The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Sawmills and Milling => Topic started by: logman 219 on February 22, 2016, 08:48:38 AM

Title: profit
Post by: logman 219 on February 22, 2016, 08:48:38 AM
saw 100 bdft , 500 bdft. an hour, 3" slabs live edge, 4/4 hardwood,air dry, kiln dry ,s2s , s4s,green rough sawn, 500 bdft. or 5000bdft inventory...without a market or on sales you are not making a dime , youve lost time and money !!!!
Title: Re: profit
Post by: WV Sawmiller on February 22, 2016, 08:50:53 AM
and? ??? ??? ???
Title: Re: profit
Post by: dustyhat on February 22, 2016, 10:54:04 AM
 say_what
Title: Re: profit
Post by: drobertson on February 22, 2016, 11:07:57 AM
What's money?  I thought this was just for fun,, you mean we can saw and get paid for it!  Wow!  how exciting is that!
Who would've figured it? not a bad idea,,,,
Title: Re: profit
Post by: WellandportRob on February 22, 2016, 12:17:21 PM
If you cut it they will come.
Title: Re: profit
Post by: Brucer on February 23, 2016, 09:30:04 PM
Not necessarily. Many of us have been pleasantly surprised by the demand for our services. But some folks have sawn a pile of material only to find it's not what the potential customers want, or else the customers expect to pay less than the sawyer's break even point.

As the original post said, "without a market or on sales you are not making a dime".
Title: Re: profit
Post by: longtime lurker on February 23, 2016, 11:15:07 PM
Quote from: WellandportRob on February 22, 2016, 12:17:21 PM
If you cut it they will come.

This!!!

Saw it, saw it well, and store it well. What doesn't sell this week will sell next week, or next month, or next year. I've never felt bad about a lost sale because someone undercut me; the ones that hurt have always been the big ones where I couldn't fill the order in time.

I've seen lean times when sales are few and far between and I wished I could eat timber, but no matter how tough we saw till we can't afford to turn it on or afford another log. It'll turn, it always does, and meanwhile that built up store of sawn timber means we make a little sale here and a little sale there without needing to cut every last piece. When its good that store helps take the pressure off on the production end.

I regard sawn timber like a T bill - might not be able to eat it, might not be able to cash it tomorrow - but its an investment nonetheless. For a small production mill inventory is an essential part of a business plan.
Title: Re: profit
Post by: Downstream on February 24, 2016, 01:52:17 PM
Quote from: WellandportRob on February 22, 2016, 12:17:21 PM
If you cut it they will come.

I have owned my EZ Boardwalk Jr for a couple of months and I'm amazed at the number of people that have heard about my mill thorugh word of mouth and are inquiring about lumber, slabs, tables, signs, etc.  Currently I'm only sawing for my own projects, but hopefully I can scrounge enough logs to be in a position to sell some green slabs or other stuff.  I have learned over the years that there is a big difference between interested conversations and people wanting to pay a fair price for my efforts/products.