Newbie

[5-H Firewood]

Just got home from the Woodmizer demo day. Looking for advise on getting started doing some custom milling. I have LX55 just curious how people charge?

[doc henderson]

Welcome! I charge the hourly rate.  100 bucks and hour and may go to 125 soon.   I am a hobby guy, trying to pay for materials and repairs.  time starts on arrival including unloading and loading.

[5-H Firewood]

Thanks for the reply I am just putting my feet in the water and see how it goes.

[WV Sawmiller]

  I normally charge by the bf. In good wood with good help you can do well that way and my customers understand what they are getting. Anything sawed less than 1" thick gets charged as if it were 1" thick and I make sure they know that.

    For specialty stuff I charge by the hour and use the run meter as the basis. I also do not shut the mill off between logs or such in this case.  Advantages of hourly is you get paid the same whether the logs are good and produce well or junk log where half the wood goes in the scrap pile.

  I saw one sawyer who sawed by the estimated bf and he scaled every log and recorded the value. He did okay an every log with no reward for good or penalty for bad logs, the customer did better on good logs.

  I charge one way milage each trip This encourages the customer to be better and finish sooner.

    I charge a blade fee if I hit a nail or such in the wood to encourage the customer to be careful about the kind of logs he provides.

    I list a set up fee if I have to move the mill to multiple location (but have never charged it because usually when I do multiple set ups the move benefits me as much or more than the customer).

    I saw, the customer provides help to stack and load logs and such.

    All sawing rates and systems are fair as long as both parties understand and agree to them before you ever start sawing. If you start to switch from bf to hourly, or vice versa, in the middle of a job make sure the customer understands when, why and agrees.

    I charge WV sales tax unless the customer provides me with a signed tax exemption form. That clears me and lets him deal with the tax Nazis. I accept cash or check and the rate is the same for either because I report everything I make.

  I assure you your customers are going to ask "How many bf do you saw" especially for an hourly rate. My answer is always "It depends on what we are sawing, how good the logs are, how well they are prepared and set up and how good the help is." I tell them I typically saw around 2,000 to 2500 bf a day for most of my customers.

 

[dougtrr2]

There are several threads on how to charge and most charge either by the board foot or by the hour.  Personally as a consumer, NOT a sawyer, I prefer by the hour. 

Regardless of which method you decide on, the recurring theme in those threads is, make sure both you and your customer understand how you are charging, and how that dial number is arrived at.  

Doug in SW IA

[Jeff]

One suggestion. Get some sawing time and experience under your belt before you go out sawing someone's logs. Perhaps you already know this, but the machine is only a small portion of your intended endeavor.

 I've seen one guy on one job turn a bunch of people againt an entire industry because his sawing convinced the customer and everone he could talk to, that bandsaws cant cut decent lumber.

[caveman]

A lot of mistakes can be avoided by spending time on this forum reading, looking at pictures and asking questions when you don't find exactly what you are looking for.

YellowHammer's Hobby Hardwood Youtube channel has an abundance of information that will make your sawing more productive while producing higher quality lumber.  There are others here who have channels that also have beneficial videos.

We charge hourly on small logs or those that require a lot of extra labor and by the board foot on good logs.  We generally do better by the board foot.