The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Sawmills and Milling => Topic started by: just_sawing on June 09, 2022, 06:56:08 AM

Title: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: just_sawing on June 09, 2022, 06:56:08 AM
Had a company contact me wanting to buy all my Hard Wood Slab Bundles. We sell them for firewood but it is always hit or miss. If you do what do they pay. This company is only offering $10.00 a Bundle and that seems pretty low but they will take Poplar which we normally just burn. 
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: WV Sawmiller on June 09, 2022, 09:02:22 AM
   I don't have a set contract and just sell them loose to anybody who wants them. I don't have big enough equipment to make bundles. I normally sell them for $10 pick up or $25 trailer load and the customer loads them. I am glad to get them out of the way.

 How many bundles do you generate and what does it cost you to bundle them? I would want to at least recover my handling costs. Understanding you have to do something with them to get rid of them.

 I wonder if they would agree to leave a trailer or skip/hopper you could just throw loose ones in and they could come collect them when you have a load? That might reduce your time and handling costs. If that would work for you then you could propose it and see what they say.

 Let us know what you decide and how it works out.
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: Sixacresand on June 09, 2022, 09:57:23 AM
No.  wish I did.  
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: rusticretreater on June 09, 2022, 10:17:33 AM
How big is one of your bundles?  Sounds like a firewood company that sells wrapped campfire wood.  They take those slabs, throw them in a jig and cut them with a chain saw.  Wrap them up, 8 bundles or more from 8' flitches piled 8-10 deep.  Anywhere from $6-$8 a bundle.  
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: moodnacreek on June 09, 2022, 01:06:21 PM
How much will they take in one shot and pay for?    I would try to bump the price up some now because every thing is going up and firewood should also.  I can not get rid of sawdust and can not stop working to load a pick up for $10. Small orders can kill you. With fuel prices you have to produce.
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: SawyerTed on June 12, 2022, 11:45:50 AM
$10 per bundle - between labor and strapping material, I'm thinking you are not making any money.  
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: Magicman on June 12, 2022, 02:48:32 PM
 
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN1083.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1285810242)
 
Here my customer is bundling his slabs.  :D
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: jmouton on June 12, 2022, 08:27:38 PM
we do the same thing ,magicman
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: Old Greenhorn on June 12, 2022, 08:41:59 PM
Same here too also. At home they get cut into 18" pieces and heat the shop in the winter. At the more 'commercial' mill I work at the get cut into 5' pieces and feed the OWB that heats the entire complex 365 days a year. Nothing gets 'free burned' to get rid of it except a few pieces for campfires wherein we discuss how to make a living and maximize output. :D
Title: Re: Does anyone have a Contract for their Slabs?
Post by: jpassardi on June 13, 2022, 11:44:47 AM
Me too: I now cut and split them at the mill and stack them on 5' x 5' pallets with 2 sides and a roof - old tin from a barn. Take them away with forks to dry. That's the first time I handle them, second time I bring them in the wood boiler shed with the forks to burn for heat and hot water. Gasification boilers work well with small firewood.
Any surplus will go to my Cousin's Maple syrup evaporator.