milling costs

[carpenter1]

what is the going rate per hour for milling

so mill and one bloke

[agg221]

Variable. It depends on whether it's a large portable bandsaw which is difficult to road-tow or a basic Alaskan, or even a Peterson type circular saw mill. All have their places, and are different prices per day but produce a different result in terms of dimensions, cutting pattern, access requirements. Experience also comes into it - slabbing up a lump through-and-through as it comes, leaving 'rustic' timber is a very different thing from the experience needed to see how to make the most of a log. Take a 3' oak butt for example - this may be able to yield some top quality timber, or far less top quality timber, depending on how it is treated.

 

Also note that mill and one bloke will be limited in what they can move, so if the job spec is to mill it and leave it in a pile next to the log, no worries, but if it needs moving anywhere then unless it's small stuff moving it will take more time. Burrell and I have found it far more efficient to work together, both milling. We get a lot further than one of us would in two days. Extra mills means less re-setting - you can use one to set up the ideal first cut, then the other one slabbing away behind. This yields better timber in the same time.

 

Also need to take into account travel distance, and whether there is a charge for damage from foreign objects (e.g. nails and barbed wire) which depends a bit on where the tree has been growing.

 

Also worth noting that, for people coming to site, they are normally on a day rate, or maybe a half-day rate. Taking your timber to a mill is a totally different prospect, but that probably doesn't go as one mill and one bloke.

 

A range of between £250 and £450 per day is about right, depending on the factors above, but some mills are likely to come with two operators so the costs will be higher.

 

Alec

Edited November 17, 2013 by agg221

[carpenter1]

i am taking timber to mill

[Big J]

About £35 an hour for milling done at my yard, £50 an hour off site.

[carpenter1]

they said £30 so about right