Sawmill owners - what do you charge for stock?

[newbury]

I was looking for about 20 or 30 2x4x8' oak to replace some 2x4x8 PT wood (about $2.50@ at Lowes).

So I see a local CL ad for oak

Priced below market according to grade - $2.00 to $4.00 per board foot according to width, grade and condition.

So, I think I won't get mine cut and dried for a year, $4/bf is not bad. Each stick is about 0.45 bf, that will be about $2/stick.

After an exchange of emails he's got them in stock for $6 EACH.

Now by my calculations that works out to about $13.50 a board foot.
/edit - found the mistake in my math - it's $1.26 a board foot.

That's incentive for me to drop the oak that's dropping branches on my shop and run it through my LT10.

So my questions for you sawmill owners that sell wood:
What do you charge for stock in relatively small quantities?
Is 2x4x8 a special size?

 

[bcp]

By nominal measurements, a 2x4 x 8ft is over 5 bf.

Bruce

From:
Board Feet Chart

Quick Approximation for Calculating Board Feet

1 x 4 - divide linear length (feet) by 3 - (length x 1/3)
1 x 6 - divide linear length (feet) by 2 - (length x 1/2)
1 x 8 - multiply linear length (feet) by 0.66 - (length x 2/3)
1 x 12 - linear length (feet) equals board feet - (length x 1)
2 x 4 - multiply linear length by 0.66 - (length x 2/3)
2 x 6 - linear length (feet) equals board feet - (length x 1)
2 x 8 - multiply linear length by 1.33 - (length x 1 1/3)
2 x 12 - multiply linear length by 2 - (length x 2)

 

[TnAndy]

After an exchange of emails he's got them in stock for $6 EACH.

Now by my calculations that works out to about $13.50 a board foot.?

You need to 'recalculate' (as the lady in my GPS dash unit says when I don't take the turn SHE wants )

A 2x4x8 is 5.33 board feet. If he sells them for $6, that is $1.26 a board foot.....not $13.50. ( 6 / 5.33 = 1.257)

Personally, I sell framing grade stuff for about 50 cents/bdft....so $1.26 is way high in my opinion, unless you're buying FAS (top hardwood grade) lumber.

 

[farmer2009]

What do you guys charge to just saw? Somebody brings you a log or load of logs and says "I want yXz. " Would you even consider it?

Have a friend who has a bandsaw mill and he's trying to figure out what to charge. He's had some ask if he would do it.

 

[4570Man]

Around here portable saw mill owners charge between 20 and 50 cents per foot to saw your wood plus the cost of each blade ruined because of metal or ceramic in the logs.

 

[PILOON]

Around here they charge by the hour with a 4 hr min.
Had them saw me a 24" pine that I figured yielded close to 1000 ft.
My outlay was about $200 or .20/bd ft.
I since made some nice furniture with that wood.
I air dried it under some old tin roofing that I shaped sort of like a hut. over the summer it was ready to use.

 

[roadhunter]

The local mill around here charges 40 cents per bd ft for first grade and 25 cents for seconds. This is green ponderosa pine.

 

[TnAndy]

What do you guys charge to just saw? Somebody brings you a log or load of logs and says "I want yXz. " Would you even consider it?

Have a friend who has a bandsaw mill and he's trying to figure out what to charge. He's had some ask if he would do it.

f

I charge $35/hr, and they are welcome to help off bear slabs and load their wood the day I saw theirs to reduce my time to just sawing. I also charge $20/blade if I hit metal in their logs. ( "I grew up with that tree....I KNOW there isn't anything in it"....ZING...the sound the blade makes as it cuts thru that 16p nail he drove in there as a kid and forgot about....ahahahaaa)

 

[SPIKER]

This area (1/2 mile behind my farm) we have a lot of Amish sawmills usually 10cent to 15 cents BF for logs dropped off a their house to cut. I have taken 3 or 4 trailer loads over to the neighbor and have it all setting under my lean too. car hauler loaded up with 6 or 8 logs has some weight to it. bad part it both places set on top of a hill and only cross roads are in bottom of the valley on opposite sides of the hill... First load I took over with my gear drive tractor so I could unload logs. That was bad idea, weight pushing (engine braking) down hill knocked tractor out of gear and I had to drop FEL and Box Blade (trailer hitch welded into box blade) onto gravel road to stop. Rest of loads are tucked over on trailer and horses pull em off! It is a 4 or so mile round trip out drive (away from mill) down over hill & up valley on one side. Then back into amish drive (away from farm) unload and back to farm over other side of valley starting out as bottom of the hill going up is fun or starting out at top and stopping at bottom to turn = more fun...

M