TreeManII
ArboristSite Lurker
I am a newbie to this site on firewood, but own a business that builds and sells high security vending machines in the self-serve car wash industry. Our company has been doing this for over 10 years and we have experience in designing and building from the ground up vending machines that are simple, reliable, and secure against vandalism. I am a mechanical engineer (UCLA 1957) by training and have few years of experience making equipment work reliably.
The idea of designing and building a firewood box or bundle vendor was presented to me by a man in Idaho who saw one of my Hi-Security vendors in a car wash there. He liked what he saw of my work and here I am asking for help from you professional firewood people. In my younger years I made and sold olive tree firewood by the cord, so I know how much work sawing and making firewood can be. I have searched this site for threads on firewood vending machines and found two; one was by Halsey 2007 and one was by “havsawwilltravl” 2009. I read all the feedback. I “googled” firewood vending machines and added the “westcoastwoodchuck” vending machine to my research. There may be more info out there, but I haven’t found it. I have also read the patent abstract filed by Halsey in 2007. The information supplied and/or read by me indicates that firewood that is normally sold for $150-$200 a cord can be processed and sold in 0.75 cubic foot bundles or boxes for approximately $850 a cord equivalent. We see these firewood boxes or bundles even here in grocery and C-stores in California.
So now I seek information from the “real” people who make the firewood. Here are the vending machine specs: Hi-security, reliable, simple to operate, has a “Guaranteed Delivery” feature, accepts $1-$20 bills, coins, can accept credit cards as payment, and gives change to the customer. If this machine can be built to sell in the $8000-$10,000 retail price range, is there a market for this vendor? Believe it or not all those specs above are being used now in our vendors for the car wash business. One last feature that can be done is that this vending machine can be placed in campgrounds and national parks and made to run on solar power!
So now you guys and gals tell me what you like, don’t like, or want to see in this machine. Anything is possible if you have the money to pay for it.
TreeManII
The idea of designing and building a firewood box or bundle vendor was presented to me by a man in Idaho who saw one of my Hi-Security vendors in a car wash there. He liked what he saw of my work and here I am asking for help from you professional firewood people. In my younger years I made and sold olive tree firewood by the cord, so I know how much work sawing and making firewood can be. I have searched this site for threads on firewood vending machines and found two; one was by Halsey 2007 and one was by “havsawwilltravl” 2009. I read all the feedback. I “googled” firewood vending machines and added the “westcoastwoodchuck” vending machine to my research. There may be more info out there, but I haven’t found it. I have also read the patent abstract filed by Halsey in 2007. The information supplied and/or read by me indicates that firewood that is normally sold for $150-$200 a cord can be processed and sold in 0.75 cubic foot bundles or boxes for approximately $850 a cord equivalent. We see these firewood boxes or bundles even here in grocery and C-stores in California.
So now I seek information from the “real” people who make the firewood. Here are the vending machine specs: Hi-security, reliable, simple to operate, has a “Guaranteed Delivery” feature, accepts $1-$20 bills, coins, can accept credit cards as payment, and gives change to the customer. If this machine can be built to sell in the $8000-$10,000 retail price range, is there a market for this vendor? Believe it or not all those specs above are being used now in our vendors for the car wash business. One last feature that can be done is that this vending machine can be placed in campgrounds and national parks and made to run on solar power!
So now you guys and gals tell me what you like, don’t like, or want to see in this machine. Anything is possible if you have the money to pay for it.
TreeManII