Daily rate

[dervishcarving]

To all of you proffessional millers out there (this is a theoretical question)... what do you charge per day?

your rig, my wood, delivered to your site. Ash, 3m lengths. lets pretend there is likely to be 4 or so days work

any thoughts?

[arbwork]

Happy to discuss with you, where are you based? J

[dervishcarving]

ah.. did say its theoretical discussion . im part of a charity group, we do a lot of community work, we have somebody doing a lot of milling for us BUT i dunno how much we should budget for it the next time if we have to go to a different 'miller'. this is based in north scotland. there is no complaints about the chap who is doing it now but its a side-line for him and i dunno if he will be able to do it next time. we tend to get them milled to 2inch thickness

Edited July 26, 2012 by dervishcarving

[arbwork]

No problem, the thing with mobile milling is getting the most out of the hire, to be efficient the miller ideally needs to be ‘looked after’ in that a supply of wood is stacked with good access for the saw or in a position to be delivered to the saw, i.e by crane fork lift etc. also operatives able to remove the sawn wood in a mature manner to stack / get it out of the way for the next piece,

A hire rate with just the miller with a saw can seem reasonable per day but with out forward planning and assistance the production will be limited. It may be more reasonable to hire 3 operatives with fork lift etc. at say 2. / 2.5 times the cost. The increased through put will produce more sawn timber at less cost per ft, m3, beam

I have looked at other prices and they seem to be iro 250 / 350 day with travel extra with 1 miller

[dervishcarving]

thanks for that. we put the time in to shift stuff to and from the mill for him so its 'well fed'. we cant afford to pay for help, we just do it ourselves

[Rob D]

Sounds more like a bandsaw you're after....

 

I charge £400 a day for Peterson mill/and or chainsaw mill - a lot maybe but I only do 5 days a year for other people. I'd always rather do a deal on the wood.

[dervishcarving]

If it were my descision i would have gone for a deal of some kind but the wood was gifted by the FCS and is all going to various community projects. Its all working out this time so we have no complaints thanks for the price-ideas chaps, good to know what we have to get together to cover these costs

[twmarriott]

las time any one brought me a tree to mill it was some boney old oak and as hard as iron, itd been down since the gales in 87, any way i cut it into 3 inch planks 10 foot or so long, he got around 2 ton of them in a day, for 360£, 300 for me and the mill, £60 quid diesel for tractor and our forklift. that was a couple of years ago mind, i think it would be nearer 400 now.

[keith threadgall]

would be happy to give you a quote, if you want.