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Price per hour?


AdamnRalph
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Got my new mill working today!:biggrin:

I'm very impressed with it I will stick some pictures on in the next few days.

A delivery driver stopped on the road today and asked how much I would charge to slab up 3 18" square pitch pine beams 12 foot long into 1.5" thick planks.

As I've just started milling I've no idea what to charge per hour.

My mill is not mobile so he would bring it to my yard.

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You haven't mentioned what type of mill you have, and hence how expensive the bands are (presuming bandsaw?) and also whether you have the facility to sharpen them yourself.

 

The odds are high that any nails will have been put into the beams, not the trees, so they will be near the surface. You should therefore find them fairly easily. Pitch pine also suggests fairly old, so nails are more likely to be iron than hardened steel. They will dull the band and take out the set on a few teeth but are less likely to destroy it.

 

I would be inclined to ask if he would be OK with them at 16" width. If so, I would skim an inch off each side and then run the planks through. This would lose almost all risk of nails as you will cut below most of them when skimming the sides and if you do hit any you will see them clearly and not hit them again.

 

I work in half days rather than by the hour. Granted this is for a chainsaw mill, rather than a fixed installation, but it allows for setting things up, sharpening and all the general faffing about you have to do anyway to get going. ome people have a basic charge plus costs of band damage, but I prefer to offer a fixed price so the customer knows exactly what they are accepting. I take the risk, price accordingly and sometimes it works out in my favour, sometimes not, but I make sure that I am not exposed to more risk than I am happy with. If bands are around £20 each I would be inclined to factor in two bands and ask £150 if I wasn't too worried about getting the job, £120 if I wanted it. If it works out, you will be up a bit, if it goes as planned it covers costs, labour and depreciation. Much less than that and if you take out a third or fourth band it is getting very expensive.

 

Alec

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Cut through and through with the side of the beam upwards, parallel and above and below the row of nail holes.

 

The nails that were used will be likely 2" or 3". If theres an old nail in there it'll give you an idea of the size, as they'll probably be all the same.

 

You will eventually hit a nail and it will dull your sharp blade.

 

You can see all the nail holes in the top surface of the beam and the lath nails on the bottom if there are any. Sticking a spike/screwdriver in the hole and giving it a wiggle will tell you if there's metal in there.

 

Good luck, the boards will be very nice and I laid some 12" reclaimed Scots Pine boards in our house in somerset, lovely wood and very easy to lay.

 

His are likely to be Scots Pine, "Deal", from the Baltic states as that's what was imported for softwood beams not pitch pine.

Edited by Aunt Maud
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