# Question about having a portable sawmill cut my wood



## CUCV (Aug 21, 2007)

In the past I have had a friend make boards for me with his portable sawmill. This spring I informed him that I had 4000 board feet of pine and over 1000 b.f. of hardwood to cut. He informed me of his new rate per b.f. and I was kind of taken back. His rate had gone up so much in the past year it was now cost effective to have a log truck take the wood to a local mill. So what are you guys charging per b.f. to saw lumber on site?

I looked around for another person to do it on site with a portable mill and found someone who quoted me a reasonable rate in my mind. He just finished and I was a bit taken back by the bill. The bill was for much more board feet than expected. I did expect an additional 20% from my scaled qty but it was way over that. I measured up the stickered piles and came darn close to the 120% number. So I am trying to figure out where the extra b.f. are. On the last day of milling he had complained a bit about the log lengths. I was in a rush the day I had skid out the logs and just told my father to cut logs oversized for 8',10', 12' etc lengths. Most of the logs ended up with close to a foot extra. I recalculated the b.f. including an extra foot on every board and still did not reach the qty on the bill.
So should I expect to pay for the extra length on the boards? Should I pay for extra length over say 6"? What do you charge for stickers?


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## Rodney Sinclair (Aug 21, 2007)

You want like my answer, but here goes anyway. I've read this several times and what I make out of it is that you knew someone with a mill that has been doing you a favor that you tried to take avantge of. And when they quit on you, you tried to get your poor ol' dad to do all the work and tried to screw another guy around for a lot of "extra" board feet for free. Now ya pissed because you got the screwin'. If you made the deal, of course you should pay.

Rodney


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## Ianab (Aug 21, 2007)

> So should I expect to pay for the extra length on the boards?



Well it's not the sawyers fault the logs were longer than you wanted. He had to take the time, gas and blade wear to cut that extra foot of wood. As long as you actually got the brd ft that he charged you for, at the rate he quoted, I dont think you can really complain. 

If the logs were small the log scales aren't very accurate and a good sawyer can proably get double what the logs scale to. Of course small logs are a pain to saw, a lot of loading and moving, smaller boards and less time with the saw in the wood. So the log scales have been developed over the years to weigh against small logs because the mills dont really want them, or if the do, they want to pay less to make up for the extra cost of processing them.

Cheers

Ian


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## trimmmed (Aug 21, 2007)

I think both you and your sawyer need to get together and BOTH measure the boards, reach an agreement as to how many bf, then apply that total to the price quoted and agreed to.

Might just be a simple math error on one of your parts. Seems easy enough to just count what's been cut.


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## CUCV (Aug 21, 2007)

Thanks for the input guys. I am definitely not trying to screw anyone, like you say it seems like a simple measurement. I sell firewood and never screw around trying to short anyone on a cord. I got the bill as he was going away for the week so I have not had the chance to talk it over with him. The logs where not small diameter as he insisted on having me pay extra to have a backhoe on site to turn the logs on the mill. The original price was given per board foot. I could be wrong but 6" inches extra on a log is somewhat of a rough standard from some brief reading I just did and is not calculated into the b.f. count. Like I said I including the extra foot in my conservative calculation of b.f. it is still short quite a bit.
I do plan to measure it again and measure it with my Sawyer when he gets back.


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## mountainlake (Aug 22, 2007)

What size lumber did you saw? Some round up to the next inch. Steve


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## CUCV (Aug 22, 2007)

mountainlake said:


> What size lumber did you saw? Some round up to the next inch. Steve



Thanks Steve, that is an interesting idea. Most of the wood was cut 1" and 2" but I did get some 5/4.

So what do you guys charge to saw lumber per b.f.?

What do you charge for stickers?


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## cantcutter (Aug 22, 2007)

CUCV said:


> So what do you guys charge to saw lumber per b.f.?
> 
> What do you charge for stickers?



At this point it doesn't matter if you agreed to his price......I have seen anywhere from 15 to 35 cents per bf depending on the wood and amount. If the sawyer is providing seasoned stickers 45 cents each is not unrealistic.


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## mountainlake (Aug 22, 2007)

Up here in Mn I charge $50.00 hour and can cut 300 bf an hour with good logs, about 17 cents a bf give or take a little. There's a lot of Amish mills close by that saw really cheap. Small crooked logs will be a lot more per bf. Stickers go for $10 for 50 or so. How far off were you and him on bf? Steve


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## chainsawjunky (Aug 22, 2007)

Just wondering what you mean you say seasoned stickers and stickers?

Evan


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## cantcutter (Aug 22, 2007)

chainsawjunky said:


> Just wondering what you mean you say seasoned stickers and stickers?
> 
> Evan



Not green.....air dried....not milled on the job, but brought in by the sawyer.
a sticker is a piece of wood used inbetween lumber while stacking to hold the green boards off of each other and the wood off of the ground. The proper way is to use dry stickers and not mill them out of the wood that is being cut that day. So the mill operator usually has to bring them with him to the job and charges usually a deposit for them or sells them out right to the customer.


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## chainsawjunky (Aug 22, 2007)

cantcutter said:


> Not green.....air dried....not milled on the job, but brought in by the sawyer.
> a sticker is a piece of wood used inbetween lumber while stacking to hold the green boards off of each other and the wood off of the ground. The proper way is to use dry stickers and not mill them out of the wood that is being cut that day. So the mill operator usually has to bring them with him to the job and charges usually a deposit for them or sells them out right to the customer.


Thank you. I've seen those in pictures but didn't know that's what they were called.

Evan


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## CUCV (Aug 22, 2007)

mountainlake said:


> Up here in Mn I charge $50.00 hour and can cut 300 bf an hour with good logs, about 17 cents a bf give or take a little. There's a lot of Amish mills close by that saw really cheap. Small crooked logs will be a lot more per bf. Stickers go for $10 for 50 or so. How far off were you and him on bf? Steve


Great info, you must have a big mill and run it efficiently.
I am seeing a difference of 900 b.f.
$10 to $50 for how many stickers?

I am not interested in renegotiating the agreed price with the sawyer, I am just curious what others rates are.


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## mountainlake (Aug 23, 2007)

Thats $10 for a bundle of 50 or 20 cents each. We stack 10 to 15 42" boards on edge on the mill and saw a bunch in a hurry. Mill is a B20 Timberking with a diesel and lots of hydraulics. 300bf an hour is with a good helper or 2 and decent logs. One of my best days we sawed 2750bf of tamarack in 7 hours mostly 1-1/2 inches thick, that was figuring 1-1/2 inches for bf not 2 inches. Really good help. Steve


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## cantcutter (Aug 23, 2007)

CUCV said:


> I am seeing a difference of 900 b.f.


When you talk to him let us know what his explanation is, that is quite a strech in BF.


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## 1953greg (Aug 23, 2007)

i do not have a mill but have paid from 15-40 cents/bf. 
15 is for circle saw (to be used for framing) and the 40 is for the best band saw operator around and for the hi end logs (to be used for finishing) worth the price.


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## Al Smith (Aug 23, 2007)

I paid my sawyer 22 cents per board foot,reasonable I thought.

I made all my sticker boards from dunnage boards which were free from the local lumber yards.Using a 12" direct drive table saw it didn't take too long to make a bunch of them.


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## Rick Alger (Aug 26, 2007)

We haven't milled for a few years, but when we did we figured our price had to fall somewhere between the log price and the price of retail lumber. 

If the logs are worth $250 / mbf on the landing and the price for an equivalent amount of delivered lumber is $500, then negotiations for the price of sawing had to start at around $250/mbf. (.25/ft) to be acceptable to both parties.

The six inch trim is standard and should not count as footage. We did not saw smaller than 1x4's. Stickers were a separate transaction.


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## Ryan Willock (Aug 29, 2007)

I have a woodmizer LT40Super Hydrolic with a turbo diesel and get a minum of $50 per hour for sawing at MY site $60 at yours IF you provide help so I don't have to stack lumber or slabs. If I hit metal in your logs and break a blade then you pay for the blade. I will cut large logs by the board foot for $250mbf my site or $300 yours. I have a one hour minimum at my site and a $500 at yours.


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