semi load of cherry to plane what to charge

[ozarkgem]

A guy ask me how much to plane a semi load of 4/4 cherry lumber. Mostly 6-8" wide and 8' long. I have no idea what to quote him. I have a powermatic 16" Crescent 24" and a Belsaw 12" Planer. Only the Powermatic has carbide blades. Any suggestions on price.

[sawwood]

Do you mean 8'  long ? If the lumber needs to be jointed before we charge .35 cents
a bf for both operations. Most of the time I need to joint the lumber to make one face
flat before planning. I have had lumber that was under 7/8 thick so was only able to
plane to 3/4. I have the Woodmaster 18 and have to have lumber more then 12" long
to run threw it.

Sawwood

[ozarkgem]

Do you mean 8'  long ? If the lumber needs to be jointed before we charge .35 cents
a bf for both operations. Most of the time I need to joint the lumber to make one face
flat before planning. I have had lumber that was under 7/8 thick so was only able to
plane to 3/4. I have the Woodmaster 18 and have to have lumber more then 12" long
to run threw it.

Sawwood

He just wants it planed to sell in his store. I haven't seen the lumber yet.

[Kcwoodbutcher]

For just skip planing I charge 10 cents a surface foot, that's 20 cents a foot for both sides.

[YellowHammer]

I'm a little different on this one (again ;D). I charge the same amount to contract plane as I do to contract saw.  Both take up my time, and I have about the same bdft production as I do with either.  Both take a relatively expensive piece of equipment, with maintenance costs and similar lumber handling requirements.  So I charge the same, and I make the same money whether I'm sawing or planing.  Or more importantly, I'm not losing money doing one instead of the other.
As always, the customer is free to walk away if they consider me too expensive. 
YH

[backwoods sawyer]

I have two planer mills that I work with and both charge $.25 bft to plane both sides. And prices go up from there.
(Sawing is $.30 bft)

[red oaks lumber]

for just 2 side planing we charge .20 b.f. keep in mind we can do that truckload in a day. your equipment will take some time

[Cedarman]

You will have a huge amount of shavings.  Disposal plan?

[Leigh Family Farm]

Here's two questions I think you need to answer first: how much per hour do you need to get paid? How much can you process in an hour?

Let's say your machine costs, blades, taxes, etc. come to $50/hour. And you feel that your salary should be $15/hour, so that makes a total cost of $65/hour as a total. (I understand you can just tell the customer the charge is $65/hour but you were looking for a bdft. cost)

A 4/4 x 8" x 8' piece of lumber is 5.33 bdft. per piece. At $.20/bdft, each board will cost $1.06. Now lets say you can process 60 boards in an hour, which to me doesn't seem unreasonable. That would mean you would make $63.60/hour as a wage, or just below you required $65/hour.

Another good point that was brought up was waste disposal. That's a lot of shavings to deal with, so I would have a plan for that as well.  Contact your local farmers and offer them a $10 a pickup load of shavings if they come pick it up or something like that. That little extra income would get you to your required $65/hour.

I hope this helps get you a starting point in your decision. Personally, I agree with Yellowhammer, in that my time costs the same whether I am sawing or planning.

[ozarkgem]

You will have a huge amount of shavings.  Disposal plan?

The local animal shelter takes all my shavings.

[ozarkgem]

Here's two questions I think you need to answer first: how much per hour do you need to get paid? How much can you process in an hour?

Let's say your machine costs, blades, taxes, etc. come to $50/hour. And you feel that your salary should be $15/hour, so that makes a total cost of $65/hour as a total. (I understand you can just tell the customer the charge is $65/hour but you were looking for a bdft. cost)
I guess I should run an 8' piece through and time it.

A 4/4 x 8" x 8' piece of lumber is 5.33 bdft. per piece. At $.20/bdft, each board will cost $1.06. Now lets say you can process 60 boards in an hour, which to me doesn't seem unreasonable. That would mean you would make $63.60/hour as a wage, or just below you required $65/hour.

Another good point that was brought up was waste disposal. That's a lot of shavings to deal with, so I would have a plan for that as well.  Contact your local farmers and offer them a $10 a pickup load of shavings if they come pick it up or something like that. That little extra income would get you to your required $65/hour.

I hope this helps get you a starting point in your decision. Personally, I agree with Yellowhammer, in that my time costs the same whether I am sawing or planning.

[low_48]

I would also be worried about the quality of the wood you are getting. Lots of warp, twist, and knots will make it a nightmare to get through those machines. Couldn't pay me enough to run a semi load of cherry through those machines. Well you could, but I would charge enough to pay for the good used strato-planer I would buy to run it.

[Leigh Family Farm]

Ozarkgem, I wouldn't time just one piece. I would process as many pieces as I could comfortably in an hour and use that number. It would give you a better average time for putting a piece through the process.

[red oaks lumber]

i would think working in the shop the rate you need to generate per hour is higher than your rate for sawing. more equipment, more electric, more ins.  ect.  i know in our shop we can produce a ton more money planing wood than sawing but, i have alot more overhead in the shop also.

[backwoods sawyer]

Planer mills can also out produce sawmills.
We always ran the production sawmill 14 shifts a week and the planer 10 shift a week. Even in smaller operations I have worked around the planer out produced the sawmill. But always seems to take more people to operate a planer then a sawmill.

Planers can be high maintenance when ran hard as well so keep that in mind when figuring $bft and time to complete.

[trim4u2nv]

We sell a bunch of s4s lumber and much less s2s (skip planed lumber).  Most retail customers want s4s.  What type of lumber does your customer want?  Also be sure to have the ability to reject lumber with waves, cupping, or excessive twist.  It will eat up excessive time cleaning it up.  As others have said 1. test run a few pieces and have someone stopwatch your time. 2. Figure where and how you will move semi-loads of shavings. 3. Think 2 or 4 sided planer if you can keep enough raw lumber coming in.  4.  Dont let all the lumber leave your possession until you are paid (hold some for collateral)

[red oaks lumber]

you make an excellent point about holding wood back. i just find the customer listens better about payment if you are holding all the wood.

[Leigh Family Farm]

TWelsh had this exact thing happen to him about a year ago and got burned. I second holding some of the inventory, or have the customer pay in portions. What I mean is that for every 200 boards you have completed , the customer can pay for the 200 and pick them up. And when they are paid for, you start working on the next 200 and so on until the order is completed. With this big of an order, I would hate to see you put in all the work and then the customer can only pay for a portion of the wood. Then you would be stuck with product that you have to sell and might not recoup all of your money.

[ozarkgem]

I think I will quote him .35 BF. I will tell him one bundle at a time. I think he said there were about 600 bf in a bundle. then see how it goes.  Thanks for all the advice
Jim