Monthly Archives: November 2011

“VALUE-ADDED” IS THE KEY TO WOODWORKING BUSINESS SUCCESS — going from “tree to trim” adds value by THOUSANDS of dollars.

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Here's something you don't see every day -- a genuine log cabin travel trailer. The Parmers renovated it with log cabin siding outside and custom paneling inside...all made with their Woodmaster Molder/Planer.

Here’s something you don’t see every day — a genuine log cabin travel trailer. The Parmers renovated it with log cabin siding outside and custom paneling inside…all made with their Woodmaster Molder/Planer.

We hear this question a lot these days. “How can I make a good living in these economic times?” Robert Parmer, owner of Parmer Lumber Company of Dawson, Georgia has found an answer.

Robert Parmer in his shop with his "4-Way Money Maker" -- his Woodmaster Molder/Planer

Robert Parmer in his shop with his “4-Way Money Maker” — his Woodmaster Molder/Planer

“My son and I make a living with our Woodmaster Molder/Planer and our TimberKing sawmill. We work with them about 10 hours a day, five or six days every week.”

Father & son business started with a TimberKing sawmill

The Parmers have a long history manufacturing wood products. “I have 42 years sawmill experience,” Robert told us, “and my son has 18 or so years.” Robert had 37 employees for about 25 years. “It was just about driving me crazy,” he says. “Now instead of 37, it’s just me and my son. We are enjoying life now.”

“We know sawmills. We looked at one with a cantilever head (cutting head supported on one side only) and my experience said that would be a problem over time.” Instead, he chose the TimberKing’s 4-post cutting head with support at each of its four corners.

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SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Drum Sanders – sale prices, online specials

The Parmers saw logs into high quality roughcut lumber with a TimberKing sawmill and a Talon edger. The TimberKing Sawmill saws out the boards; the Talon Edger removes the raw edges (“wane”) from the boards. Acquiring logs is easy, says Robert. “We saw roughcut lumber from trees in a 150-mile radius,” he says. “I’ve been in this business all my life so I know how to get a log.”

1,500% value added with a Woodmaster

“Value added” is the name of the game in the wood business. Each time you perform an additional process, you add value. Sawing logs into boards adds value; edging them adds value; but turning them into saleable wood products adds far more.

Just about the most valuable wood product you can make is wood molding. Starting with a board worth $5, a motivated woodworker can manufacture $75 worth of wood molding. That’s a 1,500% increase in value!

Woodmaster & TimberKing: sister companies

Robert's been in the lumber sawing business a long, long time. When he and his son started their own business, they chose a TimberKing sawmill because it has a rugged 4-post head.

Robert’s been in the lumber sawing business a long, long time. When he and his son started their own business, they chose a TimberKing sawmill because it has a rugged 4-post head

To add value, Robert added woodworking equipment: a Woodmaster Molder/Planer with a Woodmaster 3-Side Molding System. “When I learned that TimberKing and Woodmaster were sister companies, I knew Woodmaster was the Molder/Planer I wanted.” Product reviews by Woodmaster owners clinched the deal. “Another reason I bought a Woodmaster was because of the things other owners had written about them.  If they liked them that much I figured I would be happy with one, too.”

But, ultimately, it came down to service. “TimberKing took care of us very well. Their sister company, Woodmaster, makes a good product but the main thing is the service — the speed of service and the quality of people they have manning the phones.  If you have a problem they will tell you how to fix it, and they haven’t been wrong yet!  That is important when you are thousands of miles away in the middle of an order and something tears up.”

Here’s real business savvy

Added to the Woodmaster Molder/Planer, the Woodmaster 3-Side Molding System allows the woodworker to shape 3 sides of his workpiece in a single pass. The Woodmaster cuts the top surface; 2 Milwaukee routers shape both sides.

Added to the Woodmaster Molder/Planer, the Woodmaster 3-Side Molding System allows the woodworker to shape 3 sides of his workpiece in a single pass. The Woodmaster cuts the top surface; 2 Milwaukee routers shape both sides.

“I wanted to add value to our roughcut lumber and I figured we could sell some molding and paneling,” says Robert. “We make V-groove paneling out of cedar, cherry, and cypress and molding to match. If a man buys cedar paneling, he wants cedar crown and baseboard to match and you can’t go down to Lowe’s and buy cedar molding.”

Robert explained further. “We have high dollar items here with custom paneling and molding. We get a good dollar for them and we’ve kind of cornered the market down here. I don’t know of anywhere else you can buy these things here.”

The Parmers got a 3-Side Molding System at the same time as they got their Woodmaster Molder/Planer. It’s an add-on “outrigger” piece of equipment added to the Woodmaster’s outfeed. It enables the Woodmaster to shape three sides in a single pass. Molding knives in the Woodmaster’s cutterhead shape the top side; two heavy-duty Milwaukee routers shape two more sides; and variable-speed feed rollers move the workpiece through…all in one pass.

Parmer Lumber Co. mills roughcut lumber and adds tremendous value by turning boards into finished lumber with their Woodmaster...then building high-value items like this beautiful custom deck.

Parmer Lumber Co. mills roughcut lumber and adds tremendous value by turning boards into finished lumber with their Woodmaster…then building high-value items like this beautiful custom deck.

“We make log cabin siding with the Woodmaster Molder/Planer and the Woodmaster 3-Side Molding System,” Robert told us. It’s a complicated shape but Robert cuts the entire profile in one pass. “I can make one pass and make the whole thing, rabbet cut and all. There’s no reason to dress the backside. If I’m doing the board for myself, I don’t bother with the backside because its hidden and you have exact thickness all the way down the board.  But if it’s for a customer, I run it through another time to dress the back. I’m very well pleased with Woodmaster’s double router system.”

Bigger shop, more Woodmasters

If you're ever in Dawson, Georgia, stop and say hello to Robert and his son at Parmer Lumber Co.

If you’re ever in Dawson, Georgia, stop and say hello to Robert and his son at Parmer Lumber Co.

“Log cabin siding is going real well,” says Robert. They’ve built three display buildings with it but their most ambitious log cabin siding project is a mobile home they renovated. “We stripped it down to the studs,” says Robert. “Then we put log cabin siding on the outside and V-groove cherry, cypress, and cedar V-groove paneling inside.”

When we last spoke with Robert, he had big plans for the future. “We are seriously thinking about growing.  In fact we are going to build a bigger shop and add one or possibly two more molder planers, and they will be Woodmasters.”

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Molder/Planers – sale prices, online specials

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HE DOES BUSINESS HIS WAY – and business is booming!

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“I do business on a handshake. If that  isn’t good enough for a customer, they might as well get someone else. I can be that independent.”

Among many other things, Bill Grom makes curved molding. "Quality product, price, and service" has done him well.

Among many other things in his woodworking business, Bill Grom makes curved molding. His “Quality product, price, and service” policies have served him well

“When I retired, I thought a Woodmaster would help me get a little trim and molding business going. I knew a lot of builders locally and they gave me a try. It just started rolling from there. Last year, I was making trim for eight houses at the same time!

$10 to $38 a foot

I started making crown and base molding plus corner blocks for each — the blocks go in inside and outside corners so homeowners don’t have to make compound angle cuts. I made 200 blocks for one job. I sell curved molding at $38 a foot, and straight molding for $10 or $15.

Business has snowballed and I’m as busy as I want to be. I’ve got my hands full. I provide quality product, price, and service. If you can provide those things, you’ll stay busy no matter what the economy is.”

Bill tells his story…

“I was a teacher and guidance counselor for 39 years and figured I’d need something to do when I retired so I wouldn’t be under my wife’s feet all the time. That’s when I got Woodmaster information about the machines and making trim.

I started making crown corner blocks for do it yourselfers. People are afraid of making compound miter cuts. These blocks just go up into the corner and the crown molding butts to it in at 90 degrees so there are no angles to cut except scribing it into the block if the walls aren’t square. I make crown molding to match with the Woodmaster.

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Molder/Planers – sale prices, online specials

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Drum Sanders – sale prices, online specials

Business snowballed. Right now, I’m doing trim for a restaurant downtown. I do a lot of work that nobody wants to mess with. We’re working on a lot of the detail work that I can do with the Woodmaster.

Bill Grom can't quite retire -- he's finding success in a second career as a Woodmaster woodworker

Like so many men, Bill Grom can’t quite retire — he’s finding success in a second career as a Woodmaster woodworker

Custom knives from Woodmaster

I make bullnose corner blocks to match the base molding I make. They’re hard to find. I worked with Woodmaster to design my own knives. Woodmaster made me pattern knives from my drawings for base blocks and outside corners. I just got another knife from them so I have both 90 and 45 degree bullnose blocks.

I can buy knives cheaper other places but since I’ve started with Woodmaster I’ve had really good working relationships with everyone I’ve worked with there. I really enjoy it. I toured Woodmaster and put faces to the names of people I’d worked with and it was good to work with these people.

“There’s money to be made in curved molding.”

I also make curved molding in 3 or 4 different arcs and ellipses. I profile the curved molding on the Woodmaster. I got a curved molding jig from Woodmaster; I also made my own as well as my own patterns and templates.

Curved molding is labor intensive. I laminate everything. The finished product is really nice. There’s money to be made in it. Around Kansas City, they get $70 a foot for it. The most I could get around here would be in Telluride in the ski areas in the condos – they pay about $38 a foot. I sell straight molding for $10 or $15 a foot. I’m not in it to make a killing but to get the word our about the uniqueness and craftsmanship of what I do. It’s hard to find.

His winning policy: provide a great product, at a low price, back it with great service

A lot of what I make goes to homeowners who are their own general contractors, and a lot to contractors who’re building houses themselves. I sell a little to cabinet shops but not much. Lumberyards get a little ticked at me because I can produce the same product for a lot less money and they get fired up once in awhile.

Ingeniously simple? Or simply ingenious? Bill's corner blocks make it simple for DIY'ers to mount his molding -- compound angle cuts are eliminated.

Ingeniously simple? Or simply ingenious? Bill’s corner blocks make it simple for DIY’ers to mount his molding — compound angle cuts are eliminated.

For example, a customer went to the lumberyard for some Anderson 2-1/4” curved molding for a door was about $130. He asked me and I said I could do it for about $50.

Home Depot marks up their trim 300%. That’s where I check my prices. They get $3.50 a foot for crown molding; I make mine for about 50 cents and I make money at it. They have a huge overhead I provide price, product, and service – that counts for a lot.

Word of mouth works

I don’t have a storefront. I live in a subdivision with a small shop out back, about 16 x 30’ so when I get 16’ material, I have to open the door to run it through my Woodmaster. I do business out of the house and advertise in the phonebook. But I’ve cut back on advertising because I don’t want to get more business than I can handle. Right now, word of mouth is how I get most of my business.

Word of mouth works. I do fireplace surrounds and mantles. I had a woman called me from 250 miles away. She somehow got my name and number. The world gets awful small the more you talk.

“The spiral cutterhead prevents tearouts. It works.”

I have two recommendations for anyone buying a Woodmaster: if you’re going to do much at all. Get the forward/reverse switch for the feed rollers, and get the spiral cutterhead.

The cutterhead was about $1200 but I do a lot of alder and it tears out a lot, no matter how slow you go. Woodmaster recommended the spiral cutterhead. I got it and it works. If you’re going to do a lot of planing, get it. It prevents tearout and I saved most of what I paid for it in about 6 months simply because I’m not wasting material now with tearouts. It works great; it’s off the charts.

Planer blades go head-on with the grain. The spiral cutterhead goes diagonally to the grain. If I knew then what I knew now, I’d have gotten it when I bought the machine.

I like the forward/reverse kit. I don’t know how people would do without it. When you’re trying to size something up for thickness when you’re planing, you have to run the piece all the way through to get the depth. If you’re too deep, you’ve lost that piece of wood. With the forward/reverse feature, I just run it in a bit, then back out, then put a micrometer on it, then run it through. It’s efficient; you save waste and time, too. It works when you’re matching molding, too. Just run it in, back it out, and you can see if it matches.

“I can be THAT INDEPENDENT!”

There's ALWAYS good work and good money for a motivated woodworker

The key components for SUCCESS as an independent Woodmaster woodworker? A good head on your shoulders, good ideas, persistence…and a Woodmaster!

I never take money up front. I want a check when I deliver, before I unload the order from my truck. It’s really been good. I haven’t lost any money doing business this way.

Business is based on relationships. I do business on a handshake. If that  isn’t good enough for a customer, they might as well get someone else. I can be that independent. I don’t need contracts.”

— Bill Grom, Bill’s Custom Trim, Hotchkiss, CO

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Molder/Planers – sale prices, online specials

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Drum Sanders – sale prices, online specials

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

3 WAYS we can help you!