On weekdays, he works at one of Sweden’s biggest companies within subcontract planing and moulding, but when Mikael Höglund has his choice of machine, small-scale is his motto. At home on his farm, he and his father have built up a planing and moulding mill with the capacity to realize both his own dreams and his customers’ requirements of special mouldings.
“I bought the machines when I was in between two jobs, but then I was employed full time. And now I try to get everything done at the same time,” says Mikael Höglund, who lives with his wife and two children in the village Grämesta, south of Kramfors in Sweden.
The farm lies on a hill with a beautiful view of the Ångerman River. Mikael’s parents-in-law still live there, and his father Jerry often stops by. Up to now his father has been the one responsible for plenty of the planing and moulding.
CUSTOM-MADE MOULDING KNIVES
Höglund’s planing and moulding mill is located in the old barn. The machines stand on either side of the former manure gutter. It is a LOGOSOL SH230 and LOGOSOL’s largest four-sided planer/moulder. “At first, I mostly produced joinery materials for the farm, but now I have also taken on external jobs when there is time available,” says Mikael Höglund. It is usually a question of small, unique lines of mouldings. On the wall where the moulding knives are hanging, there are several custom-made profiles.
At work, he is used to handling considerably larger and faster machines. TräTeam is one of the biggest companies within subcontract planing and moulding in Sweden. Here, the annual production is about 90 000 cubic metres. In two production lines building materials are made for the Swedish company SCA.
In comparison with the four-sided planer/moulder home on the farm, this is quite another level of capacity. The planing/ moulding machines Mikael operates on weekdays weigh several tonnes, the timber is fed 50 times as fast and their footprint would fill a large part of the barn.
“You can’t really compare them, even if the functions are the same and the end results are equally good. An industrial planer/moulder would be more or less useless in a small-scale business, PH360 suits us perfectly,” says Mikael Höglund.
A PASSION FOR WOOD
As many other LOGOSOL customers, there is no lack of building projects or ideas when Mikael Höglund tries to forecast the future. Instead, it is time that is scarce when the full-time job is to be combined with family, farm and forest. How do you find the energy to start up a planing and moulding mill in this situation?
“Above all, I am driven by a passion for creating with wood. And then, there is something special with the scent of newly planed timber,” Mikael Höglund answers.
