Building a homestead business with a Woodmaster Molder/Planer
Cody Evert and his family are hard at work building a home business — an income-producing operation raising animals, gardening, and producing wood products. Key to the woodworking part of the business is Cody and his 718 Woodmaster Planer/Molder. “I’ve proven I can make quality lumber with my Woodmaster,” Cody tells us. “Now I’m working on increasing production speed.”
Cody’s building a self-sufficient home business — with homesteading skills and a Woodmaster Molder/Planer
“I work a full-time job and two side jobs. My full-time job is managing the inventory of equipment components at one of Weyerhaeuser’s lumber milling operations. At this facility, we have two large mills — one for lumber and one for plywood. I work a 50-hour week. And I work two side jobs – woodworking and homesteading – another 20 hours a week.
“My boss asked me to turn this load of blue pine into 1×4 and 1×6 dimensional lumber for trim.” says Cody. “As well as 1×8 shiplap for a ceiling, and 4×4’s and 2×4’s for hand rails!”
Working with wood has always been a passion of mine and now I’m putting my shop together. I inherited some of my grandfather’s woodworking tools and equipment – hand tools, workbenches, and a Shopsmith multi-tool.
Cody turned out this handsome load of lumber with his Woodmaster 718. He’s proven he can make quality lumber. Now he’s experimenting with gluing-up hardwood blanks for larger projects and laser-engraving.
A ‘screaming good deal’ on a Woodmaster
My dad had a friend who was moving and selling all kinds of tools and equipment. I was lucky enough to get a ‘screaming good deal’ on his Woodmaster 718. I’ve gone all through it, overhauled it, replaced some parts, and have added accessories.
One important accessory I added is Woodmaster’s twin-router, 3-Side Molding System. That’s a sophisticated system with two Milwaukee routers on an out-feed table. It’s remarkable what you can do with it. I can turn rough cut boards into custom molding in just a few passes.
What’s this? Cody tricked-out his Woodmaster by adding the 3-Side Molding System. He can shape 4 sides of his workpiece in a single pass. The Woodmaster shapes the bottom of the workpiece and the two Milwaukee routers shape both sides.
Then the floodgates opened
Woodmaster is a high quality machine and their customer service is great. The guys at Woodmaster have been a big help in all this, answering all my questions and supplying parts.
Really packs a punch
My Woodmaster really packs a punch in a very compact footprint. I have a small shop and really can’t have a lot of full-size woodworking equipment. It’s versatile and flexible. I can set it up for planing, drum sanding, gang ripsawing, or routing. In just 10 or 15 minutes, I can changeover from one woodworking function to another.
I put my Woodmaster to work. My first side job was turning a truckload of rough-cut blue pine boards into 1,800 lineal feet of shiplap lumber for my boss at Weyerhaeuser. I used the Woodmaster as a planer, gang ripsaw, and 3-side molder for that job. It was a lifesaver!
My boss referred me on another job for a person who needed lumber for a deck project. I made 850 lineal feet of 2 x 6 lumber for that one. After that, the floodgates opened and a lot of people have contacted me to do this kind of work. There’s a big demand for custom molding around here and this is all through word-of-mouth.
Right now, I’m doing some remodeling at home, sanding our older kitchen cabinet doors with the Woodmaster in preparation for painting. And I’m drawing plans for new cabinetry.
Cody’s plan? Grow a fully self-sufficient, home-based business
Besides my mainstay job, I do woodworking side jobs, and my family and I run a small homestead business, Spring Creek Urban Homestead. We have horses, hogs, chickens, quail, goats, and rabbits plus a big garden. We feed ourselves with what we raise, and we sell some, too. What I’d like to do is build all our homesteading and woodworking into our own fully self-sufficient home-based operation.
Cody’s family operates “Spring Creek Urban Homestead,” raising chickens, goats, hogs, a big garden, and a whole lot more
As of right now, I’ve seen I can turn out quality lumber with my Woodmaster. Now I’m working on increasing my production efficiency in order to boost profitability. A lot of this is just hands-on, learning-through-doing, like figuring out the most efficient order of woodworking operations. But I believe that anyone can succeed at this work if they have the ambition and drive to push forward through the learning curve. The experience will come naturally!”
— Cody Evert, Woodmaster Owner, Kalispell MT
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