Creating Custom Pallets

DJ Pallets, based in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, operates Wood-Mizer equipment for recycling pallets and manufacturing custom pallets for clients across America.

How It All Began

“I didn’t enter this business right away,” explains Dan Ullmann, president of DJ Pallets. Dan was an infantry officer in the army before working in sales departments at various companies. “One day, a friend of mine who was in the pallet business invited me to see how his operation worked.” I visited his facility, and I really liked it.” Dan and his family moved from New York to Pennsylvania to start a new life. “We found a warehouse, bought a trailer, started assembling pallets, and grew from there.”

The company started with recycling old pallets, “and that still makes up a large part of our business,” Dan explains. However, to reach a broader customer base, they began manufacturing new custom pallets. Very quickly, Dan realized that pallet production required a significant amount of lumber. “I decided it was better to produce our own timber rather than buy it externally,” he says. “So, we decided to get into sawmilling.”

However, neither Dan nor his colleagues had any prior knowledge of sawmilling. “We were already using Wood-Mizer machines… dismantlers and trim saws. So, we turned to Wood-Mizer for a sawmilling solution.”

Integrating the WM4500 Industrial Sawmill Line

Dan sought assistance from Wood-Mizer experts. Together, they determined that the WM4500 industrial sawmill line would be the best fit for DJ Pallets, providing high-quality cutting and strong potential for future production growth.

“At the time, we had no idea what we really needed since we had no experience in timber production. So, we relied heavily on advice from our friends at Wood-Mizer,” Dan says. “And they offered us exactly what became the key to our success.”

“When the Wood-Mizer team arrived to install the WM4500 sawmill line, they were impressed: ‘Wow! You guys really thought this through.’ But I have to admit, it wasn’t my foresight. We were well-prepared thanks to the specialists from Wood-Mizer’s industrial equipment division. They were our partners throughout the entire process.”

Keys to Efficiency

The WM4500 sawmill line at DJ Pallets produces timber precisely to customer specifications while reducing capital, material, labor, energy, and operating costs.

At the heart of the line is the WM4500—a high-performance and efficient Wood-Mizer industrial sawmill. With a high level of automation and material handling solutions, the entire line requires only one operator to manage operations.

The process starts with logs being unloaded onto the ramp, designed to hold enough material to keep the mill running for an entire shift. Logs do not need pre-sorting or debarking. Loading arms move logs one by one onto the WM4500 sawmill bed.