QUESTION????

[SMOKEY.S83]

I'm new to this site and so far love the reading...learning. Got a new LT40HD28 coming next week.
My question is: When people bring me their logs to be cut, What's a good price to charge for soft woods/BF. What's a good price to charge for hardwoods /BF?

What should I charge to just cut 6x6's and 8x8's. Not as many cuts. Thanks. David

[mike p]

i have never cut soft wood other than red cedar.
 sometimes do it for 25cents & i try to get 30 cents a BF. but its hard to collect when the local amish are sawing for 20-25 cents

[HaroldCR - AKA Fla.-Deadheader]

 I would charge the same, no matter what the type wood or what sizes. The bigger the dimensions, the harder to handle.

 Try to shoot for $65.00 per hour, and see what it comes out to at a bd/ft rate.

 Any time you are not putting the blade into the wood, you are losing time-money. That's why the reference to hourly rate. You may find you have to raise the rate by bd/ft, to equal the $65.00.

 Softwood-hardwood, it doesn't matter, IF you have the mill tuned correctly and running efficiently. You will spend as much time handling logs-lumber-slabs, as you actually do sawing.

 Do you have any experience with a band mill ??

[Sawing/poolman]

You will have a fast machine so you can charge by the hour.You can charge 90 dollars an hour and 30 dollars for every nail struck blade.If you could get that, you can pay bills to live on.Or 20 cents a ft on beams and 30cents on 1 by stuff.If you could make 300 or 500 dollars a day and keep people coming with logs you will win.

[SMOKEY.S83]

To be on the honest side of things....no I do not have any experience yet. I have been an offbearer / loader on a friends mill. I have watched him for years but I have not done any sawing.
My plan was to saw at 20 cents /BF for PINE and 25 cents for OAK. I was just wondering do I measure BF of the log before I cut or do I figure BF of the finished lumber and then multiply x .20?

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

Measure your board footage of sawed lumber.

[Sawing/poolman]

I have used the doyle log scale that you can print from the internet.Then charge 20 cents a log brdft.You can always say that you will make more than the scale because a band wont waste wood.Trade on halves then sell your share also.Just survive with it in a bad economy any way possible.

[Stevem]

FWIW. 
It depends!

It depends on the size logs your sawing.  Smaller logs are more work to get the board footage.  Large logs near the limit of your mill are time eaters. 

It depends on how much defect is in the log.  If you charge by the sawn board foot what goes in the waste pile is no pay.  (I like to charge by gross log scale and I don't care how much defect is in the log)

It depends on whether you have help.

It depends on if the customer wants the lumber stickered.  Who's stickers?

It depends on the sizes the customer wants.  Anything over 16' should carry a premium.  Weird sizes should have a premium attached (where else they going to get em?).  Large timbers always cost more.  There harder to handle and it takes better logs to cut them.  Wide boards same things.     

It depends on what other local saws are charging as to what you can get.

Special cuts such as vertical grain, quarter sawn, FOHC (free of heart center)  reduces yield from the log and take longer to saw.  Some people charge extra for thin boards or narrow boards.  (It's going to cost more to cut 1" x 2" all day)

I bid one job at $60 an hour because I didn't want it.  Customer wanted burls cut off, some slabs, lumber stickered, short logs (or long firewood?), sloped cutting site and no help.  14 hours later I hadn't cut 1500 board feet other than the slabs.

That said, I'm mobile and like to get $0.35/bdf gross log scale.  $25 blade charge (for nails and such) and $25 setup for out of area travel (covers gas).  Lower rates for "commercial" customers.  It depends.  Easy to quote 2 x 6 and such but it depends. 

[Stevem]

Oh, disclaimer.

I probably don't know what I'm talking about.  Lots more smarts on this site than what I have.  All are friends.