Simon Bennett loves designing a piece of machinery and then reworking and refining that design until he can build something that functions perfectly. He’s spent most of his life manufacturing equipment for the timber industry and about nine years ago he built a wood splitter or firewood processor in the large shed at his NSW home.
When it was ready, Simon advertised the machine for sale and it sold in next to no time. A year later, Simon was still getting inquiries from other people who wanted to buy that wood splitter.
“I told one of those callers that if they were that keen on having the machine, I’d build them one and I did that. Then his friend called me and asked if I could build him one, too,” says Simon.
“I kept getting calls from people wanting to buy that wood splitter and I began making them at home but we outgrew my shed in three months because of the number of orders we had for the Wood Monster.”
Simon’s wife came up with the Wood Monster name because she used to operate the big firewood splitter that the family had at home.
“That machine could cut enormous amounts of firewood in a day so we nicknamed it the Wood Monster,” says Simon.
The business continued to grow and for the past few years, it has been based in a large factory in Braidwood, New South Wales. Simon runs the business with his son, Curtis.
“I think the business has succeeded because we adapt to each customer’s requirements. Each machine is built to a customer’s specifications, so no two machines are exactly the same,” says Simon.
“We have about eight variations of the wood splitters and they all do the same thing, but each one is bespoke. Timber in southern Victoria is different to timber in northern Queensland – in Victoria, timber is softer – and we change our blade design to suit the timber being cut.”
Wood Monster’s customers are mostly tree service businesses.
“They were paying a lot of money to recycling centres to get rid of the timber they cut. Now they buy a machine from us, process the wood themselves and on-sell it to generate extra income,” says Simon.
The most popular Wood Monster model is the WM800, an 800mm wide wood splitter that can cope with larger and smaller diameter woods. That model has two engine options – the DEUTZ FL32011 and DEUTZ FL42011.
Every Wood Monster machine is powered by a DEUTZ engine, chosen for their reliability, says Simon.
“I’ve always been a fan of DEUTZ engines and all the machinery I’ve manufactured has either used a new DEUTZ engine or a secondhand DEUTZ engine that I’ve rebuilt,” he says.
“I like their reliability and the service is really good. We send machines all over the country – from northern Queensland to southern Victoria – and the DEUTZ engine can go in any machine in any location. If we used an alternative engine that wasn’t air-cooled, we’d have different requirements for different parts of the country and that complicates things. We know that the DEUTZ engines are reliable and air-cooled so our customers won’t have any issues.”