EXTREME HOMEBUILDING with a 50” Woodmaster Drum Sander

Home Tour - McCullough 020THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT CHARLES BUILT with help from his 50″ Woodmaster Drum Sander and a 25″ Woodmaster Molder/Planer: almost 18,000 sq. ft. of living space…76 interior doors…4 kitchens…12 bathrooms…7 fireplaces…miles of molding and trim…and more!

The McCullough home seems to be straight out of the English countryside. It's amazing what a serious D-I-Y guy can accomplish!

The McCullough home seems to be straight out of the English countryside. It’s amazing what a serious D-I-Y guy can accomplish!

Charles ran full size doors -- 76 of them! -- through his 50" wide Woodmaster Drum Sander.

Charles ran full size doors — 76 of them! — through his 50″ wide Woodmaster Drum Sander.

For Charles McCullough, home is 13,000 square feet big in the style of an English country home. Throw in a 1,000 square foot guest house and a 3,200 square foot workshop and you’re pushing 18,000 square feet of living space. But besides the sheer size and scale, the remarkable fact is Charles built all this himself. With help, of course, from the best contractors in his area, and his Woodmaster Drum Sander and Molder/Planer. Here’s what Charles emailed us recently when he entered our Drum Sander Photo Contest…

Dear Woodmaster,

Can an entire house be considered a ‘woodworking project?’ It was, for me, the biggest woodworking project I have ever undertaken.

We broke ground for our ‘dream home’ in 2004 and I convinced my wife that she should let me build my dream workshop first so I could make all the interior woodwork for the home right here on site. She bought into that idea so we built a 3,200 square foot workshop, sawmill shed, and dry kiln before starting the 13,000 square foot home.

I bought a new sawmill from TimberKing, a Nyle L200 dry kiln unit, a Woodmaster 725 Molder/Planer with all the options and a boatload of knives, a Woodmaster 5075 Drum Sander, and your Big Max DB500 dust collector.

I hired the best craftsmen this area had to offer. We bought truckloads of logs from the local area and began sawing, drying, and milling lumber. The house has 76 interior doors, four kitchens, around a dozen bathrooms, and miles of crown molding, trim, cabinets, bookshelves, 7 fireplaces (with mantles, of course) and we made it all right here on site.

The project was completed in June, 2007. The home has been featured in “Avenues” magazine, and has been the site for several charitable fundraisers, a couple of weddings, and lots of entertainment.

The Timberking mill and the Woodmaster machines performed very well throughout the construction period. Support from your staff was excellent and prompt throughout and I highly recommend your products to my woodworking friends.

Regards, Charles McCullough

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Drum Sanders! – sale prices, online specials

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Molder/Planers! – sale prices, online specials

Charles tells the rest of his story…

“I’ve always been a ‘wannabe woodworker’ but never had the opportunity to spend the time or money on woodworking. My wife and I had built half a dozen homes in our 43 year marriage. This is the biggest but we were comfortable doing it.

Charles says this outstanding bar was inspired by a bar in Boston. Cheers!

Charles says this outstanding bar was inspired by a bar in Boston. Cheers!

We have three grown children who come up for weekends. We wanted a home big enough to have everybody at once including our grandchildren. My wife and I decided now was a good time to do it.

Biggest & best equipment for this BIG D-I-Y project

I got a TimberKing sawmill to saw trees into lumber. I got the 25” Woodmaster 725 Molder/Planer to dress and size the lumber. I got the 50” 5075 Woodmaster Drum Sander primarily for sending doors – all 76 of them and all the cabinet doors throughout the house. I wanted the biggest and best machines you sell.

LibraryHere's Charles' walnut paneled library. He made the paneling himself with his Woodmasters and saved a bundle.

Here’s Charles’ walnut paneled library. He made the paneling himself with his Woodmasters and saved a bundle.

Our home is 13,000 square feet. The guest house is 1,000 square feet. There are 76 interior doors, four kitchens, and about a dozen bathrooms. There are miles of crown molding, trim, cabinets, and bookshelves. There are seven fireplaces (each with a mantle, of course!).

We’ve been planning and saving blueprints and articles for years. I realized that the millwork I’d need for this home would bust the budget so I build a workshop and stocked it with really good tools including a Woodmaster Drum Sander and a Woodmaster Molder/Planer. I figured making the millwork myself could save enough to pay for the workshop.

The first year, we ran our TimberKing Sawmill and sawed out 200,000 board feet of lumber. We dried 6,000 board feet at a time in our dry kiln and kept it running around the clock for 18 months. We broke ground in 2005, hired the best contractors in our area as I built, and we moved in two and a half years later.

Extraordinary details everywhere you look

The building with the green roof is my workshop. The house itself is styled as an English country home. Outside, its exterior is Arkansas limestone. The beams and curved arches are cypress – there are 36 of them!  Inside there’s a study with walnut paneling. The main kitchen has an island made of black cypress from the Black River Swamp in Black River, Arkansas.

The bar is modeled after a bar in Boston. It’s solid walnut, cabinets and all. The guest house kitchen is made of 100-year-old barn wood from the corn crib from a dairy farm. It’s probably red oak. It’s not stained, I just used tung oil to bring out the natural color.

Foreign machines can’t compare with Woodmaster

Besides his Woodmaster Drum Sander, Charles owns a Woodmaster Molder/Planer, shown here. Between these two tools, he has everything he needs to turn roughcut lumber into finished trim and molding. And that's exactly what he did.

Besides his Woodmaster Drum Sander, Charles owns a Woodmaster Molder/Planer, shown here. Between these two tools, he has everything he needs to turn roughcut lumber into finished trim and molding. And that’s exactly what he did.

I looked at foreign-made equipment but there was nothing to compare with Woodmaster machines. Plus, foreign machines use metric measurements – 9mm, 11mm, and so on. Woodmaster is American made and I’d rather deal with American dimensions like ½”, 3/8”, etc.

Both my Woodmaster Drum Sander and my Molder/Planer have fully variable feed rates. Other machines have just two speeds. This is a very good feature because you can slow it down to a crawl to get an excellent surface.

Commercial duty

I wholeheartedly recommend Woodmaster Drum Sander and Molder/Planer. I have nothing but good things to say about them. I use them as hard as if they’re in a commercial manufacturing environment.”

—  Charles McCullough, Woodmaster Drum Sander & Molder/Planer Owner, Missouri

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Drum Sanders! – sale prices, online specials

SAVE BIG NOW on Woodmaster Molder/Planers! – sale prices, online specials

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