THIS BRICKMAKING MACHINE MAKES NOTHING BUT MONEY!
(Page 3 of 4)
September/October 1977
By the Mother Earth News editors
IT MAKES MONEY TOO!
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Although the MMI brickmaker has only been in production for a few months, MOTHER's staffers have already seen it profitably employed by small businesses in at least three ways:
[1] Balcome Brick-of Cedar Park, Texas-used a tractor and grader blade to level off a two-acre "yard", contracted with a local ready-mix outfit for concrete, rolled up a Mud Mule, and began to manufacture concrete bricks. Although Balcome's Mold Master regularly cranks out 3,500 of the building blocks per hour when it's being used, the work crew that operates it also spends a fair amount of time every day just turning and stacking the curing and cured bricks. Still, Balcome's daily output averages 12,000 units, and the yard's total production is sold wholesale to a single buyer for $75/thousand. MOTHER's Travis Brock estimates that, after all expenses, the company is easily netting somewhere between $200 and $300 a day.
[2] MMI's own test production line is set up somewhat differently. There, three men both produce all the concrete (with a small mortar mixer) that is run through one of the Mold Masters, and operate the brickmaking machine too. The yard turns out between 4,000 and 5,000 bricks a day (on an irregular basis, since this is a test facility), which are sold directly to housing contractors. Instead of charging the going retail price of 11d to 12d a unit, however, MMI bids on complete houses and supplies all the bricks that are needed for a building at one predetermined price. Profits for each day's run, Travis estimates, are probably in the neighborhood of $200.
[3] At least one contractor in the Austin area has had yet anotherand for him, better-idea about how a Mud Mule should be used. He's bought his own and he manufactures-right on site-the bricks he needs for the two houses he constructs each month. He figures that this saves him approximately $400 per dwelling and he's very pleased with the whole arrangement.
THE COST IS SURPRISINGLY LOW
The tab for such a versatile piece of moneymaking equipment is far less than you might have supposed: just $2,995 FOB Austin. And that ain't much in this day and age for a machine which-once set up and operating- bids fair to earn its entire purchase price back in as little as 10 days!
