I have about gotten the router attachment setup for my woodmaster up and running. I was talking about all fo the setup involved with the project when a guy asked if I would run a fairly small batch of KD 3/4" heart pine for him. It will only be 200-300 bdft, but I have no idea what to charge. I want to be fair (to everyone including me). What is the going rate for this sort of thing?
I, too, am interested in the responses. It should be at least a fair price for your labor. Skilled labor rates, like for a mechanic, are very high, over $50/hr. Plus the fixed cost of the equipment.
Averages about .40ยข a linear foot around here.
Stew,
I am assuming that price is to do both edges? If so, then is it safe to say that 20 cents a foot/edge is about right in your area?
Gday
Brdmkr I get mine run at a a Timber Training Creswick about 50 miles away as i dont run that much of it bout 5000 bft at a time it costs me about 0.25 cents au a board foot for pine but some times you have to work in with their training schedule not a bad price seing as its run on a $200k+ weinig setup that I would never buy ;) :D :D
and the finnish is allways Spot On 8) 8) ;D ;D
Reguards Chris
That is for both edges brdmkr.
I S4S or T&G for $0.30 bdft with my Logosol PH 260. I charge by the bdft because if I charge by the running foot then every one wants 1x8's or 1x10's and not 1x4's. By the bdft the 1x4's cost me a bit more to run but there are lots more of them and it makes them a good home. When I run others stock then it is still $0.30 a bdft and if I order special knives for them they pay for them.
Does T&G'ing include preping the lumber first like planing and or ripping to width? If so then 30cent/bf seems pretty darn cheap. Taking rough sawn to finished T&G around here is over $1.00
The wood in question is S4S. I would just be T&G'ing the wood.
Gday
Brdmkr for 2 to 300 Id just come up with an hourly rate that will give you a return on your time ;) as ive found the hard way when i was younger that you can quickly spen a whole day working for $75 bucks as these little jobs that you might think will take a couple of hours ;D can blow out quite quickly :( :'( ;) :D :D
Ive had my fair share of days when you fell like you have worked dang hard for nothing for small jobs I charge $110 per hour for the mill and $66 per hour for thicknesing timber I also have a router attachment for doing rebates and shiplap profiles but only use it for my own furniture and building jobs when i might only a few peices to do the job ;) ;D
Good luck Mate id just find an hourly rate that your happy with ;) and just tell the coustomer that this type of work is variable in nature as to the amount of time it will take to do a good job ;D You will find %99 of the time they will be more than happy to pay for good work ;) ;D
Reguards Chris
Ditto what Meadows miller said. What's fair is for you to charge a reasonable hourly rate for your custom work. If you know of someone down the road who can and will do it for significantly less money, but at same quality, then you could tell the fellow about the other person and let him choose who he uses. If there's no one just down the road, then you are filling a special need by running small batches of special stuff that he can't go buy anywhere locally. That service should command at least as much as any other local tradesman gets for his/her time.
Custom work is not a commodity. I know the fellow that I get to make large runs of moulding wouldn't want to set up for 300 feet, so I would do it as custom work and the customer would have to pay custom price. If he wanted 1000 feet run, I'd contact the fellow with the big moulder and get a price.
We run into this quite often with countertops. We just can't build them - heck, we sometimes can't even buy the materials as cheaply as customers can get them from a "top shop". We always tell the customer this, and many choose to go with the shops that specialize in just countertops. However, occasionally, there is a customer who knows our work and want's the fit and service we provide. So, we take the job and do it at time and materials, or a fixed price, which is based upon our best guess at time and materials.
Hope this helps.
If the boards are already S4S you still have to run the top cutter and both sides. The feed rollers will mark the top of the board on the PH260. If you are doing this on a shaper then you will be just cutting one edge at at time.
We saw with WoodMizers and most boards are so close to size that there is no problem running them through with out alot of sizing. We do run them through the plainer first on the worst face the put it down in the Logosol. It gives a smoother finish. Also the PH260 will jam faster for a board just a bit to thick then one a 1/4 to wide. As for oak we size them and run them in groups of same width. You can clamp 10 or 15 boards at a time in the WM and edge them or run them back through the edger.