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Stickering lumber in addition to sawing!

Started by Chuck White, July 03, 2009, 05:15:30 PM

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Chuck White

We saw "mobile", and we finally have a customer who wants his lumber stacked and stickered!

We'll most likely use edgings from edged 1" boards!

What would be a fair price to charge for the extra work?

Both myself and the off-bearer will be doing the stacking and stickering.

Chuck
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

WH_Conley

It is going to slow down production, at least if sawing by the foot, charge enough to come out at least even. If by the hour, not really a big deal.
Bill

backwoods sawyer

You could charge by the thousand, or a set amount for the whole job, but if you are going to charge for stickering I would use good stickers, and plenty of them, because if his stack bows, twist and goes to crap on him and you use substandard sticks that were spaced to far apart he would have a leg stand on if he took you to court, but if you stack his wood with the same care and standard that you use for your own wood then he would not have a leg to stand on. On the other hand, you could not charge him for stickering and just call it a bonus.
Backwoods Custom Milling Inc.
100% portable. . Oregons largest portable sawmill service, serving all of Oregon, from our Backwoods to yours..sawing since 1991

Brad_S.

I've always added 5ยข per boardfoot.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

Chuck White

What we do when sawing is called "dead stacking" I think!

That is, each size of boards is stacked flat, one on top of the other throughout the  day!

Then at the end of the day they would be stickered.

That way, it wouldn't slow the sawing down!

Chuck
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

Dan_Shade

I wouldn't use a sticker with bark on it in the stack.

Personally, I avoid that sort of thing, it's a real hassle, and depending on the size of the job, it could take hours. 

Does the customer have a flat location with bunks or anything to stack the lumber onto?
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

tyb525

Wet stickers can also stain. I usually use some cheap/scrap/free 1' x whatever pine boards that seem to be everywhere to make stickers from.
LT10G10, Stihl 038 Magnum, many woodworking tools. Currently a farm service applicator, trying to find time to saw!

Firebass

Stickers on a swingmill are a bonus.   :)

Brucer

When I was sawing for my timberframing customer, I would dead stack a week's worth of side lumber and then he'd send over a couple of his junior workers to stack and sticker the wood. I worked out his costs for him -- about $0.15 per BF, which includes the cost of his forklift to shift the piles, and the cost of the lumber tarps.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Chuck White

This job will be mostly White Pine, with about 600 bf of yellow birch and 1000 bf of spruce.
All together, somewhere around 15,000 bf!
I'll be using trim stuff to sticker with, minus any bark.
We'll be stacking this on peeled slabwood!


Chuck
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

Tim/South

I would personally try to stay away from stickering a customers lumber.
When I first started I would sticker just because I did not like lumber flat stacked, just thought it was a neater job when stickered. I was new to sawing and would take the sticker time as sort of a break to think and make sure I was doing everything right about the whole sawing idea.
Now I do not want to be bothered with stickering unless it is for myself or unless I am getting paid well to sticker. Part of that is because I now usually saw by myself. The other part is because stickers are a pain to make.
I have an edger and use those to sticker my own. I am not as picky when stickering my own if it is dimensional lumber. On my good stuff, I sticker with good stuff.
DanG shared a nice idea on how to saw stickers to length. He has a picture of the jig he uses and I have copied his idea. I was sawing them to length one at a time before.

After saying all that, I do not mind as much placing a sticker at each end and one in the middle as I am to stickering every 14 inches.
I might ask the customer if he was willing to hire a couple of neighborhood kids to sticker and him be responsible for that end.

I will be interested in seeing what others charge to sticker. No more free stickering for me.


petefrom bearswamp

Oops!
I guess I posted this a couple of times
Hi to all
I am 95% stationary.
My tail sawer (offbearer) stickers the lumber as it comes off the mill via the board return to several stacks according to width  ( I only saw one length at a time).
This is  for my own peckerwood mill sales of Hemlock, spruce and pine with stickers about 3' to 4' apart. haven't had any problems with warp sag or sweep as yet..
With my own hardwoods, Cherry, Maple and Ash. I have him sticker 2' apart.
Keeps him hopping!.
Both types of stickering are then stacked with 4" to 6" bolsters on the ground, spaced accordingly and sometimes with a vapor barrier under the piles, then covered and I use roundup to keep the weeds down.
When sawing for others i dead stack.
Pete



Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

John Woodworth

I quit going through the extra time and expence of stickers buy getting lath bundles at the lumber yard, they are cheap and go a long way.
Two Garret 21 skidders, Garret 10 skidder, 580 Case Backhoe, Mobile Dimension sawmill, 066, 046 mag, 044, 036mag, 034, 056 mag, 075, 026, lewis winch

tyb525

I don't think lath would support the stack at all though, so the weight is not as evenly distributed, I would think. And if it's the lath I'm thinking of, the gap between boards is less than 1/2". I may be wrong.
LT10G10, Stihl 038 Magnum, many woodworking tools. Currently a farm service applicator, trying to find time to saw!

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