I have been sawing off and on for a few years but haven't ever seen a real saw at work. Last week my friend hired a man from central louisiana to come in an saw 100 logs for him. There was oak, sycamore, locus, walnut, cedar, pine, etc. The logs were bucked to some 8' 6" to 20' 6" ????. This guy had a 2001 W.M. super 40 hydraulic mill with a 36 h.p. jap engine. It had 4500 hours showing on the meter. He owns two saws. It was equipped with the computer set thing. He was running a 1 1/2" blade which he files to 10 degrees. Mr. Tilden has been sawing commerically for 14 years. He got 150 per thousand for some stuff and 250 per thousand for some. I have never seen a saw run so fast. I watched for about an hour and never saw a board that I thought came out wrong. He brought one helper with him and my friend had four more folks there off loading and stacking. It was an eye opener to see this mill run. I have decided it is about knowing what one is doing and h.p.
Since the only mill I have ever owned was a WM 40 super, I asumed all mills cut that way. I have the hp, but sometimes I don't know what I am doing. :(
Bob
Neighbor of mine got a new one, I really liked it. Only thing I am pretty sure it comes with a payment book as standard equiptment :D, my old HD is paid for.
We've been sawing on a Super for 4 years now and sometimes I'm even amazed.
Now, if I could just supercharge Mary so she could offbear faster... 8)
Careful there Bibby, she break yer plate and burn yer pillow. :D
You are definately living on the edge with that comment :D
Quote from: sawguy21 on June 30, 2006, 05:51:16 PM
You are definately living on the edge with that comment :D
I live on the edge! :D
Yeah!! On the edge of the sofa!! :D
Mary's transducer must be on the Fritz. She's not pinging or receiving. (SONAR lingo) :D
That sounds like a powerhouse of a bandsaw mill . Someday I would like one for being portable . :)
I don't want any notes. Jacque would have to find a night job to make them.
I don't want payments either but I figure if I've got work for a machine that will more than pay for it, then if I have to get a loan to get it, then it's worth it.
I can look around the homestead here and see all kinds of bad ideas I put hard earned money into but the Wood-Mizer sawmill was by far our best investment.
We borrowed to get our first LT40 manual mill back in '94. We paid it off in sawing revenues before a year was out. We then bought all kinds of other equipment from money made from sawing and then paid cash for a used LT40 Super. We sold them both for about 90% of what we paid for them and that money bought the LT40 Super we have now.
Your Mr. Tilden is sawing for free, in fact I bet he is losing money at the prices you quoted.
I started 2 1/2 years ago at $250 per thousand board food (.25 bf) with a minimum charge of $200 for under 1000 bf plus $1 per mile one way mileage. Then 4 months ago, I up it to $300 per 1000 BF (.30 bf), dropped the mileage charge and up'd the minimum charge to $250 for under 1000 bf.
I haven't lost a customer and still have far more work than I can keep up with. 8)
I have never seen a saw run so fast. I watched for about an hour and never saw a board that I thought came out wrong. He brought one helper with him and my friend had four more folks there off loading and stacking. It was an eye opener to see this mill run. I have decided it is about knowing what one is doing and h.p.
That is the way i feel when i watch the video of jeff's headrig or the optimized saws that beywer runs. Heard that they will gross in the neighbor hood of 150 mbf a day. That sounds like an unrealistic number to me but with the optimizing technology that they are using, who knows. I heard that their headrigs will actually cut a curved patern on crooked logs to follow the grain. Not real sure if this is true or not but it would be amazing to see if it was. I am sure that Jeff or Ron would be able to confirm of deny any of the farytails that I just mentioned...
Dr Buck, I agree with you on loosing money. As a matter of fact I was really surprised when my friend told me what he was paying. On the other hand, this guy has been sawing for fourteen years and has already worn out one saw and is on his second one. He works from about 07:00 until about noon. All I know is that he puts some wood on the stack.