Pallet lumber prices

[learner]

Post Oak for one. 

[WDH]

Sweetgum is a great pallet wood!

[Okrafarmer]

Post Oak for one.

At least post oak makes good firewood, unlike sweetgum!

I think I thought of three that are decidedly worse than sweetgum.

1. Ailanthus
2. Mimosa
3. Poison Sumac.

[paul case]

Hey Hey now dont go knocking my post oak.

We have a lot of post oak, red oak and black oak. Post oak is the most dependable to make a tie out of them. Ifn they are good enuf to tie on the ends, they will usually make one, but red and black oaks will sometimes have bug eaten out voids and other problems show up as ya saw into them.   PC

[rooster 58]

Timburjack, it's hard to compete with the Amish pallet makers I've heard. Unless you operate on a larger scale

[Sawmill Man]

Learner, whats wrong with your Post Oak? It saws just fine here as long as it is a quality log to start with.

[1woodguy]

   lots of nice post oak around here also as long as its not the ones with the twist or large limbs not much over head high.
   The red oaks have more problems
   May be the difference in the area you live.

[Kansas]

These are some random thoughts, most of which I have expressed at one time or another. Being I am snowed in, and don't want to watch Oprah or Jerry Springer, figure this is a good time to do it regarding pallet lumber.

This is all aimed at those that run bandmills. Not the big operations like Ron runs.

Big mills don't like doing oddball sizes. That gives you an advantage. Use it. Price where you can make money.

There are the good guys and the bad guys in the pallet business. There are a fairly high number of bad guys. Over time, you will learn who they are. Try not to learn the hard way. They will leave you holding the bag. They tend to resurface under other names. They sell cheaper than they can make them, except if they don't bother to pay for the wood.

Don't overlook companies that make their stuff in house.

Know the rules about overseas shipping. I have run into a few times where someone is shipping overseas, and didn't even know about the regulations about heat treating. I don't recommend you get a chamber and everything associated with it, unless you are getting into it in a big way. See if you can piggyback or work with someone that does. Between the monthly auditing fees, cost of stamps, paperwork, cost of natural gas or propane, it doesn't pay well if you are doing small batches. Just make sure your customer understands that pallet, skid, or box has to be heat treated and stamped if going overseas.

You have to have the logs on hand to cut it. That is, again and again, pallet customers on specialty stuff have customers order after they have run out of pallets. We usually have some stuff cut ahead in various length in cants and such that we can simply run through the resaw. For some reason, companies don't order until they grab the last pallet, and discover they already used that one. Then it is panic mode.

Building specialty pallets as opposed to cutting the lumber for a pallet company making them can be profitable, but usually that company is knocking them together for not much margin.

Do not underestimate your ability to price in profit. True story here. We cut some 7/8 by 2 1/8 and 7/8 x 7/8 sticks as we call them. Pain in the butt. The guy we were cutting them for went under, and a national pallet chain took over. They got angry because we couldn't get them quite fast enough for them, and declared they had their own sawmills and would cut them themselves. Everyone around the mills cheered.

That lasted for about a month. Then they wanted us to start cutting them again. I asked why. Said their mills couldn't do them in the right sizes to fit their needs. We upped the price and they didn't say a word.

To really make it work, you need a gang edger, a single head resaw with board return will do fine. The guy catching boards on the end will be as busy as he can be.  A popup saw or radial arm saw as well. All these items can be found cheap these days.

In short, price to make money, seek out the specialty markets, get into sync with your customers, and deliver on service, timeliness, and quality. Whatever you do, don't try to run with the big boys. Won't work. But, you don't need to.

[Peter Drouin]

Thanks Kansas, I have gotting in to the apple box thing a little. started cutting for the apple guys by the hr, now they know each outher :D
now they found me, and some don't have trees, I do ;D so well see how it gos :D

  

  

  

 


apples trees as far as you can see, I have sold 4000' bf so far, and all crazy sizes