[AT] Sawmills

[Spencer Yost]

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On 2/1/2005 at 6:54 PM carl gogol wrote:
>Around here you can get a mill to cut logs for $ 0.20 per board feet


To make things simple, folks around charge per carriage pass.  For
instance, I paid Jake 10 cents per foot for each __pass__ on the mill.
This method is so simple and fair I have never understood why all sawyers
don't charge this way.    Its fair no matter the board thickness, no matter
how fussy the customer is about trimming(fussy customers pay more), 2"
boards, 4" boards, 1" boards, quarter-sawing, split-sawing, etc.   Doesn't
matter, this method accurately charges each customer based on what they
came to get - a bunch of saw cuts.  Take a 10' log to most sawyers around
here and you get charged $1.00 per pass.  The wider logs are a little more
wear and tear and fuel and possibly less fair to the sawyer, but negligibly
so and constitutes what I would consider a quantity discount (give me the
extra work and money of a 30" log and I will charge you the same per foot
as a 12" log).

Now down in Georgia where I grew up and most mills in the mountains charge
by the board foot, or as commonly, the surface foot, which is a lot of
extra calculations that can be unfair at times to either the sawyer
(quarter sawing is a LOT more work) or the customer (a 24" board SHOULD not
cost twice as much to cut as a 12" board).

Sometimes great ideas never get around.

Spencer Yost
Owner, ATIS
Plow the Net!
http://www.atis.net