Would you saw for .10 a board foot???

[gator gar]

I did.... Actually, I resawed some 12x12x12s, down to an inch and 7/8s x 12. That was 2.40 a board and I cut 138 of them,before it was all said and done. Not too bad.

[Dan_Shade]

do you pay for equipment and maintenance?

Or do you get paid $0.10 to run your own equipment?

I wouldn't saw lumber on my equipment for $0.10/bf

[gator gar]

do you pay for equipment and maintenance?

Or do you get paid $0.10 to run your own equipment?

I wouldn't saw lumber on my equipment for $0.10/bf

You wouldn't be counting that 330 dollars that I put in my pocket either. I was already set up and I just went with it.

[Bandmill Bandit]

its jobs like that that take wear and tear out of everything that shows up in other jobs and end up costing you a lot more then the 330 cash you put in your pocket at the end of the day.

Some times you get lucky but it is tat-amount to playing Russian roulette.

[Brucer]

I charge $0.15 per BF for resawing, provided the timbers are clean, don't need squaring up, and the customers knows exactly what he/she wants before I start cutting. Otherwise it's by the hour. I base the BF charge on the nominal size of the original timber, not on the product.

[DR_Buck]

Even the Amish charge more than that.        And that looks like a manual mill?  At $330 in you pocket you're still losing money.  

[clay3]

I"d take all of that I could get.

[r.man]

If you are happy with what you got paid for the job I think that that is the important thing. It is hard to judge every job from the standpoint of piece price without knowing all the other factors.

[tyb525]

Just remember, charge what you need in order to make a profit, and someone will pay it if you have good quality. Just because someone will pay you $.10 to do that, doesn't mean they wouldn't pay $.25.

[Ianab]

I think if you worked it out as an hourly rate charge he was doing pretty well, maybe $100 an hour?

If you can earn $100 an hour with a manual mill you are doing pretty well.

No opening cuts, no turning of logs or cants, no edging, less band wear with no dirty bark. Just $2.40 each time he goes up and back. Big boards like that can add up a LOT of bd/ft per hour.

It's fair for both parties if you charge an hourly rate for non-standard jobs. Resawing, undersize or oversize logs, or any non-standard sawing. In that case, work out your hourly rate, probably based on if you were cutting normal logs at 20-30C bf/ft and charge that. If the customer had wanted them cut into 1" boards, it would have taken twice as long, and he would have paid twice as much. If he wanted them simply sliced in 1/2, taken 1/2 the time and probably only paid 5c per bd/ft !!!

Ian

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

You said it all when you said your not counting that $300 in My pocket   I bet you did not burn more than $30 bucks worth of fuel for the day and only used 2 Maby 3  fresh bands sawing that order Mate thats 3000 bft (7.07 m3) sawn roughly which is pretty good going   how long did it take you to do it start to finish Mate  

say it took a day say $40 worth of imput costs  minus say $10 for the payment on the mill (the wear n tear on the machine would be bugger all !) so $250 gross for a days work still aint that bad Boys   and a hell of alot better than working in a bloody office  

Regards Chris

[Chuck White]

I routinely saw logs to lumber for $150.00/1,000bf.

So, it looks like you have done good for a days work.

Overall, the price usually depends on what part of the country you're in!

[clousert]

It all depends on how much you want the job, and what that job is interrupting for you.  We saw pallet logs mostly, so there are always logs on the dock and partial lumber piles being built.  Custom orders actually SLOW DOWN our production, due to log change/out, starting new lumber piles, sawing odd sizes for the customer, and dealing with the customer, and not knowing for sure if and when they will even return to pick up their lumber and/or pay for it.  As a result, we charge 25 cents a bf or $40 per hour, depending on the job.

[ellmoe]

   What did your per hour rate equal?
Mark

[gator gar]

   What did your per hour rate equal?
Mark

I make 30 an hour in the refineries as a pipefitter. I would cut 4 to 5 of these per hour and off load them on the side of the mill, 3 wide and 12 high. Just basically letting them slide off the bedrails. So that comes to 57.60-72.00 and hour. Not bad at all in my book. I was waiting on the loader too, in between cants.

Ya'll don't underestimate my manual mill. It has a 25 horse on it, with the power feed, just like the LT40. It does pretty good. I would do this all day long, everyday, if I could.

[ladylake]

 Nothing wrong with $60 a hour, then figure in all the cash money (I alway send half to Uncle Sam, right) and tax deductions .   Steve

[laffs]

 I would do this all day long, everyday, if I could.

me too

[ellmoe]

   What did your per hour rate equal?
Mark

I. I would cut 4 to 5 of these per hour and off load them on the side of the mill, 3 wide and 12 high. Just basically letting them slide off the bedrails. So that comes to 57.60-72.00 and hour.

   I thought that your per hour rate would sound a whole lot better than the bf price. Resawing wide , clean cants is very different than sawing logs. Ya done good!

Mark

[Tom]

It's situations like that, that make it impossible to assign one price that fits every situation.   What you have to be careful with is not that this fellow remembers your price and wants the same deal on a different type of job, but that your other customers don't find that you sawed Mr. X's wood a lot cheaper than you sawed theirs.   Sometimes it goes a bit deeper (business-wise) than how much money you can clear because you are already set up.

[gator gar]

It's situations like that, that make it impossible to assign one price that fits every situation.   What you have to be careful with is not that this fellow remembers your price and wants the same deal on a different type of job, but that your other customers don't find that you sawed Mr. X's wood a lot cheaper than you sawed theirs.   Sometimes it goes a bit deeper (business-wise) than how much money you can clear because you are already set up.

You are exactly right Tom.

[schmism]

perhaps i missed it but....

those were oak cants? 

a question for those of you who would consider doing this (obviously there are those that wouldnt at that price) but for those of you who would....

does it matter to you if its hardwood vs softwood?   

[Tom]

Whether it might matter would depend more on Species.  There are "Softwoods" that are harder than some "hardwoods".   There are so many variables that I would get confused trying to list them.  They would probably even include whether I had a good breakfast or not. 

[isawlogs]

 I would of propably have done it charging by the hour and in the end get less then what you got with a more expensive mill   

[Ianab]

"does it matter to you if its hardwood vs softwood?   "

Even if I was doing it on a "per piece" rate, I would be working out the pricing from an hourly rate basis. So the type of wood, material handling, speed of cutting all come into it, blade life etc

If it was easy cutting light weight wood (cedar?), you might do a few more boards per hour, and have an even lower per piece rate. If it was something slower cutting and heavy to handle, less boards per hour, higher per piece rate.

Working from an hourly rate helps avoid the problem Tom mentioned about different rates. The guy knows you are sawing for $70 an hour, and the bd/ft price just happens to be low because of easy sawing. You can still change by the bd/ft for "conventional" jobs, but you can point out that your are planning to still average that $70 per hour

Ian

[northwoods1]

Whether it might matter would depend more on Species.  There are "Softwoods" that are harder than some "hardwoods".   There are so many variables that I would get confused trying to list them.  They would probably even include whether I had a good breakfast or not. 

 

If I made up a breakfast of fried potatoes, ham and 2 eggs over easy, toast and jelly with a couple of strong cups of black tea I imagine that if someone laid out a bunch of 12x12x12  and wanted them re-sawed into 2" I think I could make real good money at $100 a thousand. Gator gar I think I could manage to do even better than you at re-sawing 4-5  of them an hour I would try to keep that loader operator busy bringing me 12x12s' to saw just to see if he could keep up! That is the kind of work where it doesn't take a lot ff thinking and I tend to like that sort of stuff. 

[r.man]

We are into food, does that mean we are done?

[customsawyer]

The bottom line is that if you are happy with the pay and the customer is happy with the product than all is good.

[gator gar]

For a pile of grits, some country cured ham, some red eye gravy and cathead biscuits, there is no telling what I would have done it for.Oh and don't forget the 3 over easy, yard eggs.

[Norm]

Ummm breakfast....now what was the original question. 

[backwoods sawyer]

Breakfast is over, time to make saw dust.

[weisyboy]

coupla gogie eggs, coupla rashes of bacon, 2 slices of bread, some tomato relish, and a hash brown. nothing is impossible with that combination.