quoting chainsaw mill job

[Ctsawyer]

I'm sure this topic has been discussed plenty of times.  Ive been using the scribner scale to get a rough idea of the board footage in a log.  what do you all think about charging $0.75/ bdft for chainsaw milling 2 inch slabs? example: a log that has 300 bdft according to the scale would cost $225 to mill into 2 inch slabs

[mddillon78]

I'm curious what others do as well.  I've done one job and charged by the hour.

[terrifictimbersllc]

If you're offering wide slabs that aren't competing with bandsawing I think you could easily charge twice that. I've been charging $2-$2.50 per square foot for wide chain slabbing with the Peterson, not everyone wants to pay it but plenty do.  More than I want to cater to. 

[Stephen1]

If you're offering wide slabs that aren't competing with bandsawing I think you could easily charge twice that. I've been charging $2-$2.50 per square foot for wide chain slabbing with the Peterson, not everyone wants to pay it but plenty do.  More than I want to cater to.

I would agree with twice that. I like an hourly rate for the custom jobs. How long would it take you to chainsaw mill? How long would it take on the peterson? 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Example 30" log 8 ft long, cut into 2-1/4" slabs, clean, 11 cuts, 178 sq ft sawn area estimate, probably take about 2 hr overall if customer removed slabs promptly.  

But that's not including travel, setup, packing up which is what these jobs are largely about.   I wouldn't do a log like described above, it would go on the woodmizer get cut off at 26" and then slabbed giving one live edge and that would take about 20-30 min. 

[Mfrost459]

One thing you have to consider when slabbing out a large log is how to move the slabs.Large log slabs are extremely heavy and it usually takes extra equipment to handle the slabs. We did one log that was 14' long 50" wide and cut it 3.5" thick. It was all our skid steer could handle. Make sure your customer knows what equipment is needed or you may waste a lot of time.