Lost a job to a low bidder.

[ladylake]

I'd say the customer was just trying to get you to drop your price, the other sawyer may not have existed at all. Whatever the case, I'd let the other guy have the job either way ;) I haven't did any custom sawing for others yet, and when I start I may run a bit lower of a price to get some jobs rolling, but not that low. I might start at 17.5¢ a foot, but I would like at least 20¢ once established. That's after learning on my own logs, I don't want to start of making someone bad lumber and make myself a bad name. my .02

  There's a lot of competition in northern  Mn , here too in central MN with quite a few Amish mills around me.  We'll never get the bf price of the out east guys but even at 17.5 a bf if you put out 250 to 300 bf a hour it's not bad pay for here.   Steve

[SwampDonkey]

I don't even want to get started. All I'm going to say is some people only have to open their hands and say a phrase or two and money appears.  : Magic  I guess, you guys just have to watch what I see around here and wonder to. :D :D

[barbender]

That's what I thought too, Steve- quite a bit of competion around here. I'd even be ok with 15¢ bf if I could hit 250bf an hour consistently, over 2000 bf a day. I don't know if that's a tall order or not, I haven't run the mill enough. I just intend to focus on quality above all else, I hear so many people complain about there custom sawed lumber. I haven't seen many hydrualic mills around me either, the only 2 I know of are stationary operations. All the portable guys are running manual mills. So, I am hoping to find some bigger jobs the manual guys either don't want or can't saw fast enough to get through in a timely fashion. Do a good job on them, get a good reputation, and then hopefully be able to get the money I want. We'll see if it works : I do know I need to profit about $400 a month for the mill to pay for itself so my wife doesn't send it away, I'm accumulating too many toys :D

[ladylake]

 If you get 2 good days a month you should profit $400. Nice staight lumber is No 1 but don't get it by sawing slow, get everthing set up right so you can push your mill to the limit and still saw straight.  Don't spend 5 minutes setting up your first cut, that should take 10 seconds or so on most logs, crooked snarly can be challenging some times. Yes a lot of bandsaws get a bad reputation around here and I've spent time straightening out some wavy lumber, I guess some operators just don't care or they think that's bthe best they can do.  When I first started I charged $35 a hour and 1 guy got away with 8.9 cent a bf , I sawed a little over 2700 bf in 7 hours sawing tamarck 1-1/2" random width.   Steve

[isawlogs]

And this is how you make money at a low board foot cost to the customer.  ;)

[ladylake]

 I make money by keeping my cost down.   My mill uses 4 gallons of fuel in 8 hours, I get a lot of sharpening out of my blades which I do myself. Good maintaince and very few costly repairs help. If a customer is set up good and I can whiz through the logs he get them sawed cheap.  I've never in my life felt like I ripped somebody off which I sure would at 35 cents a bf.   Steve

[wannasaw]

met an elderly "old friend" at the saw shop and the conversation about me sawing his wood ended abruptly when we got to the price, he smartly went to see the low bidders work and has called and given me the job; stick to ur guns...

[barbender]

I'd like to stay flexible on my pricing like that, Ladylake. If I can get effecient like that, and roll into a nice whack of logs, as long as I am making a good hourly rate I would be happy to see the customers bf price drop. I don't see how folks are getting .35¢ a foot either, unless it was specialty cuts or something.

[Okrafarmer]

I've got a couple of custom jobs coming up as soon as I get experienced enough. I'll probably go a little bit low with them at first, until I get it all figured out. I think for us we'll probably end up charging hourly, with a daily minimum.

[DR Buck]

I'd like to stay flexible on my pricing like that, Ladylake. If I can get effecient like that, and roll into a nice whack of logs, as long as I am making a good hourly rate I would be happy to see the customers bf price drop. I don't see how folks are getting .35¢ a foot either, unless it was specialty cuts or something.

I set my price at 25¢ a board foot in 2003 and raised it to 30¢ in 2007 and then to the current 35¢ in early 2008.   I have never lowered my price and although I turn down 2 to 3 times the number of jobs I take on I'm still milling 2 to 3 weekends a month.   Most of the jobs I turn down are sight unseen and I try to refer other local millers to do them.   I've even had logs delivered to me for milling after I declined to do the job on-site.     

My kiln drying is the same way.  I get 60¢ a board foot and my kiln is almost always full.   When the current load is dry I'm loading 1000 bf of reclaimed barn boards for a flooring company.   When I quoted 60¢ to them they told me they were thinking 50¢.   I told them it was 60¢ and wasn't negotiable.  A week later they delivered the lumber to be dried. 

[ladylake]

 I wish I lived in VA, over here kiln rates are 25 to 30 cents, saw rates are 15 to 25 per bf and hourlty rates are from $25 to  $55. Any one that charges more won't have much if any work. I need to saw fast and straight to keep my customers happy.   Steve

[customsawyer]

Ladylake do you charge mileage, setup fees and stuff like that?

[ladylake]

Ladylake do you charge mileage, setup fees and stuff like that?

On smaller and farther away jobs yes, on bigger jobs no.     Steve