Is it profitable?

[Basso]

Hey Windthrown,

Do you know where I can get a herd of Mexicans??????


Basso

 

[avalancher]

Hey Windthrown,

Do you know where I can get a herd of Mexicans??????


Basso

That isnt hard, they are everywhere now. In fact, I would be glad to round up a herd from around here and ship them up to you. We got more than we need around these parts.

 

[Ohiowoodguy]

I guess it depends how much you want to ut and what you want to make. There is one point most people are missing. You don't have to punch a time clock for anyone. You can work the hours you want. You can work short of long hours. If you want to make more money then work more. Also I think it would be hard to make any money with a standard hydraulic splitter. They just take to long to split. They might do a good job and get the job done but for production and making any real money they just don't cut it. The key if you are delivering it to be able to take a lot at a time. That cuts your delivery time down and also your fuel bills. I will deliver wood 60 miles away. That sounds like a long way. But I set up other customers in that area or on the way. If I take 8 ranks (4x8x16") with me that's a lot of deliveries. If I drive 140 miles for the day total that is 17.5 miles per rank. If someone else says they only deliver within 10 miles they could drive 20 miles per rank. I would have that average beat. I was getting $300 a cord last year. This year it will be $360 to new customers. You won't get rich off firewood but in the right area with the correct setup you can make some pretty decent money. And the most important thing is you can be your own boss and do it the way you want.

Scott

:agree2: :agree2: :agree2: :agree2:



I have to smile:biggrinbounce2: when I read about "getting my firewood for free". Does this mean it suddenly appears, cut, split and stacked? Someone needs to figure up their time, equipment, fuel and upkeep costs! When I did for myself I was amazed to see that I could buy loggs delivered for what it was costing me to retrieve "free" firewood But I still do it myself for the reasons listed above .

 

[windthrown]

Hey Windthrown,

Do you know where I can get a herd of Mexicans??????

Basso

Sure. Any Home Depot west of the Rockies has a hundred or two out front of them most days, milling around, waiting for someone to hire and feed them. Se habla Espanol!

What part of the US do you live in that you would need to ask such a question? I did not think that there was anyplace left that had not been invaded yet. Here in the west they have all the nursery jobs, all the landscaping jobs, all the restaurant jobs, all the tree planting jobs, all the janitorial jobs, all the field planting and picking jobs, all the vineyard jobs, all the orchard jobs, and most of the arborist jobs. Well, except the one white guy that goes to the door to do the bidding. I say screw all that nonsence.

 

[FSTS]

Yes

If you are willing to work your butt right off yes there is some profit to it. You can still make a profit if you buy your logs and have them delivered. The trick is to be able to do it without spending alot of money on every new fancy device that comes out and understand that it is very hard work. If you are looking to make a million it wont happen. Too many people ##### and complain about working hard anymore and say there is no money in it; if there wasnt any damn money in it I wouldnt be doing it. Good luck to ya and I hope you get what you need.

 

[avalancher]

Sure. Any Home Depot west of the Rockies has a hundred or two out front of them most days, milling around, waiting for someone to hire and feed them. Se habla Espanol!

What part of the US do you live in that you would need to ask such a question? I did not think that there was anyplace left that had not been invaded yet. Here in the west they have all the nursery jobs, all the landscaping jobs, all the restaurant jobs, all the tree planting jobs, all the janitorial jobs, all the field planting and picking jobs, all the vineyard jobs, all the orchard jobs, and most of the arborist jobs. Well, except the one white guy that goes to the door to do the bidding. I say screw all that nonsence.

I had to laugh at this one! When we first moved to TN from Alabama, I called a temp agency up here to have them send out some workers to help me pour the foundation for my shop. I stressed the fact that I needed workers that were familiar with concrete work.
The first day only one showed up. I gave him a shovel and told him to run around the perimeter of the forms and dig 12 inches deep for the outside footing. He looked confused. Then I found out he didnt speak a word of english. I called his boss, he explained that I just needed to tell him what I needed done, the hand the phone to the worker and he would translate.
After an hour I came back and realized he had dug exactly one foot of footing trench. Then I realized why. The realestate gal had come by and was talking with the previous owners who were moving. Lets just say she was well endowed. He couldnt keep his eyes off of her. I called his boss and told him to come get his guy. After talking to his employee he told me that his guy had never seen a woman so "built" before, this was his fifth day north of the border.

 

[windthrown]

And they were like, PROUD to send this guy out your way to work?

Ay yay yay! :deadhorse:

Temp agencies; add that to the list of places that they have saturated with illegal laborers.

 

[abohac]

Beleive it or not I have access to free wood - in-laws own 230 acres - but the scenario goes like this. Drive pick-up into woods/fell/limb/buck/load/drive home/unload/split/stack/reload. For personal use I don't mind doing a few cords this way but if I was going to do more to sell those first few steps seem like a lot of wear and tear on man and machine. I'm still new to this so I'll ride the wave of energy and enthusiasm. In a few months I'll probably be cynical as well.

This what we do when we go to the woods. It is very efficient and we make wood like crazy (I think it would take a processor to outdue us). We take a Cat Backhoe, A 3 ton single axle grain truck with a hoist (holds 5 face cords), my old wreck 3/4 ton pickup with 5 saws, a 5 gal can of mix, 3 gal of bar oil, enough chains to start a saw shop, a tool box big enough to overhaul an engine, along with a couple of axe's, pail of wedges, chaps, sledge hammer, log chains. Behind the truck is a TW 6 spiltter. Our hired man drives the Backhoe, My dad drives the pick-up and I drive the grain truck. Oh, my two boys eventually get there also. Oh, I forgot about the Farmi winch and the JD 5320 tractor. We can fill that truck up 4 times if we work like dogs (and we don't have to haul it very far). That is 20 face cords and a heck of a pile of wood at the end of the day. My point of all this crap is this: All of this equipment makes cutting firewood as easy as it gets (and it's still hard). I have only bought the splitter and the winch for special purpose (making wood) all the rest of the stuff I have mentioned is part of our farming operation. If you had to buy all this stuff for mass production purposes you would have to charge a very large amount of money to just recoup your investment. Same pretty much goes for the tree cutting guys. They get paid pretty well to cut and remove the tree from a persons yard. They have the saws and other equipment to do the job and now have the wood. Might as well sell it. It's a sideline to another business. Don't want to discourage you, but it's the way I see it. Good luck.

 

[Moss Man]

We are making a profit here buying tree length, processing it with a processor and selling it green, cut, split and delivered. You do have to watch your every move to be sure you aren't wasting fuel and time though. We started doing it as a sideline because we had some extra wood on our land and now, with the processor, we are selling 60-75 cords per year......surely not enough to make a living, but we are making extra income and we answer to no one when doing it.

 

[TJ-Bill]

I'm starting small.. Next year I plan on buying at least 10 cord in 8' length 5 for me and 5 for my father.. He's lazy always waits until the last minute to buy wood and doesn't want to split it. I'm going to cut and split his for him. I'll pay $100-120 and sell it to him for $200-225 and I'll have all spring to do it. It will at least pay for my wood all I have to do is put in a few hours a week..

If I don't mind the extra work maybe I'll look at buy more the next year to sell.

 

[CUCV]

I know I have made more per hour cutting wood than working 80 hours a week at my salary job. Now that I am married and have a kid on the way I kicked the extra hours at the salary job and enjoy making a bit of extra cash cutting firewood. Today I split and delivered out 5 cord of 16" wood with a bit of help from the pregnant wife and a ton of distractions.

Equipment failure can always ruin a good day. I had a fairly good day today. Just a broken recoil rope on the conveyor and the splitter carb was full of water(I noticed my friend, last one to use it, had no cap on the gas can he was using)

I plowed through bucking up an 8 cord grapple load and an a cord of 4 footers into 16" blocks 2 weeks ago in 8 hours. I ran a 365, 372 and an 044, started the morning with sharp chains and touched them up at lunch.

With decent wood I average 1 hour to cut, 1 hour to split, 1 hour to stack, 1 hour to deliver.

 

[KodiakKen]

although not happy...I bought a crane load

northwest ohio..I work for the local phone company and like most here..grew up cutting and splitting wood. last year with overtime and drinking..didn't budget enough time for firewood..ended up buying from a local tree company I stumbled across. They delivered to my driveway 2 1/2 to 3 cords of logs for $100. of course this was all for personal use..I don't know if maybe because I helped them on this job they had..dropped some lines so they could do their job easier. but 3 cords for $100..I should keep up with them and sell...heard rumor of $300 a cord this year..that would be worth it..just a thought. find a tree company and wait until they have a maintenance day and drop of a couple cases of beer..spirits go up and prices go down. if nothing else. being in nature is better than being around stuck up high society people

 

[Zodiac45]

With decent wood I average 1 hour to cut, 1 hour to split, 1 hour to stack, 1 hour to deliver.

Is that per cord? I could see those numbers with a processor and conveyor. But a regular splitter not a chance too get a cord through in an hour. Well at least not my splitter. None the less, your busting pretty good CUCV. More power too ya!

 

[avalancher]

Is that per cord? I could see those numbers with a processor and conveyor. But a regular splitter not a chance too get a cord through in an hour. Well at least not my splitter. None the less, your busting pretty good CUCV. More power too ya!

Got to agree with you on this one, I have tried every trick that I could, and could never run through a cord an hour with a regular splitter. After I got my four way head though, it wasnt impossible anymore. Its a lot of work, and the wood has to be just the right size. Too small, and it takes too much time to pile up the wood. Too big, and you waste a lot of grunt time getting it moved around.
I found that for me, the perfect size was around the 24 inch size of red oak. You can really make the firewood pile up with a four way and you dont kill youreself in the process. i split my wood right off the end of my trailer, no lifting to do really, just roll the rounds right on to the splitter and it really helps the time factor a lot.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Is that per cord? I could see those numbers with a processor and conveyor. But a regular splitter not a chance to get a cord through in an hour. Well at least not my splitter. None the less, your busting pretty good CUCV. More power too ya!

:agree2: I usually figure six hours per cord to cut, split, load, haul, and stack--one man working alone. With a power splitter, I can usually split as fast as I can cut, maybe faster. With two guys working the splitter, they can handle twice the wood than can be felled, bucked, and trimmed by one sawyer in the same period of time.

I must admit that my Stihl MS 361 has reduced my sawing time significantly.

 

[woodfarmer]

so should i be selling my logs at the landing for $50/cord, or go the extra mile cut, split, stack and sell for $300 cord?

 

[avalancher]

:agree2: I usually figure six hours per cord to cut, split, load, haul, and stack--one man working alone. With a power splitter, I can usually split as fast as I can cut, maybe faster. With two guys working the splitter, they can handle twice the wood than can be felled, bucked, and trimmed by one sawyer in the same period of time.

I must admit that my Stihl MS 361 has reduced my sawing time significantly.

Somebody on here mentioned in another post that between him and his wife he cuts,splits, and stacks 10 cords of wood in a weekend. I asked him what kind of equipement he uses, but I dont think he answered.
I asked my wife yesterday if she was ready to put away ten cords that day, and she told me that I should have left the beer at home, I obviously had been drinking too much
Aint calling the guy a liar by any means, I just would sure love to know how he does it!

 

[nitromusky]

My brother and I do it. We sell 15 - 20 cord a year. Is it profitable we figure we make 40 50 bucks per cord sold. But you need free help than you can push the numbers. We will cut haul and split3-4 cord per day. But like you all know it is hard work ! I figure as long as I like working in the woods I'll keep doing it.

 

[STLfirewood]

There are a couple different factors when someone mentions how much they can produce in a day. The main 2 factors in my opinion are length of wood and splitting size. It saves a lot of time if you are cutting 24" wood compared to 16". You save a 1/3 of the cuts and 1/3 of the splits. That is a lot of time. You end up with the same amount of wood in a cord but 24" is a lot faster to produce. Also splitting size. I see a lot of people split their wood big. They will half a 14" piece an call it done. That is great if you or your customers can use wood that big. I would most likely get 5-6 pieces of wood out of a 14" piece. That is a lot more strokes with the splitter. When I think about this is makes me wish my customers could take 24" wood and split a lot bigger. If I do 2 cord a day the way I cut I bet I could do 3 cord a day if I cut it 24" and split it bigger.

Scott

 

[avalancher]

There are a couple different factors when someone mentions how much they can produce in a day. The main 2 factors in my opinion are length of wood and splitting size. It saves a lot of time if you are cutting 24" wood compared to 16". You save a 1/3 of the cuts and 1/3 of the splits. That is a lot of time. You end up with the same amount of wood in a cord but 24" is a lot faster to produce. Also splitting size. I see a lot of people split their wood big. They will half a 14" piece an call it done. That is great if you or your customers can use wood that big. I would most likely get 5-6 pieces of wood out of a 14" piece. That is a lot more strokes with the splitter. When I think about this is makes me wish my customers could take 24" wood and split a lot bigger. If I do 2 cord a day the way I cut I bet I could do 3 cord a day if I cut it 24" and split it bigger.

Scott

You made some really good points there. I cut to 16 inches, and split small. Most of my customers are elderly, one load of big split stuff and it will be the last time I deliver to them. i have got a lot of my business from folks that had been using someone else and saw my wood at a neighbors etc and liked the smaller size split. It takes a little more work, but in the end you get more stackable wood per load of wood so i figure its worth it, even taking the happy customer out of the equation.