Lt 40 hd g 28 board ft hr question

[Buck69]

I have the opportunity to saw dunnage for a local business and they require 3x4x8ft hardwood and 2x4x8ft and is actually 2x4
They also will be wanting small quantities 6x6 ,8x8 and10x10 .

With that said I am trying to get a rough idea how many 3x4x8's can be sawn in a hour.
I understand there are a multitude of variables that would dictate the quantity. To further narrow down some variables let's assume the logs are pallet grade oaks and hickory, sawn with the hd lt 40hdg28. The logs will be fresh sawn and in the 14inch to 26 inch sed range. And bucked to 8 feet
Would set up a log deck from telephone poles. 

Woodmizer has a bdft an hour listed for their mills, but from reading post here on the fourm I gather they are hard to achieve and even harder to maintain. 

Anyone care to share what they think is a reasonable quantity a hour for 3x4x8ft ?
Any insight would be helpful and greatly appreciated. 

[Southside]

Not enough for you to make this work.  Dunnage is low pay.  I dare say the reason they have spoken to you about this is because everyone else told them no.  As to BF / HR, if you could maintain 150 over an 8 hour day I would be surprised given the parameters you listed.  That is no way a slam on the LT28 - it's just a reality check of trying to produce a single, specific, product on a non production mill without the benefit of an edger, re-saw, live deck, and all the other MHE that commodity mills need to function.  

[Buck69]

Thank you Southside for the reply.
I would be using a lt40 hydraulic not a lt28. Without any of the support equipment you mention. Do you think 150 bdft an hour is a reasonable amount to be expected?

[Southside]

Ahh, I misread that. Alone, without support equipment, 200 or so BF / HR at the end of the week is about all I think a guy could maintain, and that's going to take effort.

Understand that means you are handling over 40,000 lbs of lumber, by hand, by yourself each week, if you only touch it once. Without support equipment that won't be the case. The cutting speed of the band isn't the choke point. 

Would you do 200 bench press reps of 200 lbs week in and week out? I think something in your body would cry uncle. 
 
Your 40 with a resaw, edger, gang saw and conveyers behind it would probably run over 1000 BF an hour and make short work of the dunnage needs with a couple of guys. 

[stavebuyer]

The 200' per hour is hard to maintain over 40 hours. You may saw 3-400 when you are sawing but you may only be sawing about half the time depending on how well you are set up with loaders, decks, and chains. To saw 8 you need to figure working at least 12.

Moving logs, banding slabs, loading out lumber, unloading logs all take considerable time away from sawing.

[customsawyer]

One of the things folks tend to forget in their sawing time is clean up. Even with my blower, rolling stock and roller tables someone still has to rake under and mill and clean up all the little pieces of bark and debris. If you are sawing hard it is easier to do at the end of each day then wait until the end of the week. Still takes time though.

[SawyerTed]

My experience with an LT35 is in line with the previous comments.  I figure working alone, 1/3 to 1/2 my time was spent doing other necessary jobs around the mill besides sawing.  600 to 800 board feet per day would be realistic. 

 Add in some low cost material handling conveyors and that number could go up significantly- perhaps double. Some gravity roller conveyors setup right will help get slabs and lumber away from the mill quickly and with reduced effort.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Who is providing the logs? Are you just selling them the lumber or are you sawing their logs for them? If you are providing the logs do you have a reliable source for them already? What support equipment do you have? Are you delivering the lumber or is it being picked up at your site? Do you have a market for any side lumber generated in the process?

  I am assuming you are working alone. If not so how much help will you have and how dependable are they?

   As mentioned above I think you will be spending as much or more time in material handling and other tasks as you will in pure sawing.

   From all I've read here and other places sawing pallet stock and dunnage is a high volume, low return prospect.

   Do you currently do any mobile sawing or are you selling any lumber as a sideline? If so what is different between what you'd charge your  other clients and this client?

[terrifictimbersllc]

Post moved to different thread

[Buck69]

First I would like to say thanks to all who responded. 

This job would be 1200 3x4x8s every 4 to 6 weeks, I was thinking I would saw some on the evenings and weekends. 
I still have a full time job so I'm going to pass on the dunnage job. It's just to much to take on at this point. After buying logs and paying my help , I would not get rich by no stretch of the imagination. But the extra income would have been nice. I'm not afraid of work been at it better part of my life, but if I'm going to invest that much of my time and labor It needs to have a better return.
 

[terrifictimbersllc]

This post referred to my one above. Which is moved to a different thread.