Sawing pallet lumber

[Ben-jamin]

So i have been toying with the Idea of cutting some pallet lumber for a little while. I got a surpluse of pine logs at the moment and I made some phone calls. I found a local pallet produce who quoted some prices. I took him two pallets of side lumber cut to 40" length earlier in the week. I just got an email form him that said they buy side lumber from mills that bring them cants and asked me if I was going to bring him any cants. He is paying $.32 a board ft for cants. ( I didn't realize that they only bought form mills that make them cants) and roughly $.48 bf for the side lumber cut to length. I thought I could make a little money if i cut 1" stock for my personal use and sold him the side lumber. I said all that to ask have any of you tried to sale side lumber and if so would the pallet company only take delivery if you also sold the cant? Happy thanksgiving

[Bigsticks]

I would ask why you are starting or limiting yourself at the very bottom? I've tried to avoid selling my lumber to anyone who tells me what they'll pay for it. They are also paying you about half of what I would sell it for. You can make money sawmilling. Your can also work hard and not get paid. Try to cut the finest boards you can, never sell something you wouldn't buy, and word will get around. But imho, pallet production without resaws is a losing plan. Regards.

[starmac]

If I buy logs here it cost me $385 a thousand, less 500 a load, which is the hauling fee. If I was just a sawyer, and not hauling for the loggers, it would cost me at least $485 a thousand. This is for spruce and good logs.
I can buy aspen cheaper, probably around 40 a ton, but can't see myself sawing for 32 cents, much less giving them a free cant.

[Ianab]

The pallet market is the lowest level of the market, they buy the stuff that no one else wants, hence the cheap rates.

But pretty much every log produces some % wood of that grade, so what do you do with it?

If you figure your costs are 50c for the logs + 20c for the sawing, you need to Average more than 70c for the sawn product.

If you sell 1/3 high grade for $1.20, and 1/3 lower grade for 80c, and throw away the rest, your average is only 70c, and that's only just breaking even. But if you can sell the last 1/3 for 40c, which is technically below cost, your average is now 83 cents.

So moving that low grade wood can be the difference between making a profit or a loss. That is certainly the outlook of the large commercial mills, where they may be operating on a 10% margin. So that low grade is basically equal to their profit.

So what were you going to do with those pallet boards? If they were going to go on the burn pile, or sit in the corner and rot, then you may as well get the 40c for them. If you can sell if for more than 40c, then you go what route, and make slightly more.

[Ron Wenrich]

We never sawed much pine, since we're in hardwood country.  And I sawed in a commercial mill.  We never sawed on speculation, so others did set the price for our lumber.  Things sorted out pretty much along the lines of how Ian describes it.  However, there are 2 other things that go on the side of the mill.

Logs at $500/Mbf have a recovery rate.  Depending on your log scale, you'll get an overrun, especially in smaller logs.  That brings down your log prices.  The second area is that larger mills get a good deal of cash out of waste products.  Bark, sawdust and chips all have differing values and markets.  That can offset log and milling costs. 

We sold cants as our lowest valued wood.  We also had side cuts that didn't make grade or were an off species that we edged to their width and separated by length.  But, cutting pallet stock to length wasn't one of our money makers.  We wouldn't even consider sawing 40" pallet boards because it is so labor intensive.  It is the scenic route to the poorhouse.  We always found that side cuts at 1x4 or 1x6 were priced under cants.  But, they were an outlet for the low grade.

[bandmiller2]

There used to be a business just down the street from me that repaired pallets. He was complaining he couldn't get certain dimensions, thought I had a good deal going until he told me what he pays. I would have maid more money selling it as fire wood. If you have scraps sell it to that market, its a little better than the slab pile. Frank C.

[Skip]

Scenic route to the poor house . Love it ! :D

[Gearbox]

If you are making 40 inch out of 100 inch you are already going backwards . Pallet mills want specific length to cut to what they want . The one near us wants 9' 6"  10' 6 "  and 106" . With trim works out to what they need . They cut the crooks out and saw 4' long sell chips . They use or sell everything and saw many truck loads a day .

[paul case]

My guess is you want to do something with your logs to make a few bucks, good for you. I started out that way. I cut 5/8x4-40 out of tie siding and low grade logs when I started. The flooring plant near me didnt operate when it was real tough back in 09 and 2010 so pallet was the only option.

I would talk to them and see if they would buy only boards from you. They may do this knowing that the lumber you send them is better than they get from the big boys.

Go for it. The only way you know if it will work for you is try it and see.

PC

[drobertson]

A lot of good responses you got on this question, and to really know the answer, PC pretty much summed it up for you. When you said a "little" money, that very well could be self full filling.  Around these parts these pallet folks  pretty much are set up for sawing cants, then sawing down to whatever the requirements are for any particular order.  Re-handling a 1" board is pretty much unheard of around here.  If it were me, and it was in the past, I sawed pine through and through for cabin, shed, and barn builds.  This  seems like it would make you more "little" money than the pallet cut stock route. JMO,

[TKehl]

To answer your question, our local pallet place really only wants cants.  The difference between cants and cut boards was very very small last time I checked.  They use a fair amount of automation and need uniformity.

Maybe ask them if there are any sizes they can use.  ???

FWIW, our is almost all hardwood.

Pallet stock is on the list of things I'm willing to do for extra $.  Many of the logs are salvage from our land, so cost is minimal.  However, the list gets sorted by profitability.  Have not gotten that far down on the list yet.   ;)