Do your jobs grow after you arrive?

Haleiwa · October 15, 2020, 05:19:49 PM

I'm sawing for a neighbor, and it's kind of amusing how the job has gotten bigger after I got set up and started sawing. It seems that having the mill there is an inspiration to drop some additional trees to be sawn for other projects. I don't mind; the mill is there and we may as well keep going as long as the weather is decent. Just wondering if it happened to others

ladylake · October 15, 2020, 05:26:08 PM

Yes, neighbors bring logs over a lot and most customers cant count. 15 logs means 30 logs. Steve

Don P · October 15, 2020, 06:45:45 PM

I ran into an excavator friend a week or so ago. He was clearing a lot and wanted to drop off a few logs so he had some boards around his place for projects. I came home and there was a load of white oak logs in front of the mill. The next day there's 2 loads of pine and one of poplar lined up all along the length of the sawshed. The next morning I hear a trailer coming in and by the time I get down there he's rolling off maple. "Tom, I thought you just needed some project wood!" "Yeah, I've got no idea what I'll do with it, I really was thinking of a chicken coop when this started but it seemed a waste to just firewood it all :D"

brianJ · October 15, 2020, 07:48:18 PM

Nothing wrong with job security

Magicman · October 15, 2020, 08:24:56 PM

I have very often left a sawing job on Friday evening thinking that I would finish Monday/Tuesday. Monday morning there would be more logs than when I first began. There are other times when I finish a job and start to fold up only to see the customer dragging more logs that were hiding behind the barn. Most often these are ERC.

WV Sawmiller · October 15, 2020, 09:51:12 PM

Yes, I expect the job to grow as often as not and not just from my customer but his friends and neighbor. Several times I have had a friend or neighbor tell me "I live just down the street. I'm moving my logs into place as soon as I leave here so please just stop by there when you finish here." I had one customer hand off the off-bearing to his younger brother while he left to cut more trees and dragged them down on his dozer before I finish the stack that was there when we started.

Nebraska · October 15, 2020, 10:18:56 PM

Kinda like when I hear the words "well while yer here Doc will you......"

moosehunter · October 16, 2020, 02:23:04 PM

One of my best clients does forest management for landowners. I just expect to spend at least double the time he asks for on any given project. He will hire a helper for me and spend the whole time I'm sawing dragging in more logs.
People can NOT count logs. It's hard me not to laugh when someone tells me " I have 12 or 15 logs. " I want to say take off your shoes so as you can use your fingers and your toes then call me back with how many logs you have. I think one in ten can actually tell me how many logs they have.
True story.. I stopped by a job that was coming up in a few weeks just because I was in the area. Client and I are standing there looking at the logs all laid out side by side. He says " I think I have 10 logs". Yup. He had 10 but he wasn't about to commit to the number!!
mh

E-Tex · October 16, 2020, 02:50:02 PM

Yes, happened twice this week.

Monday, a 20 ERC job turned into 40+.....He seemed to be growing these trees faster than I could mill them.

Thursday, a 20 SYP job turned into 35+/- (plus 5 ERC and 3 Pecan)...they just appeared! The SYP were all small 7"-10", 8.5ft logs and he only wanted 4x4s and 6x6s...no side lumber. went very fast.

It's all by the hour, so it's good!!!!!

E-Tex · October 16, 2020, 02:54:14 PM

Quote from: ladylake on October 15, 2020, 05:26:08 PM

Yes, neighbors bring logs over a lot and most customers cant count. 15 logs means 30 logs. Steve

Amazing, they can't read a tape measure either. those " two and a half to three foot diameter logs" always seem to be more like 18-24 inches!

offrink · October 16, 2020, 03:37:26 PM

I have the opposite problem. I cut big stuff. "Huge" logs seems to be about 24". Huge logs to me start at 48+".

Resonator · October 16, 2020, 04:06:04 PM

It can work the other way too. I have had customers that only need a certain number of boards for a project, and have me stop cutting when that much lumber is cut, even though there are more logs ready to saw. Be careful it doesn't become a schedule conflict, (especially with a portable job) if you only budgeted so much time to do a certain number of logs, and then that number grows.

SawyerTed · October 16, 2020, 04:22:43 PM

Murphy didn't create the corollaries to his law but people seem to define new ones every time I go to a job.

Tuesday was a day like that. 12 red oak logs became 12 red oaks, 10 white oaks and 4 BIG poplar logs. I went to look at the logs (I walked the 3/10 of a mile) there were 12 red oaks neatly stacked and ready to be cut. Lengths were 8', 12' and 16'. When I went to set up the mill there were the 6 white oak logs 8' and 10'. Since it was a job that spilled into Wednesday, when I arrived Wednesday morning the rest of the white oaks were stacked and ready to be milled. By my mid morning break 4 poplar logs 32' SED showed up!

The owner was helping me and unbeknownst to me he had three guys cutting trees for saw logs and firewood.

I was still there on Thursday.

So.... Any finite appearing portable sawmill job may grow from 20 to 1500 percent dependent upon the customer's motivation or inability to count.

Nomad · October 18, 2020, 05:38:26 AM

It happens now and then. If I'm on a job, I tell prospective customers I don't know when I can get to them but I'll put them in the book and will let them know when I'm available. If that isn't good enough I suggest talking to one of my competitors to see if they're available.
My current project started off as about a dozen sinker logs. Then a truckload of cypress was added. Then another truckload. I'm working on the third truckload now, and am told there's "some" pine coming after that. I got no idea how long I'll be on this jobsite. :D

longtime lurker · October 18, 2020, 06:44:44 AM

"Yeah, we can do a test cut"

True story!

terrifictimbersllc · October 18, 2020, 03:04:56 PM

Sometimes I get a customer who is surprised I have to be somewhere else the next day. :-\

Magicman · October 18, 2020, 10:56:16 PM

I do not make any commitments beyond the customer that I am sawing for. The next customer is in the book and I will let him know as quickly as possible when. Once I get there I belong to him as long as he has logs to saw. I am about two months behind now and am giving "sometime next year" time frames.

NotEnoughTime · October 18, 2020, 11:34:37 PM

Quote from: Magicman on October 18, 2020, 10:56:16 PM
I do not make any commitments beyond the customer that I am sawing for. The next customer is in the book and I will let him know as quickly as possible when. Once I get there I belong to him as long as he has logs to saw. I am about two months behind now and am giving "sometime next year" time frames.

This is why I bought a mill. I had two large red oak logs to saw, and the guy I'd scheduled to mill them kept cancelling. I realized he had plenty of business and could pick and choose.