firewood proccessing by the houror cord?

[riggin rat]

I have a multitek 20-20 that i could do some contract sawing with, what is a fair rate and what method is best. I will most likely have to move a small shovel in to load the deck also.Or I could do what i should have done along time ago and just sell it. any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.    this is in washington state

[nhlogga]

how many cords per hour will your machine produce? what does it cost you to operate your machine per hour? fuel, oil, your time? do you have someone running a shovel or loader or what ever you use to feed wood to the processor? figure that out and go from there. i normally chargr $25 per cord just to cut firewood into blocks with my chainsaw. want i split? another $20 per cord or so. hope that helps. good luck.

[Corley5]

I charge $45 per pulp cord if the client has a way to load the processor.  It's 60 if I take the Bobcat along.  I don't do much custom work  ;) and that's fine with me  ;D

[rebocardo]

Well, after all expenses you should put a min. of $25 per hour into your pocket. So, I would say $50 per hour (upkeep on equipment isn't cheap) or $75 per cord (what I charge).

[John Mc]

The way I look at it, the customer is paying you for cords of wood. They don't give a DanG about how long it took you to do it. Find out the going rate for a cord of firewood, and that's what you charge. If you're busier than you need to be, up your rates a bit. If you're not getting any business, you may have to drop your prices a bit till you are better known in the area.

But hey, I'm not in the commercial firewood business...

John Mc

[gunman63]

I charge $50 per cord with my processor, but really dont want to custom process, so it mite go higher, and figure a cord to a 2 cords a hr, and i dont think u make much if u have to more to do a 10 cd load.

[riggin rat]

I am gonna have to rethink this after the replys, if i am doing small logs, it takes about an hour to do cord, but in say 10 in. dia. and up we can smoke right through it.I think 45-50 bucks a cord is *DanG cheap. moblization and bringing your own machine to load the deck has got to be worth something. machine with conveyor set me back 65,ooo back in 05. I don't have to do this but the machine sits probaly 6-7 mo. a year and would like to have another source of income.  thanks for the replys

[chucker]

" WELCOME " to the forum!! know the area some what, hiked the goat rocks and crest trail from canada to the washougal river years ago...

[gunman63]

this is what i found when i was looking at processors when i bought mine, they ranged from 10 grand to 100,000 grand, and looked at production levels of each,  but it seemed all at 50 grand and below produced  up to 2 cords a hr, most came with out a conveyor. size of  wood they would do was also a factor, would  love one  that would do 20" wood but them cost more. but the wood i buy isnt much 20" wood, I have a hakki, 1x37 so im limited to 16" wood, but its fast, and has its own converyor, they are 20 grand  with infeed deck and power unit, 2 cords is easy with 2 guys over one cord a hr  with one guy, done over 3 cords with 2 guys and decent wood a hr. so at that rate i have 1/3 the cost that u have and can produce the same amount of wood, so $50 a cord isnt bad, i dont think. The small  wood is a bugger on any processor, I solved that too, or at least i think i did, made up a steel rack that holds roughly a cord, I dump all the sticks that are say 5" and below in it and slice it up with the chain saw, takes no time to cut up a cord, and that size wood doesnt need spilting.
the other draw back i had was wasnt on wheels, so i either had to cut into my dump trailer and push it up with the skidsteer, or keep moving the processor with the side steer, easy to do but a time waster, then was looking at prosessors on utube one nite and a guy had the same one but put it on a traler, so went to the buddys scrap yard bought a moblie home frame with axles and with some channel iron  its now moblie  and converyor is 3 feet higher  so now its a higher pile and easy to move.

[John Mc]

As of a couple of years ago, logs on the landing were going for about $100/cord around here. At that time, green hardwood firewood was going for around $160 per cord cut and split (and in some cases, delivered in the local area). That gave a processor about $60/cord to work with

Things have changed since then... green hardwood cut and split is going for around $200 or so (probably will go up a bit by next fall). Seasoned hardwood seems to be in the $250-280 range (was $300+ last fall, when heating oil prices were way up). Not sure what logs on the landing were going for at that time, though.

I'm in rural Vermont, were everybody and his brother seems to have a splitter. However, we're close enough to the city of Burlington & suburbs, that it may have some effect on prices.

John Mc