National Hardwood Magazine - October 2018

American Built

American Built Machinery, headquartered in West Plains, MO, manufactures sawmill and pallet equipment, such as edgers (shown above), tie sorters and cutoff systems. Shown is machinery inside an edger manufactured by ABM. AMERICAN BUILT MACHINERY HELPS SAWMILLS AND PALLET PLANTS OUTPERFORM THE COMPETITION By Gary Miller West Plains, MO—American Built Machinery Company, (ABM), located here, manufactures machinery for complete mill design, helping sawmills increase wood flow and maximize production. Jonathan Meade, Jason Brigman and Joe Dalton founded the company on Jan. 1, 2016. The three have more than 60 combined years of industry experience. “Our expertise is building quality, heavy-duty machinery for the sawmill and pallet industries, and using our con- tacts with people, who have years of experience in those two industries as well,” Meade explained. Some of the equipment the company manufactures includes cutoff systems, dedusters, automatic sorting systems, notchers, edgers, chop saws, trim saws and material handling equipment, which includes decking, roll cases, transfer belts and everything a mill needs to get material flowing and waste out of their facility. ABM does the design work and machinery manufac- ABM manufactures a variety of tie sorters and will custom fit a piece of machinery to fit a sawmill that’s limited on space as well as help a new sawmill build from the ground up. Another view of a tie sorting machine made by ABM. 42 OCTOBER 2018 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE

turing to either help sawmills and/or pallet plants expand, and ABM is able to do turnkey projects where they’ll build a completely new facility. “Every mill is a different shape and size and if the owner of the mill is adding onto it, we have to design our equipment to fit into their mill,” stated Meade. “You just have to be creative.” When updating sawmill machinery, ABM will survey the building, take measurements, do all the design work and fit their new machinery into an existing mill. The customer only pays for the equipment. “We always try to take care of the cus- ABM displays its booth at many trade fairs. Our expertise is building quality, heavy-duty machinery for the sawmill and pallet industries, and using our contacts with people, who have years of experience in those two industries as well. –Jonathan Meade, co-owner, American Built Machinery tomer,” Meade added. “We focus on getting good pricing on what we are buying, so we can turn around and give the customer a lower price on parts.” However, the owners of ABM (Meade, Brigman and Dalton) know the importance of properly pacing their company’s growth. “We want to grow responsibly. It’s really easy to grow too quickly and that’s been an option for us, but we have been taking it slow and being responsible,” explained Dalton. “We want to put out a really good, heavy-duty, quality product. We want to see Please turn to page 70 Pictured is an edger outfeed. OCTOBER 2018 n NATIONAL HARDWOOD MAGAZINE 43