In July of 2009, Greg Wine and Lawrence Zavitz joined together to buy Macon Machine from Al Wyman. The two men have been in business together for over 10 years representing Storti nailing and sawmilling machinery in North America. Greg is well known through his marketing, sales, and service to the pallet industry. Lawrence is a hands-on kind of man with a background in maintenance, programming, and hydraulics; he also owns IESS which mostly services Storti machinery in North America. The two men complement each other well as partners.

            Macon Machine started in 1997 to upgrade Viking nailing systems, including DuoMatics, 503s, and 504s. Since then the company has upgraded from 50 to 60 nailing systems. One customer upgraded nine systems, one upgraded six, one four, and at least three have upgraded two. With this many repeat customers, there is clearly a market for these upgrades.

            Ivan Hochstetler of Southwood in Orrville, Ohio, had his three Viking systems (two DuoMatics and a 504 Turbo) upgraded by Macon Machine. Ivan said, “Because of less downtime due to fewer breakdowns and faster response times, we get about 15% more production per machine. We upgraded the hydraulics, changed out the control panels, and rewired the systems. Macon gutted the machines and rebuilt them. They perform better and have fewer breakdowns.”

            Pallet Machinery Service (PMSI) is the new company name. It will not limit itself to just working on stitch nailing systems. Upgrades include total rewiring with new Allen Bradley processors, hydraulic upgrades with over-head nail valves, fast setup, and pallet turners. PMSI now offers total pallet machine rebuilds as well as field upgrades.

            The new company will continue in this tradition and rebuild nailing systems. Companies that need to update their nailing systems with more modern bells and whistles may like the variety of machine upgrades offered by PMSI. PMSI will do total rebuilds in its plant. These can include stripping down the nailing system, sandblasting, replacing all components with new ones – a major rebuild, including all new wiring and a computer system.

            PMSI is particularly interested in expanding its products to handle specialty kinds of projects, such as extra long pallets, odd sizes, and odd configurations. It can also retrofit crossbeam nailers.

            PMSI also does field upgrades. On DuoMatic and DuoMax machines, this might include adding a computer system and replacing the cams. On 504s and 505s, an upgrade may include replacing square D symax programmable controllers to upgrade from mid 80s technology and replacing the computer system with a user friendly Alan Bradley state-of-the-art computer.

            PMSI does whatever the customer needs. The new company will continue to operate its Mississippi plant where its employees are. Mark Brizendine and John Gauntt manage the new PMSI plant. When field work is done, PMSI sends the person or people who are best suited for the particular job.

            In addition to rebuilding nailing systems, including stitching and cross beam machines, PMSI will rebuild almost any kind of pallet machines, including saws, nailing machines, and recycling equipment. While the company has made its reputation working with nailing systems, they tend to be the most technical systems in the industry. Greg said, “We are expanding our services to include just about any kind of rebuild the industry needs. We can upgrade your machine or system to a modern one for huge savings when compared to a brand new machine or system. We are taking what Al started and expanding upon it.”

            Greg’s Pallet Machinery Group is an umbrella organization that covers their different machinery divisions, including PMSI, Storti, AIT board stackers, and West Plains Resaw Equipment. Pallet Machinery Group brokers used equipment as well.

            Readers can visit the Pallet Machinery Group in the Old Dominion Building at the Richmond Show on May 21-22. Or call 540/644-9220.