My new client and Quarry update

[teakwood]

that was 2 weeks ago

Men do i have a nice business opportunity, the big teak sawmill that closed (where i bought all the machines from, forklift, conveyer, sliding table saw...) has alot of teak lumber laying around. they gave me a very good price for 1.5x4" lumber, already planed and kiln dried, like 35% of my market value, so i think i go for it. use some of the quarry dollars i have pilling up . just need to find a market to resell, im thinking as deckboards, but normally i sell 1x4, 1x5 deckboards.

To make a long story short, i bought a pack and inspected that, several good pieces and also lots of 2nd quality or shorter boards, but the price isn't bad. after back and forth i pushed the price further down but committed to buy the whole lot of the same dimensions. inventory list came back, 3 truckloads of lumber, 64 packs   , well, a deal is a deal, go put the big boy pants on. 104m3 of kiln dried and preplanned lumber, that's 3 semi loads. but at 300$/m3 for teaklumber it's a no brainer.



this is another dimension, didn't bought this bananas!

[teakwood]

after negotiation they gave me 2 month to haul the lumber. My lumber storage isn't that big . the plan is to bring half of the load, go thru all the boards and separate qualities and repack with a organized system. i hope to sell some of it quickly, wrote to all customers and several are interested. the french is interested for his high end client, they demand ubber quality, of course the price will be premium also. no problem with 10500 pieces to choose from!

Did some samples thru the 4 sider, nice lumber, went from 1.4x 4.25" to 1.25x4", nice deck boards
A quality:



cheaper B quality:






tried to get the last square inch out of my storage area  :D
 
two rows free for handling

[Resonator]

My lumber storage isn't that big

If you own a sawmill you will never have enough lumber storage area. :D
I've seen a few examples where guys have built a shed with 2 shipping containers parallel to each other, then built a roof over the space in between. One way to put up a storage area fast.

[teakwood]

Went for the lumber, was a beautiful day without rain, was lucky. we did 3 out of 5 truckloads. I think it will fit ok in the storage, will do a height of 5 packs. Only hauled half of the load because now we start going thru every piece and select qualities and cut to length. while i was there i saw some other nice packs and bought some more  :D :D


old clapped out trucks here


no sawmilling for a while 

[Don P]

Reman... You're remanufacturing lumber  
If that is old clapped out trucking, uh, I better not show our stuff, I was on a '72 loader yesterday  :D

[customsawyer]

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was "you make your money when you buy something". Looks like you was able to buy that lumber "right" and will make out fine on the other end. That old truck had about all she wanted on her. Nice

[Nebraska]

That old truck looks pretty good from here. 

[teakwood]

We started selecting, dang that will take some time, i go thru every piece and trim off the bad ends. Make A1, A2, B, C, D quality. need a lot of room for building up an additional 6 or 7 packs of lumber. but after this i will have them nicely organized and when a sale comes in just grab the marked pack and put them thru the 4 sider.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was "you make your money when you buy something". Looks like you was able to buy that lumber "right" and will make out fine on the other end. That old truck had about all she wanted on her. Nice

For me this is an investment, i have some money now from the quarry (first time in my life) and i told my girlfriend, we need to do something with this money, in the bank they give you almost nothing, so this money needs to work for me. did some long time bank investments which gives you 9% of interest which is nice but you never know how much the costarican colon will depreciate in one year. they give you 3% on the dollar, which is not much, but the dollar is also decreasing constantly. i could buy land lots because land is always a good investment, but you need to buy it cheap from somebody who needs money and you need to be able to hold on to it maybe for years. then this lumber opportunity showed up and i told her, i better stick in my turf.
so we will see how long it takes me to make a return on this investment but i'm confident to at least duplicate.    

[Resonator]

old clapped out trucks here

Looks like a 90's vintage International, if it's got the DT466 those are just about indestructible.

we need to do something with this money, in the bank they give you almost nothing, so this money needs to work for me.

Always nice when you just have to ask yourself what to do with your own money, then have get the bank's approval.

[teakwood]

the truck wasn't that bad, have seen worse. only the passenger door was almost falling off. but the engine was fine and has a very nice low range gear box, that's pretty awesome for hilly Costa Rica.  mostly they import texas trucks, as the only export border is Brownsville TX, so most of the trucks come with flat land gear boxes, a real PITA here.

Selecting, we only do 3 packs a day :, this will take a while. packs everywhere


but i like the organized packs when they done

[teakwood]

slow process, with all the other thing i have going on, but we will get there. its 70 packs

[Iwawoodwork]

I  would say you are making money now as you are not having to harvest your own wood, so it is still growing. you are not wearing out your machinery that you use to harvest and process the logs to lumber. Looks like a great opportunity.

[teakwood]

That's good thinking but it's not actually the case in my situation. First, i only do thinnings and only harvest about half the growth volume of all the plantation, so it's always a win win. second, i need to saw constantly, if i fall behind on the thinning plan the plantation catches up pretty quick and there will be over population, so to say.
third, this lumber i bought is just one dimension, so all the other measurements i still need to saw or i will run out of them. it's just alot tighter now for lumber handling, which is a pain. but the money is definitively there.
 

[thecfarm]

You have some inventory now!!!

[nativewolf]

time to start building again!  Maybe time for a new saw shed?

[teakwood]

time to start building again!  Maybe time for a new saw shed?

Nooooo, be quiet. it will never end. i kinda draw a line last year, done with the building and inversting and getting bigger and bigger. time to save and thinking of the years to come.
There are some smaller stuff i still need to do.

[teakwood]

always wanted to enlarge the sawmill outside area, was very tiny for the excavator and the skidder bringing logs from the woods. also want to make two more support beams for bucking the logs, the trees are getting bigger. first i wanted to continue the concrete wall but then decided that it would cost too much and too much work involved. in the quarry i had lots of big stones which don't pass thru the crusher so the loader driver was so friendly to bring them up to the house and i installed them with the excavator, a quick stone retaining wall. Was able to bring the terrain up about 3meters, of course over the time the dirt will settle and needs backfilling. as long as the stones settle to the inside i'm ok with it



Here you can see the support beams for bucking, want two rows more. and the conveyer still has some 3m more of room i can use

[tacks Y]

Nice use for the clunkers.

I would think some of the bigger mills on here would try buying a container of teak from you. Have you shipped any to the states?

[Southside]

That will make @thecfarm jealous.  :D

[thecfarm]

I have an endless supply of rocks!!!!

[teakwood]

Have you shipped any to the states?

No, i haven't. that a whole other ballgame. probably interesting but complicated. need to find buyer, exporter and have the capacity to fill a container.

[Southside]

I know exporting from here would involve APHIS compliance, IE heat treatment and all the documentation to prove you did it, so one would assume it's the same importing.  

[nativewolf]

APHIS requirement is on the receiving end.  It's a loophole that many companies used to export logs and lumber to china, they would send them to "hong kong" which at the time was a separate legal entity that did not require APHIS.   I would guess fumigation would also be fine if there is a container fumigation facility in Costa Rica.  Maybe more profitable to send to Europe and much easier to sell there in Costa Rica to rich retirees from Europe and USA/Canada.

[Firewoodjoe]

time to start building again!  Maybe time for a new saw shed?

Nooooo, be quiet. it will never end. i kinda draw a line last year, done with the building and inversting and getting bigger and bigger. time to save and thinking of the years to come.
There are some smaller stuff i still need to do.

I think that all the time. I'm still a nobody and would like to stay that way but it don't seem to work. I just keeping stashing some cash and let the rest roll as it will. Your work is always amazing by the way. I'm jealous. I know what kind of time and dedication it takes to get that kind of work. Unfortunately I can't make myself be like that very often. 

[barbender]

I think you're doing mighty fine, Joe.