Question
Would like to know what others are getting for an hourly saw rate and bf rate. I'm in southern central NY but curious about all areas. I am currently charging .27 per bf. Not looking for a complicated formula of cost vs price, just an idea of what current rates are.
Forum Responses
(Sawing and Drying Forum)
From contributor R:
I charge $75/hour for myself and a Baker 3638D. 4 hour minimum for onsite work. No minimum if they bring the logs to me.
Don't be under the impression you can just jump out of the box and charge .25BF and make money hauling your mill around. 1000BF a day for one man who is just getting started is not easy to do until you get your sea legs. It doesn't sound like much, and a few months down the road it may not *be* much. But you won't start out doing that by yourself on day one, and do it consistently.
But let's say you do average $270 a day gross. That's not much money even down here. After you figure fuel (truck and mill), blades, and the 5% - 10% you better physically set aside on every job for a scheduled and unscheduled will and truck maintenance fund (or put it into an actual account for that sole purpose), and meals if you don't haul a cooler (you should - it saves a lot of time, dough, and is healthier), and any other expenses peculiar to your particular situation (i.e., will you have to use toll roads to get to this particular job?). After all that, you don't have much to work with.
But that's not the end. No sir, by "net" I mean after all your overhead and expenses and after all the attendant taxes you will be liable for. Once you take all that out of every $270, how much do you have? I know that here if I were to average $270 net daily, I would find something else to do. In fact, I do not custom mill for that very reason. There are too many part time sawyers who do it on the side, and do not have to depend on making $600 - $700 a day gross. More power to them too - I am glad they do it to help support their families. Ticks me off to hear full time sawyers complain about the part-timers. Find a way to make your mill pay or do something else and saw part time like them.
If you want to compete in the custom sawing market, in my opinion you must account for every penny you spend, every penny you make, and every minute you are given must be used wisely (efficiently). It is a great idea to keep a pocket log book with you, especially the first few weeks or months, that is dedicated solely to logging every transaction you make once you hitch that mill to your truck. If you stop at the local kwik sak on the way to a job and buy a pack of gum, write it down in your log book.
From my own experience down here, if I were in New York sawing for .27BF I better be sawing more than 1000BF a day and I better not be servicing any debt on a mill. Taking a loan out on a new mill thinking that the manufacturer's slick brochures are honest numbers, well let's just say all the mill manufacturers depend on propaganda to sell their mills. Hopefully you didn't make that mistake.
Not trying to come across as negative; you can make a profit custom sawing if you do everything right and have a little luck also. But you can't be thoughtless in your planning or reckless with your time management. Best of luck.
Now I sit on 30 acres on the main highway and do custom sawing for $0.25 bdft and do around $30 grand a month in retail sales and have 4 guys working with me. This is me and "Wanda" doing a days work on the road. Sure miss them days.
