Helping make life easier for the tradies.
September 17, 2012
Still only a fledgling business Stapylton-bases 5 Star Timbers is not your ordinary timber merchant. It's veritable one-stop-shop, especially for tradies started a little over four years ago with six workers, 5 Star now employs 13 and is constantly looking to value add its business.
Managing director Justin Lanyon explains..."We have a gas/solar kiln so we dry material on site. We have a four-sided Iida moulder, a band saw, an optimising docker & an end matcher so we do a bit of decking & flooring & we’ve just started running a secret fix decking. We’ve also incorporated an automated oiling machine.”
But, as he says, none of it would have been possible without invaluable assistance from Advanced Timber Systems.
“The boys from ATS have been involved in setting out the machinery so we are able to run it at peak efficiency & with this new oiling machine we can pre-finish the products.”
“The mobile oiling machine, a la Perlina out of Italy is the first of its kind in Queensland. It’s a mobile automated oiling machine called a decking tunnel. You feed timber in & it goes through a series of rollers & brushes & air knives & dryers & it comes out the other end beautifully pre-finished.”
“It’s a good little machine. It saves a lot of work & it has been well received by our builders; the amount of time it takes for them to get their guys to paint stuff on site, then they only paint the top side of the decking & as we know that creates several issues in itself. This takes all that out of the equation,” says Justin.
The business sources predominantly Australian material. “We are actually Chain of Custody certified, we are right into the legal side of things (legal logging & sustainable product) & we were one of the first merchants in Queensland to get full scope CoC which has been quite good to us.”
Their main client base stretches south from Tweed Heads out to Ipswich & north to Caboolture.
“We’re predominately trade based, 90% of what we do is for trade customers. The thing with our business is that we are slightly different to your regular timber merchant by the fact we do kiln drying on site & re-machine & value add & all sorts of things,” he says.
5 Star Timbers recently won a Gold Coast business award…”not a bad achievement in such a hard market”, & has also been judged for the coming timber industry awards.
Justin is quick to hark back to the connection with ATS explaining that they has supplied & installed all five machines at the site.
“We’ve had no problems. None with the oiler, no hassle with any of our machinery. The boys at ATS are fantastic. They know their gear & they take the time to run us through the installation & how to set up & how to run it. They’re a fantastic company actually.”
Advanced Timber Systems first became involved with 5 Star Timbers in 2010 when they were running an old Dankaert 4 side planer.
A service technician went to the site at Stapylton to service & set the Dankaert & give some basic training on operating the machine. It wasn’t long however, due to the demand for higher throughput & quality that managing director Justin Lanyon decided it was time to upgrade, & in early 2011 ATS traded the 4 Sider & installed a fully serviced Iida 6 head moulder.
As with any well managed business it wasn’t long before the added flexibility of the Iida brought demands for further value adding & during 2011 a Doldene 38” band resaw, Fullpower TG-230 universal tool grinder, Fullpower SOC-100 automatic fault docker & an EMA-250 automatic end matching machine were added to the machine shop.
“An agreement to produce DeckMaster secret nailed & end matched Australian Hardwood decking brought with it a need for not only the automatic fault docker & end matching machine but also a timber oiling machine to allow the product to be sold pre-finished, not only saving the builders time but also enhancing the already exceptional durability of the product,” says Ian Watkins of ATS.
Advanced Timber Systems was again contacted to source a cost effective means of applying the decking oil to the product at point of production. After discussions with Paoloni in Italy a decision was made to install a la Perlina flow coat applicator which is a basic machine suitable for all timber products up to 240mm x 120mm, suitable for not only decking but any timber products requiring coating. With a powered feed rate of 16m/min it is capable of producing around 6,000l/m of finished product per day.
“It’s been a good four & a half years so far & we’re looking forward to a solid future,” says Justin.
-Published in Timberman 17th September 2012