What would one of these set me back SH?

[Woodworks]

[ame]

[/ame]

 

Think one of these is coming up for sale but have no idea of value.

 

Also is the market for mobile millers saturated?

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

I'm yet to find that there even is a realistic market Beau?

 

I've always found that the cost of milling in situ is equal to or greater than the cost of buying in timber. Very rarely there's a home / land owner who has the 'emotional attachment' to the former tree and is prepared to pay to have it converted into a useable form for a project / hobby.

 

If you do buy it I'll know who to ask in the future though!!

[Woodworks]

It's just an idea that's nagging at me. Having come from furniture making and moved to just hacking it up for logs would be nice to do something in between .

[Paul in the woods]

Has anyone done a breakdown of costs of turning say a fallen oak into saleable beams/boards?

 

I keep pondering a mill of some sort, or getting someone in, as I use a fair bit of wood and get fed up with buying poor quality stuff. I even saw a very simple small oak fireplace that was little more than three oak beams joined together and it was selling for over £500.

 

I wonder if there are people out there who would use a milling service but have no idea such things exist?

[Big J]

I charge about £75-90 a tonne for milling, but rarely mill for other people now. Second hand Woodmizers are probably best avoided. They are complicated machines and easy to damage. I wouldn't preclude the possibility of me owning a new one in the future but I'd want a new one, not one that has been used by someone else. My second hand LT40 ownership experience cost me £8 per machine hour in repairs.

[Woodworks]

I charge about £75-90 a tonne for milling, but rarely mill for other people now. Second hand Woodmizers are probably best avoided. They are complicated machines and easy to damage. I wouldn't preclude the possibility of me owning a new one in the future but I'd want a new one, not one that has been used by someone else. My second hand LT40 ownership experience cost me £8 per machine hour in repairs.

 

£8 per hour Ouch! Can see this being a fleeting idea haha.

[Big J]

£8 per hour Ouch! Can see this being a fleeting idea haha.

 

A lot of stuff broke. It was a tidy 3000hr machine from the WM dealer in the north west. Even the drive shaft snapped!

[agrimog]

to be honest, having looked at the availability of all the bandsaw machines on the market today, the one I would definatley not buy secondhand would be a woodmizer, to many "specialised" bits on it, and to expensive for what it is, better, cheaper, better engineered stuff out there

[agg221]

Has anyone done a breakdown of costs of turning say a fallen oak into saleable beams/boards?

 

I wonder if there are people out there who would use a milling service but have no idea such things exist?

 

Yes I have, for an Alaskan service though, rather than a bandmill.

 

I charge £300/day for milling. This is an all-in price, which I have worked out around costs.

 

Green hardwood can reasonably be valued at £20/cu.ft. This is a bit arbitrary as oak is about the only timber commonly available green, but £15/cu.ft is the lower end and bear in mind that £20/cu.ft is effectively a delivered price, so it's about right.

 

The timber can be presumed to be free as it will typically be single trees which already belong to whoever wants them milled.

 

It depends a lot on the log and the spec but in a day I will typically produce between 35 and 70 cu.ft. which would have cost £700-£1400 to buy. This represents a very significant saving. I will then typically end up leaving it stickered up properly to air dry, after which the equivalent purchase cost would be significantly greater.

 

However, what I always discuss with the customer before taking a job is whether they actually have a use for the wood. Some have clear ideas for it, such as building large sheds/summerhouses, or a new floor or dining table. Others intend to sell it - I warn them this is likely to be challenging and require time and effort on their part but whatever they decide they want to do with it, in the end they are the customer so if they want me to mill for them, I am happy to do so.

 

Those who have a clear use always come out with a significant saving over buying the equivalent timber, even if they had bought treated softwood.

Those who don't, or intend to sell it, may not. The one exception is when I am milling small diameters of short lengths, where the set-up time outweighs the value. This is only really worth doing when the customer has a sentimental reason for doing so.

 

Alec

[Forest2Furniture]

Has anyone done a breakdown of costs of turning say a fallen oak into saleable beams/boards?

 

I keep pondering a mill of some sort, or getting someone in, as I use a fair bit of wood and get fed up with buying poor quality stuff. I even saw a very simple small oak fireplace that was little more than three oak beams joined together and it was selling for over £500.

 

I wonder if there are people out there who would use a milling service but have no idea such things exist?

 

I have in a similar way to Alec but charge a slightly lower day rate but then again I am in the midlands.

 

I find in most cases people like to have something made from a tree that has grown in their garden and as I'm from a furniture making background I offer the complete package of milling, drying and making the end product. This means I get paid for milling the tree at the start and for making the piece at the end, having a kiln for drying the timber adds an additional service.

I'm currently working on a large alcove and table to be made from an atlas blue cedar I milled 4 years ago, then there's a dining table in Yew from a tree milled 5 years ago and next year, fitted furniture in Cherry for 3 bedrooms from a tree milled 4/5 years ago.