iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Pallet parts>

Started by woodhick, December 15, 2007, 09:04:27 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

woodhick

Have a friend who has a circle mill and a homemade resaw that I just helped him finish.  he was wanting to cut pallet parts for winter work when he cant cut timber.  Logger by trade.  what is the going rate for pallet deck boards say 9/16" thick x 4" wide and 48" long?  He was asking me and I don't have a clue so I thought I would ask the experts :D here.  I have looked into cutting stakes and not much profit margin.  I think thats what he's going to find out on pallets also.  It takes a tremendous volume to make any money.  Thanks for any help.
Woodmizer LT40 Super 42hp Kubota, and more heavy iron woodworking equipment than I have room for.

WH_Conley

I looked in that last winter, only one pallett mill in the area would even buy them, they offered me 32 cents per board.  :(. Even with the margins on tomato stakes there is more money.
Bill

woodhick

Yeah I know what you mean.  My buddy was figuring he had to make at least $.40 each to make a profit.  I didn't think anyone was paying that much for them. 
Woodmizer LT40 Super 42hp Kubota, and more heavy iron woodworking equipment than I have room for.

sjh

A local plant sells hard wood for 45 cents. I have a trucking company that buys from me for 30 cents. They are one way pallets and I use logs that are of very poor quality. One other thing. A 48" slat is a specialty item. A standard pallet slat is 40" long.

Ron Wenrich

Resaws aren't really the best thing to cut pallet stock.  You need a gang saw.  With a resaw, you're only cutting one board at a time.  With a gang saw, you're cutting a whole lot more. 

The guys that make pallets for a living buy a full cut cant, something like a 4 x 6.  They will double end trim it, then fire it through a gang saw.  Using thin kerf strob saws, they'll end up with 8-9/16"x4" pieces in one pass.  For runners, they just use 1x4" reject 4/4.  How are you going to compete with that?

My suggestion is to bypass the resaw bit.  Its a slow death in the mill business.  Saw your logs into pallet cants or railroad ties.  There's not that much money in low grade, and trying to recover by value added is a pretty hard project. 

Your effective rate is pallet part cost - pallet cant cost.  If you're getting 40¢/bf for a pallet part and 35¢ for a pallet cant, you have to resaw for only 5¢.  Include your loss of footage due to saw kerf in that price.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

bull

On my Baker PAQ resaw, we could cut 500 -1000  3/8x4x40" 0r 3/8x4/36 inch deck boards an hour......

We used to saw logs to 3 and 4 sided 4 ich cant's. Then move to Themto the shop,chopsaw cants to length and resaw. We were paid ,25 cents per slat,at that time. I thought that was pretty good production !!!

There hasn't been much of a market for the past 3 years !!!!

Ron Wenrich

The smallest Pendu gang resaw is rated at 10Mbf/8 hr shift.  I'm not sure if that includes sawdust or not. 

Your production was pretty good.  At 1000/hr, you would have to produce one every 3½ seconds.  Does that sound right?
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

bull

Yes that sounds about right, if the help could've kept up on the out feed end I think it would've been quicker

Kansas

We have a Samuel Kent Baker resaw with return, and average about that with optimal conditions. What slows us down is that we run all the side slabs through the gang edger, then the resaw, and a lot of times, we are getting one or two  boards, with the rest junk. It takes some time to deal with the waste disposal. The rest of the log, we cut 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 cants, and we can achieve close to that rate if we are only running those cants. Right now, we have half a dozen smaller pallet companies or companies doing their own pallet repair that we cut for. Virtually all of it is odd size pieces, which helps us both with margins-we can charge more- plus we can flow material out of different length logs into different orders.
Eventually, we would like to upgrade to a multiple head resaw, or a gang saw. What worries me about a gang saw is that we run mostly cottonwood for pallet material, and the stuff is so fuzzy, Im not sure the thin kerf saws would get through it.

ARKANSAWYER


  There are lots of mill that go under because they get into the pallet market.  The thing being is at first they are getting rid of by products that would have other wise not be any good.  Like cull logs and boards that broke because of large knots and such.  But when you get to sawing for the product then you will start losing money. 
  Here pallet cants go for $260 mbdft.  That alone is about sawing cost.  Then you have to add handeling and log cost.    Unless you are getting free logs then you can not afford to just produce pallet stock.  I read in WM way about a guy and that is what they were making.  Profits would have to be tight. 
  But I just got in the latest price sheet from the wholesalers and FAS red oak was $850 mbdft. and hickory and maple were $400 mbdft log run with not any grade differance.
ARKANSAWYER

bull

In the six years we were heavy into pallet we started at a 65% return and ended at an 8 % return....
said the heck with production pallets, got rid of hired help and headed for niche markets..... have a couple small factories that buy repair stock here and there and also make blocking for a utility truck  body mfg... back to my 65 % return....

stay small and be diversified.....

woodhick

Bull, what type of blocking are you cutting for utility beds?  There is a company just up the road from me that installs beds on trucks.  Might be interested. 
Woodmizer LT40 Super 42hp Kubota, and more heavy iron woodworking equipment than I have room for.

Ron Wenrich

I send to 2 different companies.  One wants oak, and the other wants mixed dense hardwoods.  The oak one has a lot more poor quality stuff, since it wants it cut to dimension.  The mixed hardwoods has better quality, since we use mainly beech and sycamore.  But, they want it cut and hit or miss planed to thickness.  They cut the dimensions they need.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

bull

woodhick, I cut 2x 3x 4x & 6x blocking for outrigger pads, and chock blocks also 6/4 for some flatbed installations.. also some 6/4 for frame spacers...
all small jobs but they pay well !!

Thank You Sponsors!