Found a good gusset plate


This one held up to the end. It came from one of the houses in Chattanooga from the tornadoes. This house was across the street from the house I was helping with.

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Quite a find, David. Thanks for sharing the photos!

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Looks like they clinched the nails.

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Glad you and your family are okay Bud! Been reading some of the news!

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That right there is a hand-calculated gusset plate. I could spot that a mile away. All of my repair gussets look similar to that.

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My neighbor had some flooding but we got them out and over to our house before water got into their house. It was up to my waist at that point but it didn’t get any higher, thankfully. Most damage was 8 or so miles away. Neighborhoods were ruined. My elderly friends had damage but every house lost at least their roof. Just amazing.

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Crazy for sure! https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2020/apr/14/videos-and-photos-drone-footage-storm-and-tornado-damage-chattanooga-area/520639/

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They probably used glue/adhesive with the air gun nails:

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That house was built in 1976 so doubtful that it was put together with pneumatic nailers. All the houses in that area were built around the same time.

They do look like clipped-head nails one would use with an air gun. Might the gussets have been a retrofit?

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I had air nailers back then and I can tell by the clipped nail heads that they are from an air gun.

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Anything’s possible. It may even have come from a house from a half mile away. 6 or so years ago there were tornadoes that came up through from Alabama. We had debris and paper with the address of somebody from Alabama on it land in our yard.

Your sage wisdom and experience again comes to the surface. :grinning:

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To be honest with you the early air guns were a pain to keep from jabbing and consequently a pain to go fast. So, they may have been a retrofit.

Some of my guys could hand nail as fast when one considers the time spent on unjamming the guns. LOL But when the were working well the made good time.

When they came out with the 34 degree and 25 degree strip nails, that was the ticket. :smile:

My father and grandfather were carpenters back then and nobody (we lived in VT) that I saw had nail guns. Of course, we only got two channels on TV, too, so I can’t say whether or not they even knew they existed.

I bought the guns from a retiring builder that had them only for a short while…living and learning was what I was doing. And, I loved getting up and going to work and that made me sought after…people could tell so I could charge more than the grumpy, swearing, hung over others.

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That’s a scary photo, but I’m impressed that the gusset held while the rafters broke.
I used a Berryfast framing gun in 1970. It was heavy and when you hit a knot it would kick back and whack you in the chest. It hurt!

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My neck of the woods, nailing was all done by hand. I wish at times to of had one though.

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My first framing gun was the size of a buick shot clipped head nails and kicked like it was mad at me…

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I remember those Jim, and I think that is why we did not use them. It wasn’t until 1975 when I switched to commercial building that we had some that were useable without breaking an arm. Even then we used them on plywood subfloors and roof sheathing only. They were still too bulky to use in erecting trusses.