A day cutting wood

[Peter Drouin]

I'll try that, I do sell some 16'. But the 8' 10' 12' are piling up. All in good shape and under a roof.

[Bruno of NH]

In the fall people use strapping to hold up poly on their porches and carports .

[Magicman]

Mater stakes.

[4x4American]

Glue or nail em together and sell as 2x4s  ;D

[bkaimwood]

1x4's sure not a hot seller here either...I don't even want to stack them anywhere, they take up too much space and will be there FOREVER... Banding and selling for pallets seems like the time spent isn't worth the $$$, or maybe close to a washout. When I end up with things close to 4", I do one of 3 things... Make a sticker and a 1x3, or make a 1x2, and throw them in the batten pile. I saw lots of b and b siding, so I know it will get used or sold then, and you can never have too many stickers it seems.
On another note, I hope it's OK I ask this in this thread, seems relative to some recent posts and comments, and goes to my EWP shortage as discussed, especially now and heading into the real busy season. I may have finally hooked up with a reliable, quality pine source. I have been paying .25 a bf give or take. This fella says he has a good, steady supply, and says the logs are all truly STUNNERS... BIG, Straight, top notch!! His price quote is around .38 a bf. Yup, I know it's high, but given my situation, I think I have to consider it a would appreciate and value your input. I hate to try to haggle with the guy, for obvious reasons... We talk about having to pay the premium to get in the door, get what you need, and so on... I'm thinking I just roll with it, with this plan. Offset second and third logs figuring them at .25 on my end, saw for all my siding and related orders, keeping my same price there...I can't raise that price any more, I'm a hair high now, but selling product OK...then upgrade all first logs to .50, and try to market the higher grade stuff accordingly, to offset my costs...this is simple and common business, sounds like a no brainer, but believe it or not, I have no demand for clear stuff... Everyone wants character knotty pine. I can't afford to cut .35 cents a bf stunners into siding...the other thing is I can move some big slabs, so saw many of them for wide 8/4, live edge slabs, and such...this stuff moves slow, but moves, and when the guy that wants it comes along, it sells easily, just slower. So what do you guys think?

[4x4American]

Some of the mills around here are paying $400/mbf for slammer pine.  There's a mill in Carthage NY paying $450/mbf for premium pine, I thought that was crazy high...

[Peter Drouin]

Start with what you can get for the lumber, then subtracts the sawing, sticking and profit, And see what's left. That's is price you can pay. In NH for reg stuff like 2x4 and grade #2   W pine I can make 2 to 3 times what I pay for the log. Then the money for the chips and sawdust.
It's all in the marketing. :D :D :D :D That's what I have to do with the 1x4s

[4x4American]

I'm running some number myself while riding out this thundershower...wondering what you figure for sawing and sticking?  Does $200/mbf sound about right?

[bkaimwood]

4x4...I figure minimum .25c to saw, .25c to dust boards (which I do, every one) and sticker them...so I figure minimum .50 cents a bf before adding log cost... If I was not old, and working solo most of the time, I could likely reduce that number significantly. Paying a kid or two 10 bucks an hour to do the latter would cut it down. By the way, these numbers factor in acceptable profit for me, and are used only as a guideline. So if I added pine log cost as previously mentioned into that, it'd be .90 a bf, with no profit on the logs...that's the part I'm sorting out.. I'd like to hear what others have to say, for all our benefit...
Pete...your doing good, as you should be, a seasoned veteran IMO...3 and 4 times profit is great...

[Remle]

Glue or nail em together and sell as 2x4s  ;D

I would have cut them as 2X4 to begin with.. I do not cut anything in 4/4 less than 1X6 and as long as the log will allow. I never cut a 17' log into to, to saw 8' stock unless their is a bad crook to deal with. Sawing as a whole saves time turning each 8'piece individually. I can cut down to length's needed as needed. Since I haven't been able to find a board stretcher it works for me to leave'm long.. :D :D

[Peter Drouin]

The 1x4 are W Pine, All the 1" here is W Pine old school, All 2" and bigger are Hemlock. I don't cut pine into 2by and bigger unless that's what the customer wants. I get some calls from timber framers for W Pine frames.

[Peter Drouin]

The place is drying out too.



 
Had a customer brought in some Ash, wants 5"x5" and 1" the junk one will be 2" slabs



  

 
And I got a window for the dormer, now I can get it done. 8)



 

[4x4American]

Lookin good Pete!   

[thechknhwk]

Wow, ash with tight bark, haven't seen that since maybe ever...

[bkaimwood]

Dormer looks great!!!

[Peter Drouin]

It will let sunlight in the back room,

[bkaimwood]

Well, I ordered a full load of slammers... Guess we'll see how it works out... Cautiously optimistic...

[Peter Drouin]

You want logs not slammers. :D :D :D :D

[bkaimwood]

Slammers are nice to have around the mill on a hot day when there's no logs to saw...:)

[Peter Drouin]

  :D :D

[Peter Drouin]

Did your logs come in bkaimwood?

[bkaimwood]

Not yet, Peter... Guy said 2-3 weeks, so I'm hoping to be sawing them within 2 weeks...if I don't hear anything within a week, I will surely be getting nervous. Met with another logger over the weekend... He didn't have a full truck on hand but prolly had a few thousand bf on hand...not slammers, but some decent stuff, with a lower price that reflected it. I'm hoping he'll have something together within a week. I'm now all out of EWP... Just took a small order for some maple, and a large order of white oak...all the maple in in stock, half the oak in stock, the rest easy to get. So plenty to do in the meantime. Sawed some tamarack slabs for a retail store Friday, and the last of my hemlock for a b and b order...had 2 hemlocks left over, about 325bf, so sawed a pile of 1x12x12 and 1x8x12, for inventory... Sold the whole pile yesterday. Things are cookin' for the army of one...I'm pleased. Got 3 portable jobs on the books, and 4 more quotes out.
Was wondering what happened to you lately, Peter? Did you go on vacation?? :)

[Peter Drouin]

No vacation, Just cutting orders. And looking for W Oak and W Cedar :D

[bkaimwood]

Good to hear from you, Peter. I was beginning to get thread withdrawals... I got both, trade you for some slammers???!!! :)

[4x4American]

Shoot I'll trade you pine slammers for some w oak and w cedar!