Anybody care to quote this job?

[hackberry jake]

The suspense is killing me. What did you tell him?

[isawlogs]

  This is where I would do what Pigman said . 

[5quarter]

 Here's the rest of the story. I have cut for this fellow before. he brings great logs, lets me decide what the yield will be and thinks that at $65. an hr, I'm a good value. plus he does all his own unloading. nevertheless, when he got out of his truck we had a little chat. I explained that those logswon't even remotely fit on the mill. He pats me on the shoulder and says that he's confident that I'll figure something out. We talk some more while he's unchaining the ATF and I tell him that the wood is not worth the amount of work involved. He asks if I can get some wide (and I mean wide) Qsawn out of them. "Of course..." I tell him. "Well then I'm not worried about the price", he says.
   So there I am, one minute thinking he had a couple short little logs that I could knock out in an hour; and the next minute I was slack-jawed trying to imagine all the extra work. In the meantime, his ATF is straining against these logs, and it's a big machine. he normally uses it to load sod bales. He gets the logs onto some log bunks, loads my log  deck for me with a bunch of Douglas fir I have to cut and after he loads back up, he's gone. This weekend I'll be breaking them down with a chainsaw and sawing them next week.
   In hindsight, I should have known that these would not be small logs. nearly ALL his logs have been 30"+. the smallest was a walnut with a 26" top, so I don't know what I was thinking.

[logboy]

Better borrow a Lucas!

[zopi]

Better borrow a Lucas!

That is what I was thinking...

[logboy]

Its a 440 miles one way. Might be a bit too far for me to justify swinging down.

[zopi]

Make him buy the food and beer...that ought ta break ya even...heck...it sounds like all you would need to do is fire up the slabber and pare and quarter...

Like it is ever that easy. lol

[5quarter]

Briefly, the end of the story...

   I finally finished the two huge bur oaks last Saturday.  I like cutting big wood, but I'm simply not equipped to handle logs that large. I measured them. Smaller one was 42" small end inside the bark and the bigger one measured 46" large end and flaired to roughly 70" at the crotch. I also learned that these were not butt logs, but 2nds from his timber sale. They only wanted the first 12' and the remainder landed in my logyard. He sold 22 logs, all for the veneer mills. prices per log ranged from $1800. to $5800. for oak and walnut.  Anyway, I had 33hrs in this job and knew I could not bill all those hours for two logs (in my defense, that includes all the chainsawing handling and quartersawing). I called him up and told himwhat had happened. I said that I had figured 10 hrs and grossly underestimated my time. I told him that I capped his cost at $650. I said that the upside is that you'l be getting some truly great lumber. well, he said he appreciated that and would be over Sunday to pick lup his load. Sunday morning comes and I'm having coffee, looking out the kitchen window when I see Ron Pulling past the mill into the logyard. He's got his goosneck with the loader and a load of logs. I put on my coat and go down to the mill to meet him. He has brought 9 big, beautiful logs. 7 walnut, 2 oak. 2 of the walnuts are his he tells me, and the rest he simply gives to me. I start to explain to him that he only owes me the amt on the bill, but he shrugs it off and asks me to help unbind the logs and loader so he can unload.
   After he's unloaded, he brings his rig around to load his lumber.We load it together and he is beaming. in the end, he writes me a check for $700. and tells me to call when his walnut is ready. If I had it to do again , I don't think I would, but I have to say that I feel a whole lot better now than I did while I was up to my "you know what" in sawdust.
   And that's the end of that story.

[WDH]

Your customer is a good man.  He found a way to balance out the scale rather than take advantage of your good nature.  Not many would do that.  They would just take their great deal and move on.

[Norm]

Sounds like a good deal for both of you. Nice to hear he was fair with you. 

[zopi]

A good customer is worth the extra trouble on occasion...a dollar passes but once, a customer is a renewable resource!
Good job!

[Coon]

Sounds like you got a good repeat customer on your hands.   ;)  Keep him if you can.  Set down with him and tell him completely what you are up against with huge logs like that.... Sounds like he'll understand.  Did you get any pics?

[DR Buck]

Here's is the response I sent 2 weeks ago to the quote request at the beginning of this thread.  I've heard nothing since.   : 


"From your description, the recoverable lumber will be small and low grade.   Any "logs" cut from limbs will not yield usable lumber.   Limbs grow with large amounts  of stress and tension build up that hold the limbs out.   Boards cut from limbs will curl and twist when drying. 

Logs shorter than 42" or having a diameter less than 8" cannot  be easily milled on my mill.   This is due to the size and spacing of the mill bunks, backstops and clamps.

If this tree is only 24 years old and was 24" diameter, that means the growth rings are ½" apart.   This is evidence of a very fast growing tree.  Although milling is possible,  if the logs meet minimum sizes as stated above, the recovered lumber will not be high grade. 

If the usable logs are brought to my location the charge is $65 per hour with a one hour minimum charge.  Any blade damage caused by non-wood objects (nails, rocks, screws, etc) in the log is a $35 blade damage charge.   I do not do air drying.  My kiln drying cost is .60 per board foot.   Drying is done when I have a sufficient amount to justify running the kiln.  Your boards would be marked and mixed with other lumber for drying.  Drying can take up to 4 weeks depending on the going-in moisture content.

If you are interested in pursuing this, logs can be dropped off most any evening beginning after 25 october."

[5quarter]

Coon, I think there a couple pictures of them in the yard. I took no pictures of the milling as I was mostly occupied with How I was going to break these two down and get them loaded on the deck and down to the mill with no real support equipment. That and I would just as soon forget that particular job.

Dr. Buck, Why is it people bring branches to a sawmill hoping for lumber? A couple months ago, a guy drives 30+ miles to my place with a trailerload of "logs". In fact they were branches from 2 ash and 1 elm tree out of his yard. not a stick over 10". I had him buck the "logs" in firewood lengths and throw them in the firewood pile. gave him enough ash and elm lumber for a couple small projects and sent him on his way.