Average charge per thousand for cutting

[dant1969]

What is a good price per thousand for doing custom cutting?  At their location vs at my shop?  I am a month away from seeing my mill, but I'm running out of things to worry about.

[CX3]

Are you talking logging or milling?

[dant1969]

I'm sorry...for milling the lumber

[Tom the Sawyer]

dant1969,

You'll have a better response to this question in the Sawmills and Milling section of the Forum.  The quickest answers would come from using the Search function at the top of the page, under the Forestry Forum logo.  Enter something like "sawing rates", "milling fees", etc. and you'll get hundreds, if not thousands, of previous replies.  This is probably one of the most commonly discussed topics in that section of the Forum.   

[Miller-Thinner2]

$200 a thousand was the going rate here about 6 years ago. When the mill come to me.

[GAB]

dant1969:
I did one job, where the owner had pulled out the logs with a 4 wheeler, at a rate per bdft of lumber sawed and then sat down and studied/thought about the price per bdft manner of sawing.  It took me two days of sawing and I virtually got nothing after expenses.
If you want to go by a rate per bdft, then I want you to saw me 1/16"  thick material by 1-1/4" wide, length is not important as I will use them for book markers.
How long do you think it will take you to saw a hardwood 20" dia. x 16'-6" long log? 
How many board feet of lumber do you think there will be?
How much sawdust will you have to move if done at your place?
I know this is an extreme example.  Hope you see the point I'm trying to get across.

I have a chart that I go by for a sawing rate.  This chart takes into consideration the thickness desired, type of sawing, and the diameter of the log (inside the bark at the small end), and the length.  This takes care of those individuals who sell the best logs and then think they will get the rest sawed on the cheap.
Hope this helps you in your thinking on this subject.
Note:It does take longer to calculate charges at the end, but working for nothing does not pay the expenses/bills. 
If you want to PM me I'll send you a number you can reach me at and we can discuss. Gerald

[Nomad]

     Dant, you're asking a loaded question.  Prices are all over the map depending on location, with a lot of other variables.  What you really need to ask is "What do I need to make to turn a profit?  Do I have the equipment and plan to make that work?  Will my area support this?"
     For me, if I'm doing the little "Joe Homeowner" jobs I charge strictly by the hour.  He doesn't understand bf, and usually I'm working in a situation that's less than ideal.  I keep my minimum low 'cuz I like folks and I hate to see the college kid or a low rent woodworker unable to use wood he acquired.  I'm usually in and out of those jobs in a couple of hours.
     On the bread and butter jobs I charge $300 per 1000bf.  Anything under 1" is billed as 1".  That's strictly at the customer's site, with him supplying at least one laborer.  Logs staged correctly, etc.  Anything I have to do besides run the mill is charged at my hourly rate.  On jobs like that I usually don't get firewood or junk logs but if I do it's back to the hourly rate.
     I try very hard to do a site visit first; it makes sure there is really a job there and the customer and I are on the same page.  And if, in my opinion, he'd be throwing his money away to hire me I won't hesitate to tell him that.  He might say do it anyway.  Usually they don't.  But I'd rather lose a customer and be known as an honest businessman over making a quick buck and shafting somebody.  That will come back to bite you in the long run.  I think of it more as supplying a service than a product.
     

[highleadtimber16]

I charge $500 a thousand.

[hunz]

Here in western NC, Four local circle mills are all over the board. One is $300/thsnd another $250, another $325 and last but not least one guy told me $450. He said it wasn't worth it to him for anything less. Needless to say his operation looks abandoned last time I drove by.

[losttheplot]

I charge $500 a thousand.

I'm gonna have to put my price up  ;)
$450 is pretty common around here.

[Peter Drouin]

I charge $500 a thousand.

I'm gonna have to put my price up  ;)
$450 is pretty common around here.



Here you could buy lumber for .45 a bf  :D

[drobertson]

I hope I am on the sawmill and milling topic page ;D   And with that I will say my rate varies with the circumstances.  To answer the basic question, my rate starts at 250/thousand, but can go down or go up.  All is discussed before sawing begins.  No contracts, no quarrels,  I will leave at the drop of a hat, but never have.
Of all the folks I have worked for, they just need help deciphering the process. Return customers know the drill.
You will have to figure your own process, and the cost of travel if mobile is the option.  We have so many mills in our area that jobs are becoming fewer by the day.  A good product, delivered as promised, with compromise at times works wonders.  Experience is the only answer from here,  I hope the best for you,    david

[YellowHammer]

I charge $500 a thousand.

I'm gonna have to put my price up  ;)
$450 is pretty common around here.

Me too, but it sounds better to the customer as 50 cents per bdft :D
YH

[losttheplot]

Here in western NC, Four local circle mills are all over the board. One is $300/thsnd another $250, another $325 and last but not least one guy told me $450. He said it wasn't worth it to him for anything less. Needless to say his operation looks abandoned last time I drove by.

So who is making the most money
The guy sawing for $250 or the guy not sawing for $450 ?



 

[scully]

This is not a cut and dry answer . I have a good mentor and he has given me fantastic advice ! Even with all that each job has its own challenges . I find for the most part I have to get .35 per BF and even at that I never feel like I made much ,unless it's a few thousand BF and you can really hustle . Hard wood grade etc long logs ,handeling etc all add factors to the job ! Resharp ,distroyed bands ,all that needs to be considered .  Some guys say that there rate builds that in for now I break it out seperate and I tell he customer that .The mill you have also plays a role I think . If you have an LT 70 with 2 guys helping BF add up fast ! But an lt 15 ? well you got some work to do ,so what is that worth ? I think one needs to get payed ! I guess the short of it is that each job has to be considered . Have a price "range" and figure it up from there .

[Ianab]

So who is making the most money
The guy sawing for $250 or the guy not sawing for $450 ?

Depends on what their costs are.

if it's COSTING $260 to saw the logs, then the first guy could be loosing money. The more he saws, the more money he looses. The $500 guy may not be making much, but at least he's not loosing money every time he starts the mill.

It's like selling things below cost, but trying to make up for it with high volume  :-\

Maybe the $325 guy is the sensible one?

Ian

[highleadtimber16]

Sometimes I saw for $450/thousand. Really depends how my day is going and who the customer is 

[bugdust]

Fairness and customer satisfaction is my motto. Regardless, you will find it necessary to charge differently for conditions at hand. Dirty logs, mixed species, scheduling, etc. I hardly ever spin the blade for less than .35/ bdft. If I supply logs ( hemlock, poplar, maple), the cost might be .50/bdft, but if the customer wants oak, hickory, walnut, etc. the cost could go at $1.00/bdft, or higher. Of course there's extras for damaged blades, delivery, etc. Lot of factors to consider, but bottom line, fairness and customer satisfaction.

[Rockn H]

Dant, it's almost be a local question and has a lot of variables.  If you're like I am here, there are 7 woodmizer's that I can think of in a 15 mile radius of me.  I can't charge a lot more than they are.  If you're going to be sawing construction lumber, what does a 2x4 cost at the lumber yards near you?   It's hard to charge more per board foot than they could buy it at the lumber yard, especially if it's their logs. ;)

I charge by the board foot.  If I get a lot of phone calls or visitors ( you will get visitors if you're close to a road) it can be aggravating to me, but I don't want the customer thinking that he's paying me by the hour and not getting his money's worth. 

I charge a minimum 1000 b/f.  If the customer has 4 8' cedar logs and I set up and saw, I charge for 1000 b/f.

On my contract I explain what I do and what the customer is expected to do, such as cleanup.  I also explain how I figure board footage.  Anything one inch or thinner is considered a one inch board.  If I saw pine at 1 1/2 inches thick, it's considered a 2x.  If I saw cedar that's 1/4" thick, it's considered a 1x.    Once I reach a 1000 b/f I don't round off, I charge per board foot.  I do not charge for stickers.  I try to saw stickers as I'm edging.

[redprospector]

The last time I sawed at the customers location (which was about 4 years ago), I charged .35 a bd. ft. for just cutting 1x, 2x, and standard dimension beams and post's. Nothing custom about it.
Anything special gets charged by the hour.
I'm wasn't out there to save the customer money (although I usually did), I was out there to make a living. If the customer wants to build out of their own logs, it has to be worth something.

In answer to the question; So who is making the most money
The guy sawing for $250 or the guy not sawing for $450 ?
A person has to add up their cost's. If they can saw and make money at $250 then at the end of the year they will probably have made more money. If not...Well, I'd rather price it to make a profit and go fishing when I have nothing to do, than to under price and work myself, and machine into the ground for nothing.

That's why my plans are to set up stationary, cut my own logs, and buy logs from others. Then just sell lumber, and finished product.

[drobertson]

It really all depends on the cut job.  After many jobs charging anywhere from .15 to .25 a bdft, I have avg'd in the neighborhood of 80 bucks an hour, It just depends on the job, saw pattern, and set up.    david

[Brian C.]

We have a LT25 fully manual mill. We are constantly evaluating our costs. What we have established is that an hourly charge is best. When we are done with a job and equate it to bd ft produced and the time taken to produce it, it comes to about $.65 bd ft the going rate in our area.

[uler3161]

As a disclaimer, I don't do this full time. Just as a hobby, so that may influence my pricing a bit.

99% of what we cut is softwood and we always charge by the bdft on that. We're at .20/bdft and that usually figures out to about $50/hr before expenses. Last time I looked at 2x lumber at the local building supply store, it was about .51/bdft and that's planed and graded, so I think our price is about where it should be. We don't charge any setup fee. Sometimes we'll charge for blades if we hit a lot of metal, but that's usually during the other 1% of the time that we cut hardwood.

There are other small mills around here and I think they do charge more, but I'm not sure they get near the repeat business that we do. One of them doesn't like to cut for other people all that much. He has a market for specialized products and I think he does ok. Last I heard, another guy didn't make it full time, so he's running his part time.

It seems like .20 is on the low end looking at all the responses, but I guess it has a lot to do with the local market. Lumber is cheap here and the bigger sawmills are tuned to put out massive amounts of product at low cost. Here's one of the local mills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSt0TtkACHI. Notice how few people are required.

[Mountain Guardian]

There are a lot of private mills running around here, before I bought my mill was usually quoted between .27 cents and .30 cents a lineal foot on all lumber cut, or when I could find people willing to do it, they wanted 60% of the wood for themselves and I would get the other 40% milled in trade as long as it was red fir anyway, they were never interested in pine or anything else. 

I have a deal going with a guy who is logging his place and he is going to trade me out a 50/50 split for cutting his pine into wide one inch boards for bat and board siding.  I am going to use all the bigger logs to do his siding and trade out on all the smaller logs and make 1x4 and 1x6 pine boards for inside my house.  I calculated it out at .20 cents a lineal foot as compared to what I would pay mill price for the pine logs.  It worked out about perfect to a 50/50 split.

[Chuck White]

Sometimes it's better understood if it is stated whether or not the sawyer is providing the logs or if the customer is!

My sawing is about 99% mobile, whereas I go to the customers log pile and turn it into lumber!

In this area, for mobile sawing the rates range from $150.00 - $200.00/1,000 board feet or $.15-.20/bf.

No idea what the stationary mills get!