What to charge

[samdland]

Whats a fair price to charge if a person is going to bring you logs and help out. Plus he will buy his own blades.

[Tobacco Plug]

Depends on what he wants the wood sawn into.  Does he want it quartersawn?  What condition are his logs in?  How big are his logs?  If you will give a little more information, we can help.

[sawyerkirk]

Why is he buying his own blades?

[thedeeredude]

Why is he buying his own blades?

Maybe he's trying to say, "Hey, I think there might be some metal in dem dere logs" :D :D

[samdland]

Depends on what he wants the wood sawn into.  Does he want it quartersawn?  What condition are his logs in?  How big are his logs?  If you will give a little more information, we can help.

He is wanting 2" X 4"s the logs are fresh cut oak. There are also a few seasoned logs he said. (No quartersawing) They are his logs and he will be bringing them over, I have not yet run my mill to make a profit generally I will cut for a few of my nieghbors for no charge provided they pay for blades. One of these nieghbors who I have been cutting beams for gave this guy my number.

He is looking to build a pretty big building, so I know it will be lots of cutting. I told him I would call back with price thats fair for both of us.

[beenthere]

Sounds like an hourly charge to start with, that you could be happy with for your time ($20/hour?) and your equipment ($50/hour?). Maybe more, maybe less.
At least something that will keep you satisfied from your business end.
Getting into a 'contract' with someone that isn't a good one for you, could turn this into a 'no-fun' project of a long-term duration. Also, the word would get out that you are a 'cheap' sawyer, and you would be in a lousy predicament.
I'd try to keep options open, until you find out what you really want to do for custom sawing and until you find out how your sawing goes.
With his blades, you can change them often and saw straight lines . Getting help from him (he will work harder if paying you by the hour, I'd think ) and you should have a good time sawing. If part way through, you see you can cut a better deal, then that should make your customer happy along the way. However, if you feel down that the charge isn't good enough, it would be tough to tell the customer you won't saw anymore, or that you need to charge more. So don't start too low until you know.   ;)

[Tobacco Plug]

He is wanting 2" X 4"s the logs are fresh cut oak. There are also a few seasoned logs he said. (No quartersawing) They are his logs and he will be bringing them over, I have not yet run my mill to make a profit generally I will cut for a few of my nieghbors for no charge provided they pay for blades. One of these nieghbors who I have been cutting beams for gave this guy my number.

He is looking to build a pretty big building, so I know it will be lots of cutting. I told him I would call back with price thats fair for both of us.

Well, assuming that he is bringing pretty good logs (at least  8 or 10 inches on the small end and at least 10 feet long), and assuming that the logs are clean, I would charge him $180-$200 per thousand feet of what it cuts out, not what the logs scale.  While I realize that he is bringing the logs to you rather than you going to him, I have found it preferable for me to go offsite.  I get too much mess here around the house when people bring logs to me.  You might feel otherwise, though.   

Beenthere's idea of charging by the hour is also good, but you say you haven't done much sawing.  Do you have any idea how much you lumber you saw on average per hour?  You could use this against a per thousand foot charge to determine an hourly rate.  You just need to be sure that your customer agrees that your rate is worth his money and that you come out OK, too.  I saw mostly by the board foot, but do some hourly.  When I am working by the hour, I feel more pushed to work than otherwise and I don't like that feeling of being watched by the customer.  Also, I have had potential customers balk at a per hour rate, thinking it too high.  These people have not done the math, or are looking to get over on the sawyer, so perhaps it is better to not saw for them.

At any rate, I wish you luck. 

[raycon]

I'd mill at a flat $40 an hour. Expecting good logs no blade changes for 600bdft or so  I'd be getting 200bdft and hour probably more. That would put me at .20 a bdft -- yep so I guess I'm in line with Tobacco Plug and agree on milling where the logs lay currently.  I'd probably make more than $40/hr in good logs if I charged by the bdft especially cutting 8/4.
I'd also push to not have the logs on property.  If the fella's hiring a hauler to bring the logs might be worth while $$ wise to bring the mill to the log a $25 - $50 travel /set up fee could offsets a $75- $150 log hauling fee.  If its 6 decent size  logs or so I'd mill on my property but when  a logging truck shows up with 4000 bdft of logs the waste adds up quickly.

[southview]

A sawyer I used many times Charges me $40.00 per hour for the time the mill is running.  He leaves the mill running while loading and turning logs.  And he charges me for blades that hit metal( that hasn't happened yet).  If he wants a break or wants to BS a little he shuts the mill off.  I take the logs to him because of the mess but I only have about 2000 bf per years to cut.

[samdland]

Thanks for all the insight. I told the guy I would charge based on each log, and that I would charge .15 cents per board foot in the uncut logs. I then told him how to figure board feet W X H X L /12 X .15 and instructed him to measure the small ends. So a 10" diameter log 8' long will cost him $10 to have cut any way he wishes.

Personally this seems high to me, but we will see. He said he will be coming in a week or so.

[beenthere]

Whooaa!    ;)
A 10' log 8' has close to 32 bd ft (International 1/4"), which would be about a $4.80 charge, wouldn't it?
See the tool box under "forum extras" (upper right hand corner).

Don't think that size log will get you 67 bd ft.

[Buzz-sawyer]

That is about 18bdft doyle...(and thats the way to buy small logs)
That comes to .56 bdft..for the sawing...that is way high.....but if he only had a few little "logs" 10 inches I would charge that for my time.

[beenthere]

Buzz
I didn't understand samdland was buying the logs. I thought he was trying to give the owner of the logs some idea what to expect for a sawing charge, and that International scale would be the best estimate of actual board feet expected.  :

If samdland uses Doyle scale, and charges $0.15 per bd ft, then he will get $2.70.  If he uses his method he will get $10, and if he uses International he will get $4.80. I'd agree with samdland, that the $10 seems a bit high, and I doubt he will get 67 bd ft of lumber from that 10", 8' log.  ???

But I think we can help him out regardless.  ;)

[samdland]

Yes I know he will not see the BF from the logs. I was just using it as a method for pricing for this person (So he could calculate by himself what I would charge to cut them). I do think it is a bit high and will likely say so and adjust accordingly ( I would like to do a bit of cutting first though).

[sigidi]

samdland,

I don't envy your position. The first paid cut job I did, I charged just under $400, it took me a little over one day, and the boards they wanted would have cost $1500 at the local hardwood mill, plus they would have had to wait 3 weeks for them.

I made a serious error in calculation, I have hopefully rectified it now, but first time I have learned a lot.

Good luck and remember you can always come down, but it's DanG hard to go up. ;)