Author Topic: Bd ft ? in a stickered pile (Read 1892 times)

alanh · « **on:** December 09, 2009, 06:50:19 am »

After catching the sawmill bug after using a friends Woodmizer 15 on various small projects I couldn`t resist cutting down a bunch of trees to make myself a large project. (See "air drying black locost" in processing) I was aware tha the month of Sundays it would take with the 15 wasn`t feasible so I hired a sawyer with a 40. I think everything went great, he charged by the hour and only stopped to eat a sammich. I was loader, off loader, and all around mill "byotch" which was fun, he certainly kept me moving. We got 25 logs done the first day and 33 the second, he is coming back next week to do another 10 locust and some hemlock. I stickered one days worth and was curious about the bd ft. The boards are random width and lengths are 8' to 12', stickers are 1" Is there a way to guesstimate the pile or do I need to figure each board?

Chuck White · « **Reply #1 on:** December 09, 2009, 07:05:50 am »

Welcome to the Forestry Forum and the world of sawmilling!

1. Imagine the stack of lumber as one solid piece of wood.
2. Board footage is figured by TxWxL.
3. In this case, first subtract the height (which would be your thickness) of the stickers, then do the math!

Hope this helps you out!

Chuck

Bibbyman · « **Reply #2 on:** December 09, 2009, 07:07:48 am »

Measure the width of a layer in inches, divide by 12 to get feet and fraction of feet, then multiply by the length in feet to get the board feet in a layer. Then just count the layers and multiply. It may be a little high due to gaps, round downs in width, etc. But it’ll be close enough for horseshoes and hand grenades.

bandmiller2 · « **Reply #3 on:** December 09, 2009, 07:16:13 am »

Alan,we always use 4' long stickers and therfore 4' wide stacks seperate the different legnths 8',10' est.Just multiply 4x legnth x number of tiers for one inch boards.Frank C.

moonhill · « **Reply #4 on:** December 09, 2009, 07:18:39 am »

Here is another version. If the pile is 4' wide you can average it and call it 36" wide due to the gaps. 36 board feet per layer, that is in a 12 foot long pile. If the pile was 16' you would do 36x16÷12= board footage for the layer. For quick calc's I often will call each layer 50 board feet on a 12' pile, I need a good 20 layers for 1,000 BF, taken culls and such in to account and when I get it to the work site I have enough I hope.

Tim

ladylake · « **Reply #5 on:** December 09, 2009, 09:00:00 am »

Don't forget to use 1.25 for the thickness if you have it sawed at 5/4, 1.25 x width of each row x length in inches divided by 144 will give you the bf for each row. Now that you have us curious let us know the total. Steve

alanh · « **Reply #6 on:** December 09, 2009, 10:27:55 am »

Thanks guys, I`ll do some measuring and math after I get home tonite.

moonhill · « **Reply #7 on:** December 09, 2009, 12:08:40 pm »

I stay in feet for the length, that way you don't have to convert inches and feet.

Tim

Bibbyman · « **Reply #8 on:** December 09, 2009, 03:55:54 pm »

P.S. We target 650 bf in a bundle when we're sawing flooring lumber. Mary used a lumber crayon to mark how many layers of what length board makes a bundle. That works for us as saw logs in batches by length and thus the bundle normally all of the same length boards. We also make our bundles 42” wide as that is the width that two would fit nice across our truck bed.

But anyway, if you’re going to do the math, just make a table of what would be in a layer and kept it someplace handy – like write it on the wall in the sawshed.

woodmills1 · « **Reply #9 on:** December 09, 2009, 04:25:20 pm »

I usually end up with around 3 foot of width of actual wood in a stack using 4 foot stickers give or take an inch or so

make it real easy by using just feet

8 ft 4/4 boards 3x8=24 call it 25 so 4 layers to the hundred
5/4 is 1/4 more so 24 and 6 gives 30 per layer

12 ft 4/4 3x12= 36 per layer

I do this when cutting for others or to estimate a stack, but for myself I tally every board

alanh · « **Reply #10 on:** December 10, 2009, 08:55:27 am »

O.K. Heres what I got, maybe you guys can tell me if I`m close. The boards are 1 3/8 thick, have two piles from Day 1 that are 5ft wide, average 12 ft long and there are 9 rows of boards. we also cut 8- 2X8X 12 that day and a couple 4X4`s. Am I close in figuring between 1400-1500 bd ft? Day 2 is still piled on the trailer and is noticably larger.

ladylake · « **Reply #11 on:** December 10, 2009, 10:39:45 am »

That would be 1645 bf. Steve

garyfg · « **Reply #12 on:** December 10, 2009, 10:51:17 am »

Google board feet calculator and put in numbers and it will find the bft. You can't use 3/8. You have to use 1/4 segements. At 1.5 thick I came up with 1780

woodmills1 · « **Reply #13 on:** December 10, 2009, 11:18:09 am »

5 by 12 gives 60 so a quarter more for 5/4 boards is 75

75 x 9= 675

8 2x8x12 =128

each 4x4 x12 is 16 ft

I don't think he meant eight layers of 2by

garyfg · « **Reply #14 on:** December 10, 2009, 11:27:29 am »

He said there were two stacks of the 1 3/8.

John Bartley · « **Reply #15 on:** December 10, 2009, 04:51:16 pm »

Holy smokes ..... youse guys sure like to do feet and inches math...... too *DanG cornfoozing fer this guy....

If you do it all in inches, then all you have to do is calc the size of the pile, subtract the size of the stickers and divide by 144.....

So for example ....

pile = 120" long x 36" wide x 72" high = 311040 cubic inches

stickers = 35 rows at 1" thick = 120" x 36" x 35 rows = 151200 cubic inches

whole pile - stickers = 311040 - 151200 = 159840 cubic inches of wood

cubic inches / 144 = board feet ::: 159840 / 144 = 1110 board feet

Then do a rough guess of the wasted space in each row - if it's 20%, then 1110 - 20% = 888 board feet

cheers

John

ladylake · « **Reply #16 on:** December 10, 2009, 05:29:47 pm »

One guy figures 5/4, one 6/4. I figured what it was. I think he has 18 layers of 1-3/8.. Steve

alanh · « **Reply #17 on:** December 10, 2009, 05:49:55 pm »

Yep, 2 piles, 18 layers of 1 3/8. Thanks for the help, We had some low yield logs and a couple that he sawed into, flipped, sawed, flipped, sawed and looked at me and said "There`s nothing here" It seemed the bigger base logs he had to work at for good boards but the smaller ones were solid. I can see the point of you guys saying they are tough to get good size lumber from, fortunately I`m looking for is around 4" wide decking so I can get a lot of good from them.

woodmills1 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 10, 2009, 08:57:31 pm »

2 piles doubles to 1350 all the rest stays the same

so 1483 plus the 4 by didnt say how many.

woodmills1 · « **Reply #19 on:** December 10, 2009, 09:05:01 pm »

width in feet length in feet estimate makes it easy

sorry I missed the 2 piles but feet by feet is easy

I tally al my own cut by the board

I tally all my customer cut wood by the board

when and if someone says how much for that stack I will estimate based on feet

3 foot wide 12 foot long 12 layers

DO THE MATH

Ironwood · « **Reply #20 on:** December 10, 2009, 09:33:35 pm »

If you are storing them for some time, I would encourage some gaps along the length (side) of the boards to promote better air circulation. So given that each layer might be on a 48" stick, but the yield per layer might be 42" wide.

I stick ALOT of lumber and keep it drying outside, out of the elements.

Ironwood

jimparamedic · « **Reply #21 on:** December 10, 2009, 10:19:05 pm »

Most hard wood lumber is sold by the 1/4" Lumber can be funny some times it pay best by the hour and some times by the board foot and believe it or not some times the running foot For my rough est. I look at the size of cant I will get from the log such as if the log will make a cant that is 12"x12"x96" and about a 10 persent + loss = 80 bdft I like to figure low to make up for other unforseen losses

woodmills1 · « **Reply #22 on:** December 11, 2009, 10:15:40 am »

lumber is calculated based on 1/4" increments from one inch up so 1 3/8 is at 1 1/4

however if a customer asked for 1 3/8 I would use that for figuring, it is not done on the open market however.

Big Timber · « **Reply #23 on:** December 12, 2009, 04:24:18 am »

Why is everyone talking inches? NHLA uses standard lengths. What I do, per stack- measure each bd width, add your widths, do this for 4 layers, div and get your average- step back and look at your lengths, get an average length. Ok, you know your thickness, cause you sawed the lumber your self or you told the sawyer how thick you wanted the logs cut. Now do the simple math, your av length X your av width from 3 or 4 layers X thickness divided by 12. There you go, easy as 1 2 3!

moonhill · « **Reply #24 on:** December 12, 2009, 08:07:36 am »

Quote from: woodmills1 on December 10, 2009, 09:05:01 pm

width in feet length in feet estimate makes it easy

sorry I missed the 2 piles but feet by feet is easy

I tally al my own cut by the board

I tally all my customer cut wood by the board

when and if someone says how much for that stack I will estimate based on feet

3 foot wide 12 foot long 12 layers

DO THE MATH

At times I get into a rut and can't think beyond it. This is the way to estimate, which I will now use frequently. But if you need accurate board feet counts you need to figure the width in inches and divide by 12 for board feet. That is if you have measured the length in feet as well. If the length is measured in inches you have to divide by 144 to reach the board feet count.

Just a little more fog for the thread.

Tim

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Author Topic: Bd ft ? in a stickered pile (Read 1892 times)