Milling rates

[Big Beech]

wow, never thought i would ask such a question

and i know its a " how long is a piece of string" type question.

 

whats the best format pricing for CSM? a day rate? or cu ft? what do others price themselves out at or how?

i have a client that has some Oaks that need dealing at some point, and i wanna be prepared

 

thanks,

 

simon

[burrell_]

if ur hard at it 10l of 2stoke in a day 6l of chain oil ur day rate and u want money for ur chains the cost of big bars are pricy

i started at 150 a day well low went to 180 day better

for milling i charge 220-280 a day now

u dont want to charge anything less than 200 a day

milling all day is hard on the body

hope that helps

[Forest2Furniture]

I agree the Big J & Burrell milling is hard work, it kills my back every time. And if you hit a nail that's the chain lost & on the big bars that's the best part of £50!

[agrimog]

£250 a day plus any damages, and depending on distance a millage charge, usually distances over 50miles of my base

[Rob D]

It depends a bit on how much milling you want to do and also how organised you are. If you can show a customer a good portfolio of what and where you have milled and demonstrate what they can get out of their wood then they are more likely to go for a higher price.

 

 

 

And it depends on the kit you have.

 

 

But I'd say a big saw 076, 088, 880 etc, with Alaskan, an 70cc -80cc saw with small log mill or mini mill to hand.

 

 

I think you should be charging £300-00+vat a day.

 

 

You should be able to produce £600+vat worth of timber (and again if you can show a customer previous jobs).

 

 

I charge £400-00+vat a day but this includes Peterson mill if needed. It's not just the day milling but I find it takes at least 2-3 hours to get the truck loaded (the day before) and saws sharp ready to go when you reach site.

 

 

[Rob D]

 

After that last CSM job, I sat down, had a think and upped my prices to £275+VAT and mileage a day. Given that I completely dismantled the windblown tree, logged everything else up for firewood and produced 53 cubic foot of good quality Oak (about £954-1060 at £18-20 a cubic foot), I reckon it's fair enough. Fair play to you Rob for getting £400!

 

 

 

Ha ha! I don't always get it though but I don't really want to be a day in day out contract miller as the elbows would quickly finish their trip to arthritis!

 

 

I have just bought a remote control winch off ebay - only £90-00 - so will start having a go with attaching to a 12v jumper pack and seeing if this will pull the mill down the log.

 

 

[Forest2Furniture]

I have just bought a remote control winch off ebay - only £90-00 - so will start having a go with attaching to a 12v jumper pack and seeing if this will pull the mill down the log.

 

 

That's sounds interesting, you'll have to let us know if it works.

[Stihlben]

I have done similar with a hand winch and found it worked quite well, problem with an electric winch is you only have the one speed which ca be a bit to fast whereas with the hand winch you can pull the mill through at whatever pace you require. What I did was mount it on a fence post driven in near the end of the log so it has a solid anchor point....

[Rob D]

I have done similar with a hand winch and found it worked quite well, problem with an electric winch is you only have the one speed which ca be a bit to fast whereas with the hand winch you can pull the mill through at whatever pace you require. What I did was mount it on a fence post driven in near the end of the log so it has a solid anchor point....

 

 

I was thinking that but I will experiment putting a spring in the system or maybe a couple of springs and also I think it depends on where the rope end is attached.

 

 

I've used a hand winch before but I'd really like something that does it for me.

 

[agg221]

I don't do a lot of contract milling, but when I do I'm normally £250/day all in. If it's a long distance I will add mileage and if I bring the Ripsaw it's a bit more but this is more than made up for in the extra yield due to the narrow kerf.

 

I want to know where the trees have grown as then I'll make a judgement on the likelihood of hitting metal/stones. I prefer to take on the risk and add accordingly to the total as then all costs are clear up front, but will add a 'price per damaged item' if the likelihood of repeat damage is high (e.g. hedgerow with a high risk of a lot of barbed wire). Since I own the risk, I keep a couple of old chains which I will put on if the risk is high. The loss is only really the remaining life of the chain, so if it's only got a couple of sharpenings in it then it's not that much cost.

 

Productivity is a difficult one. Timber is priced per cu.ft, with price dependent on species (which doesn't relate much to production volume) but with chainsaw milling the cutting rate is low and set-up time is relatively long (at least if you want to get optimised boards parallel with the heart) so production volume is governed by number of cuts to be made and the size of the butt, and the related factor of cutting pattern which determines how often you have to adjust the mill. Also significant is how straight the butts are. The bigger and straighter the butts are, the more timber you will get per set-up and the faster your actual production. A second pair of hands has a big bearing - if you have to keep stopping to drag heavy lumps around on your own this really hits productivity, compared with slinging the board off and going again.

 

A day on your own cutting small diameter (8-12"), garden-grown low value timber into boards under two inches thick could yield as little as £250 worth of timber (i.e. not actually worth it for a customer to pay you), whereas milling 8"x8"x10' oak posts from clean 3' butts could yield over £2500 in a day. I reckon a good average yield would be around £600/person/day.

 

I concur with the comments on aching afterwards - although I don't find this as bad as I used to - probably because I spend my evenings lugging stuff around anyway. Also with Rob's comment on the time taken to get everything together (and then sharpen it and put it all away again afterwards).

 

Alec