Greetings to all my friends out there in Hammer & Nail City. A few weeks ago the editors of JLC gave me a call and asked whether I'd do a regular column. My immediate reaction was, "That would be crazy. If I wrote what I really thought, half the readers would be all over me, not to mention code officials." (I have enough trouble with my local inspectors.) But after thinking it over, I decided to give it a go. The purpose of this column is to give you a basic idea of how engineering works, and sufficient information to help you answer the kinds of engineering questions that come up on the job site every
