year and I’ve done
that already this year,” he says. “I’d say that machine
has run 2-3 million feet since I bought it. It’s an amazing piece of equipment.”
Kidd believes his roll former will work longer than
he does — and admits there are days the Quadro works
METAL ROOFING | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2007
Wayne Kidd, Inc. photo
harder. “Once you get your cut lists programmed in, you can start it up and go
to sleep in the truck as long as they got
someone to stack panels,” he says. “I did
that at a job in Kentucky once. My alarm
clock was the forklift. They started that
up when they ran out of coil. I got up,
programmed in another 6,000 square
feet and went back to sleep.”
There was no napping on the day we
talked to Kidd. “You should see some of
the places I’ve had to haul that machine
to get to some of these log homes in the
hills,” he says. “Today I had to take it
across the Piney River, here in central
Virginia. I don’t mean on a bridge — I
mean across the Piney River.”
Kidd has considered purchasing a new
machine — he’s even got buyers for his
Quadro, but he’s having a tough time letting go. “It’s been such a good machine,”
he says.
In fact, when MetalForming president
Geoff Stone has a customer on the fence,
he gives them Kidd’s cell phone number
to ask him questions about his machine.
“When they call Bootsie, it takes about 30
minutes,” he says. “I have never not sold
one.”
Just a typical day in the life of
Bootsie Kidd — or any roll former
owner/operator. n
On-Site Roll Forming WILL grow your business
➤ NO wasted steel due to on-site cuts
➤ NO length restrictions dictated by shippers
➤ NO making factory cuts fit field site needs
➤ NO mismatched panels because of different coil stock
Roll former
durability
Are you operating a roll former that has stood the test
of time? Are you amazed it’s
still producing panels as tight
as the first day you owned it?
Share your roll former story
with the editors by emailing
jim.austin@fwpubs.com.
Advance design means more time forming panels,
NOT adjusting the machine.
70 YEARS OF DEDICATION
TO QUALITY AND SERVICE
Zimmerman
Metals Inc.
800.247.4202 www.zimmerman-metals.com
See us at METALCON booth 1335 • Las Vegas Oct. 3-5, 2007
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