# going rate for having wood milled



## cedarman (May 17, 2010)

Hey men,

I have a couple of 12' long 3' wide white oak logs that Id like to get milled down to some 1" by.

what do you think the going rate is for getting these milled down? Id like to eventually use this wood for trim in my house that I plan on building one day.

just wondering if its worth it

thanks!!

ross


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## smokinj (May 17, 2010)

mills around here is .30 cents a board foot


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## cedarman (May 17, 2010)

WOW! so a 1x12x12 is 144 cc's. 144 cc's is one board foot. at .30 cents a board foot that would be killer cheap

so based on my calculations I could have a 1x12x12 for 30 cents. if this is accurate, thats ALOT cheaper than lowes

will someone chime in and help me???

thanks man!!!


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## smokinj (May 17, 2010)

cedarman said:


> WOW! so a 1x12x12 is 144 cc's. 144 cc's is one board foot. at .30 cents a board foot that would be killer cheap
> 
> so based on my calculations I could have a 1x12x12 for 30 cents. if this is accurate, thats ALOT cheaper than lowes
> 
> ...



1in.x12in.x12in. is .30cents


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## cedarman (May 17, 2010)

haha!!!!! i knew that sounded to good to be true.

thanks smokin j for clarifying that.

still, 3.60$$ for a 1x12x12 is a good price for white oak. I need to find some BIG black cherry and a BIG black walnut

food for thought: I paid 10 bucks for a 1x6x6 pine at lowes the other day. had to build a freekin birdhouse for the old lady

paid 14 bucks for a sheet of OSB!!!!!!!!! was 4.88 2yrs. ago


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## gemniii (May 17, 2010)

Around here (northern Virginia) it's probably about 50 cents a board foot.
But


> I have a couple of 12' long 3' wide white oak logs that Id like to get milled down to some 1" by.


How do you want them "milled"?

Do you want 1" by 3 FOOT by 12 FOOT?
That's a LOT more difficult (splitting, checking) and may not be possible.

There's a lot of waste to suit your taste.


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## Birdhunter1 (May 17, 2010)

Another thing to keep in mind is you'll need a good planer and or a jointer to use them in a house, unless you want it to be rough sawn lumber.


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## cedarman (May 18, 2010)

thanks for all the good info fellas. I could get it planed down at the vocational school down the road.

keep the comments coming. I am green to all this stuff


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## Backwoods (May 18, 2010)

I am out on the west coast, but I charge $0.30 bft for softwoods and $60.00 an hour for hard woods. So the better the log is for milling the faster it can be milled an ugly log can slow things down real quick so the price per board foot would go up because it took longer to mill. you should only be looking at an hour or two plus set up time, some charge mileage and most charge for damaged saws. $1.00 a bft may be closer the actual cost of milling Oak


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## rarefish383 (May 19, 2010)

This was a long time ago, but may hold true today. I had several large Oak logs I wanted milled into 1 1/2"X7"X12' for floor boards in my 12 ft stake body. No mill would touch the logs because they didn't know if they were yard trees, and may have nails and such in them. Finally one of the mills told me he had plenty of White Oak and would sell me the boards cut to order. I don't remember how much they were but it was cheap, cheap, cheap. When I got there to pick them up he had cut them all to 16' so I could square them up, and gave me a pile at the quoted price that was so big I had enough left over to make side boards and a tailgate. I pass a couple of big mills going down to OC, and I bet if you ask for green rough cut White Oak, it will be a lot cheaper than you think. It just wouldn't be your logs, Joe.


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## gink595 (May 19, 2010)

Last summer I took a lot of logs out of a woods being clear cut for farm land, i got to talking to the Logger who bought the good timber. I asked if he would sell me a big white oak log to mill planks out of for my Bobcat trailer, he said he would mill them plus the log for .70 bd.ft. But I 've yet to hear anything from him. I thought that was cheap enough.


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## cedarman (May 19, 2010)

hmmmmmmm. maybe ill call around and ask.

the more and more I think about it i believe id rather have some nice cherry or walnut. the key is me finding a cherry that is straight and millable. Walnut will be extremely hard to find around my way


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## twoclones (May 19, 2010)

*Too cheap*



smokinj said:


> mills around here is .30 cents a board foot



I'm picking up a Woodmizer LT15 on Friday. 
The specs for this mill say "up to 125 bd. ft./hr." which at $0.30 per board foot comes to $37.50 per hour at maximum production. Not a bad wage if all other expenses are paid by the customer and they bring logs to you already cleaned and checked for nails, someone else is paying for your health insurance, and nothing goes wrong... Otherwise you're wage could quickly drop below the point where the mill could not pay for it's self. 

LT40 can mill a little more than twice as much but costs more than twice as much so even that mill isn't making a killing at 30 cents per board foot. 

I think $0.60 would give the sawyer a better chance at making a profit.


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## smokinj (May 19, 2010)

twoclones said:


> I'm picking up a Woodmizer LT15 on Friday.
> The specs for this mill say "up to 125 bd. ft./hr." which at $0.30 per board foot comes to $37.50 per hour at maximum production. Not a bad wage if all other expenses are paid by the customer and they bring logs to you already cleaned and checked for nails, someone else is paying for your health insurance, and nothing goes wrong... Otherwise you're wage could quickly drop below the point where the mill could not pay for it's self.
> 
> LT40 can mill a little more than twice as much but costs more than twice as much so even that mill isn't making a killing at 30 cents per board foot.
> ...



Thats not my price thats the mills price just down the road from me and your right you have to take it to them....free of metal or you will pay for damages. This mill will no dought do more than 125 board foot and hour. Its a very large mill opertion and in business for over 30 years. There another one about 25 miles away that will do it for .23 board foot. again you buy the blade if damage.


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## twoclones (May 19, 2010)

Would you happen to know what they charge for a blade? I'm sure a well run commercial mill considers that the guy replacing the blade expects to be paid for those minutes he spends replacing blades.

When buying a box of blades, mine cost $20 each plus any tax, shipping, etc that may apply.


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## smokinj (May 19, 2010)

twoclones said:


> Would you happen to know what they charge for a blade? I'm sure a well run commercial mill considers that the guy replacing the blade expects to be paid for those minutes he spends replacing blades.
> 
> When buying a box of blades, mine cost $20 each plus any tax, shipping, etc that may apply.




If you have to ask you dont want to know! they are big mills and I have no idea, but I would say they are not cheep as with everything in milling.


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## redprospector (May 19, 2010)

twoclones said:


> I'm picking up a Woodmizer LT15 on Friday.
> The specs for this mill say "up to 125 bd. ft./hr." which at $0.30 per board foot comes to $37.50 per hour at maximum production. Not a bad wage if all other expenses are paid by the customer and they bring logs to you already cleaned and checked for nails, someone else is paying for your health insurance, and nothing goes wrong... Otherwise you're wage could quickly drop below the point where the mill could not pay for it's self.
> 
> LT40 can mill a little more than twice as much but costs more than twice as much so even that mill isn't making a killing at 30 cents per board foot.
> ...



I wouldn't bank on the mfg's. claims for figuring how much lumber you can put on the ground. There are way too many variables, plus the learning curve.
I'm sure the mfg's. have done what they claim the machine is capable of, but I suspect they use good clean straight logs, all of the optimal size for the mill. In the real world you won't run into trees like that, they range from whatever size at the butt, to 8" or 10" at the top.

Andy


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## cedarman (May 20, 2010)

smokinj said:


> If you have to ask you dont want to know! they are big mills and I have no idea, but I would say they are not cheep as with everything in milling.



Id buy the blade if they let me take it home and hang it in the garage for decor. haha!


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## smokinj (May 20, 2010)

cedarman said:


> Id buy the blade if they let me take it home and hang it in the garage for decor. haha!



lol I run into enough good hardwood I just bought my own mill...and its spices up the decor.


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## TraditionalTool (May 20, 2010)

twoclones said:


> I'm picking up a Woodmizer LT15 on Friday.


Congrats Butch!

I almost bought one of them myself, but ended up with a used LumberMate 2000 that I'm happy with.

Backwoods hit the nail on the head, hardwoods are typically charged per hour, and $60/hr seems to be the going rate on the west coast. Oak is a hardwood after all...so don't calculate softwood prices for it, FWIW.


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## TraditionalTool (May 20, 2010)

twoclones said:


> Would you happen to know what they charge for a blade? I'm sure a well run commercial mill considers that the guy replacing the blade expects to be paid for those minutes he spends replacing blades.
> 
> When buying a box of blades, mine cost $20 each plus any tax, shipping, etc that may apply.


I got Cooks Super Sharps recently on sale for $16.xx each to my door. They would normally be about $25 each with shipping, so that was quite a savings. I have 20 blades, that should keep me going for a while, and I'll get them resharpened after, a local guy will sharpen, set, and roll them for $8 each.


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## mtfallsmikey (May 20, 2010)

Seems the going rate in my area is around $75/hr. It's cheaper for me to go to a mill and buy lumber IMO.


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## smokinj (May 20, 2010)

mtfallsmikey said:


> Seems the going rate in my area is around $75/hr. It's cheaper for me to go to a mill and buy lumber IMO.



If your milling for your own use you can rack up some big time savings. Around my area black walnut is not that good for firewood, but for lumbar is sweet and worth rough sawn at 3.00-3.50 a board foot thats where I see the money sell off the walnut and use the ash hickory poplar maple for myself and it will payoff in a year or two.


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## BigE (May 20, 2010)

I just paid $0.70 per board foot for kiln dried S4S red oak. Very, very hard to beat those prices, any way you look at it. These were "shorts", four foot long or shorter, but still fit the bill for 95% of my woodworking projects.

Of course, it's not often that you run across a deal like that, but even milling my own, I can't touch that price.


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## smokinj (May 20, 2010)

BigE said:


> I just paid $0.70 per board foot for kiln dried S4S red oak. Very, very hard to beat those prices, any way you look at it. These were "shorts", four foot long or shorter, but still fit the bill for 95% of my woodworking projects.
> 
> Of course, it's not often that you run across a deal like that, but even milling my own, I can't touch that price.



Yep for oak I would have jump myself...


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## Mike Van (May 21, 2010)

redprospector said:


> I wouldn't bank on the mfg's. claims for figuring how much lumber you can put on the ground. There are way too many variables, plus the learning curve.
> I'm sure the mfg's. have done what they claim the machine is capable of, but I suspect they use good clean straight logs, all of the optimal size for the mill. In the real world you won't run into trees like that, they range from whatever size at the butt, to 8" or 10" at the top.
> 
> Andy



You got that right Andy - Did you ever see one of those 'sawmill shootouts'? Where 3 guys that work for the company work at top speed and beyond cutting up perfect logs? Thats where those figures come from.


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## redprospector (May 22, 2010)

Mike Van said:


> You got that right Andy - Did you ever see one of those 'sawmill shootouts'? Where 3 guys that work for the company work at top speed and beyond cutting up perfect logs? Thats where those figures come from.



Never saw one of the "shootout's", read about them though.
When I first started milling, I was running a Woodmizer LT30. I called them and asked why I couldn't consistent reach their claims. They told me that if I cut 20" diameter logs 16' long making 2x's that the mill was well capable of maintaining those numbers. Just not a real world scenario in my opinion.

Andy


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## Mad Professor (May 22, 2010)

cedarman said:


> haha!!!!!
> food for thought: I paid 10 bucks for a 1x6x6 pine at lowes the other day. had to build a freekin birdhouse for the old lady



I've got 2000 bdft of 5/4 cherry heart wood. The cut off from spit ends would make a 100 bird houses and last a lot better than pine, hummmmmm.......

What's goods price for a bird house???


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## Mike Van (May 23, 2010)

At Tractor Supply Store the other day, I saw a made in China Bluebird house from some kind of China wood for 19.95


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## woodguy105 (May 23, 2010)

Mike Van said:


> At Tractor Supply Store the other day, I saw a made in China Bluebird house from some kind of China wood for 19.95



But for $19.95 you get your very own Asian Long Horn Beetle to go with the bird house! :monkey:


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## TraditionalTool (May 24, 2010)

woodguy105 said:


> But for $19.95 you get your very own Asian Long Horn Beetle to go with the bird house! :monkey:


LOL

That was kind of a scary article in Sawmill and Woodlot about that Asian Long Horn Beetle...lots of strange things happening with trees, Sudden Death Oak is also pretty scary, IMO, and could ultimately present more damage than the chesnut blight back in 1908.

I wonder if borates kill this long horn beetle, do you know?


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## Mike Van (May 24, 2010)

Alan, I don't know. All I see here is they take the trees down when they spot the longhorns. Once they [the beatles] get in them, I guess they're impossible to kill.


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## TraditionalTool (May 24, 2010)

Mike Van said:


> Alan, I don't know. All I see here is they take the trees down when they spot the longhorns. Once they [the beatles] get in them, I guess they're impossible to kill.


That sucks...I've seen a couple areas out west were Sudden Oak Death has set in, and they will quarantine the area.

I need to read that article about the Asian long home beetle, they look ugly...I don't think we have them out west yet, I'm not totally sure.


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