Without a doubt everyone has thought “I’ve got a fat chance of win- ning it…”. Well with the help of the CSS Group, who put together this magazine, we want to give you your FAT Chance to win!!

Over the next three issues, there will be $17,500 worth of prizes up for grabs each and every issue!

In this October–December FatMag there are 5 x $3,500 Travel Vouchers to be won.

Simply go to one of the 71 CSS member stores located thoughout Australia, pur- chase an Impact-A, CSS or Milwaukee branded product, and go online with your receipt to enter. It’s as easy as that.30 and

Sponsorship, as a promotional medium, forms a vital component of Milwaukee’s overall strategy, says Tom Mathiesen (Brand Manager Milwaukee Power Tools). While it can be costly, time consuming and challenging to measure, it is having the desired effects and outcomes we’re after. We do not expect to put a sticker on a race car and see a direct spike in sales per say, more so align ourselves across a range of sporting platforms and events typically followed by our target market. Aligning with these athletes, events and teams as we have, helps
to drive greater brand recognition across a wide audience, some of which we could not access through more traditional mediums.

Our programs allow us to develop quality content across multiple platforms being digital, social, print and physical experiences providing
a means for instant feedback. They also provide fantastic exposure and coverage for our brand, starting brand based conversations which when combined with our in store activations and end user Job Site programs, translate into desirable outcomes. It’s also a lot of fun when we involve our customers and end users in various activations and those typical ‘money can’t buy experiences’.

Milwaukee’s sponsorship program includes a range of athletes, partnerships and events.

Athletes
- Chaz Mostert (V8 Supercar Driver Ford Performance Racing)
- Craig Dontas (V8 Ute Driver Thirsty Camel Racing)
- Danny Brown (Four Two Motorsports Off Road Buggy)
- Maurice Allen (Pro Stock Drag Bike)
- Ryan Hipwood (Big Wave Charger)

Athletes provide a creditable, trusted and personal way of getting Milwaukee products and branding in front of key audiences.

Partnerships
-  ShowTime FMX Freestyle Motocross Team
-  Monte Motorsport Sprint Car Team
-  Surfing Australia
-  Ford Performance Racing V8 Super- car Team

Aligning with organisations/teams has a similar effect as our athlete sponsorship, just on a larger scale. Rather than leveraging an individual, we’re able to leverage an entire entity on many levels and activations.

Events
-  Clipsal 500 V8 Race
-  Milwaukee Hillside Jam as presented by Cam White

Events work on a number of fronts. Not only do they allow us to bring our athletes and partnerships together, they create a great opportunity to present our products and brand to a greater audience in a fun environment.

For more information, updates and news, follow Milwaukee and associated programs via:
Website: milwaukeetools.com.au
Facebook: Milwaukee Tools Australia
Instagram: @MilwaukeeToolsAus
YouTube: MilwaukeeToolAu

With so much of our
lives now being
spent outdoors and
the encouragement
of rooms that bring the outdoors in, decking has become a large part
of domestic housing and general construction. Whether it be a small deck that is just above the ground or a deck set off the second storey of a two-storey home, the construction and finish are vital for the longevity of the deck.

A deck well above ground level has extra safety factors that need to be considered and these are covered in the relevant Australian Standard and BSA. Simpson Strong-Tie has a number of connector products that make the safe connection between the home and deck more secure to prevent any accidents due to a deck collapsing—not only using its structural screws, SDWS, for the ledger so there is a solid edge for the joist hangers to be fixed to, but a system that ties the joist of the deck to the joist of the house to ensure a solid structure.

Then there is the fixing of the decking boards themselves. Many are still using nails as they feel this is more cost effective, but is it really? Not when you consider the time spent renailing when they lift. Many homeowners we speak to realise that nailing decking boards is not the most cost-effective fixing for a deck when you have to constantly hammer them back in. Screws are becoming
a more acceptable deck fixing, even though they cost more than nails. Having screws that do not require pre-drilling and do not split the decking are a huge time saver, while not compromising the finish and quality of the deck.

Simpson Strong-Tie has a range of screws that are collated and have some real time saving features that keep that quality of finish and yet reduce the time required to lay the decking boards. These fasteners are available in Class 3 and stainless steel, and while stainless steel is more expensive, it has some great benefits, especially when used in treated timber. Most treated timber leaches corrosive chemicals when it gets wet. These chemicals will cause all zinc-based Class 3 platings to corrode very quickly, although they are fine without the water. Using stainless steel fasteners when fixing into exposed treated timber is a must for long-term timber connections.

Most hardwood decking requires pre-drilling with traditional screws as
they force the grain of the timber apart. Using screws that have a drilling point and some type of counter bore means the screw drills its own hole as it is driven which eliminates the need to pre-drill. This saves time and if you use a collated screw system with depth control, you have a product done in half the time and potentially a better, stronger finish.

Director Paul Burgoine makes no bones about it—at Kincrome, they are always looking for ways to do things better. “Given my father’s history in
the trade retail setting (he was the
joint founder of Burson Automotive), keeping the needs of the customer at the forefront, on all levels, is his philosophy that we have continued. We believe you have to assist the stores to sell through if you’re going to be an effective wholesaler,” says Paul. And one of the ways Kincrome achieves this is through their catalogue program.

“Just selling it into the store and putting it on the shelf is only half the job. The other half is assisting the customer however we can, and selling it, and
we do that through our catalogues program—we were one of the first companies to put a catalogue program together,” says Paul. You only have to see the five full-time graphic designers and in-house photographer at work producing their catalogues as evidence of this commitment.

“We’ve now got three versions of it,” continues Paul. “We’ve got our tools catalogue—that’s our big one with 24 pages—then there are what we call
our HIs, our hardware and industrial catalogue, and then there’s our AI
one, which is automotive and industrial. You can tell by the products that are in there; they’re relative to each industry.

“So you have hardware stores that don’t want to carry automotive products and you have automotive stores that don’t want to carry hardware products and that’s how it’s evolved,” says Paul. “And then there’s our 2014 product guide which is unique in the market. We’re the only company that does something like this.” The creation of the product guides was driven by a number of factors. “One, we’re finding the product guide gives my sales team—we’ve got the biggest hand tools sales force in the market nationally, with 40 reps on the road—a reference guide of all the products. It also gives the distributor, the reseller network, full understanding of the products we sell. What we’re doing now is encouraging the stores to put these in the hands of their customers. We’re producing 30,000 copies of them.

“So instead of one store having one copy and the owner of the store keeping it in his bottom drawer for fear of losing it, we’re reversing that. We want them to actually hand it out and it’s working. The customers now understand what’s available—to have a look at the full comprehensive range.

“The biggest issue I face when I bring people to our warehouse in Melbourne is even though they’ve been customers of ours for many years, they say, ‘Oh wow, I didn’t know you did those’. And it drives me nuts!” says Paul, laughing.

The drive to find solutions and continually innovate
is vital to Kincrome. “It’s
a constant consideration. We’re always looking for not just innovation, but we’re always looking for things to improve and do things better. So whether it be operationally, how
our product works, how we pick it and pack it, dispatch it and freight it out to the customers—because we have four distribution centres and we cover the whole of Australia— it goes right back to virtually every aspect of the business. We’re always constantly looking to improve. Even right to the point with our sourcing—we’ve now set up our own fully owned sourcing office in Taiwan.

“It’s important to note it’s taken nearly 27 years to get to this point because the relationships have taken that
long to form—getting your contacts at the factories, for example, and manufacturing the products under our strict requirements.

“But now we have five full-time staff who wake up each morning and head into the office, thinking about Kincrome and how they can do things better, whether that’s about sourcing the product, checking the product or finding the product. It’s been about 10 months since we’ve done that and we’ve seen some amazing changes already.”

”Used in conjunction with our ATRA ACE magnetic drills, the OzbroachTM high-quality high-speed steel cutters will cut holes three times faster than conventional twist drills. The OzbroachTM cutter is the only cutter made in Australia and is superior in many aspects when compared to rival overseas cutters,” says Steve Tedmanson, chief operating officer of Nitto Kohki Australia Pty Ltd.

“The market was looking for more consistency in the performance of cutters. Making our own cutter in a local manufacturing facility gave us the benefits of superior quality control, producing cutters that when applied correctly, provided consistent results in both finish and longevity,” he adds.

OzbroachTM, now an established market leader in cutters, started from humble beginnings. In 1992 Nitto Kohki Co. Ltd Japan bought a stake in its existing Australian Exclusive Distributor, forming Westair-Nitto Sales Pty Ltd. Soon after this, the company decided to produce an Australian made Broach Cutter to supply alongside Nitto Kohki’s Atra Ace Magnetic Based Drills.

When it started, Nitto Kohki Australia leased premises on the southside of Brisbane and the manufacturing division (Westair-Nitto Manufacturing Pty Ltd) was created on an initial budget of just $400,000. Four machines were purchased consisting of a lathe, two vertical machining centres and a cylindrical grinder. In those days, the two machining centres were used for four operations which meant many set-ups and angle plates were needed to produce the cutting teeth. Later, in 1992, the first Austbroach Australian Made cutter was manufactured. This has since been renamed and trademarked as OzbroachTM.

Over the next few years, two more vertical machining centres and another lathe were added to streamline the process. Since then the company has made further machinery investments, including the purchase of three new five- axis CNC grinding machines and a new twin spindle, twin turret Nakamura lathe.

“The CNC horizontal machining centre is capable of carrying out two op- erations on the one machine. Because you can go from fluting to grinding in one machine, you’re not only saving on capital equipment, you’re also able to perform several operations in a single set-up, eliminating all of the out-of-cut time that does nothing but add to your costs and lead-time. The biggest advan- tage is being able to increase the con- centricity between the two operations, in turn improving overall performance of the cutters made,” says Steve.

The OzbroachTM range carries a comprehensive number of cutter sizes. “The OzbroachTM range is available
in 25mm and 50mm depth and from 12mm to 50mm diameter. We are also nearing the R&D completion of new cutting tools to be released later in 2014 and 2015,” says Steve. “It is with great pride that we still continue to grow and strengthen our sales of the OzbroachTM HSS cutters, providing steel fabricators a high-quality Australian-made product that’s now requested by name.”

October is traditionally decking season, as the warmer weather and approaching summer party season see the demand for alfresco entertaining. Unfortunately, it’s becoming more and more common to read stories of decks collapsing, resulting in terrible injuries and in a few cases, death.

“Balconies are usually used by
a small family group of three to four people, however when 15 or 20 adults gather on a balcony the stress on the structure often reaches breaking point and the balcony collapses causing serious injury,” Ian Agnew of Archicentre said last year following another tragic balcony collapse in Queensland. “Added to this weight factor is often
the large barbecue, plus tables, chairs and heavy planter boxes filled with flowering plants to brighten the alfresco dining area. Large stone tables have also become a trend for outdoor living along with steel and cast-iron outdoor furniture, which increases the load factor of the deck or balcony.”

Authorities have responded differently in different areas, but there is an across- the-board desire from suppliers, builders and inspectors to get decking right— which means choosing the right fixings that are appropriate for the job, and installing them the right way. With the structural elements and timber boards, the choice of material is straightforward and governed equally by the building code and environmental factors, but fas- teners are often invisible—until the deck warps and they pop out.

“There has been a fairly big move away from typical nails as fixings, simply because nails do lift out of the joists,” explains Herb Kuhn of Simpson Strong-Tie. “That potentially leaves a nail head protruding on top of the deck which creates a safety issue as well as a maintenance one. The end-user has to go back annually to tap down all the

“You’ve got to account for the gauge of the fixing, the type of fixing and even the spacing of the boards.” Charles Krivaci, Powers Fasteners

nails that have popped on the deck. So we’ve seen a move by builders over the last five or six years to accept the fact that screws will do a better job at fixing decking down to the frame.”

The real question to ask is not whether to use screws, but what type—and
the answer to that depends on several factors, says Charles Krivaci of Powers Fasteners. “The builder needs to work out with their customer what they want in terms of the composition of the deck,” he says. “The composition of the deck governs the type of fixing used. Also, the thickness of the timber would determine the gauge of the screw. Typically, the thicker the timber, the heavier the gauge of the screw that you need to use.”

That is true for the decking as well as the bearers and joists. But according to Krivaci, the actual site you’re working on will have just as much impact on screw choice. “If you are on a full north-facing aspect, you’re going to get a lot of wind and sun, so the timber will be more prone to expansion and contraction,” he says. “You’ve got to account for that with the number of screws you put in, the gauge of the fixing, the type of fixing and even the spacing of the boards.

If you are building in a coastal environment, you would need the best grade of stainless steel—some local councils even mandate the use of a 316-grade stainless in their areas. If you were
near a swimming pool, which is a highly corrosive environment, you would need a stainless steel fixing and again, there are different series of stainless steel. There’s 316, 305, 304, 302—all of those will vary potentially on where you are located. If you are in a benign environment, then a Class 3 coating is sufficient.” Cost is also a factor, Krivaci adds.

“Once you talk about using a 316, you’re talking of the most expensive solution. If you’re looking at a Class 3 screw, you’re taking about a much cheaper solution.”

You can’t ignore the issue of cost, says Herb Kuhn, but product innovations have done a lot to balance out the cost difference that existed in the past.

“Typically, up until a few years ago, any screw that was going to go through hardwood decking into a softwood or hardwood joist had to be pre-drilled and pre-counter sunk, to prevent splitting the timber decking,” he explains.

“The time involved for a builder
to put down a screwed deck was typically perceived to be three times longer than that of shooting it down with a nail. Since then, a number of companies have come up with a range of screws that don’t require pre-drilling, don’t require pre-counter sinking, and don’t split the timber either. And that’s definitely made a world of difference.”

At the same time, Kuhn says, the cost of hardwood decking has continued to rise. “If you’re going to do
a reasonable-sized deck, you’re going to spend up to $9000 doing a deck,” he explains. “As a builder I think you’ve got an obligation to make the client aware that maintenance of this deck is going to be important, and using stainless fixings in there is definitely an assistance as well from a longevity point of view.

“The harder the hardwood, the longer it lasts, the more stable it becomes— there’s no question about that,” he adds. “But the harder it is to work, the more wear and tear you’ll see on saw blades. In many cases we absolutely have to pre-drill. So we need to find the happy medium between something super hard to work and cut and shape; and something that’s easy to cut yet warps and twists dramatically. One solution that’s starting to gain momentum is composite decking boards, which is a mixture of plastic and sawdust.

Safety first

The other issue facing builders is the manner in which the deck is fixed to the main building, which again requires the correct fixings, if only for safety reasons.

“In a lot of cases, it may only be some bolts on a ledge or board that’s attached to the brickwork on a brick-veneer home,” says Kuhn. “The brick veneer is really just the façade, so if you’re attaching sleeve anchors or expansion anchors into that, they’re not necessarily the best fixing option.

A solid deck must be attached to the joists of the house in order to bear the types of weights it has to carry. Also, if the joists of the deck and attached to the joists of the main structure properly, it will mitigate the risk of rot occurring in any softwood framework of the deck.

“There are connector plates and systems to tie the joist on the deck back to the joist of the house, and that way you end up with a much more substantial, better fixing method,” Kuhn ex- plains. ”Any anchor that’s used, whether it’s a chemical anchor or a mechanical anchor, tends to be only as good as the strength of the thing it is attached to. And brick is fairly soft in its structure in comparison to, say, concrete.”

The best option, he says, is “Being able to attach a plate onto the timber joist in the home, and then out to the joist that’s on the deck. And using a 12 millimetre threaded rod that joins those two metal plates together. The sheer value that you get out of that, and in turn the tension load by the deck being pulled apart, is then considerably higher than just having a sleeve anchored from the side of the brickwork.”

Structural screws are necessary in those situations, and some suppliers offer a number of appropriate connector products that can achieve these ends.

The type of joists used in the deck structure is determined by the building code—if you’re in a fire-prone area, you should not use softwood timber for the subframe. “In those situations, you need to have a fastener that fixes the decking boards directly to the steel or into the hardwood,” says Kuhn.

Ignoring the issues around using
the correct fixings leads to predictable results. “The most common problems we hear of over and over again is firstly, the distance between boards not being sufficient, and builders not taking into account those factors of the aspect of the boards,” says Charles Krivaci. “So they’re not allowing for expansion and contraction. I have quite commonly seen the decks pop over, and screws pop out. It’s a common issue.

“The second common issue is the over-driving of the screws. Over- driving of screws will lead to splitting of the timber and cracking, so that’s a common problem.

“And finally, selecting the incorrect fixing. If, for example, you are fixing into a steel structure in an exposed area, many people will try to use a 10-gauge screw, where you’re really probably going to need a 14-gauge fixing.”

Chemically treated timbers will also determine screw choice. “We’re starting to use more and more treated timber,” explains Kuhn. “It is designed to reduce rotting, to keep termites away, and keep the structure lasting longer. The problem we have is some of those timbers, when they get wet, leach some pretty corrosive chemicals. So within our framework from a specification point of view, we typically say that if the structure is going to be left out in the weather, and its treated timber, then stainless steel is the best option.”

On the rails

One of the other significant issues when it comes to safety is balustrading choices. There has been, for a number of years now, a significant push to change the balustrading codes. However, explains Tony Draper of J&G Trading (who distribute balustrading components), “There haven’t been a significant number of changes in this area. What we do find though is that there’s a lot of builders who haven’t done balustrading work, or have been exposed to very little balustrading work, that still aren’t quite familiar with the nuances of the code and the impact it will have on them when they’re doing the balustrading on the balcony.”

Draper says the most common problem is builders not understanding the height regulations and the format of balustrade that is required at different height levels. The other issue is choosing a material that’s suitable for indoor applications for use in external applications.

“Stainless steel isn’t just stainless steel,” he says. “There are different grades of stainless steel and there
are different finishes on stainless steel, and some of those finishes are suit- able for external applications near the water and some aren’t. Often we’ll see people who have mixed up the grade of stainless or the finish of the stainless and put it in external application, and it lends itself to degradation and failure because of that reason.”

While there is a price differential
that may influence decisions, Draper says it’s not that significant. It’s more
a combination of fashion and ignorance. “What we recommend for external is a mirror finish, which is typically 600 grit up to 1000 grit finish,” he says. “A lot
of the fashion at the moment is for a satin-style finish. Satin has its benefits. It doesn’t show fingerprints as easily as the mirror finish, but a lot of architects are specifying satin finish for outside areas, and it doesn’t lend itself well to being maintained in that sort of climate. Satin should only be used inside.”

The height of the balcony also deter- mines the type of balustrading. Anything over a metre fall, there are set heights, spacings and tensions that must be used. “For decks and balconies more than four metres above the ground,
a balustrade must also not have any climbable elements, such as horizontal rails, located between 150 millimetres and 760 millimetres from the floor,” Draper adds. “It’s very clearly defined
in the code, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that people would heed to that when they design a balustrade.”

Simple tips, yet the difference between a deck and a disaster could be as simple as choosing the right fixings.

”Despite popular belief, a race car is not just a road car with fancy stickers stuck to the side,” says Les Creely, workshop manager for Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM).

Funnily enough, this is exactly how it all began for Garry Rogers. “When I was younger I was only interested in horses and women,” says Rogers, laughing. “Some may quip not much has changed.” But it was Rogers’ mother who told him to direct his focus on more solid foundations.

“Perhaps I was having too much fun because my mum told me I needed
to get a qualification behind me. So I signed up to study as a motor mechanic. I became quite good at it and discovered I could buy and sell cars to turn a profit.

“One day someone came up to me and asked if I wanted to buy a racing car. Well, that was it—I bought that road car with a sticker on the side of it and, would you believe, I won the first race
I competed in. Of course I was totally

“If you asked me what’s the most important component in building a winning race car, I would say it’s having the best people working for you and around you.” Garry Rogers, Garry Rogers Motorsport

hooked and to this day I am still involved with race cars some 50-odd years later.” It’s this lifelong passion and dedication for the sport that sets Garry Rogers Motorsport apart—on and off the track.

“If you asked me what’s the most important component in building a win- ning race car, I would say it’s having the best people working for you and around you. From the engineers to the welders to the suppliers, I have the best in the business. Equal to that is the need to keep evolving—looking for new ways to do things,” says Rogers.

And the team had to evolve rapidly when GRM went from building Holden V8 super cars to the Volvo S60 Car Of The Future earlier this year. It’s been an exciting, yet daunting, time, as there has been plenty of development required before being ready to produce any parts.

“We knew the car design was an S60, so we had to design the Volvo over the chassis we already had,” explains Les Creely. “Obviously rule bases come
into effect and you have to shorten the car up front and lengthen other parts to make it work. That is the first phase of building the race car.”

It’s Creely’s job is to ensure that every department at GRM—from the engine room, to the composite department, to the mechanics—has all the bits and pieces they need. “I organise all the components for the cars. For example, the engineers will give me a drawing and I’ll have to either go and get it machined or I will have to get it laser cut,” explains Creely. One of the biggest challenges in his job is keeping to strict deadlines. “You can’t afford to forget or miss anything. It’s always got to be done because the race will start without us. So we have to have the car ready.”

And he will pull out all stops to make that happen. “Absolutely, whether that’s jumping in the car and driving to the other side of Victoria to get a component, we’ll do it.”

Furthermore, every part of the car building process has to be meticulously organised. As Creely says, “You can’t sit back and wait for something to happen because it doesn’t and it won’t.”

Another example of the best in business is GRM’s fabrication manager, Howard ‘Johno’ Johnstone. He credits the quality of work and the exceptionally high standards at GRM, that distinguishes their cars from the pack. “We don’t consider coming second. That’s just how it is. There’s no in between and there’s no compromise. It’s got to be right or it’s not any bloody good.”

It’s a fitting motto to stand by as it’s Johno’s responsibility to manufacture parts and make the car once the designs are finalised from the engineers and Volvo HQ. “So once the first designing phase is complete, we have to jig all those parts. We’ve got the skeleton of the car sitting there on a table that’s bigger than the size of a couple of rooms and we build the car on massive 10-foot-tall steel posts, holding all the parts in the right place,” says Johno.

It’s a hub of constant activity with six full-time workers in the fabrication department. “We manufacture, repair, make new parts and build the cars,” explains Johno. “My responsibility is creating anything that needs fabricating—any metals that are fabricated. It could be a tank, it could be all the bar work in the car, the muffler, the exhaust system, the whole lot.” And every single element has to meet exact specifications. “Every part has to be the same, built to the same specifications and integrity because the safety of the driver is paramount. When somebody goes hard and crashes into the side of his car, we’ve got to know that we’ve built it, and welded it, to exact standards we know will withstand the impact.”

It’s no easy task making sure parts are exactly the same as the last one, but it’s this precise attention to detail that’s evident throughout the company—as well as with the companies they choose to do business with.

It’s a link in the chain that can’t be understated—that is the relationships GRM has built with their suppliers. When time is of the essence, knowing

“When somebody goes hard and crashes into the side of his car, we’ve got to know that we’ve built it, and welded it, to exact standards we know will withstand the impact.” Howard ‘Johno’ Johnstone, Fabrication Manager, GRM

they can pick up the phone and get
a part or component fast, is vital. “In some cases it has taken years to build that kind of relationship with the people around us—machinists, laser cutters, various suppliers. Now I know I can ring and say, ‘Look, we’ve got this one-off part I need to make a trial on the car. We’re testing tomorrow—can you do it?’ and they’ll stop whatever they are doing, make our parts and we’ll grab them and put it on the car,” says Creely. “Obviously cars get bolted together with lots of bolts, nuts, screws and rivets and we choose Ferntree Gully Bolts (proud member of the CSS Group) because they are an incredibly good supplier. It doesn’t matter what we want, we ring them and they will have it. For instance, if we design a part that needs a bolt that’s 10 millimetres shorter than what we’ve already got, I know I can call and get that bolt,” says Creely. In fact, owner of Ferntree Gully Bolts and Bayswater Bolts, Justin Moore, says their association with GRM reflects their own values. “Our standards are just as high as GRM, even down to knowing exactly where our raw materials come from and are manufactured. It’s this kind of traceability that allows us to control the high quality of our products.”

Being the best takes teamwork. And now as the GRM team prepares for their next race, it’s all hands on deck. Don’t miss the next issue where GRM composite manager Scott ‘Scotty’ Compson reveals just how he makes race cars feather light and super strong.

Powers SMART-BIT® is
the best way to drill and countersink your timber in one easy move. The powers Smart-Bit® has a bearing-stop collar which eliminates countersinking too deep into the timber, giving every countersink exactly the same depth, with the finish of a professional. The Powers Smart-Bit® works extremely well in all hardwoods and softwoods.

Powers has a complete range of loose decking screws from 7 Gauge to 14 Gauge in both carbon steel and stainless steel to compliment the Powers Smart-Bit®.

Powers also offers contractors the WOODPECKER® screw which is designed to pre-drill its own hole and countersink itself. Suitable for all timber decks, it is easy to install. Driven by a torx driver, it can be used with a standard drill. The screw is made from 316 stainless steel which is ideal for harsh external environments.

For the large commercial projects or manufacturing, Powers has the Muro® automated screwing system. Available in both a stick or coil system, the Muro® collated screw system is the easiest labour-saving way to fix hardwood and softwood boards to either timber or steel joists with a range of screws to suit most applications.

The Muro® coil system has the ability to drive from Type 17 screws through to Stainless Steel Ejector Screws, with a range of 32mm to 100mm. Ready to roll with 150 screws per coil, this Muro® automated screwing system is the choice for high- volume decking applications.

The Muro® stick system has the ability to load a 30-strip at a time collated strip. Other features include easily rotatable housing for access into tight spaces, adjustable depth control for repeatable countersinking, no pre- drilling, dropped or lost screws and a quick change double ended drive bit.

Both Muro® systems employ adjustable handles that allow the operator to maintain a straight back while working. Adjustable decking attachments are also available.
This allows screws to be placed automatically into the centre of the joist with the option to gap the board at the same time.

Powers has developed The Complete Decking Fastener guide to assist you with product selection. A hard copy of the guide can be sent to you by emailing your business details to sales@powers.com.au.

All emails received will also go into the draw to win a Powers Decking Pack which includes a Muro® CH7390 Ultra Driver Decking Kit, Smart-Bits®, Woodpecker® screws and Powers Merchandise.

“The exemption of single residential, R Code compliant houses from Local Government Authority planning approval has been at
the forefront of the HIA advocacy agenda for many years and we are pleased to see this now adopted,” said Gelavis.

“This will allow the timeframes for securing a building permit to reduce significantly which will ultimately benefit the consumer. The State Government is to be congratulated on this and the other reforms in the Planning Makes it Happen: Phase 2 Action Plan.

“Other reforms supporting the expediting of titled land are also welcomed by the HIA as land supply is seen as a significant barrier to accommodating our growing population,” he said.

“The HIA looks forward to the State Government progressing with the implementation of these import- ant reforms and continue to review the building approvals process.”

The annual report found that 191 workers died from injuries received at work in 2013. Distressingly, the fatality rate for self-employed workers (4.39 deaths per 1,000,000 self-employed workers) was three times higher than the fatality rate for employees (1.31). This
is partly due to the high fatality rates in two industries: agriculture, forestry and fishing and transport, postal and ware- housing industries, both of which also have a higher than average proportion of self-employed workers.

In releasing the report, Safe Work Australia’s acting chief executive officer, Michelle Baxter, urged all workers whether employed by a business or self-employed to make work health and safety a priority.

“While we have seen a 16 per cent reduction in work-related deaths since 2012 (228), this does not mean workers should become complacent about reducing and eliminating risks while working,” said Baxter.

“In particular it is alarming to see the fatality rate for self-employed workers is so much higher than for employees.

“This report serves as a reminder that self-employed workers still have the same legal requirements as an employer to ensure their own health and safety is maintained, as well as the safety of people entering their workplace. Even if a worker is conducting a business in their own right, they should not ignore their own health and safety.”

Other key findings from the report include the following:
- The decrease in the number of work-related deaths from previous years can be attributed to fewer crashes on public roads, particularly involving workers in cars.

- The worker fatality rate in 2013 was 1.64 fatalities per 100 000 workers. Male workers had a fatality rate of 2.80 while female workers had a rate of 0.28.

- Over the 11 years of the series, one-third of workers who were killed while working died in vehicle collisions
on public roads, one-third in vehicle incidents at workplaces and the remaining one-third of fatalities did not involve a vehicle.

- The Agriculture, forestry and fishing industry recorded the highest number of fatalities in 2013 (48) followed by the Transport, postal and ware- housing (46), and Construction (19) industries.

The report is available to read at www.swa.gov.au.