I'm trying to understand how milling charges are applied. I understand only that these are normally by the board foot and a board foot is 12" x 12" x 1". Is this a volume measurement? If so, then cutting into large timbers would take much less work than cutting into smaller timbers but would cost the same? If it were a surface area measurement, I could understand there would be a logical pricing structure but I'm stumped how this works. Can someone please explain?
Actually, it doesn't matter what you use as a measure. You can use cubic meters if you want. But, you need some measure so as to make a quote to a prospective customer.
You will make money on some jobs, and lose your shirt on the others. If you have large logs and cut timbers, you will make money. But, if you cut small logs or oversized logs, your production will drop and so will your paycheck.
What ends up happening is that the easy jobs subsidizes the hard jobs. To avoid this, you could charge by the hour. But, your customer won't be happy when you take a coffee break. ;)
Look at some of the old posts made by Tom Cadenhead on sawing charges. He charges a fair price, does a good job, and keeps the customer happy. And throws a little something in when he can. He keeps his rate structure simple, his customers happy, and probably has more work than he can handle.
When we used to custom saw on our mill we charged by the board foot, scaled in the log on the international 1/4" scale. Whatever you wanted sawn out of the log we sawed. It may appear that you should charge less for timbers, as there are fewer saw lines. You offset it however with more labor handling the larger pieces, so it works out the same. Scaling in the log also freed me from having to scale each individual piece.
Well, I am still milling by the boardfoot. I charge bye the actual dimension of the boards that are sawed. I cut, for example, 1094.74 bd. ft. of Douglas Fir this morning for a fella. I have raised my fir rates from $250 m to $260. I have been at the lower number for over a year. Much of my overhead has risen much faster and I felt that a slight rise was not asking too awfully much. Other species will be in the same line of increase.
Gilman told me today that he is at $300 m for Black Walnut, so I do not feel too bad at the levels I find myself at this time.
the only problem with scaling the logs, and not the product, is the overrun. i typically end up producing from 12" to 14" logs about 25% to 30% over the scale. an easy way to measure production is just to figure the square footage of each stickered level, and multiply by the levels. doesnt matter what width material you are milling. i also mill alot of beams, and while there are fewer cuts, the bigger pieces do take more time and effort to handle. i think it is still faster to mill timbers, but hey thats where i make my profit.
spencerhenry,
International 1/4" has the least overrun, which is why I used it. I used to scale every board, but it got to be a hassle. Many of my jobs had me cutting all different sizes, 4/4", 6/4", 8/4", beams, etc., to be used for constructing or repairing farm buildings. My feeble mind couldn't handle all the calculations, and my back couldn't stand double handling the lumber. When I switched over to charging by the log scale I could tell the customer upfront what the charges would be, so there wouldn't be any suprises. If you find it easier to scale the lumber then that is probably a better way. I just had very few jobs that would accomodate that method. Of course now I don't do any custom sawing of the customer's logs so any method works for me. ;)