Converting your own timber changes your cost base entirely, and resaws and bandmills are among the longest-lived machines any wood business will buy.
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Yes. Resaws, bandmills and edgers are funded as hard plant, normally on hire purchase, and they fund well second hand because these machines are rebuilt rather than scrapped. Vertical resaws, horizontal through-feed machines and mobile narrow-band mills all have established UK markets. The thing to plan for is the surroundings. A static resaw needs a base, infeed and outfeed handling, and often a blade sharpening and setting bench, and none of that is optional if you want the machine to earn. Mobile mills are simpler to fund but raise questions about where the machine actually lives.
Used kit: Yes, resaws and bandmills fund well used because they are rebuilt rather than replaced
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Business asset finance is quoted on a flat rate, so that is what this shows — with the equivalent APR underneath, because the two are not the same number. A quick guide only; your actual rate depends on the asset, term, deposit and lender.
Representative example: on Hire Purchase, borrowing £25,000 over 48 months at a 6.0% flat rate (equivalent to 11.5% APR representative), you would repay around £646 a month; total amount repayable approximately £31,000, of which £6,000 is the cost of finance. This calculator is for illustration only — it is not a quote or an offer of finance, and the rate and repayments you are offered will depend on the asset, term, deposit and your circumstances. CW Asset Finance is a credit broker, not a lender, and may receive a commission from the lender that funds your agreement. All finance is subject to status, affordability and lender approval. CW Asset Finance is an Appointed Representative of Rural Finance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 630701).
This equipment is genuinely liquid. A Stenner resaw or a well-known bandmill will find a buyer quickly, which is why funders will look at machines far older than they would tolerate in a cabinet shop. They do ask a different set of questions to workshop finance: is the machine fixed in a building or mobile, is it going to be used off-site on customer land, and who is responsible for it if it travels. Mobile mills on a trailer sit near the plant and machinery market and some funders treat them with the same caution they apply to portable kit that can vanish. Static installations need the civils and the handling separated on the quote. Seasonal cash flow is normal in this trade and worth explaining up front.
Examples of the machines we are asked to fund. This is not an exhaustive list — if what you are buying is not here, it does not mean we cannot fund it. Your supplier quote is what the agreement is written against.
| Machine | What it is |
|---|---|
| Stenner VHM | Vertical resaw for converting boards |
| Stenner ST resaws | British resaws for sawmills and joinery |
| Robinson resaws | Classic heavy resaws for timber conversion |
| Wadkin Bursgreen resaws | Rugged resaws for merchant yards |
| Wood-Mizer LT15 | Entry band sawmill for small timber businesses |
| Wood-Mizer LT40 | Hydraulic mobile sawmill for log conversion |
| Wood-Mizer WM1000 | Wide band mill for large diameter logs |
| Wood-Mizer EG300 edger | Twin blade edger for squaring boards |
| Logosol B1001 | Compact band sawmill for small woodland owners |
| Serra mobile sawmills | Mobile band mills for on site milling |
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Estate sawmills, timber merchants, cladding and fencing producers, and joinery businesses buying boules rather than machined stock. The trigger is nearly always material cost or supply: waney-edge and green oak are far cheaper as logs, or a supplier cannot deliver the sections a contract needs. Arborists and woodland businesses buy mobile mills to turn felled timber into a saleable product instead of paying to dispose of it.
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Bought on hire purchase, business plant and machinery normally qualifies for capital allowances on the full cost even though you pay for it monthly, which is a large part of why hire purchase is the common structure. On a finance lease you generally set the rentals against profit instead. The rules change between budgets and your position depends on how you trade, so treat this as the direction of travel and get your accountant to confirm the detail before you commit.
Yes, and they are funded regularly for woodland and arb businesses. Because the machine moves, funders pay more attention to how it is secured, insured and stored than they would with a static resaw. Expect questions about whether it is trailer mounted and where it is kept overnight. A clear answer on both removes most of the hesitation.
Generally yes. These machines are maintained, reconditioned and passed between mills for decades, and there is a specialist trade in them, which is exactly what makes a funder comfortable. Evidence of who rebuilt it and what was replaced — wheels, guides, feed works — carries more weight than the year on the plate.
Yes, and you should. A resaw without blade maintenance is a machine that will cut badly within a week. Grinders, setters and blade benches are durable equipment that funds alongside the saw when they appear on the same order. Bought later they become small awkward purchases with no easy finance route.
It does not prevent funding, but it needs explaining. Sawmilling and timber work can be lumpy across the year, and an underwriter reading a bank statement run without context may read a quiet month as trouble. Tell us the pattern and we will put it in front of the funder rather than letting them guess.
Conveyors, roller tables and log decks are plant and fund as such. The concrete base, the shed and any groundwork are building costs, which funders will not advance against because they cannot be recovered. Ask the supplier to itemise the two separately and the machine side of the deal becomes far easier to place.
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Not an offer of finance. All finance is subject to status, affordability and lender approval.
Tell us what you’re looking to fund and Conor will come back to you personally — usually the same day.
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