Sign of things to come?

[Woodhauler]

Craigslist it getting crowded with logging stuff for sale!

[Magicman]

It will also get crowded with "toys" that our laid off offshore oilfield workers are having to get rid of.  There are some tough times ahead.   :-\

[drobertson]

signs are and always will be a roller coaster,,  I knew the market on timber would drop, seen it since 04' as well as the cattle market, and stock market.. the times and markets are going to change, all the more reason to hang in there or sell, at the right time, one buddy said he lost  6K, I said you did not make 6K?  he said well yea thats right,  big difference,  all said everyone should have and should expect it,, times and money exchange changes in cycles.  Timing is everything

[starmac]

May be time for those so inclined to pick up some equipment at some good prices.
This area has not been a big logging area for several years, so when log truck eqipment and logging equipment in general goes on the auction block, it sometimes will not even have a buyer.

A couple of months ago, I was at a friends retirement auction. He was a trucker, but nothing to do with logging. I was suprised to see a very nice aluminum headache rack and a general log trailer (still had the original mudflaps). I was the only bidder and got them both for 5 hundred bucks.

[sawguy21]

I get pained at the prices at equipment auctions, perfectly good equipment is going for pennies on the dollar if they find a buyer. The sellers have busted their butts all their lives and are left with squat. :'(

[Peter Drouin]

Craigslist it getting crowded with logging stuff for sale!

  It is sad.  :(

[21incher]

I think you have to look at the thousands of portable mills sold each year are adding to the supply side while the housing starts are down taking away from the demand side.

[Stuart Caruk]

We do a lot of machine shop work for several mills, and we're still very busy. In fact when everyone was slowing down, we were picking up. But then, we typically deal with the highly atomized mills who are out to achieve maximum recovery with minimum operator involvement. While many mills are happy to do things the way they have for 40 years or more, these guys are all going bust.

The survivors are the ones who figure out how to get the maximum recovery from a log. They use narrower saw blades that are properly tensioned to allow them to cut with minimum kerf and no snaking. The saws are steerable to follow the curve of the log to get the maximum yield as well. I don't find it any coincidence that the mills who use our tension comparators can all put up blades of equal tension across the gang box. This reduces snaking and makes for the smaller kerf, which is a measurable amount. The thinner blades further reduce the kerf. Our saw guides are held to -0.000"  - + 0.0002" vs some of  of our competition who is happy with +/- 0.005". Start stacking a bunch of these across the gang box and you get horrid mismatch which requires thicker planks to clean up in the planer.

.003" here, another .020" there, thinner guides get you .040" extra... pretty soon it all adds up. 0.007" reduction in plank size yields an extra $1.2 million a year in recovery. It doesn't take much to add up to a whole lot of rice and beans. When the competition doesn't improve, they eventually get left in the (saw)dust and go out of business.

It's fascinating for me to watch a mill run through 160,000 BF a day in product. Mostly without breaking a sweat. There is no way a small mill can keep up.

[Peter Drouin]

We do a lot of machine shop work for several mills, and we're still very busy. In fact when everyone was slowing down, we were picking up. But then, we typically deal with the highly atomized mills who are out to achieve maximum recovery with minimum operator involvement. While many mills are happy to do things the way they have for 40 years or more, these guys are all going bust.

The survivors are the ones who figure out how to get the maximum recovery from a log. They use narrower saw blades that are properly tensioned to allow them to cut with minimum kerf and no snaking. The saws are steerable to follow the curve of the log to get the maximum yield as well. I don't find it any coincidence that the mills who use our tension comparators can all put up blades of equal tension across the gang box. This reduces snaking and makes for the smaller kerf, which is a measurable amount. The thinner blades further reduce the kerf. Our saw guides are held to -0.000"  - + 0.0002" vs some of  of our competition who is happy with +/- 0.005". Start stacking a bunch of these across the gang box and you get horrid mismatch which requires thicker planks to clean up in the planer.

.003" here, another .020" there, thinner guides get you .040" extra... pretty soon it all adds up. 0.007" reduction in plank size yields an extra $1.2 million a year in recovery. It doesn't take much to add up to a whole lot of rice and beans. When the competition doesn't improve, they eventually get left in the (saw)dust and go out of business.

It's fascinating for me to watch a mill run through 160,000 BF a day in product. Mostly without breaking a sweat. There is no way a small mill can keep up.

160.000 BF is a lot of wood in a day .

[Magicman]

I was once sawing for a guy that worked at a commercial sawmill.  We tallied the 1500bf of ERC that we had sawn that day and I asked he how long it would take the commercial sawmill to saw that amount.  The thought for a few seconds and replied, "about 3 minutes".    

[timberlinetree]

Yikes! My 401k is all iron :-\.

[ScottInCabot]

CList is scary.....

That said, it is unfortunate that folks spend money on things they 'think' they needed at the time, only to find out 'needed' doesn't outweigh the wanting to eat.  I made that mistake once, and I'll never make it again....that Chapter in my life really was bad.

I have 'stuff' on CList that folks want to send me extra money for, all I need to do is give that Prince my banking information and he'd deposit 75% extra just for the inconvenience...and someone would come pick up said item.




Scott in Cabot

[Sixacresand]

CList is scary.....

That said, it is unfortunate that folks spend money on things they 'think' they needed at the time, only to find out 'needed' doesn't outweigh the wanting to eat.  I made that mistake once, and I'll never make it again....that Chapter in my life really was bad.

I have 'stuff' on CList that folks want to send me extra money for, all I need to do is give that Prince my banking information and he'd deposit 75% extra just for the inconvenience...and someone would come pick up said item.

I emailed the same guy back and told him I would gladly meet him at the Police station in his city and he could give me cash.