Business Ideas & Best Practices

When the Model T Ford Club of America decided to build a museum dedicated to “the car that put the world on wheels”, Richmond, Indiana seemed to be the perfect fit. A town lost in time, Richmond is one of the birthplaces of the early jazz movement, where jazz giants like Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, and King Oliver’s band with the young Louis Armstrong on the horn performed and recorded some of their first songs.

Paul Grainger is an engineer at heart. Whether it’s restoring motorcycles, repairing farm machinery or building timber-framed roofs, he can turn his hand to it. An eye for detail and a healthy dose of passion for carpentry has seen him build a diverse, busy business across North Yorkshire in England. Having three Wood-Mizer LT40 sawmills since starting the business has helped him go from selling waste wood on eBay to becoming an intrinsic part of a multi-million-pound restoration project at a luxury rural hotel.

A Wood-Mizer MP360 Planer/Moulder has joined two Wood-Mizer sawmilling lines at Highlands Sawmill in South Africa, allowing the business to create greater profitability. Highlands Sawmill is located in one of the many fertile valleys outside Harding – a place that is also home to the vast timber-producing forests of Weza and Singisi, in South Africa.

Wood-Mizer's MP360 planer/moulder improves speed and accuracy in a German carpentry workshop that is steeped in history. Situated in Gartow in lower East Saxony, Germany, the protected industrial monument building has been used as a sawmill and woodworking shop since 1923. Moritz Kollenrott, the main carpenter of Montagebau Keller, explains: “This half-timbered building is built in a traditional way and is classified as an historical monument. The attic even holds the historic steam engine which supplied the whole village with electricity.”

This family operated sawmill in Terengganu, Malaysia shows how even small companies can benefit from modern and more efficient sawmilling machinery.

Located on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, Larch Wood handcrafts wooden end grain cutting boards from sustainably managed and harvested larch trees. In addition to its beautiful colouring and grain patterns, Larch Wood specialises in end grain cutting boards because they are durable and feature a self-healing cutting surface.

Mack Lowery turned a tragedy into a dream come true when he finished his stunning hand built, two-story, timber frame home in the dense woodlands of Mississippi. The first log cabin Mack originally built as a young man in 1976 burned in a massive fire that left his family homeless and devastated.

With the help of Wood-Mizer LT40 sawmill Herbert Butterfield built a small barn out of white pine and ash on his family farm in Charlotte, Michigan. In this barn he made a sugarhouse for maple syrup production.

Richard Wigink has been running his company in Holten, Netherlands for over 30 years. He was initially engaged in a tree surgery. Richard always found great value in the trees he removed, often created various articles from them and was glad to know that the tree continues to be valuable and serve for many years. Today, it continues to pursue the same goal.

Simostranda Stav & Laft is a timber frame construction company located outside of Oslo. The company is operated by Sveinung Bergan and Einar Holm, who have worked together as partners for 22 years.