Demand verse capability

[AKevin]

Could anyone advise me forward on the best options available as regards costing processor hire with operator/costings/output per day for the two that you would be happy to pay.Set up is not meeting demand,any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

[ash_smith123]

It would cost you £200-300 a day to hire someone with a WP36. Finance on a £12k wp36 would be roughly £200 a month so if your going to hire one for more than 12 days a year I would finance one. Second hand value is pretty good after a few years so you will never be in negative equity if your looking to keep it more than 2 years.

I would also look at buying it in bulk already done!

[skyhuck]

I would personally reverse cost the process, work out how much you could afford to pay and still make a decent return, I would then approach those offering the processing service and tell them how much you could pay on a volume rate and see if they can meet your requirements.

 

There is no point being a busy fool, IMO.

[gdh]

It depends on the wood you want processing. Is it straight roundwood or arbwaste and how much of it is a decent diameter?

 

I would want £55 an hour for ours with an operator which will take up to 18inch diameter. If you were loading or preferably we brought a loader and operator for another 25 we should do 4tons an hour plus on tidy wood. More if you're cutting longer than 9inch.

[AKevin]

Would be 2.9 mtr length and around 39 cm dia,around 25 ton.Ash/Sycamore/Beech.Will check if machine friendly but will also assume not,many thanks for advice upto press.

[Tanat Valley Firewood]

We hired a processor in this week for a day. It was £25 per hour with one operator. I supplied another operator on the processor and another on a splitter on the front of the splitter. The chap on the front processed more timber splitting rings than the two with the processor. Accepted that one was splitting and the other two were sawing and splitting, but it really depends on the timber that you are putting through it. Normally I buy seasoned logs from my supplier and get him to come with his processor when I have a yard full of unprocessed timber. You can buy in the timber split into logs when they are seasoned (as I do), this saves you all the work and sitting on quantities of money in the barn for a year. Or you can process it yourself, and your margins will be greater, but you have the money tied up in seasoning stock. We do both, especially while we are in the initial growth stage. Good luck.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

It depends on the wood you want processing. Is it straight roundwood or arbwaste and how much of it is a decent diameter?

 

I would want £55 an hour for ours with an operator which will take up to 18inch diameter. If you were loading or preferably we brought a loader and operator for another 25 we should do 4tons an hour plus on tidy wood. More if you're cutting longer than 9inch.

 

Compared with £25/hour plus diesel you can just about charge here.

[Woodworks]

Compared with £25/hour plus diesel you can just about charge here.

 

Yes but 4 tonne an hour is pretty impressive. I charge £27 per hour plus travel but at best average just over 2 tonne an hour based on a 8 hour day.

[gdh]

Compared with £25/hour plus diesel you can just about charge here.

Sorry I was a bit out in that post, I must have changed it from 2 operators to listing the loader separately and forgot to change the number. It would be 45 with 1 operator or 55 with 2.

 

I thought it was expensive at first but even with 2 people it's only £8 a cube. For most tractor jobs it would be the same around here (£30 Inc diesel), I was just giving an example for comparison. It would probably only pay for people doing large amounts but it's another option to consider.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Yes but 4 tonne an hour is pretty impressive. I charge £27 per hour plus travel but at best average just over 2 tonne an hour based on a 8 hour day.

 

Said another 25 so £80/hour for 4 tonne. I can do 3t an hour on my tod with a Japa on clean roundwood.

 

Too cheap eh

 

Edit: Ooops I didn't read the above soz.