lgl

That's sawmilling,... unless you are cutting to order or a fast moving product or can afford to carry stock until the right person comes to buy then it will always be a problem.

Larger hardwood mills can be carrying stock for 5+years but none of them started off like that.

If you look back through the history of sawmills they cut for a demand whether it was chocks, fencing , furniture trade etc.etc. not the other way round where they decided to set up a sawmill then find the customers afterwards.

Would anyone be interested in buying low grade timber ( e.g poplar ) in large quantities?

 

Cheers

I would if its in tree length and plantation grown .

Experienced hardwood cutters needed for ongoing contracts throughout Norfolk / Suffolk.

If you not experienced in hardwood production cutting to a very high standard on piece rate then please do not apply.

p.m only please.

This latter need not always be the case but it will put buyers off. If you are prepared to sell the second lengths delivered in with some beams as long as the mill can get some posts or scantling off them they were still worth £2/Hft+ and selling off butts at £4/Hf (all 1990 prices as I've been out of it a long time) meant you had to do your sums before making a decision. The mills that want planking butts will normally sell off the second lengths to another mill.

 

 

 

Yes they tended to be separate markets

 

Lots of beams less than 500Ht are more attractive to people with mobile mills and decent oak through the log seems to attract £3.50/Hft

£3.50 hoppus through a parcel is a fair price, at roadside.

2000 hoppus is not such a large parcel and that's why I suggest selling it as one, it is easy to run into the part load situation .

Some fair points made, roadside Oak in most cases makes more than standing ,buyers will always cover themselves against a percentage of shake etc. If you do decide to sell at roadside engaging the right fallers to do the work is a must as presentation of logs sells them.

It is better to offer it as a parcel, letting someone take a few sweet butts will devalue the rest of the parcel and what you gain will be outweighed by what you lose on second lengths.

Splitting the Beech off and selling it as a parcel or giving the option will have advantages.

I would be happy to have a look at the timber.

That's fine, I put my valuation on the log and actually it is not what I would consider a commercial milling log. There are signs of possible metal along with the other defects I pointed out, considering the conversion rate on that log the £3 /hoppus is soon inflated, there is obvious excess wastage at the butt end and it appears from the photo there are similar if not worse problems at the tip. If you take that into consideration the margins you were quoting do not hold water.

On a log of this nature hoppus theory struggles to hold up, it appears from the photo that standard taper is way out and so if you consider all these points I struggle to get my thinking around the margins you were quoting.

The hoppus measurement allows for a certain amount of wastage allowing for defects. With the new bandsawmill (having a slightly larger capacity), I barely pruduce any off cuts these days - I convert 95% (or more sometimes) of the log into boards and sawdust. Given that the hoppus measure is approximately 78% of the log, there is your allowance. Either way, if you are desperately concerned about defects, you can always offer a different hoppus price.

 

I would hope that this log doesn't end up as firewood. And well said Martin.

I am a timber buyer and do understand the workings of hoppus/ log conversion.

That is, unless you consider tight offensive

It doesn't.

 

The measured volume of the log is 34 Hoppus feet.

 

This should convert to 34 cubic feet when milled.

 

Hoppus feet are specifically designed to be a good approximation to cubic foot yield.

 

Alec

That's my point, look at the faults that log has and it cant apply.

I am still interested to know how it converts on a 1:1 recovery on a log of that spec.

Mmmmm. On the other hand I could probably turn that into about £300 worth of logs with a couple of hours work.

 

Not having a go Jonathan, quite the opposite. The way I see it the market is all about supply and demand, and there's too much timber like this around to supply what is, in my experience, a limited market. The firewood market however is raging. Turning a quick buck from logs seems to be "easy" these days, wether it be due to lack of skill needed, through to the ease of anyone being able to have a go, timber of any sort will always slip into the log bag.

 

One thing I do feel also is the actual price for mill able stuff is too low in fact. This is why so much ends up on the firewood heap. The usual "issues" associated with selling premium stuff to wood turners and craftsmen make it not worth the hassle for the relatively little extra than simply logging it.

 

I don't mean to give offence, just the way I see it from our end these days. Perhaps if firewood demand drops, or the price of mill able stuff increases, I doubt I'll be bothering in the future.

 

Possibly depressing for some, but true.

Good points, the way I see it milling beech is changing hands at £2 hoppus delivered for upholstery grade , where else is there a bulk market for beech in the uk?

If it was a milling log , and personally I would walk past it , why would you pay £3 roadside for something you could get for £2 delivered? that's not really tight, just good business , AND I know who my parents are thankyou

70cm is 27.5". 27.5 x 3.142 = 86.4

 

86.4 / 4 = 21.6 (quarter girth)

 

21.6 x 21.6 = 466.56 (quarter girth squared)

 

466.56 x 126 (3.2m in inches) = 58786.56

 

58786.56 / 1728 (cubic inches in a cubic foot) = 34.02 hoppus foot (cubic foot by the hoppus measure).

 

 

The rest of you are a bunch of tight bastards! I could sell that off the saw at £14 a cube at the very least, and it would take me two hours to collect it (assuming it was reasonably local) and saw it. 34 x £11 profit is £374, so a reasonable rate of return.

 

Jonathan

How are you going to get 34 cube return out of it, just interested ?

Hi big Jon that's milling rate yes fire wood rate a lot less thanks Jon

tbh Jon I don't know of a sawmill that would pay £3 hoppus for logs of that grade after haulage, never mind loaded on

it has character...

 

something usually lacking in boards from trees that every mill demands are 100% perfect, straight and clean...

It has character perhaps, but looking at the economics of it is different. Offset the milling cost even without the possibility of metal present and the recovery rate and it works vout expensive boards/ firewood and a pile of sawdust. Then you have to find someone that is willing to pay enough to recover that cost.

If there was profit then sawmills would be cutting it.

for such colour in the beech ringing that up would be sacrilege.

My money says there is a possibility of metal in it,

How many boards do you think you would get out of that piece?

It has in bark, a blind knot , the top third is u s , splits. heart crack, .....whats wrong with nice coloured logs?

I agree with IgI Saying that would you be interested in milling it i see you are in S/E I am in shaftesbury so may not be that far from you could it be milled where it is we could split the planks between us maybee message me if you are interested

Cheers Mark

 

( Chainsaw Carving/milling in Dorset)

Or perhaps, ring it up avoiding possible embedded scrap, split it and deliver ?

£40 in mine

He slurries the footpaths.

 

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Oh ok, that's not meant to happen.

Two months ago I lost one of my two working Springers, he went downhill rapidly. We had a blood test done and his liver levels were sky high.

 

Now, my other springer is showing the same signs and is struggling, I have him booked in Monday for ex rays and blood tests if he lasts till then.

 

I heard yesterday that a lot of dogs have died in my area and the common denominator is they walk there dogs on the fields near me.

 

I know the farmer and I know he is a what I would term a dirty farmer. He has a field near me where he has dumped around 60 ton of "manure" in a pile about 5 month ago which is now so wet it is a slurry pile about 2ft deep and 40ft round.

 

My dogs don't access that field but my dad has walked them on a field he has slurried and I have seen carcasses of chickens in the slurry.

 

I always thought it was illegal to put carcasses in slurry and store it on fields for any length of time, is this the case.

Not burying carcases is illegal but storing fym is not.

Without knowing the facts it could be argued that you are responsible for your dog and unless the manure or slurry was spread on the surface of a footpath I wonder whether there would be a case?

I have used vertical plunge cut (taught to me about 30 years ago) a few times (through necessity) and always spend twice as much time checking everything out, over and over. Must say, that in the vid, I felt the vertical cut went too high. This limits the amount of time you have to get well out of the way, adding a lot more risk to the cut.

I am not picking at your post but the whole point of this that seems to be overlooked by others is that gravity says the butt end is going to fall away from the cutter, The reasoning behind cutting high in my experience is to get enough momentum to make sure the tree clears the one it is hung up in, if you cut only a foot or two above the stump there is no fall and no momentum and what tends to happen is that the butt of the leaner creeps closer to the standing tree and makes the situation worse because in that scenario you would eventually be dealing with an almost upright hanger

Oh ok, I am guessing Dave means through drying, Ash when clean and straight will pop , especially summer felled. A lot of mills cut the crown off through a knot to prevent splitting.

scuse my ignorance, but if the particular piece of wood in question is going to be prone to splitting, will it be less prone on the mill rather than crosscutting?

What exactly do you mean?

HI BUY LOG if your buying in timber green then kiln dried back to less then 20% you will be out of pocket if you do not work it out RIGHT ALL THE BEST WITH IT JON

I am with you on this Jon,there must be 30% weight loss in drying , plus the cost of kilning

This guy may have bought the saw in all innocence from a legit source and as such not committed an offence?

Yes , I realise that, what I am saying is it seems cheap....