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Got Firewood?

Started by Busy Beaver Lumber, December 19, 2011, 01:28:35 PM

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Busy Beaver Lumber

I know the forum members like pic's so thought I would post some showing a nice wack of bundled firewood that we accumulated in the September time frame. What you see is less than one months supply based on our customers demands.

We take a lot of pride in being a green operation. All this wood either comes from sawmill cutoffs, tree surgeon removed yard trees that are not really fit to mill, or from the tops of trees left behind from logging operations.

There are about 3200 bundles of wood in these pictures. Now comes the physical labor of loading the truck and trailer.







Oldest Daughter, Samantha lends a hand sweeping up the building to keep the work area safe and free of debris





I am 6 foot 2 inches tall and as you can see, many of the piles are taller than I am. In fact the one in the rear of the building is almost 9 feet tall. As a point of reference, the office area is 9 foot tall to the base of the storage area above the office.



Fully loaded truck being delivered to one of our customers. With three people, it takes us just under and hour to load both truck and trailer. There is 750 bundles on this load. Our maximum capacity using this truck and trailer combination is 800 bundles.

Woodmizer LT-10 10hp
Epilog Mini 18 Laser Engraver with rotary axis
Digital Wood Carver CNC Machine
6 x 10 dump trailer
Grizzly 15in Spiral Cut Surface Planer
Grizzly 6in Spiral Cut Joiner
Twister Firewood Bundler
Jet 10-20 Drum Sander
Jet Bandsaw



Save a tree...eat a beaver!

SwampDonkey

Always nice to be busy as long as there are customers calling.  8)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Busy Beaver Lumber

Woodmizer LT-10 10hp
Epilog Mini 18 Laser Engraver with rotary axis
Digital Wood Carver CNC Machine
6 x 10 dump trailer
Grizzly 15in Spiral Cut Surface Planer
Grizzly 6in Spiral Cut Joiner
Twister Firewood Bundler
Jet 10-20 Drum Sander
Jet Bandsaw



Save a tree...eat a beaver!

Coon

How many bundles does it take to make a cord on average?  Looks good but for around here it's not really feasible unless you truck the loads to the city.  In these parts birch is the big seller due to the species that grow around here along with the volume available. Aspen is the most available and only brings about 1/4 of what good seasoned birch does. 
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 w/Kohler,
Husqvarna, Stihl and, Jonsereds Saws

Busy Beaver Lumber

Coon

A cord is 128 cu ft, and each bundle is .75 cu ft. So if you do the division, each cord produces 170.7 bundles
Woodmizer LT-10 10hp
Epilog Mini 18 Laser Engraver with rotary axis
Digital Wood Carver CNC Machine
6 x 10 dump trailer
Grizzly 15in Spiral Cut Surface Planer
Grizzly 6in Spiral Cut Joiner
Twister Firewood Bundler
Jet 10-20 Drum Sander
Jet Bandsaw



Save a tree...eat a beaver!

T Welsh

Busy Beaver Lumber, If you dont mind me asking? how much are you getting per bundle delivered to your retailers. we are on the verge of doing the same with our vendors and they are balking about our suggested price right now! I know what they are selling for in our area, but they all want to make 100% profit on our hard work and labor! Tim

beenthere

Quote from: T Welsh on December 26, 2011, 09:22:06 AM
....................... but they all want to make 100% profit on our hard work and labor! Tim

By that, do you mean they want to sell the bundle at twice what they pay you for it?

If so, not really 100% profit ;)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

T Welsh

Quote from: beenthere on December 26, 2011, 10:46:16 AM
Quote from: T Welsh on December 26, 2011, 09:22:06 AM
....................... but they all want to make 100% profit on our hard work and labor! Tim

By that, do you mean they want to sell the bundle at twice what they pay you for it?

If so, not really 100% profit ;)
beenthere, Actually 100% plus some! The retailers we have talked to only want to pay a set price for bundled wood and want a price break for buying bulk. what they are offering us is not making dollars and cents for the extra amount of work and costs to bundle and deliver. Tim

Busy Beaver Lumber

T Welsh

Sent you a PM with current prices and terms. I will not haggle much on price, but I take good care of my customers too, even going as far as to provide same day, last minute deliveries and even deliveries on Sunday if they really need one due to excellent weekend sales that exceed normal expectations.

It is not unusual for the retailer to mark it up 80% to 100% more than what they pay for it.

Get guys try to underbid me from time to time, then the sell 200 bundles to the customer and go out of business leaving the customer high and dry.
Woodmizer LT-10 10hp
Epilog Mini 18 Laser Engraver with rotary axis
Digital Wood Carver CNC Machine
6 x 10 dump trailer
Grizzly 15in Spiral Cut Surface Planer
Grizzly 6in Spiral Cut Joiner
Twister Firewood Bundler
Jet 10-20 Drum Sander
Jet Bandsaw



Save a tree...eat a beaver!

T Welsh

Busy Beaver Lumber, Thank you for the explanation.
I am seeing how the bundled firewood works now! We have not sold to retailers yet and what they want to pay us for the product delivered is not lucrative enough to start doing this full scale. we will try a local store and see how it pans out. we plow the store and are there everyday for coffee and or lunch. the owner knows we sell bulk firewood and have a processor and has said to us why dont you guys bundle and sell! It will be a good example of how the game is played and weather it will work for us or not! Thanks for all the comments. Tim

bandmiller2

BB Lumber,around here we call that getting lucky wood,I have seen it going for almost $5.00 a bundle locally.Campgrounds is a good place to set up a display.The time is rapidly coming when firewood for commerce will have to be kilned or treated for insects. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

Firewoodking

What is the gvw on that three axle trailer, busy beaver?
Firewoodking

r.man

Tim, stick to your guns, all bundled firewood is bulk or you don't want to have that customer and all retailers will try to pay as little as possible. Find out the average retail price for wood of comparable quality size and weight and figure on a 50 percent mark-up. If you can make money on that don't worry if a retailer sells for more. You could probably ask more if you are willing to provide the loan of a storage receptacle. Around here companies will supply cages for firewood or propane exchange and merchandising freezers for bagged ice. Stores that want to supply their own storage generally get a bit better price. Busy Beaver where do your customers store their supply of bundles generally?
Life is too short or my list is too long, not sure which. Dec 2014

Busy Beaver Lumber

R.MAN

That varies from customer to customer. Some campgrounds store it under a shed roof, others must lock it a building to keep it from being liberated during off hours. I would say the majority of customers have it under lock and key and under roof. Do have a few 24 hour stores that keep it under building overhang and on pallet in front of store
Woodmizer LT-10 10hp
Epilog Mini 18 Laser Engraver with rotary axis
Digital Wood Carver CNC Machine
6 x 10 dump trailer
Grizzly 15in Spiral Cut Surface Planer
Grizzly 6in Spiral Cut Joiner
Twister Firewood Bundler
Jet 10-20 Drum Sander
Jet Bandsaw



Save a tree...eat a beaver!

Logging logginglogging

Quote from: Busy Beaver Lumber on December 19, 2011, 01:28:35 PM
I know the forum members like pic's so thought I would post some showing a nice wack of bundled firewood that we accumulated in the September time frame. What you see is less than one months supply based on our customers demands.

We take a lot of pride in being a green operation. All this wood either comes from sawmill cutoffs, tree surgeon removed yard trees that are not really fit to mill, or from the tops of trees left behind from logging operations.

There are about 3200 bundles of wood in these pictures. Now comes the physical labor of loading the truck and trailer.







Oldest Daughter, Samantha lends a hand sweeping up the building to keep the work area same and free of debris





I am 6 foot 2 inches tall and as you can see, many of the piles are taller than I am. In fact the one in the rear of the building is almost 9 feet tall. As a point of reference, the office area is 9 foot tall to the base of the storage area above the office.



Fully loaded truck being delivered to one of our customers. With three people, it takes us just under and hour to load both truck and trailer. There is 750 bundles on this load. Our maximum capacity using this truck and trailer combination is 800 bundles.



A lot of pride in being a green operation with plastic wrapped  / plastic taped wood?

Busy Beaver Lumber

Unbelievable

3200 bundles of firewood rescued from scrap wood piles, mostly from wood that would have been pushed into a landfill or burned in a burn pile emitting tons of smoke for days, and all you can do is criticize me for using a minute amount of plastic wrap to bundle the wood and put it to good use.

Do you even have any idea how little shrink wrap it takes to do a bundle? Well let me help educate you.

It takes approximately 6 grams of shrink wrap to make a bundle of wood.

By comparison, and empty 16oz plastic water bottle weighs in at over 12 grams and an empty milk container weighs in at over 60 grams, so i guess being as concerned as you are about plastic waste, you will no longer drink any beverage from disposable plastic bottles or buy your milk in plastic jugs, since your empty milk carton has more plastic in it than it takes me to wrap 10 bundles of wood.

By weight, plastic packaging makes up less than 4% of discarded products in the municipal waste stream. You want to save the planet, you better look at the bigger contributors to our waste dumps.

You probably throw away more plastic worth of empty bottles and wrap from your home than i use to bundle 25,000 bundles of wood a year. Just a 1 gallon milk jug a week equals me wrapping 520 bundles, not to mention all the other plastic used to package and transport your food and other store purchases.

Guess "Loggging logging logging" has nothing positive to contribute and feels the need to criticize others who do strive to be productive forum members. It is no wonder why you give no personal information  about yourself. If that was the most intelligent, no productive comment I could come up with, I would not want anyone to identify me either or disgrace the state I lived in. Get a life

I stand by the fact that we are a "green operation". Green does not mean zero pollution. It means recycling all that is possible (glass, plastic, paper, metal, leftover food, and grease) and reusing useful items, (such as scrap wood headed for a polluting burn pile or land fill) a person can minimize his/her waste. This helps decrease the need for landfill space and conserve energy. If a responsible camper wished to recycle the plastic wrap, I would see no problem in them doing so and then I have produced no waste at all 8).

Woodmizer LT-10 10hp
Epilog Mini 18 Laser Engraver with rotary axis
Digital Wood Carver CNC Machine
6 x 10 dump trailer
Grizzly 15in Spiral Cut Surface Planer
Grizzly 6in Spiral Cut Joiner
Twister Firewood Bundler
Jet 10-20 Drum Sander
Jet Bandsaw



Save a tree...eat a beaver!

Logging logginglogging

Yes the plastic wrap is wasteful and not green. I could also salvage wood and do it without the plastic wrap... and not even make claims of being green. Thats just called not being wastefull. LOL the plastic is un nessary. You are NOT a green operation

Logging logginglogging

FYI i dont drink bottled water or bevrages from plastic.... I have my own well water.... and I recycle any and all plastic.... Infast we recycle and reuse everything from compost to whatever. We dont even have garbage collecting because we have no garbage. You let me educate you .... That plastic is unnessesary and you my frind don't even know what Green is. You must be a flat lander!

proteus

Quote from: Logging logginglogging on March 20, 2013, 07:57:21 AM
FYI i dont drink bottled water or bevrages from plastic.... I have my own well water.... and I recycle any and all plastic.... Infast we recycle and reuse everything from compost to whatever. We dont even have garbage collecting because we have no garbage. You let me educate you .... That plastic is unnessesary and you my frind don't even know what Green is. You must be a flat lander!

Good points Logging. What would you suggest as a alternative packaging method?
Greg

Al_Smith

 :D ----and pump water with a windmill and cut firewood with a bowsaw too no doubt .How nice !

Pirates like me run old noisey smoke spewing chainsaws and drink beer from aluminum  cans and bottled water from a plastic  bottle plus use electricity to pump our water .Plus have toilets that flush with water ,a tad more I might add than those works of wizardry that flush on a gallon that it takes three flushs to get it all down .Although I suppose we could wee wee in the woods like the bears if we choose to .

Ah yes ,the oil wars ,the punctuation  debate ,the gasoline debate and now who's being "green " not to be confused of being a green weinie in a manner of speaking .Funny how the pot is always trying to call the kettle black . 8)

Logging logginglogging

I suggest wooden home made pallet type things like in one of the other posts on here, or no packing at all ...

SwampDonkey

Used to see bundles with burlap yarn wrapped on it. Just burn the yarn like burning grass. I've used lots of the stuff when sewing by hand 75-100 lb potato sacs.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

beenthere

Quote from: Logging logginglogging on March 20, 2013, 10:55:44 AM
I suggest wooden home made pallet type things like in one of the other posts on here, or no packing at all ...
Doubt the firewood buyers that now pick up a small $5 bundle of wood for their one-time use in their fireplace would want to buy a home-made pallet type thing of wood, nor would they want to buy from a pile dumped out at the local Mart.
Selling wood by the piece, or maybe weighing it like a batch of bananas might work for the Mart, but I think plastic wrapped bundles or bundles in the mesh bags will likely prevail as the best method.
Makes me curious how, or why, logginglogginglogging thinks he knows what "green" is or how it can possibly be defined.
So typical to call out others as being wrong for doing things different than ones' self.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Al_Smith

Just to point out those little shrink wrapped bundles are for retail sales at gas stations and what not .How else could you sell it .5 gallon metal bucket maybe ?

The people that buy them don't want a whole pallett full of firewood .Just a bundle or two for the ambiance in front of a fireplace .

Now think about it .Perhaps a nice fire ,soft music ,little sip of wine ,pretty lady .How can you beat a deal like that? Now come on people I'm 65 years of age and can remember that stuff still .Not a bad way to spend an evening shrink wrap or not .

I suppose if a person were really really commited to this green business they could recycle the shrink wrap to use on a sandwich .Might be a little gritty though .

Al_Smith

Now there ya go good ole Swamp to the rescue.Old burlap bags full. Problem is where to get the bags .The old sacks went the way of the passenger pigeon I think .Wouldn't go over too well to sell 5 bucks worth of firewood in a 6 dollar sack I wouldn't think .Deposit on the bag maybe ,popular as a turd in a punch bowl no doubt .

I suppose a person could make a statement and use a green dyed sack .Green shrink wrap would be cheaper though . ;D

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