To Maximize your profits, consider bundled firewood

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

When I bought my first mill, I was determined to put every piece of the log to use and minimize waste. Some of this planning was profit based and some of it was to reduce the waste I had to haul away from my building. I have a unique operation in that everything I do is done from the inside of a 32 foot by 48 foot building. I have no room or ability to store anything outside of the confines of the building.

As I started to cut lumber, the flitches started to pile up pretty quickly and take up valuable space. To solve that problem, I bought a Stihl chainsaw and built a 8 foot tall wood rack. I cut the flitches into 18" long pieces and stacked them into the rack. It was not long before the rack was full. To compound the problem, A few friends bought me some free logs that were not worth milling so I wound up running them through my wood splitter, but this just made the firewood stack even bigger.

Then I found the solution to my problem. I purched a firewood bundler and started to make .75 cubic feet bundles out of the wood and got my DNR certification to sell firewood in Indiana. Next I made a few phone calls and added the bundled firewood to my website.

This wound up to be one of the best series of business decisions I ever made. Within a month or so, I landed over a half dozen customers, one alone that is buying 80 cords ( about 13,600 bundles) per year to supply a 300 site campground. I also added another smaller campground and several convienience stores as well. My problem quickly went from having too much wood to not having enough wood, but this was a much easier problem to solve. A few ads in craigslist, and a call to a few friends that cut and sell firewood and I found all the wood suppliers I needed and they all deliver the wood already split right to my building as I need it. On average every month, I am also lucky enough to get my hands on 5 or so pickup truck loads of free wood as well just for going to pick it up.

This has wound up to be a source of great profit for my wife and I and gives her something to do when we go to the mill building. She loves bundling the wood and seldom lets me get near the machine, claiming that it is now hers. On the days that she does not come to run the bundler, I hire one of my unemployed friends to fill in for her that day and they are more than happy to get a good days pay. By the way, it is pretty easy and fast to bundle wood. It is not uncommon to be able to do 50+ bundles per hour.

I would high suggest you consider adding a bundler to your operation and a few pieces of support equipment as well. Basically here is what you will need to get started. I am not endorcing any one brand of equipment, but simply mention which brand I have and what it cost to acquire:

stihl chainsaw $400
Husky 35 ton Log splitter  $1600
Twister Industries Firewood Bundler $2000
Stretch wrap film $14 per roll - enough for 150 to 175 bundles

For about $4000 investment you add a whole new profit center to your operation, plus you get to put you flitches and less than sawmill worthy logs to use rather than send them to the burn pile or chipper. In our case, we made that investment back in less than 2 months. The bundler is very easy to operate and could easily be run by a teenage or two that you may just have sitting around the house.

Hope this information is found to be helpfull

[bandmiller2]

Busy Beav,thats quite a story,my hats off to you sir, I hope it inspires outhers here. Frank C.

[sdunston]

Good idea. Here in the great tax state of NY fire wood can olny travel 40 miles unless it is kiln dried. It is to cut down on the long haired bettle or sum bug
Sam

[Banjo picker]

I googled it up and watched their u tube...it is a neet system....Tim

[campy]

Thank you for your nice piece of writing here.
It has given me a lot to study and think about.

[Ironwood]

I have just worked out a deal to provide to an outlet here. I am haviing my one kiln certified to have USDA labeling. This is all to give my kids something to make money on in the future. I will have a system to not have handle it too much, this includes customized pallets and a hydraulic arch to lower the pallets once I am at the store. I am marketing it to them as a "total marketing solution" as they are WAY too busy to mess with the details other than collecting the $$$.

 

 Ironwood

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Bandmiller

Thank you for the positve feedback. I do hope it inspires other to look for additional profit centers within their operations and helps more people to prosper with their milling operations. For us it has been a blessing.

We went to the mill today and between my wife and I we split and bundled 261 bundles of wood in under 5 hours. We sell each bundle for $2.50 so that is $652.50. Subtract the $125 it cost me for the firewood itself and about $20 in shrink wrap and we still have a nice profit of over $500 for the day. We have a goal to bundle 750 bundles this week.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Good idea. Here in the great tax state of NY fire wood can olny travel 40 miles unless it is kiln dried. It is to cut down on the long haired bettle or sum bug
Sam

Sam

That 40 mile restriction can actually be an asset to you. It basically gives you the equivalent of a protected territory 40 miles in diameter from where you operate your mill. Don't have to worry about competition from anyone closer to you than that radius. I used to live in NJ and camp in NY state in middletown and wurtsboro and know there are a lot of campgrounds in a 40 mile radius in NY

Have a similar deal here in Indiana. A good portion of lower Michigan and Northern indiana is infested with the Ash bore. Both USDA and Indiana DNR have imposed restrictions on the movement of firewood across boarders and within the state of Indiana. You much have DNR certification to sell and transport wood and must abide by the rules set forth. Ironically this works to my benefit because people wanting to buy bundled firewood must buy it from DNR approved sources like me and each bundle must be labeled showing that it came from me. Most campgrounds will not buy from anyone that is not DNR approved since they know campground firewood supplies are frequently inspected in this state.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thank you for your nice piece of writing here.
It has given me a lot to study and think about.

Campy

You are more thn welcome. If you have any questions feel free to contact me and I will help you any way I can.

[Left Coast Chris]

If you could get the shirnk warp equipment with the WIFE..... then you would really have something.....  Hmm.... for me two wives could cause some real problems.  Im going to have to think this one through a little more.  

Great info.... thanks for sharing it!  

[Tom]

That is quite an impressive operation, Busy Beaver.   I'm not sure I would have the organizational skills to do all that you do in such a small space.     Kudos!

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Nice thread Beaver    I have done firewood on and off since i was about 13yo but down here its mainly a bulk market Downhere im getting roughly $400 a cord for bulk loads delivered to Melbourne and that includes my harwood mill trash  so the moneys getting better and i decided to get back into it this year i already have about 200 ton 100 cords to do 

with pine you cant give it away in aus so it gets burned atm untill i get a chipper  i just torched about 50 ton of it the other day    i have another pile im still thinking of doing bagged kindeling out of it but most of this lot is alittle rough to do that with  i think asfar as easy splitting goes  a 15lb bag of kindiling will set you bac about $9 at the servo here 

Regards Chris

[okie]

Gday

Nice thread Beaver    I have done firewood on and off since i was about 13yo but down here its mainly a bulk market Downhere im getting roughly $400 a cord for bulk loads delivered to Melbourne and that includes my harwood mill trash  so the moneys getting better and i decided to get back into it this year i already have about 200 ton 100 cords to do 

with pine you cant give it away in aus so it gets burned atm untill i get a chipper  i just torched about 50 ton of it the other day    i have another pile im still thinking of doing bagged kindeling out of it but most of this lot is alittle rough to do that with  i think asfar as easy splitting goes  a 15lb bag of kindiling will set you bac about $9 at the servo here 

Regards Chris

  $400 per cord!!!  WOW! Here in Oklahoma we don't use the cord measurement, we measure by the "rick" which is, near as I can tell, what others call a face cord or a stack of wood 2'deep by 4' high by 8' long. Half a cord if I am correct? Local prices go from $35-$65 per rick delivered and go up in the more urban areas but the most I've heard of was $85 a rick.
Most folks that cut wood locally cut in 16" lengths because of many customers stoves won't take 24" lengths and they measure the rick 16"x4'x8'.
Reckon if I could get $200 a rick for firewood I'd be pretty darn well off.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Okie i know mate all these different units of measurement Mate i have always thought a cord was about 2 m3   

 We run by the Ton or cubic meter m3 to what i can gather a cord is 1.2x1.2x2.4 meters which acc comes in at 3.45 m3 stacked  our Box and ironbark around home here comes in roughly 1 to 1.2 ton per m3 stacked dry weight and i get $200 a ton deliverd to Melb which  would work out at $690 a cord   

a 25 ton or 56000lb payload semi will get you about $5000 del to melbourn these days i remember cutting and loading loads when i was younger and thinking i was making a killing at $90 per ton ($2250 a load)  del down there 

In Melbourne people will pay between $220 for lighter wood (red gum and common wood) and $330 for box/ironbark per m3 delivered to their home Mate 

I have an 8 ton load to cut tomorrow to go down on friday which will gross me about $1600 which aint bad for a couple of days work Im looking forward to getting back into it Nice clean & simple work  mate    its handy been a 4th generation wood cutter  getting rid of firewoods only a phonecall away 

Regards Chris

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Here is the Math:

I sell by .75 cubic foot bundles. A cord, which is 4 x 4 x 8 feet in size equates to 128 cu ft of firewood. Selling .75 cu ft bundles gets you 170 bundles per cord of wood.

If you sell them for $2.50 per bundle, you make $425 per cord of bundled wood. Our personal best with our bundler is 90 bundles in an hour. I just ordered a speed loader for it and would not be suprised if we easily topped 100 bundles and hour. Plus the bundler is so easy to use that even a teenager could be trained to do it in no time at all.

I can buy a cord for $125 split and $50 a cord unsplit. Splitting is not a big deal with my 35 ton splitter and I will be the first to admit I can always use the exercise. If you use your flitches and just cut them to 18 inches in length, then you wood cost approaches zero. I made a few X shaped saw horses 8 feet long. I stack about 20 flitches in them at a time, then make a cut every 18 inches. With every cut I get 20 pieces and enough wood to make between 2 to 3 bundles of wood, depending on the size of the individual pieces, plus the satisfaction of knowing that no part of the tree is going to waste

Either way, the work is simple and the profits are huge.

Thanks Tom for the compliment. Will post more pictures soon of my operation and how it is set up.

Fred

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

We just added the speed loader trays to our firewood bundler for about $100 for 5 of them. Best hundred buckaroos I spent in a long time. With 2 people, we are now getting more than 100 bundles of firewood wrapped per hour.

It is a great idea. I line 5 of them up on a bench right next to the bundler and load them as fast as I can. Then the wife loads one of them into the bundler and wraps it, removes the one she just wrapped, and loads the next one. To be honest, it makes it so fast that I sometimes have trouble keeping up with her.

Last night in 2 hours we wrapped 214 bundles of wood. This is a huge improvement over what we were able to average without the speed loader trays.

[Jim_Wahl]

Ironwood,

I'd like to hear a little more about that hydraulic pallet arch you mentioned. Is that a home built
invention, or did you buy it elsewhere?

[etkoehn]

Busy beaver how are you able to make so much money? Do you have any competition?

[fred in montana]

Busy Beaver, do you have any photos of your operation?

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Busy beaver how are you able to make so much money? Do you have any competition?

We service campgrounds and have minimal competition because of DNR license. One campground we service has over 300 sites and will not allow people to bring their own wood in to the campground. They must buy the wood there. If they sell out on the 3 holiday weekends, as they normally do, and considering there are three nights of camping on the 3 holiday weekends, it is not unheard of for a campground with that many sights to sell over 1000 bundles in a single holiday weekend. Now add to that the fact that we sell to other campgrounds and about 25 convinience stores and you have the entire picture.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Busy Beaver, do you have any photos of your operation?

Fred

Check out my photo gallery. I just added 5 pictures as you requested. Every step from wood pile being wrapped to the red dually leaving the building with over 300 bundles of wood going out for a delivery. He actually made two trips that day and delivered over 600 bundles.

Busy Beaver

[stonebroke]

I think you need a bigger trailer.

Stonebroke

[bandmiller2]

Around my parts we're not supposed to legally sell wood by the cord seems too many city type yuppies were getting skun,and not bright enough to learn what a cord is.Busy B. that shrink wrapper looks like a simple device what is that belt/chain running down to the motor made of?? Around here its called "getting lucky wood" and goes for close to $5.00 per bundle.Your price is realistic and probibly the reason for your good volume.Frank C.

[bill m]

Around my parts we're not supposed to legally sell wood by the cord seems too many city type yuppies were getting skun,and not bright enough to learn what a cord is.Busy B. that shrink wrapper looks like a simple device what is that belt/chain running down to the motor made of?? Around here its called "getting lucky wood" and goes for close to $5.00 per bundle.Your price is realistic and probibly the reason for your good volume.Frank C.

In Massachusetts you can not sell firewood by the cord. All firewood must be advertised and sold by cubic feet.

[woody1]

The local state parks here will not allow their bundles of camp wood to be wraped in plastic. The bundles are held together with binder twine. Just something to think about. 
Woody

[headleyj]

Busy - looked at your pics - awesome!  how big are the individual pieces in your bundles?  They look pretty stout. then again my eyes aren't what they used to be.

[Ernie]

Hey Beaver  do you dry your wood at all or just wrap it straight off the splitter still green?

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

I think you need a bigger trailer.

Stonebroke

Stonebroke

That is not my trailer or dually loaded with the wood. That is one of 4 guys that deliver for me. The guy that does most of my large deliveries has a 20 foot tri-axle trailer that can haul 13,000 pounds

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Around my parts we're not supposed to legally sell wood by the cord seems too many city type yuppies were getting skun,and not bright enough to learn what a cord is.Busy B. that shrink wrapper looks like a simple device what is that belt/chain running down to the motor made of?? Around here its called "getting lucky wood" and goes for close to $5.00 per bundle.Your price is realistic and probibly the reason for your good volume.Frank C.

Bandmiller

the bundler has a 1/2 hp motor with 40:1 gear reduction unit that then attaches to the bundler mechanism with two pullies and a v belt. Works great and I am actually thinking about getting a second one.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Busy - looked at your pics - awesome!  how big are the individual pieces in your bundles?  They look pretty stout. then again my eyes aren't what they used to be.

headleyj

There is nothing wrong with your eyes. Some of the bundles have pretty decent size slabs of wood in them. A lot of customers like them because they burn quite a long time. Most pieces are between 16 to 18 inches long and roughly 3 x 3 in size. Typical bundle can have between 7 to 10 pieces depending on size of each piece. Ones with slabs in them may only have 4 to 6.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Hey Beaver  do you dry your wood at all or just wrap it straight off the splitter still green?

Ernie

Almost without exception, most of the wood I bundle has been split and dried for at least 6 months to a year. I have several friends that cut and split firewood as their only source of income all year round and the wood I buy from them comes already split and ready to bundle. I also buy truck loads of mill cutoffs that have been in a pile for about 6 months before I go to get it. I split most of these and leave some of them in chunks and wrap them as well. Right now, at the pace I am going, I will use between 80 to 100 cords this year.

[Don_Papenburg]

Bill M , can you sell 128 cubic feet at one time to anyone?  Can you advertise 128 Cu Ft  for $XX.xx?

[paul case]

busy beaver,
i am contemplating doin this same type of thing and was wondering if the folks who build that bundler have a website?pc

[r.man]

Another option instead of plastic or twine is burlap bags. Not sure how pricey they are but you can throw bag and all in the fire if you want to. Considered as burnable as the wood. Does present some problems for bagging though, would require a totally different system than the bundler and I expect would also be slower than the bundler until a system was developed. Might give you an edge in some markets where being eco-friendly is not only a plus but necessary.

[paul case]

i would be suprised if the shrink wrap doesnt end up getting burned too. pc

[Magicman]

Another option instead of plastic or twine is burlap bags.

Would customers be reluctant to buy wood in burlap when they couldn't actually see it?  Just wondering.

[paul case]

i dont like the burlap sack idea too well myself. ever since i cleaned out  the loft of my barn and picked up an old pile of them sacks and a 6' black snake fell out i have been a little leary of the things i cant see. can you picture someone taking a ''sack'' of wood into their half million dollar mansion and lighting the sack on fire only to have a snake crawl out on their $400/yard carpet. the lawsuit would be on. or after reading jeff's newest post what about wasps nests in those bags? not to mention the bags costs 40 cents or so and shrink wrap  only about 11 cents per bundle.  pc

[tyb525]

Busy Beaver Lumber is an entrepreneurial genius....

I jumped on the bundled firewood bandwagon yesterday, I made the "slab-horses" for cutting them to length, and I am using twine to secure the bundles. (I happened across a large roll of twine at a yard sale for free..) It's also very good to use for our own firewood, minus the bundles.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

busy beaver,
i am contemplating doin this same type of thing and was wondering if the folks who build that bundler have a website?pc

Yes they do it is www.twister-industries.com  Ask for Chuck, he is the owner and tell him Fred Strauss from Busy Beaver Lumber sent you. He and I have become good friends and he will take good care of you. The machine is awesome and we have hit rates in excess of 100 bundles an hour with a 3 person crew

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Another option instead of plastic or twine is burlap bags.

Would customers be reluctant to buy wood in burlap when they couldn't actually see it?  Just wondering.

Magicman, I believe you would be correct and people want to see what they are buying. Another good reason for the clear wrap is that each bundle of wood sold in Indiana must be DNR approved and have a label on it identifying its source. When we bundle, we throw a label in after the first wrap so the second and third time around seals it in place and makes it weather proof, so we kill 2 birds with one stone.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Burlap sacks will cost a lot more than plastic wrap and will be a lot harder to load.

I have a source for plastic wrap that gets me 1500 foot rolls 12 inches in height, delivered to my house for less than $8 a roll. Each roll will wrap approximately 200 bundles so you are looking at 4 cents worth of wrap per bundle and 1 cent for the label for each bundle. Doubt you could find burlap sacks and have them delivered for 4 cents a bag to your front door.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Busy Beaver Lumber is an entrepreneurial genius....

I jumped on the bundled firewood bandwagon yesterday, I made the "slab-horses" for cutting them to length, and I am using twine to secure the bundles. (I happened across a large roll of twine at a yard sale for free..) It's also very good to use for our own firewood, minus the bundles.

Ty my young buddy, you are too kind. I would like to think that 13 years of college served me in some capacity. I am very excited to hear you get into the firewood bundling. It will serve you well and become a major source of income for you. Let me offer you some suggestions to help you get going:

1. Pick a day and come and visit my operation in the Fort Wayne area. I will buy you lunch and let you try out the firewood bundler that I have
2. Get in touch with the Indiana DNR and get your firewood license. Each bundle of wood sold in Indiana must be DNR approved and have a label on it identifying its source. When we bundle, we throw a label in after the first wrap so the second and third time around seals it in place and makes it weather proof, so we kill 2 birds with one stone. You can get in some pretty expensive trouble if you do not have the license, but the good news is that the license is free to obtain, just some rules you have to follow once you have it, but no big deal. Many camprgounds and stores will not buy your wood unless you have the license and the bundles are labeled, so another good reason to get it. You can call me if you need help getting it and I will put you in touch with my DNR guy. He is excellent and even helped me land my biggest customer who has signed on for over 10,000 bundles of wood this year and has already taken delivery of over 3000 of them.
3. As you already know, you will most likely get pieces of wood that are about 8 inches or less in length that are too short to bundle. Most people would just send those to the burn pile. Don't do that. Get yourself some cheap onion sacks and fill them with the smaller pieces and sell them by the bag. There are a lot of folks that buy those clay fireplaces for on their sun decks or patios that can not use pieces more than 8 inches long and they love being able to buy these smaller pieces that fit in their units. Last week I sold 200 bags of the smaller pieces to a place in Fort Wayne that sells those clay outdoor fireplaces and he called me today and said he would take another 200 bags as soon as I had them ready to deliver
4. Be careful when you deliver the bundles. The weight stacks up pretty quick when you start loading the trucks. My two main delivery guys are taking 400 bundles per load and I personally think they are severely pushing the weight capacity of their trucks and trailers. On average, you had best figure 25 to 30 pounds per bundle. THis would mean you should not really put more than 60 to 80 bundles in a 1 ton truck. I will be honest and tell you I have already loaded 125 into my 1988 chevy 3500 on ton without any problems. The purple dually in my picture files on the forum with the built up sides actually has 200 bundles in the bed of the truck. Now that is pushing the limit, but somehow he get away with it and always get the product to the customer on time.
5. Get ready to be very busy. Just in the month of May, we shipped out 2675 bundles of firewood and we are starting to get inquires from more perspective customers every week. I am actually talking to a friend about turning this into a 40 hour a week business with several people wrapping wood 8 hours a day. I have another friend who is currently out there as we speak building up a firewood delivery route for himself. He already has over a dozen customers who want to buy the bundles from us and his idea it to load up 300 at a time in his trailer and then hit his route once a week supplying them with the bundles they need. He has warned me that his goal is to build it up to the point that he is delivering 1000 bundles per week. I told him to bring it on and that nothing would make me happier than to have to buy a second or third bundler and help employ some of my out of work friend and their teenage kids who are desperately looking for jobs.

Look foward to meeting you soon Ty and hopefully this will give us a good reason to get together

Fred

[r.man]

Busy, I do think that plastic wrap is cheaper, easier and faster, but in some markets it will become unacceptable in time if not already. I recently priced some work for a company that was bidding on an initial order of 30,000 bags for provincial parks. This wood has to be in burlap bags so that it doesn't add garbage to the parks or landfills. My point was that many people and companies are willing to pay a bit more to be earth friendly and it could be a nice niche market. In our area the plastic wrap that is used on pallets isn't even recyclable and I am surprised that there hasn't been a backlash against it yet. Being green is a marketing plus, and in many areas a marketing must. You are already half way there by marketing the byproduct of a necessary industry.  

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

r.man

I fully acknowledge you point about going green, but if you stop and think about it, they stretch plastic wrap generates a very minimal amount of waste per bundle. If you were to take the plastic used to wrap a single bundle and crumple it up, you would wind up with a marble size piece of waste. Stated another way, 4 rolls of plastic wrap can bundle somewhere near 800 to 1000 bundles and they all fit in a 12 inch by 12 inch box. Bear in mind at least half the content of the 12 inch by 12 inch box is occupied by the hollow cardboard tube that hold the stretch wrap. Our labels are made of paper and my observation is that most end users just toss both the stretch wrap and the label in the fire and burn them up, so nothing, or at least a minimal amount winds up in a land fill. I would summise that the amount of pollution added to the atmosphere from buring marble sized piece of the stretch wrap and the paper label would be less than the additional diesel fuel needed to transport the much heavier and larger pallets of burlap bags needed to wrap the same quantity of wood. It would appear to be pretty much a toss up to me either way you look at it. It may also be a matter of difference in our countries policies and attitudes o n how to dispose of waste products. Here in the states, burn piles where rural homeowners and farmers burn trash of all sorts and especially leaves in the fall on a regular basis are still very wide spread and fairly common, whereas I expect this would not be the case as much in Canada

[paul case]

bb,
i did find that site and saw the video . cool machine.
i have been set up to sell my slabs cut to firewood size in the bulk. i cut them pile them and load them into a dumptruck with the front end loader on my tractor. about4 rick delivered and dumped out costs the buyer $120. i seem to never have enough. as of lately i have been cuttting a lot of pallet stock so i end up with a lot of small stuff.
now the questions. do you try to be even with all of your wood? what if it was 30% small5/8x4  wood and a few bigger pieces? have you had and come back or any complaints?  did you start wrapping before you had the twister? just wondering pc

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Paul

If pieces are short, we just put more in the bundle and make it larger in daimeter.

No complaints at all, in fact most customers have told use we give more wood per bundle than their previous suppliers

Did not bundle before we bought this unit and sold our scrap wood off by the truck load just like you are doing.

We love this bundler and are seriously thinking about buying a second one. With the speed loader option and a 3 person crew, we are consistantly averaging over 100+ bundles per hour. We bundled tonight and in 2.5 hours we produced 272 bundles of wood which averaged out to just over 108 bundles per hour

Feel free to call me on the phone if you need more info

[paul case]

 i have really enjoyed the info and i am going to try this maybe this fall. i am stacking some slabs that i traded a local sawmill out of and i will stack quit a few of our edgings and culls to dry for the summer.
i am going to talk to some businesses about selling these and get some tables built for putting the slabs on to cut to length and get ready . if i could get it started i think my wife may take it over. i hope anyway. she puts 70 miles a day on just to work and back. if she spent that 80 minutes bundling wood and making $1.75 profit  for only 50 bundles she would make more in the 80 minutes than 8 hours she is at work.   pc

[tyb525]

I agree with Paul, BB is a wonderful source of knowledge as far as running a sawmill business...and I haven't even got to meet him yet.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

i have really enjoyed the info and i am going to try this maybe this fall. i am stacking some slabs that i traded a local sawmill out of and i will stack quit a few of our edgings and culls to dry for the summer.
i am going to talk to some businesses about selling these and get some tables built for putting the slabs on to cut to length and get ready . if i could get it started i think my wife may take it over. i hope anyway. she puts 70 miles a day on just to work and back. if she spent that 80 minutes bundling wood and making $1.75 profit  for only 50 bundles she would make more in the 80 minutes than 8 hours she is at work.   pc

Right you are Paul. You have to see my wife run that bundler. I have to admit she is about twice as fast as I am at it. She often kids me that the loading department is holding up the bundling department and asks if the old man needs a rest since he can't seam to keep up with the younger woman.

We usually wrap wood at night when I come home from my day job and hire one othe rperson to work with us for a few hours. It is not uncommon at all for us to wrap better than 200 bundles in less than 2.5 hours and we almost always average somewhere between 90 to 105 per hour depending on how nice the wood we have to wrap is and if any requires additional splitting.

She may complain about my speed in loading the trays, but she does not complain about her share of the paycheck every time I send another 800 bundles out the door, which is about every other week.

[DeepWoods]

Fred, check your inbox please. I sent you a pm

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

DeepWoods

Thanks much for the PM. I corrected the website address. Do you bundle and sell wood? It has become one of the most profitable things for us. We have a delivery of 800 bundles going out tomorrow afternoon and I was just working on a flyer that we will be handing out to more stores and gas stations to get even more customers. My wife and I have a goal of shipping 3000 bundles a month by years end. Right now we are somewhere around 1800 a month on average, but the busy is steadily building. Hardly have much time to run the mill with all the firewood we are processing, but money is money, regardless of which piece of machinery it comes from...right?

[DeepWoods]

BBL, No I only cut and split for our personal needs, which is only about two cords per year presently.  I have 10 cords of birch logs waiting to be cut and split after having part of  our property logged this past winter.  It will be all I can do to get this done before this winter.  We have enough dry wood to get us through this coming winter, so it isn't a major priority at this time.  I'm still trying to get other projects completed after moving to our cabin last fall.  Funny how things always take longer than one thinks. 

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

I agree with Paul, BB is a wonderful source of knowledge as far as running a sawmill business...and I haven't even got to meet him yet.

Ty

Here is an incentive for you. My biggest customer just called tonight and said he sold over 1000 bundles of wood this past weekend. He has asked me to deliver another 1200 bundles in the next week, 800 of which he would like in hand by July 4th. Based on this demand, I estimate we will ship him close to 3000 to 4000 bundles just in July alone. That ought to get you motivated and wrapping.

We are also continuing to build our customer base at several other smaller campgrounds and at convienince stores and gas stations. We are hoping to build that up to 500 to 1000 bundles more per month shipped before years end.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Now over 7000 bundles of wood shipped this year since April. Expect to finish the year off with over 12,000 shipped. Not bad for a segment of the wood business that we just got into this year. Are now supplying 3 campgrounds and about a dozen small gas stations/convinience stores.

[Buck]

I sell mine by the cord and rick(half cord).  Every time I see this thread I consider going completely bundle. My research into the market is revealing that the urban chains like bags.  I see both in my travels around. Bags = less mess? Aaah?

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Bags may equal less mess, but i can almost assure you they are also harder to load than it it to use a wrapper. In an average hour we can wrap around 100 bundles. What is more, I bet the bags cost you more to buy as well. I can wrap about 200 bundles from a single $8 roll of plastic wrap which works out to be about 4 cents a bundle. The bundles are nice and tight and extremely strong. After having wrapped almost 10,000 bundles this year, I think we have had less than 10 break open and that is with some pretty tough handling during loading and unloading the bundles from the trailer. I have to believe that a bag of equal strength will cost much more and take at least twice as long to load.

Another nice thing about kling wrap is that it keeps the load tight during shipping since the cling wrap on one bundle tends to kling to the bundle next to it. I would suspect that plastic bags might have a tendency to slide easily past one another and may cause the load to shift or bundles to tumble off a fully loaded trailer.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Busy the bags stack and transport well alot gets shiped  on pallets here  Mate but packing thems a pita and the last time i got a price on them they where au $0.50 cents a bag  for afew years back when i was log building last time with dad wfrom when i was 16 to 20yo i also cut firewood on the weekends for the local stock feed store owner who  bagged about 2 to 300 ton a year I like the Cling wrap better from a cost stand point abut you never see it here as its all in bags atm i did wrap afew desposable wood cases up for my sister in melb for her freind to take down for a party here hose mates thought they where awsome

Regards Chris

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

This being our first year that we have really pushed firewood sales, we really had no idea what to expect in terms of sales. Thus far we have shipped over 10,000 bundles this year, but what happened this past weekend really blew our minds and defied any and all expectations we had.

One of our customers, a 300 site campground had us deliver 500 bundles on Friday night. When we got there with the load they only had about 50 bundles left from our last shipment 2 weeks ago. We unloaded and left there at 5:00 in the afternoon, thinking this would be enough for about 2 to 3 weeks.

Alas on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 the same customer called and said he was completely out of wood. He had sold 550 bundles of wood in just the 10 hours the store was opened on Friday night and Saturday morning and afternoon. I have never seen wood sell that fast. He immediately requested another 1000 bundles be delivered by the next weekend and we sent 500 out tonight and have another 500 going out tomorrow afternoon. Now we have to bundle like mad to be ready for the rush next week because temperatures are supposed to get down to 37 degrees on Friday and Saturday night this weekend and it would not shock me to see him just about sell out again.

The picture below shows a pile of 500 bundles, which completely fills a 20 foot triaxle trailer and 8 foot bed of a pickup truck

 

[Magicman]

Down here, we have more slabs than there is a demand for firewood.  1-2 cords is all of the firewood that is needed and we have enough scrap oak to supply that need.  Pine slabs are just burned.
 


This was today.   

[js2743]

magicman is that a phone cable? looks like it runs over or very close to the burn pile. that would be one expensive fix if it melts or burns it. 

[paul case]

sounds like you are getting busy(living up to your name!)
i am going to deliver more wood than that in bulk form on friday. 5 grain truck loads. i have been telling folks that it was about 4 rick in it,but one lady i took some to said it was more like 7!   pc

[Magicman]

magicman is that a phone cable? looks like it runs over or very close to the burn pile. that would be one expensive fix if it melts or burns it. 

Yes js2743 it is.  After spending 32+ years in the telephone industry, I checked it out before he burned.  The picture is really deceiving.  It is much further away than it looks. 

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Magic

Up here in Indiana, I would get about $200 for just what you have in the bucket of that rather fine looking backhoe, not to mention the value of the timber that is burning

[BandsawWarrior]

BB...I'm curious do you firewood bundles have handles?  If so how are they fastened in a timely manner?

thanks,

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Handles cost 5 cents more if they want them. Most customers do not want them. To attach them we use an air powered staple gun.

[paul case]

 hey bb,
 can you share your supplier for that shrink wrap? i have looked and in the suppliers i use they only have 18'' and it is much higher.pm me if  it is not a forum sponsor. a local wood bundler just went missing here and he had a big contract to fill not to mention his backer now has his equipment sitting idle, which includes a firewood procssor among other things.  i am going to see monday about getting in on a piece of that action. they pick it up by the semi load. pc

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Paul

Sent you a PM with source info for plastic wrap

Fred

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Paul that sounds like good gig and well worth sussing out further Plus I love semi load orders of almost anything Mate 

Regards Chris

[MDLogging]

Busy Beaver,  How does the marketing of the bundles work with a new or skeptical customer?  Is it payment up front?  Do you offer to buy back any unsold bundles? 

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

MDlogging

I have worked some special deals to get new customers, but basically it is cash or check at the time of delivery and I try to only ship full trailer loads. With the truck and triaxle trailer we use to deliver, we can ship 500 bundles per load at a cost to the customer of $2.50 per bundle, plus delivery charge based on distance to their facility. I do have a few customers that bring their own trialer and pick it up at my building to save the delivery charge or if they want less than 500 bundles.

I have placed bundles at deli's and gas stations on consignment. If I do that, I get $3.00 per bundle and they pay me for the bundles sold the next time I come around to deliver more. The additional 50 cents a bundle is my reward for financing their inventory. Most of them turn around and sell them for between $4.99 to $5.49 per bundle.

If a customer is skeptical and not sure how well they will sell, I will either offer them the consignment option, or to get them on board I do sometimes offer to allow them to buy as few as 50 bundles and I give them the $2.50 price to allow them to test the waters to see how things work out. About once a month, we load the trailer with 500 bundles and spend about half a day delivering to just the smaller accounts that want 50 to 100 bundles at a time. It is a bit more of a hastle, but what the heck, at the end of the day, you still sold another 500 bundles, just had to make about 5 to 7 stops to do it.

There are even a few customers that I give free delivery to, just because they just happened to be on my normal route to and from my building and they buy quite a bit of wood from me. The only thing I ask of them is to have at least two people available to help unload the trailer and truck when we get there. With a crew of 3 people, we can unload and stack 500 bundles in about 45 minutes.

One thing that has suprised me recently is that I ran an ad on craigslist offering bundled firewood trying to get more businesses to buy from us. To my suprise, I have had 4 individuals call and say they wanted to come and buy between 10 to 25 bundles for use at their homes. Never saw that coming. So now I keep about 100 bundles at my house and if they want to come and pick it up, that is fine with me...they just need to pay the sales tax as well and it is all good.

I do not offer to buy back bundles. The only exception to that rule would be on the bundles placed on consignement. If the store foun they were not selling, or did not want to sell firewood any more, I would just go and retrieve the unsold bundles, but so far I have not had to do that with any customers.

[Mooseherder]

The bundles we are selling in our stores are retailing at 5.39

[MDLogging]

Thanks Busy Beaver.  I just found this thread and theres alot of useful info in it.  I sell a good amount of firewood but have always wanted to get into the packaging end of it. 

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

MDlogging

My pleasure to assist you in any way. Any time you have a question feel free to contact me. One suggestion I will offer is not to go cheap on the bundling machine. Stay away from the Hudson machines. They are not built well at all as compared to others that you can buy. Also never buy on that requires you to crank it by hand. You will wear yourself out in no time at all. One average, we bundle 300 bundles a night using a powered wrapping machine. If we had to crank the machine, we would be lucky to get 100 done in a night.

Fred

[Kansas]

I wanted to kick this thread up. I am looking more and more at buying a bundler. My secretary did some due diligence today and found one from Hudson discounted, that was a demo, but from what I read hear maybe that isn't the way to go. It was also manual. We also found a welding shop in Wisconsin selling an electric model cheaper than the Hudson manual. I don't want to get to carried away on price until I can figure out how the bundles will sell around here. Tempted to go cheaper in case we don't feel its worth it.  In Kansas, far as I know, there isn't many, if any, bundling firewood. There also are no restrictions moving it that we are aware of. Most bundles I have seen looks like blue stain pine, which I assume comes from Colorado or Wyoming that are in front of grocery and convenience stores.  Got a lot of legwork to do; don't know what they do around the campgrounds here.

One question.. is this something you mostly sell in the winter, or is there a market during the summer too? I know we have people that get slabs for bonfires in the summer. We would use slabwood that would be cottonwood and oak, mostly smaller pieces.  We also have a couple of guys that take the old oak logs and such and sell firewood, that is another possibility too, for a higher grade bundle. Any and all information is appreciated. Talked to a grocery store owner today that will give me the pricing on what bundles cost for him from the distributor.

[Kansas]

I pulled the trigger today and ordered a twister firewood bundler. Kind of their middle of the road electric bundler. Had a hard time hearing the guy on the phone; hope we were on the same page. I think I ordered one that will make either square or round bundles by doing an changeover. He did say you want to stick with small bundles. Women tend to be the ones to pick those up when shopping, and don't want a lot of weight. Not sure yet who I am going to try and market these to, just a vague idea. Its also hard to concentrate on firewood when its 113 heat index outside. I did start having them cut suitable slab lengths to 15 inch as we have them coming out of the edger. Should be here by the end of the week.

[HOGFARMER]

How has the bundled firewood sales held up in the summer?  I think they would be slower but still exist for campers, and etc.

Am considering doing this for my son who is a freshman at a local university and living at home.  Thanks in advance.

Also are you using all split wood or are you bundling slabs as well?  If slabs does the price vary from split wood?

[paul case]

fred,
i was wondering how long you let your wood season before you bundle it? looks like it would mold if it was too green when bundled.
pc

[paul case]

fred!!!!???  pc

[CRThomas]

How has the bundled firewood sales held up in the summer?  I think they would be slower but still exist for campers, and etc.

Am considering doing this for my son who is a freshman at a local university and living at home.  Thanks in advance.

Also are you using all split wood or are you bundling slabs as well?  If slabs does the price vary from split wood?

Just a few words on bundling firewood use less space,more money per rank, year round sale. Less labor involved. Little bit more equipment. I only do bundled firewood and I was close to $100,000.00 last year.
And I made a world of friends. The fly by nighters stay out of bundling firewood because there just beer money. Look at there ranks not a full load to me. I just made $600.00 to day at farmers market and that is at $2.50 a bundle. I will have that wood bundled back tomarrow be back in business Saturday. Have my dryer filled with the next batch. I have to make one delivery tonight. And the customer invited me and my wife for supper. I like those customers that old gal can cook and her husband is a card. Good night

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Paul

The answer to that question is that it depends on where I get it.

I have a tree service I buy a lot of wood from and he probably has 200 cords of wood that is at least a year old. When he splits it and brings it to me, it is already below 20% moisture content, which is what I must be at to meet state regulations.

A lot of my other wood comes from sawmill slabs. These dry much faster than logs left whole or even split logs. Two of my best friends work together and gather and haul this wood for me. One of them has a 5 acre piece of property. He stockpiles about 100 cords of wood for me there at any given time, then hauls it in at the rate of between 3 and 10 cords a week as I need it. He does it on a first in-first out basis, so I am always getting the wood that has aged the longest. He also checks to make sure it is below 20% moisture. In general he lets it sit there on his property drying for between 6 months to a year. He already has about 50 cords there for me for next years deliveries

[zopi]

CR...can we get some details on your drier? Looking to build one soon....

[Corley5]

A year ago I bought a Twister bundler at an auction for cheap, $65.00, and it works.  This spring I ventured out a bit into bundles at a cabin rental and a campground.  I don't like bundles.  Too much time and labor involved in the bundling, loading and unloading of the bundles.  Bulk processed firewood works better for me.  I dropped my two bundle customers but still sell both of them bulk firewood.  The Twister is stored away for possible futue use. 

[zopi]

Corley, whatcha tale for that bundler?