log and lumber software

[SwampDonkey]

All that extra stuff takes a lot of time, I bet the small guys just want to saw. As long as they know what's coming in for logs they can say yeah I can saw your order. Or no, I don't need any more 16'-14" red oak for awhile. Tracking every piece of lumber like a Home Depot is overkill, since when you saw you have a market for that piece to begin with. I could see if your a veneer buyer, you need to track wood flow: what, where, how much and when so wood is accounted for when it arrives at the mill.

[Kansas]

Interesting you should mention Home Depot tracking every board. A number of years ago, I was approached by someone with the Payless Cashways chain of lumberyards. They wondered about us providing hardwood lumber. Problem was, every stick had to have a bar code. I explained to them that hardwood lumber does not lend itself well to barcodes. You can do it; you see the displays in Home Depot, Lowes, and the like. You also see the price tags. I tried to talk them into training a few people that could measure hardwood lumber and sell it the proper way. But that wasn't the corporate way. The cashier making minimum at the front of the store had to scan a barcode.

I remembered that when they filed bankruptcy and folded. Tracking inventory is a wonderful thing. Becoming a slave to it is not.

[SwampDonkey]

Columbia buyers that came here the last few years for veneer began an inventory tracking system with a handheld and a bar code tag stamped onto the log. That allowed them to pay the seller on the spot. They would just go into the marketing board office with the scale by owner and made out the cheque. Their trucker would either be on site when being scaled or shortly after to get the logs. It was good service, but we only had small volumes and it never paid for the marketing board to gather up puckles of wood. They had a small bucking fee, but you or I could not make money at it, nor did they. They could recover costs because of volumes sold to other markets. $M's annually. They don't seem to buy veneer hardwood these days locally, but I know they are not broke.

[jcbrotz]

Doyle scale = (diameter - 4)^2 * length/16.  Maybe if you use the formula you wouldn't need a table.

Thanks Ron now I have something else to do I guess I will play with an excel spreadsheet after I get done sawing or get frozen enough to come back inside which ever happens first.

[jcbrotz]

Thanks to Ron the excel spreadsheet was simple. If anyone wants it just PM me I can email it. I will try to upload also.


Well I can't get the excel sheet to upload so someone smarter than me will have to do it. But I can email it to someone smarter.

What dus ya know I got it.

[paul case]

I think you fellas are right. Us smaller sawmill operations just want to saw,but it is nice to know if you are making overrun or just keeping even. I hand scale each log as it comes in and paint its scaled bdft on the end of the log with cheap black spray paint. I started doing this when scaling because I would loose track from one end of the stack or pile to the other. I scale them and paint the feet on the little end and then go back and write them down. Like this.
 

 
That way I can tell by how much it makes if I am ahead or not.
I can see how this might get to be too much to do but It would cut down on a little of the tracking problem.PC

[Ianab]

Even if you don't do it all the time, it would be worth doing occasionally, for a day or a truckload, and track it though your processing system. Just so that you know your scaling and log costing are actually lining up with the production you are expecting. Margins are too slim to just rely on guesswork.

Ian

[Ron Wenrich]

Everyone talks about overrun, but it isn't the most important factor.  Profit is the factor.  If you get more overrun, but your production costs are higher, than the overrun doesn't mean as much.  Its only a factor in high quality logs where the lumber value can absorb the higher costs.

[paul case]

Margins are too slim to just rely on guesswork.

Ian

That is a fact.
PC

[jcbrotz]

I will be testing out the new excel worksheet this weekend, I have 3-4 loads coming home. Here is a copy of the one I use all the time, for all custom sawing jobs and the lumber sales I do.

I am now doing this full time so I need to be able to track everthing. I like to see how much overrun I can get but, some of it is to much work for the $$ I need a edger but don't want to spend the $$. Hum rock and hard place