Moulding costs

[Andy Mack]

Hoping my question/s don't sound too simplistic.

I'm trying to get an idea of cost per foot that would be charged to mould skirting board etc ??
Assuming I provide rough sawn KD timber of good quality.   How much oversized is generally required if timber is straight and square??

[trim4u2nv]

 The cheapest I will mould is $0.10/linear foot up to 4 inches wide.  Plus a tooling fee if it is a non stock knife.  A setup charge also if less than 2000 feet is needed.  Some really big producers will work as low as $0.05 per foot but you have to charge what the market will bear.

[Andy Mack]

Thanks

[ronwood]

trim4u2nv,

For 10 cent per linear foot is the lumber ready to send through the moulder? No ripping or no other preparation of the lumber.

Thank
Ron

[trim4u2nv]

For 10 cents 1 edge must be straight lined and 1 face jointed minimum.   Preferably 2 faces jointed and  1 edge straight line ripped.  Although I have had some people do such nice sawing with bandsaws in some cases raw wood can produce nice mouldings.  If the lumber is gang ripped it feeds better also.

[FeltzE]

At 10cents a ft, I would want the lumber ripped to width + .25" ready to feed through the moulder. I found that it's not cost effective for me to rip and and mould for .10.... tooooo much time ripping.

Thickness needs to be appropriate for the moulder as well.

Eric

[Norwiscutter]

I was thinking that I would have different rates for differient stock sizes, IE. less than 6 inches= rate A over 6 inch = rate B.  Also thinking of charging .05 more L/F for hardwoods as the feed rate is slower and the varience in stock dimension can't be as great.  Maybe charging a by hour fee for resizeing stock that hasn't been straightline ripped would be appropriate? What about a knife damage deposit? I would think it would be necessary considering the same precautions we take with the band blades.  The option of a by hour rate has been on my mind, but I think alot of customers would balk at the high rate I would need to equal the production potential of charging by the L/F.

[FeltzE]

There is a really good moulding planning spread sheet on the other forum that can be downloaded. It contains a pretty good selection of base data, setup time, % of knife costs, factors for shop rate, feed rates in each of the machines, number of people to operate the machine.

Eric

[trim4u2nv]

When the molder is feeding good for a particular profile,  I make a go/nogo gauge out of a piece of scrap hard maple.  If the blank shows an area skipped this becomes the narrow part of the gauge.  The first piece that jambs becomes the wide side of the gauge.  If you see a blank that is questionable (undersize) you can process it in a batch of smaller stock or have it trimmed (if oversize.)  This saves on culls.  The guy making your blanks can make or break you.  I reserve the right to reject anything that fails my gauge test for the price quoted.  This way if someone brings you a load of garbage you won't be working for chinese wages.