cost per hour and board feet per day

[DDobbs]

I know this is going to be kind of a open ended question.
but here we go.

What is the cost to run your bandmill per hour / day? I understand there is a hundred different motor saw combos.

  How many bd ft a day?

sawing mobile , sawing with a LT 40 hyd or  35 or 30 something in that range.

[rooster 58]

Ddobbs I am starting a commercial operation. You're right, you opened up a can of worms! Without knowing if you are wanting to do the same or do mobile sawing, there are many variables. I am determining my operation costs  on a monthly basis, and then determining my monthly production expectations. After you figure that then you divide  your costs by the production you expect to produce. This will give you your cost per bd ft.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I may be wrong....but I think I read some time back, it cost about $15.00 an hour to run a band mill. You'll never be able to pin point it to the penny, though.

[Chuck White]

I usually clock around 6.5 -7 hours for an average day of sawing and usually go through about 5-6 gallons of gas and produce 1,500 - 1,800 bf of mixed 1 & 2 inch lumber!

That's about as close a guess as I can get!

[customsawyer]

This is going to depend on if you are going to be mobile or stationary. I have two mills, one stationary and one portable. The operating cost for these two mills are a lot different. If you never have to move your mill it will save you lots of money but will limit you on customers. I can cut with the stationary mill for 30% less than I do with the portable mill and it still makes more profit. The stationary mill is always set up and everything is in smooth running order so it produces more bf per hour than the mobile mill.

[dgdrls]

DDobbs,

I'm certain I missed some items here, however
I would account for the following and see where you land:

Fuel cost for mill X  Gallons a day est.
Bands if used  X resharp cost and contingency for broken bands
Saw blade cost to resharpen (if you do it, pay yourself by hourly rate)
otherwise consider service cost divided by number of days or B.F. sawn before resharp service.
Ins. cost per day on saw if covered
Cost of oil changes and filters divided by hours operated breakdown to day cost.
General maintenance cost est per day of ops.  rollers, guides belts etc, your labor or shop costs to repair

So figure those (or almost all those)  are fixed costs that must be covered just to saw.

Think of your local service providers who charge a base fee to arrive at your home and fix the dunny, electric service or washer, along with an hourly and parts rate.
fixed mill Sawyers and Mobile Sawyers are no different, got to cover the tools and expenses somehow.

best
DGDrls

[DDobbs]

Thanks guys........ I added to the 1st post mobile sawing with something like a LT40 hyd or 35 or 30

I have a good friend that will teach me more about sawing. I can go work with him anytime. He has tried to get me to buy a mill a couple times. He has been sawing almost every day since 95. He was mobile but not anymore never leaves the farm an saws 7 days most weeks. he has contract work during the week an custom saws on the weekends. An wow what a setup he has. LT 70 , LT30, 2 resaws ,an a edger.

He has told me some numbers just hate bugging him. 

When you have been unemployed for a year get to thinking hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm should I do that ......lol

thanks again guys

Dave

[Magicman]

I am 98% portable and there can be vast differences from one day to the next.  My profile shows my sawmill, and I usually burn about 4 gallons of Diesel per day and saw from 1.5 to 3.5 Mbf.  Unless I hit metal, I seldom use more than 2 blades per day.  Some days are good and then some days are very good.

[drobertson]

The variation will come in to play for me as to board footage, when I cut cants,(beams) 2" stock or 1" stock, and then how long the logs are, footage will pile up in a hurry with longer logs, 12' to 16'. I have cut as much as 2000 bd/ft on five gallons, and as little as 1000 on five gallons,  material handling is the key factor, not mentioning a trouble free day with maintenance issues. Reduce double handling at all cost.  Shut the mill down when you are not cutting, get a deck full 15 or so logs  and have a good plan on what you are cutting and where the boards, beams, or whatever you are cutting are going.  For one day, take 10 gallons of fuel, half a dozen blades,  well you might just ask MM, he is the portable guru,  and then figure out what it cost you.  I don't think a profitability hand book will give you the answers that you need, only a starting point.

[Brucer]

... I am determining my operation costs  on a monthly basis, and then determining my monthly production expectations. After you figure that then you divide  your costs by the production you expect to produce. This will give you your cost per bd ft.

This is the traditional accounting method -- and it gives you a bogus number.

There is another way.

• Start with your expected income per board foot. That will be determined by the market. You'll be calculating this in $/BF.
• Subtract from that your cost of materials per board foot. If you're doing mobile sawing this number will be zero. Again, the calculation will be in $/BF.
• Subtract from that all the expenses that will be directly proportional to your output. Once again, the calculation will be in $/BF.

That gives you something called "throughput", measured in $/BF.

The next thing you have to do is add up all your fixed expenses -- overheads -- the ones that stay the same regardless of how much you saw. These will include things like insurance, licenses, property taxes, office expenses, utilities, interest payments, and depreciation. These are calculated in $/year.

Now divide your fixed expenses by your throughput. This will tell you how many BF you need to saw each year to cover your fixed expenses. If you can't expect to saw that many BF/year, you will lose money.

Once you have covered your fixed expenses for the year, all the additional throughput goes straight into your pocket.

Why do it this way? Because the traditional method forces you to estimate your annual production to come up with a cost. What if you are wrong? If you guessed low, you could price yourself out of the market. If you guessed high, you might work your butt off and still lose money.

Doing it the other way, you know exactly how much you have to saw in a year to break even. Then you can decide if this is reasonable, or "iffy", or impossible.

One thing I discovered with respect to item #3 above. After a couple of years of record keeping you will be surprised at which expenses are not directly proportional to your production. For example, my sawmill fuel expenses aren't proportional to my output. The engine always spends a certain amount of time idling each day I fire it up, no matter how much production I make that day. Same thing with some of the spare parts.

I assumed that my truck fuel and maintenance expenses would be proportional to my production, but that was way off. Those expenses are proportional to the number of days I drive to work (no matter how many BF I saw each day).

In fact, I discovered that only 2/3 of my sawmill fuel expenses and 2/3 of my spare parts costs vary in proportion to the number of BF I saw. All my other "variable" expenses turn out to be constant from year to year, no matter how much I saw.

One final comment. Production figures measured in BF/hour are meaningless. What matters is how many BF you will average, day after day. You have to include the days when you are servicing the mill and you have zero production. You have to included time spent visiting customers' sites. You have to include the time when you are broke down. I prefer to calculate my average production measured over 3 consecutive months.

[francismilker]

I've only done a little of this but I'm charging $40 per hour with 2 hour minumum or .50 cents per bd.ft.........It depends on the job whether it's by the board foot or by the hour.  I want to make money while being honest and trustworthy to those bringing me their logs.  If they bring some scrubby stuff that's not going to yield too much wood and'll take me half a day to cut, I discuss with them before hand the conditions of charges. 

So far, they're happy 8)

[Sixacresand]

I recently quoted 20 cents/bf to mill 15 to 20 green oak logs for a guy.  He would deliver the logs, pick up the boards and haul off the slabs (for fire wood).  We will see who gets the best deal. It wil be a good chance for a teenager I know to earn some cash as an offbearer and log turner.  .

[drobertson]

sixacresand,  now you are talking!  that will be a good job for you and the lad, worst case senario is 120 bucks in your pocket,  let er rip man!  If you get with it and don't get caught up in double stacking you could be done before lunch, or, leave the last few til after lunch and enjoy the day, 

[DDobbs]

thanks again guys lots of great info smiley_clapping

[Leigh Family Farm]

And THIS thread just got bookmarked for re-reading later on. Thanks for the info!