How many bf in your Inventory?

[Marc Thornton]

I am interested to know how much wood is in your inventory, and a rough idea of how much you saw a month.  I know a few of you actually carry inventory intentionally I'd love to know how much you estimate your inventory at and how you feel about it, if it is sufficient or not.  There are also a lot of you that are custom sawyers and do not saw unless you have an order.  You still end up with some inventory, so if you wouldn't mind I'd love to hear what you have to say too. 

Thanks in advance. 

marc.

[mandolin]

Marc, right now I've got about 2000 bf of pine framing lumber, 300 bf of 4/4 yellow pine 1x6's, about 300 bf of 5/4 black cherry, 350 bf of 4/4 sweet gum, 1200 bf of 4/4 white oak, and a kiln load of 5/4 clear yellow pine (about 400 bf), all of the boards are 16-20 inches wide. I also have about 250 bf of eastern red cedar. I also have smaller amounts of red oak and walnut. I try to keep a variety of lumber ahead. People around here use a lot of green yellow pine to build barns and sheds.

[Magicman]

OK, I'm not going to answer your question, but inventory is what got me out of the inventory business and into the portable sawmill business.

Wrong size, length, width, species, storage, etc.  Since I am now really a part time sawyer, my life is simpler with no inventory.

I will also be interested in the inventories that some sawyers keep.   Since mandolin is just down the road, I'll send folks to him.   

[Bill Gaiche]

mandolin or MM, could you tell me what is yellow pine? I was wondering about my neighbors rafters that he was putting up which are yellow pine, what kind of a tree is yellow pine from? Thanks, bg

[stormyweatherman]

this is a great topic and i look forward to reading it as it develops.  i'm a new sawyer and i have no idea what i'm doing but i'm going to chime in.... 

after 2 years of owning my mill i've sawed about 5000 bd ft of lumber.  i have about 3000 bd ft. in inventory (some air drying, some dry and stored, some planed and stored) i had hoped to have more like 20,000 bd ft. of lumber sawed by now, but my 'motherlode' of lumber is on the stump on my land in maine.  last year was a hard winter and i didn't get up there to do as much as i wanted.  too much snow to make it worthwhile for my pickup truck operation and i had money-making obligations closer to home.     

on the plus side, i've done jobs closer to home that i never would have anticipated.  a few for cash, a couple for 1/2 the lumber, a couple for 'all' the lumber--felling for free. 

because i'm a renovator i've used lumber on several jobs now and added materials to my total cost.  so its paid me that way too. 

why i would like more lumber in inventory:  what i have is great  but i've already noticed several things. 

1. in my renovation business and for lots of other projects that i have done, will do, or wish i could do i can never seem to have enough 2x4s and 2x6s on hand. 

2. i use lots of narrower boards for lots of different things but i really like having lots of wider boards in inventory (thinking of 10s and 12s mostly), because they are great for building 'stuff' like bookcases, shelving, crates, cabinets, misc. small furniture pieces. 

3.  i need more 8/4 for table tops, benches, and 2x4s, 3x3s, 4x4s for legs/posts. 

4.  i have some beautiful live edge slabs.  need more.

i could go on but i'll leave it at that for now.  can someone tell me where to get a 28 hour day?  i am having a lot of fun but i keep running out of daylight and energy.      

[Magicman]

Bill, Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) really covers 5 different Pine species.  In my particular area Loblolly Pine is the main species, with Shortleaf Pine in naturally seeded areas.  East of me is Longleaf Pine country, and then South and along the coast Slash Pine does well.  Virginia Pine is a minor species that is considered a Yellow Pine.  I would say that the majority of SYP is the Loblolly Pine.

[123maxbars]

Right now I have 800board feet of Black Walnut, 700bf of Poplar, 1200br of SYP and 400bf pf ERC.
WHere I live there are as many people wanting to buy lumber as there is wanting there logs milled. I make a good little profit buying logs from local loggers.  Some orders are small, such as a person just needing  a few boards to replace some barn siding and some are bigger, but either way it supports my hobby and pays for the mill. 

[WDH]

Bill,

In your area, the closest native yellow pine is shortleaf pine.  That is native to NW Arkansas, Missouri, and eastern Oklahoma, although I am not sure that it ranges naturally as far north in Oklahoma as you are. 

Marc,

As to inventory, mine is quite high as I cut and sell hardwood lumber to local woodworkers.  I have about 14,000 BF on hand, but over half of that is black walnut.  It is hard to get around here, and I never pass on an opportunity to get as much as I can.  I have amassed this inventory over time intentionally to have a variety of wood available to sell so that when I retired from Corporate America, I would have a good stash to start with.  Also, as it is all air dried, it takes time to create an inventory, and it takes time to replenish it.  I have to think about 1 year ahead. 

I have black walnut, black cherry, green ash, red oak, white oak, red maple, eastern redcedar, sweetgum, yellow poplar, sycamore, pecan,a little chinaberry, a little hickory, a little mulberry, and little osage orange.  By far my best sellers are black walnut and red oak.  I am very small time, but specialized.  I cut a variety of thicknesses up to 20/4 because you can't get that kind of wood anywhere else around here, period. 

I don't make a whole lot of money doing this, and I am in the hole when you take into account the shop, sheds, and equipment.  However, I do it because I like to do it, because I love woodworking and making furniture, because it has been fun to meet other woodworkers, and because I can.  I worked hard all my like to get to a point to be able to do what I want to do, especially since you can't take anything with you when you go. 

I have stayed small because at this level it is enjoyable, I can quit at anytime, and I do not do this to make a living. 

Everybody needs a niche  .

[Brucer]

Dunno. I haven't tallied it yet.

On January 1 of this year I had:
  13,500 BF of 1" lumber (1x4, 1x6, 1x8 -- 8', 10' 12').
   700 BF of 2" lumber (2x8).
   500 BF of various timbers.
All Douglas Fir, all stickered and air-dried (or drying).

This year I will have about 2/3 of that total.

My inventory is a side-effect of my main product -- custom sawn timbers. As Magicman says,
"Wrong size, length, width, species, storage, etc. " So anything out of a log that isn't a timber gets turned into 1x . I know it will eventually sell for siding, fencing, strapping, etc.

I keep the number of widths and lengths down to a total of 9 combinations -- that means I can accumulate enough of each size to fill most orders (a house might need 2000 BF or more of siding). It also keeps the storage requirements under control.

The 2x8 was an experiment last year. I'd got several orders for it for trim, fascia boards, etc. and at the end of the year I was pushing out a really big order of 8x12 timbers. By taking 2x8's off the side I could push out a lot more timbers. By July this year that was starting to look like a really bad idea, as very little of the 2x8 had sold. Then suddenly there was a run on it and I only have a few boards left.

For me the inventory is usually a necessary evil, a side-effect of my real business. But this year it saved my bacon. Winter was a month late in leaving, custom orders were slow coming in, but a lot of people wanted to side houses, build fences, put on new roofs, etc. So I had some cash coming in early, with no corresponding expenses.

[Norm]

I've never bothered to do a count but most likely something around 10K of various species. For me the best seller is QS white oak and regular red oak.

Danny do you have any pictures of your storage methods. That's my biggest headache.

[WDH]

Norm,

That is a big problem.  I have tried several things.  I will take a few pics and post.  Maybe we can all figure out the best way to go  ,

[Chuck White]

Like MagicMan, I do my sawing "portable", so I don't really have any lumber in inventory.

I do occasionally get a couple of logs given to me, in fact right now I have about 250 bf of White Pine stored in the shed out back!

[red oaks lumber]

since the economy crash my inventory is alot smaller, somewhere around 40,000b.f. of that 90% is kiln dried and in my shed.
 norm,
 my wood shed is 40x70  13' ceiling  cement floor, i stack in bundles of about 900 b.f and use my skidsteer with forks to pile and move wood around. every bundle is marked with name, species, and quinatiy. most of my buisness is dealing in finished products, keeping dry wood ready for machining has become very crucial as no one will give any lead times now.
 having the ability to kiln dry also saves from carring inventory, you mcan go from log to kiln and still get the job without having alot of money tied up in dried wood.

[T Welsh]

Marc Thornton,I really dont keep an inventory. I do hoard,my best friend and I play with hardwoods as a hobby and he has a barn we keep our stash in, Oak,Walnut,Cherry,Ash,Hickory,Poplar,Maple.We have completely filled the wood shop area and now have bundles in the machine shed. If I had to guess I would say 20,000 bf Tim

[pasaw]

I have 400-500 bf of each red oak, maple, walnut, hickory, 1000 bf of cherry all in in 4/4 and 5/4, 1000 bf of white pine and probably another 1000 bf of various varieties in slabs in 8/4 - 16/4. I keep this for the call where people are looking for boards in a hurry. I try not too keep too much inventory because it is just another thing that could go bad or that needs to be kept up with and maintained.

[SwampDonkey]

Well I just got in 700 bf of hard maple, which I'm whiddling away at right now. I also have 2000 bf of pine and other hardwood upstairs in the barn.

I like getting shorter stuff < 8' from the warehouse as the price drops a lot.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I keep my inventory in the woods on the stump. I keep a better count of it that way.

[ellmoe]

   I've got well over 100,000 bf and, still , everytime a customer comes in, I have to saw what he needs! 

Mark

[hackberry jake]

Bout 1300bf of 4/4 black cherry, 450 bf of walnut, 500 bf of erc, 250 bf of hard maple, 900 bf of osage, and 300 bf of building material mix.

[rbarshaw]

About 1500 bf of SYP and 100 of Sweet Gum.