I'm new to sawing, and just wondering how much you guys charge for milling oak into lumber, or possibly flooring? And the different price you charge if the logs are brought to your mill vs. if you have to go to there tract of timber and get the logs yourself. I'm also wondering, when sawing oak into lumber can I take the log all the way to the heart for lumber, or is it better to leave the heart of the log for a 4 by 4 or some other size cant. Again guys thanks for any info you can give, like I said I'm just starting and trying to gain any knowledge I can. And I'll be sawing with an E-Z Boardwalk Jr. most logs will be from 12 to 20 in. diameter.
In my experience, oak boards that contain the pith always split and crack. There can be several good inches of wood on each side of the cracks and splits, but customers almost never buy this board, so the last big stack of oak logs that I sawed, I contained the pith in a 4x4. 4x4's are handy for building stacking racks for stickering lumber, etc., so that has worked out better for me than a bunch of cracked and split boards that nobody wants.
I am 100% with WDH above. I sawed a Red and White Oak job this week and contained the pith within 6X6's and 6X8's for the customer. The one that we did not leave the cant, the pith had to be edged out.
My standard has become to charge "hourly rate" when sawing Oak because of this additional handling and sizing.
(We sawed ~2600 bf in 10 hours which ain't bad.) :)
Thanks for the advice guys, its very appreciated. I was wondering what to charge per thousand bf, as I may saw by the hour at times and others I may want to saw by board footage, I know it will be a lot more sawing, just wondering what a reasonable price would be if I went that way. Once again everybody Thanks for your experienced advice.
I've sawed somewhere around 500000+ bf of 1 1/2 to 2" trailer decking with the pith in it and haven't had one complaint yet. For wood working either get rid of the pith or the customer can saw it out with a table saw. Steve
Hourly vs bf rate can be a tricky situation and you can leave money on the table if you are not careful.
Yesterday I sawed 10 hours at hourly rate. There was much lost time with log/lumber handling, and I did OK. Today I sawed 1780 bf in 4½ hours sawing by the bf. My today's check was 2/3 of yesterday and I was on the job less than half the time.
The point being, do not get trapped and content into charging the same rate (bf or hourly) for all of your sawing because no two jobs are the same. Ask questions and be sure of what the customer has and what the customer wants. If a site visit is possible, then make it, or have the customer email you pictures. Personally, I make very few site visits and have been fortunate with my job evaluations over the telephone.