How do you tally your board-footage?

[Chuck White]

I've used Dave's method too, and it works well!

If I'm sawing for a customer and we're loading the lumber on a wagon, trailer or truck, we just stack it tight and at the end of the day or when the wagon, etc is full, we just use the original standard measure (TWL).  TWL is thickness X width X length = board feet, it doesn't have to be an individual board!

[kelLOGg]

where did you find that formula?  it looks pretty slick (and easy)

Dan,

I made it up. The diameter (d) of a log is also the diagonal of an inscribed square. A square has equal sides (x) so from good ole Pythag's theorem d^2 = x^2  + x^2  or d^2 = 2 x^2.   X^2 is the area (in sq inches) and so is equal to d^2/2.   Multiply that by the length (L in feet) and divide by 12 to convert to bd ft. So bd ft = d^2 * L/24.
Our algebra teachers were right when they said this stuff will come in handy some day :P ;D

It is pretty easy and requires minimal measurements. I haven't compared it to the Doyle and Intl scales but band mills usually beat those estimates but it is nice to know how it compares. I always saw the slabs (can't bear to throw away something with a usable piece of lumber in it) so maybe I haven't cheated anyone on their small logs.

Bob

[ely]

i use the block  tally like dr buck was saying for 90 % of my customers, and they are happy with it.
i have a few special customers (read between the lines here), that require me to talley each board individually. this takes me more time and also causes my pay to increase exponentionally. they dont seem to care :

[Linda]

We tally by the layer.  It's not very time consuming to get an accurate tally for the customer and ourselves. 
We saw 500 to 2500 feet of 4/4 lumber in any given day; sawing is frequently interrupted by customers calling or stopping by. 

We have scratch paper under a magnet on top of our edger (and a pencil or pen).  The paper has numbers for the different lengths of logs in feet (each category is separated by about an inch).  The edger operator measures the width of each layer in inches and writes it in the appropriate log length category (separating by commas), then they mark the side of the layer with their crayon to show that it has been recorded.  At the end of the day we just add up the layer widths, multiply by the length (in inches), then divide by 144.