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lumber charges for full 4/4 or 8/4 material

Started by gdingee, July 06, 2008, 07:55:25 AM

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gdingee

I have had some custom sawing orders for cedar products where the buyer wants boards a full 1" thick by a full 4" or 6 " and even one request for a 7" wide baord.

Another order was for 2*6" a full 2" by 6".

Am I correct tosay these are 4/4 and 8/4 dimensions?

I quoted a price for the 1" and 2" material but soon realized especially with the 2*6 that for every 3 of them I sawed, I could have had a fourth piece if it were sawn 1 1/2" which is the nominal size of dressed lumber.

I realize rough sawn lumber usually or may need to be dressed for final use which was the case for each of these orders. The products were being re-processed into siding.

My question is, is it reasonalbe to ask for a a higher price for full 4/4 or 8/4 lumber? I use  $ 600 per mfbm as a base price for most of my lumber. I tell a customer i saw my lumber 7/8" by a full width ( 5,6,8" wide boards for example) and 1 5/8" * 3 5/8" or 5 5/8" for 2*4 and 2*6. Now if the customer wants the full 2" dimension I am considering asking for more $$. would adding 10% to the board price and 25% to the 2" material be unreasonable?

Brad_S.

Maybe I don't understand the question correctly, but it seems straight forward. Right now you are cutting at 1 5/8" X 5 5/8", so, for example, a 12' board would be 9.14 board feet. At your rate of $.60 a board foot, you must be selling them for $5.50 (actual math equals $5.48) each. A full 2"X6"X12' is 12 board feet times your $.60 board foot rate will equal $7.20 each.
If you are already selling your lumber at $7.20 for the 1 5/8"X5 5/8", then your base rate is not really $.60 per board foot, it is higher. I don't have time to figure it out at the moment, but you will need to charge that amount for the additional size. Adding 25% still only gets you $6.88, so you need to add more, (31%) all things being equal.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

Tom

Most people who buy rough cut lumber from a sawmill aren't expecting rough cut lumber at dressed sizes.

It's your responsibility, as a sawyer, to provide a piece of lumber that is thick enough and wide enough for the customer to create his own dressed sizes.  After miscuts and drying shrinkage, 7/8's is too thin for the creation of 3/4 lumber

In my opinion, you should base your charges on the nominal sizes and make any adjustments if the customer wants the lumber thinner.  Adjustments for thinner lumber don't necessarily have to be in the offering.   

I don't know how long you have been in business, but is common for a newer sawyer to see the thinner boards as a way of increasing profit.  Some of this comes from the marketing by bandsaw manufacturers when they say that the thinner kerf allows more boards per log and the "smooth" surface allows dressed sizes to be achieved using a thinner boards.  They even talk about rough lumber at dressed sizes, but, there is something wrong with the logic.  If the job is being done for someone else, you are mandating his ability to perform the thickness planing from the amount of waste you have left.  It might not be enough based on his expertise and quality of his equipment.  If you provide him with nominal sizes, as industry dictates, you have the industry behind you and he knows what his expectations must be.

Cutting dressed sizes may be alright if it is for your own use or an agreement has been made with the customer. The cutting of dressed sizes puts you behind the 8 ball as a sawyer though.  You are dealing with lumber that will shrink in different amounts, as it dries, because of differing grain orientation.  Even if you don't plane it, you might end up with some thin boards and some thicker boards, never really hitting on the dressed size.  If you thickness plane this "Dressed" lumber so that it is all the same, you will probably end up with lumber thinner than the dressed sizes you sawed.

You can get caught up in semantics as well.   What happens when your savvy customer asks you for 6/4 x 4" and then asks you to throw in a few 2 x 4's too.

It's better to have a few simple rules and a satisfied customer than try to scrape every penny off of the table in the deal. :)

gdingee


WDH

Tom is right (as usual) ;D.  The Industry saws rough lumber thicker than you describe to allow for shrinkage and to assure that there is enough wood to "dress" to get down to the final dimension.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

woodmills1

I price my lumber at full dimension

4/4 for one inch, at woodmizer 4/4 marks...around 1 1/8

2 inch for 2 by on the inch mark.... around 1 7/8

for other specific orders from customers I will modify my pricing.  Sometimes less but also sometimes more.  For example: less for cuts at one inch...around 7/8, but more for half inch or all the same width.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

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