“When I retired from the U.S. Military, I wanted to live in the country, enjoy four seasons, and enjoy good health. And I wanted to work outdoors and enjoy what I was doing. Well, the Good Lord has provided!
Bob set up an integrated, value-added wood business with Woodmaster and TimberKing equipment. Here’s Bob with his Woodmaster 725 Molder Planer.
Bob’s business is a “1-stop wood shop.” Customers can buy boards and slabs green, right off the mill. Or, they often have Bob put it through his Woodmaster to plane it, mold it, and turn it into finished goods — flooring, trim, and more.
I was inspired by Woodmaster and TimberKing’s “Tree to Trim” business concept – you start with standing trees, fell them, saw them, and mill them into finished flooring, trim, and lumber.
That’s a value-added business plan. Every time you put wood through a machine you’re adding value, and that adds profits.
Bob goes “from tree to trim”
Today, we’re fully operational taking standing timber from logs to trim and flooring with Woodmaster and TimberKing equipment. Your staff has been very helpful as we’ve developed our facilities and operation.
We got TimberKing’s 2000 sawmill and Woodmaster’s 725 Molder/Planer plus its Pro Pack. I use the Woodmaster in our operation as a planer, a gang ripsaw, and a molding machine. As we grow, we can add more Woodmasters and set them up as dedicated molders, planers, rip saws, and so on.
Bpb and his crew fell standing timber, skid it out, haul it to his mill, and saws it on his TimberKing 2000 sawmill. Bob says he can make beams and boards up to 30-feet long!
Woodmaster adds value — Pro Pack adds versatility
The Woodmaster comes as a planer. Adding the Pro Pack gives us extra versatility to do rip sawing, drum sanding, and to make molding. And it’s more cost effective to buy the Pro Pack as a whole than as individual pieces.
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He planes wood super-smooth with Woodmaster’s Spiral Cutterhead. Hundreds of carbide-tipped cutting faces create a surface smooth as a baby’s bottom.
The big selling point to me was the Woodmaster’s width. A lot of small shops have 12” planers. If you’re making furniture, that’s OK but what we’re offering is wide boards including two-foot wide slabs and more. People use the bigger slabs to make bar and counter tops and I can plane them smooth a lot easier than customers can sand them.
That’s just one example of how Woodmaster adds value. Some people want wood right off our TimberKing mill. Others have us plane it for them – one side or both sides. We can plane it, rip it, turn it into molding without the wood leaving our shop. This lets us sell into many niche markets very easily.
Wide boards are easily ripped into precision blanks, several at a time, with Woodmaster’s Gang Rip Saw head.
Our customers are furniture makers, lathe turners, craftsmen, do-it-yourselfers, builders, contractors, and more. There’s a lot to learn in this business but if you roll all the niche markets together, you’ve created a very successful business.
The personal touch
We have a website and we advertise in local newspapers. We do a big craft fair near here in the fall. It’s huge, with thousands of vendors. We have a booth at our county fair, too. We always have a display set up at these events. When customers come to our mill, we show them samples and let them pick out the slabs they want. We walk folks around the store and they pick out what they want. It gives our business a real personal touch.
When a customer needs molding or a tongue and groove put on flooring, Bob sets up his Woodmaster as a molding machine.
We also sell to a nearby lumberyard. It’s a third-generation operation. They sell a lot of flooring, trim, and casework. When this lumberyard gets big orders, they buy from big production mills 1,000 board feet at a time. But when they need 100 or 200 board feet they’ll buy from us. That’s how we fit into their plan.
Bob’s got inventory! When we spoke with him, he had 30,000 board feet of lumber ready to go. And he has the customers to make it all work.
1-stop wood shop
Without the Woodmaster, our ability to sell would be just, “here’s the wood.” Or I’d have to send customers to other mills in the area. Having a Woodmaster, we’re a 1-stop operation. Without it, our sales opportunities would be limited.”
— Bob Manaugh, Maple Grove Mill, Lexington IN — Woodmaster & TimberKing Owner
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