Thread: How much for milling timber

I'm really enjoying this thread.

The idea of milling lumber feels like it would be a highly rewarding experience.

Ev

Originally Posted by Evanism

I'm really enjoying this thread.

The idea of milling lumber feels like it would be a highly rewarding experience.

Ev

Still awaiting your arrival Evan...blades are sharp and logs ready to go...MM

Originally Posted by Evanism

I'm really enjoying this thread.

The idea of milling lumber feels like it would be a highly rewarding experience.

Ev

It is when you know what you're doing.

Originally Posted by MAPLEMAN

Still awaiting your arrival Evan...blades are sharp and logs ready to go...MM

Not ignoring you MM, I'm keen as hell to come up. Just need to fix myself physically - gall bladder op soon (remove the foul beast)....as soon as I'm chopped and fixed, we'll make plans!

Originally Posted by weisyboy

i charge $250/m3.

but i would not go out charging that when i just started, i milled for myself for 12 months before i even thought of doing a job for anyone else.

iv seen some shocking timber in my travels and people tend to blame the "log" but its all about skill, you can get perfect timber out of every log.

its not just whether or not its bowed, is it the same thickness all teh way along, is it the right thickness, dose it have defect, dose it meet the required grade, is it cut from teh right type of tree.

it dosent matter how cheap you are if you runin the log the bloke is never going to get that timber back.

even if its free, and it all comes out crap they have lost money because what they could have got for half the price they now have to go and buy.

worst thing, just becuase you have told them you are inexperianced, the bloke who comes and sees that timber that is not perfect dosent know that and he talks to old mate at teh pub and you have yourself a bad name.

Not only a bad name for yourself, but for Lucas Mills too - that is where the problem is.

Funny thing is no-one told me how to roll logs, how to charge, where to get logs from, how to cut for maximum recovery, or maximum grade from a log, how to deal with log tension, or a myriad of other things with milling. Besides if one was just told everything it wouldn't be worth spit - experience is exactly that experience

Hi guys

Interesting comments. I am a firm believer in learning to mill carefully for quality, and the speed will come naturally. By starting off at a steady careful pace, you don't race past the lessons and errors you should pick up and see. All the little things that eventually add up to what we call experience, which is all relative to what your comparing it with. I've been milling for about 15 years in a lot of places, and still learn a thing or two every project we do. However I still consider myself a novice in the company of forth generation milling folk, like the Crane's and Morrison's of the West Coast of Tassie. I too messed up my own logs for a while until I learnt the behaviour of the timber at all parts of the milling and drying process.

If I am doing a fully paid milling job on someone else's logs, it is strictly by the hour rate, and I explain that I mill for quality and recovery as the priority, not speed. An extra half an hour invested in wages can produce a lot more dollars worth of timber for the customer in the end if that's what it needs. It once took me a day and a half to mill a 4-5 foot round solid birdseye log, but ended up with 6 magnificent single slabs and 3 book matched sets of slabs. I could have knocked it out in a few hours simply whizzing the mill up and down, but chose to get the best out of it. That is where "experience" pays off.

So steady, steady and study the logs carefully to gain the knowledge to "read" a log, especially its defects. This skill will prove invaluable as you attempt to extract the best from a log, but don't be disappointed if you get it wrong occasionally, we all still do when complete surprises pop up in logs. Take the time to learn what cuts are best in what species the best way to mill for particular figure found in a log.

Failing all that, just use the mill as an excuse to buy more toys to complement your milling hobby, then bite off more than you can chew and chew like hell!

Cheer and good luck.

James

$120hr gate to gate 2 blokes