This will be my first real paying job since owning my LT 28 for a few years. The customer is supplying and delivering the logs, EWP, Spruce, and a couple of Hemlock logs. I'm in northeast PA; Is .40 a bd ft working too cheap? The customer is a logger and has a log truck...He says he gets EWP and Spruce fairly often and will bring them on a regular basis.
I used to charge by the hour, $40/hr they tail, $50/hr they don't, but that was 10+ years ago.
0.40 isn't a bad number. When I saw at home it's .40 for softwood and .50 for hardwoods. Mobile sawing is hourly based on 175 bf per hour@ .45. Usually I average that or better with one offbearer.
I think you are in the ballpark. I charge $.30 with customer providing the off bearer or $60/hr but I have a hydraulic mill so your hourly rate might need to be different. I did one job last year by myself for $.40/bf with me doing everything - I should have charged more. I could not get any help and was a 50 mile commute. I charge $1/mile one way, one time so extra trips eat into my profits. I don't have a different rate for soft vs hardwood but nothing wrong with that and it is common. Be sure you have a damaged blade fee if you hit metal - put that responsibility on the customer providing the logs. All pricing is fair as long as both parties agree, understand and follow their agreed pricing. Good luck and enjoy.
My first mobile job, I charged 0.30 ft and the customer was supposed to pull boards and help load logs. I worked my tail off and didn't get the help. That's when I switched to an hourly rate and use that as leverage to get help. Amazing how much more helpful a customer is when you explain that your perfectly willing to stack boards for $85/hr but the mill is setting idle when I do that. If I were to mill the customers logs at my place and provide all labor. I think I would be in the .40-.50/ft range. Good luck and keep it fun 😁
If your spruce is like our spruce I wouldn't saw it for .50/bf.
Slow cutting and lots of band changes.
Alan
I run an LT28 and bill by the hour. I have a minimum 1 hour charge, and on "large" jobs I charge a lower hourly rate, this I discuss in detail with the customer before I begin. Determining what their budget for sawing is, or if there is a target board foot number they want cut. I work by myself from my home location, and on large jobs there is as much log handling and board stacking as there is sawing. The hourly rate reflects this, and I try to be fair with the customer, and be competitive with other mills. On the last large job I did the customer brought 2 truckloads of logs, but I culled some that wouldn't be worth sawing, saving him money. He also provided his own stickers, so I didn't have to charge him for mine.
Quote from: alan gage on May 11, 2021, 12:35:04 PM
If your spruce is like our spruce I wouldn't saw it for .50/bf.
Slow cutting and lots of band changes.
Alan
Just got back to check on this thread, lots of good answers. I am not sure why I am not getting notifications when a reply is made. Anyway, Yes the spruce sucks here also. Lots of knots and slow sawing. The customer wanted as many 12" x 12" beams as I could get out of the logs and the rest I sawed whatever made the most out of the logs. He is going to pick up a couple of loads I have at another location for me with his log truck, I think I will use the .40 cents a bdf for barter against the log truck charge...
Quote from: Resonator on May 11, 2021, 12:54:25 PM
I run an LT28 and bill by the hour. I have a minimum 1 hour charge, and on "large" jobs I charge a lower hourly rate, this I discuss in detail with the customer before I begin. Determining what their budget for sawing is, or if there is a target board foot number they want cut. I work by myself from my home location, and on large jobs there is as much log handling and board stacking as there is sawing. The hourly rate reflects this, and I try to be fair with the customer, and be competitive with other mills. On the last large job I did the customer brought 2 truckloads of logs, but I culled some that wouldn't be worth sawing, saving him money. He also provided his own stickers, so I didn't have to charge him for mine.
Resonator, thanks for the reply. Do you have a power feed on your LT28? I agree with the log handling, tailing, and stacking work. I have tried to get my girlfriend's son to help but he is pretty much worthless, he only wants to work for beer and I constantly have to remind him what to do.
BTW, is that a Dobro in your profile pic?
No power feed, just "Armstrong" power. It came with a rope hand crank feed, but a 22 below zero day made the rope sort of useless. ;D
I work solo, and my plan was (and still is) to trade up to a LT40 hydraulic, but things are a little too crazy to get one now.
In the pic is my resonator guitar. Played like a regular guitar, but with a resonator cone to give it sweet tone. smiley_guitarist
Wow, a resonator guitar, I thought it looked like a side x side shotgun.