Sawing to make something

[s78wingrider]

Have sawed some for friends and probably didn't hardly make anything, but now someone wants me to saw some walnut, and i have no idea what to charge? know there's no way I can figure by the hour cause all I have is a lumbermate with 9 HP, (so can't saw very fast), but sure don't wana lose money! Any suggestions apprenticed! Thank You Aaron

[customsawyer]

You can saw by the hour you just cant charge as much as some one with a LT70. Charge what you have to make by hour for yourself and to cover the cost of your machine maintenance/ repairs.
When I have a job that I charge by the hour I have to cover the cost of myself the sawmill, tractor, edger and any blades. So my hourly rate is high but I produce lots of lumber per hour. Your production will be lower but so will your cost.

[Magicman]

You can not always make a bundle, especially with small specialty jobs.  After you finish, figure the job both ways; by the hour and by the bf, for your future reference.  That will help you to reach a better rate or billing method for future jobs.

And, do keep a record of all jobs for future use.

[bandmiller2]

Small odd lot jobs are worth money because commercial millers want nothing to do with them.Charge what it worth for you to do the job.When the jobs done if you don't want to do it again ,you didn't charge enough.Just tell the fella up front the rates. Frank C.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I charge the same thing to saw Walnut as I do Pine.....25 cents a board foot.

For some reason, it is my experience that Walnut usually has a better chance of having metal in it than any other wood I saw. So I always tell my customers, if I hit metal, it's an additional $30.00 for a new blade....no if's and's or but's.

When I do charge by the hour, it is $50.00 an hour. $50.00 is also my minimum. Customers know this from my sign hanging up and I have had know fusses.

[Ianab]

The other thing you need to do is work out what your actual running costs are.

Now you have done a few jobs you should be getting an idea on how much it costs to run the mill. Fuel, blades and something put aside for repairs / maintenance and depreciation. Make a note off all those costs, and also how much you can produce per hour on differing sorts of logs. This isn't so much related to charging, but if allows you to give the the customer some sort of estimate as to how much the job is going to cost.

If you figure that it costs $25/ an hour to run the mill, and you want to earn $25 an hour, then you charge $50/hr. Say you can saw 100 bd/ft and hour, you can look at the customers logs and think "Those scale about 200lb/ft, should take me about 2 hours to saw" Then you can tell the customer "That's about 2hours sawing, should be about $100"

You are going to be charging a little more per brd ft than a larger mill, but you will be more interested in doing the small jobs for locals, and be willing to mess about doing special cuts etc. If the guy has a couple of logs, and the bigger mill has a $200 minimum, and you can saw them for $75, then you are the best deal, even if you actually charge more per bd/ft.

Ian

[Chuck White]

Good point there, Ianab.

One other point that isn't mentioned and should be brought up by the mobile sawyers is: the customer doesn't have to haul the logs to the mill, the sawyer will haul the mill to the logs.
In the long run, this saves the one with the logs a lot of $$$$ and running around.

[footer]

I agree with the above statments as well. Also, in my experiances, almost everyone i sawed for, where I took the mill to their place, they had no way to haul the logs to a saw in the first place. Every one of those folks were thrilled to find someone willing and able to bring a saw to their logs and saw them up, even if it did cost a little more money.
I have had a lot of customers actually pay me more than I asked for because they are so happy  ;D. If you are the only one in your local area with a mill, you can also probably make a little more than if your area was loaded with portable mills.
I always tack on a transportation/set up charge to take the mill to somewhere else. If they bring the logs to me, they get a slight discount, and no transportation/set up fee. I also, only charge by the Hr, because of all the unforseen obsticles when doing these odd jobs. I charge from the time I start sawing the first log, till the time im done sawing the last one. That includes all log handling in between. If they have equipment to move the logs and set them on the mill, it goes faster, and they get more lumber cut for the money. If they done, and I have to spend a lot of time, such as moving the mill around from log to log, they just get less lumber for the money. I have never had a person complain about that, bucaus in those cases, they just have no way to handle the logs.