going rate for having wood milled

[cedarman]

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

 

[smokinj]

mills around here is .30 cents a board foot

 

[cedarman]

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!!!

 

[smokinj]

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!!!

1in.x12in.x12in. is .30cents

 

[cedarman]

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

 

[gemniii]

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.

 

[Birdhunter1]

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.

 

[cedarman]

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

 

[Backwoods]

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

 

[rarefish383]

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.

 

[gink595]

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.

 

[cedarman]

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

 

[twoclones]

Too cheap

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.

 

[smokinj]

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.

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.

 

[twoclones]

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.

 

[smokinj]

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.

 

[redprospector]

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.

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

 

[cedarman]

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!

 

[smokinj]

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.

 

[TraditionalTool]

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.