Here's a topic I haven't been questioned on in a while

DR Buck · October 18, 2011, 01:50:44 PM

Customer: How much do you charge?

Me: 35¢ per board foot for recovered lumber.

Customer: What if the boards are 2" thick?

Me: 35¢ per board foot for recovered lumber.

Customer:

Don't make sense. There's less cutting. It should be cheaper.

Me: A board foot is 144 cubic inches, no matter how you cut it. When I cut your stickers there is 10 to 12 times more cutting and it's still 35¢ per board foot for recovered lumber.

Customer:

Welll ok, but it still don't make sense. When can you start?

Me: ;D

Jim H · October 18, 2011, 02:07:38 PM

Thats one of the reasons I work by the hour :

.

Meadows Miller · October 18, 2011, 02:14:49 PM

Gday

I know the conversation well

;) :D :D but it all depends on the job if i go Volume or Hourly rate if i have the feeling someone is going to chew into my time i charge by the hour ;) ;D

Regards Chris

CalebL · October 18, 2011, 02:35:19 PM

I also charge 35¢ per board foot. I get a kick out of those guys that can't understand why I would charge double that if they want their logs cut 2/4.

Tom · October 18, 2011, 02:59:39 PM

Customer: How much do you charge?

Me: 35¢ per board foot for recovered lumber.

Customer: What if the boards are 2" thick?

Me: 35¢ per board foot for recovered lumber.

Customer: Don't make sense. There's less cutting. It should be cheaper.

Me: Holy smokes! You're right. I'm not getting near enough for my one-by stuff. :P :-\

Ivey · October 18, 2011, 03:09:26 PM

That's a good one Tom! Glad to see you here!! 8)

DR Buck · October 18, 2011, 05:25:18 PM

Welcome back Tom. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

POSTON WIDEHEAD · October 18, 2011, 05:47:48 PM

I am going to print this, put it on my board at the mill and let my confused customers read it while I saw.

zopi · October 18, 2011, 06:03:18 PM

These are not the bdft you are looking for...

Jim_Rogers · October 18, 2011, 06:34:51 PM

I had a customer tell me that when I sawed out his logs that he wasn't going to pay me for all the side lumber off the log, because he didn't want it.
He just wanted the timber out of the middle.
He also told me that he wasn't going to pay me my regular rate because it was less work to make a timber out of the middle.

He brought me a 10 wheel log truck load of 16' logs and wanted 8x8x10' timbers.

He told me that he wasn't going to pay me to cut off the extra 6' or dispose of it.

His logs are still here underneath a pile that has almost turned to soil.

Needless to say we never did business again.

And I agree with Tom's statement....

T Welsh · October 18, 2011, 07:06:19 PM

Quote from: Jim H on October 18, 2011, 02:07:38 PM
Thats one of the reasons I work by the hour :.

I,m by the hour too! have a lot of yuppies around here all driving 50k cars and they know everything! I just stand there and let them tell me what do to do! all the while I am on the clock and if a 1/2 log takes and hour so be it. I, as have most of you have to (grin and bear it sometimes) Tim

isawlogs · October 18, 2011, 08:05:55 PM

I saw by the hour also. Makes all those argumints about what is a boardfoot and why is it not cheaper to do this ... Sawing time starts when I start to set up the mill, if he wants to have a coffee and explaine to me what all he wants out of his/her pile of wood , fine by me. I do a lot of beams and it would be way to easy for me to charge by the B/F then by the hour , but by charging by the hour I don't strangle my customers and I still get my part of the cake.
I have had customers that did not want to pay by the hour , they thought it was much better for them to go by the B/F , so be it

After the saw dust hit the ground off the last log and tally up the bill , he wanted to pay by the hour

Like that is going to go down , :

;D

Dan_Shade · October 18, 2011, 08:24:54 PM

I scale international and charge by scale.

r.man · October 18, 2011, 10:05:00 PM

I have wondered this before when hearing about customers wanting timbers, if the customer was willing to pay a bf price for the timbers and didn't want the other lumber would that not be to the benefit to the sawyer if the logs had some extra to them. Am I thinking backwards here? My thought is the customer considers the extra 6 ft of log and anything more than the 8x8 timber to be waste. So the sawyer saws the log down to an 8x8 timber and all the lumber produced is his. He has effectively been sawing for himself so really the 8x8 has not accrued any time against the customer. Now the sawyer takes the 16 foot timber and cuts his 6 ft timber off the end. He has still been doing his own work and now is able to charge a bft rate for the timber that is left over from removing his own lumber. I can easily see that if the log is barely able to make the 8x8 the sawyer might only recover a 6 ft 6x6 but if the log was a decent size wouldn't the extra lumber produced be a real plus compared to the lost charge for cutting it? I think I am probably missing something obvious but I need to be wacked over the head with it.

zopi · October 18, 2011, 10:09:54 PM

Had a guy the other day who wanted to pay me by the hour...until I explained that the mill was manual...and sllllooooowww...all of a sudden a quarter a bdft did not seem too bad.

DR Buck · October 18, 2011, 10:14:29 PM

Quote from: r.man on October 18, 2011, 10:05:00 PM
I have wondered this before when hearing about customers wanting timbers, if the customer was willing to pay a bf price for the timbers and didn't want the other lumber would that not be to the benefit to the sawyer if the logs had some extra to them. Am I thinking backwards here? My thought is the customer considers the extra 6 ft of log and anything more than the 8x8 timber to be waste. So the sawyer saws the log down to an 8x8 timber and all the lumber produced is his. He has effectively been sawing for himself so really the 8x8 has not accrued any time against the customer. Now the sawyer takes the 16 foot timber and cuts his 6 ft timber off the end. He has still been doing his own work and now is able to charge a bft rate for the timber that is left over from removing his own lumber. I can easily see that if the log is barely able to make the 8x8 the sawyer might only recover a 6 ft 6x6 but if the log was a decent size wouldn't the extra lumber produced be a real plus compared to the lost charge for cutting it? I think I am probably missing something obvious but I need to be wacked over the head with it.

First of all, the entire log belongs to the customer. Its not yours to take boards off of and keep. Second, in my case, most of my sawing is done portable at the customer site. How would I get boards home if I'm towing a mill? How cost effective is it to make multiple trips? Finally, the outer boards tend to be lesser quality do to bark inclusion and sapwood. Why would I want them?

If the customer doesn't want the end 6 foot of a log, then they should cut it off before I arrive. If it goes on the mill, they pay for it.