A Guide to Selling Rough Cut Lumber | Sawmill Business

[@anzaal]

Amazing power of concentration..with all these distractions ...noisy machinery, cats, dogs and traffic, yet you stay on track. Great job. Thanks for your insights.

[@drewjohnson4673]

Nice video, great approach!! Five yrs later (now) lumber prices have sky rocketed!!!😊

[@wookiejesusofnazarethkashy1940]

Thanks for the tips. I've got a tip for you too. I do roof cleaning, which with modern shingles is very important to maximize the life of your investment. Those black streaks are little organisms that eat your shingles. Mix up some 10% pool bleach and a healthy dose of dish soap. 1 part bleach to 3 parts water and use a 1/2 cup of soap in a gallon pump tank sprayer and coat the whole roof top down. No need to rinse. Just let it sit and do its work. The rain will wash it all away. Just make sure to plug up the down spouts or leave a hose running at the bottom of it if you have any desirable plants nearby. You can easily add 10 years to the life of your roof by doing this every 3 or 4 years.

[@kenmoule825]

Nothing beats learning from the person who has been there. Good stuff!

[@bbruuse]

As a trucker "Long-Haul" I picked a load of cedar in Revelstoke BC that dropped outside Boston Mass. to some wood store. It really wasn't that big of load, but it was really nice wood. It was 4x4 and 2x10 lifts $Cost 100.000 dollars, as a trucker we always saw the invoice due to border paperwork. -I am NOT in the sawmill business but I can tell you.... prices vary due to location and product.

[@Rejectsocialism]

I couldn't stop watching the cat . I've started stock piling a variety of different sizes and species . I cut 4/4,5/4,6/4 and 8/4 oak boards up to 18" wide 9' long . I'm leaning a lot from your videos . Thanks again

[@charleyandsarah]

lol yea they're hard to get away from sometimes...Variety is definitely good, and also remember with hardwoods it should be 1/8" oversized. Usually when I cut wider than 12" I cut at least 8/4 or thicker stock, the thinner boards over 12" wide are hard to keep flat while drying

[@kurtislowe9464]

North Alabama here and we do very well with our mill on Eastern Red cedars. Folks eat this stuff up for gazebo's and screen porches. Love owning acreage and a sawmill. Great video brother.

[@steveheilman2925]

West Virginia. Haven't sold any lumber yet. Building cabin first. We have Oak, all over the property. Black, red, scarlet average 20+ inch diameters...

[@kurtislowe9464]

@@steveheilman2925 Heard that man our chestnuts aren't even under 40 in diameter. But they'll cost ya... lol

[@kurtislowe9464]

@@steveheilman2925 We dont sell our hardwoods we build with em. Cedar pays good and is plentiful. Red white black chestnut black walnut. We keep that is for ourselves. Good to be self sufficient man...

[@JoelMilneTennis]

Binge watching your videos as I'm just about to get in my first log shipment of 30 cords of spruce, mainly focused on how to mill it efficiently but this is great for looking ahead to the sales! Thanks Charley.

[@dantco]

Good information! I only saw for a hobby, but I have lots of people interested in buying/ordering. I post pictures on FakeBook of the nice looking hardwoods before they go into the drying racks. The fear I have about selling wood is exactly what you talked about...people buy green wood and expect to make stable furniture with it. Enjoyed this video a lot!

[@jeffenglishsetter8339]

Well done Charley...I agree...put all the cards on the table regardless how they may be perceived...Full disclosure is respected and even if that customer screws up a piece of green, they'll know...the good ones will come back and complain, the ones you don't want will be those that don't come back and complain to others...then those others who know will say "He told you it was green"...lol

[@RADMAN752]

Very helpful info that is not found easily. Would like to see more videos about what sells well & cuts that are unique to sawmills. thanks for posting, cheers from Canada.

[@bwillan]

No truer words were spoken. Give your customers multiple options for payment. Cash, Cheque, Debit Card, Credit Card, paypal, money transfers, etc. The more options you can do for value add to your products, the more money you can make. Kiln dried, surfaced 2 or 4 side, etc. Make flooring from uncommon hard wood species for your area. As for your construction lumber, if you can show you offer higher quality (straighter grain, relatively straight and flat lumber), then you can charge a bit more than the big box lumber stores.

[@JS-jh4cy]

Love your cat 🐈 out prowling on the slab pile

[@lectro88]

Very good matter of fact information, to the exact point. this is not kiln dried, 4 side plained at box store stock. excellent point. also i missed so many sales not taking credit card or plastic of some kind.

[@johnoswald6192]

Great info! When you saw construction lumber do you saw full dimension (e.g., 2" x 4") or nominal (e.g., 1.5" x 3.5")?

[@JakeCharles_thechattychippewa]

Great vid. Very helpful I'm looking at buying a saw mill. I've inherited some land and seems silly just to use the beautiful old downed logs for firewood.

[@BriantWoodworks]

Great video, made some good points and a few things I hadn't even considered. As always, I enjoyed the Saturday Sawmill video. Thanks 👊

[@tonykrueger7483]

I agree heavily with your comments about the cull logs or heavy character logs being cut into mantles. I mill a lot of Eastern Red Cedar here in Missouri and the odd logs that just don't make good 2x or 1x lumber, I'll leave the cants oversized with one live edge, extra gnarly if possible. I'll leave that piece sit for a while, and every once in a while someone will come out and we will get to talking. "I think I have what you might be looking for, come check this out." Price on the spot $75-200 depending on the size, and I just made 4-5 times the lumber value in the log because of this unique piece that I just happened to throw off the stack. Kind of amazing how that works. Credit cards comment too, right on. I use paypal and use the CC reader. How are you liking quickbooks? I thought about getting it this year.

[@charleyandsarah]

Loving quickbooks.. thinking about doing a video on it. I guess that would be helpful? lol Thanks, Sarah.

[@tonykrueger7483]

@@charleyandsarah It would be very helpful I would think.

[@goldassayer93555]

To get experience. Cut lumber and give it away. I found the local high school has a good shop teacher but no budget for wood. So I provide 500 to 1000 board ft of lumber to the shop teacher each semester so the kids have wood to build projects. I get lots of practice that way.

[@MrThenry1988]

Future wood workers knowing your name is not a bad thing. Good idea.

[@jaymcallister9172]

Immensely helpful. Starting one up in south Texas.

[@rossbunnell7992]

That cat definitely has it in for you!

[@helmighomestead2976]

Great info brother!! Tons of good ideas and information. Bought a woodmizer, for lumber here on my homestead, just my buildings alone will pay for the mill. After that, I am looking at something for profit. Is cut to order very common? It sounds like you are more of a mass quantity kind of operation, and let them pick and choose what they are wanting? Also storage, heer in Oregon we gets LONG wet seasons, followed by proably 4 months of blistering hot and dry..... does the wood need to be covered or anything for product stock? Looks like you just leave yours out..

[@jimmyscott9574]

I will run purchased lumber through the planer or take a few passes across the jointer to help make a sale. It brought two customers back as regulars.

[@sshumkaer]

When you say they bought 4x4 where they mixed tree or the same trees?

[@rogerdarev7374]

I see you have a guard cat... 😂 Great video, very helpful. Keep up the good work.

[@robertallen4842]

Awesome Video! Thank you for taking the time to share some wisdom.

[@CunninghamFurniture]

This is great much needed starter info for me thank you! 🤘

[@gregorymarshall3821]

Very good info im wood work hobbyist and recently got a mill never occurred to me to sell small boards

[@ratbagley]

Well done, you answered lots of my questions.

[@Glock2201]

It was helpful. I agree that you should not worry about the small percentage the credit cards charge. If you sell an extra $500 of lumber you are still $485 ahead. You are lucky that you have not been burned by a bad check yet. You brought up a great point about letting someone know that it is green but my guess is that they still might come back and blame you. My thought on what might help is to slab the logs off and get it down to a cant no matter what size it is and take it off to dry it. I know it might not dry as fast but it would allow you to cut it down to what someone needs at a later date. I do have to laugh at the fact that now the lumber stores are charging upwards of $10 a piece for the 2x4x8.

[@gamalielj4486]

I want to do outdoor furniture, I want the least warping cut, my finish measurement of 1x 5 x8. How do I order the rough cut for those measurements

[@charleyandsarah]

quarter sawn is the least warping cut, rift is second least. for outdoor use white oak, cedar, or Cyprus. probably need 5/4 x 6 (5/4 being 5-quarters, or 1.25" thick nominal, which will plane down to 1")

[@rengeteg4444]

Good advice, thank you.

[@timstone3447]

I’m all out to start cutting on 300 acres of mountain cedar. Any pointers before I begin taking loads to sell at the local mills?

[@charleyandsarah]

Arrange your deal before showing up with timber, and talk to multiple sawmills some deal in lots of cedar others don’t mess with it, so their price offer can fluctuate

[@Glock2201]

Charley has a great point. Not sure if you have a portable sawmill but if you do I would also recommend to see if they are paying less for logs that are under a certain length or diameter. If so maybe consider keeping those logs to saw up for yourself.

[@SterlingsWoodcrafts]

Great Video , a lot of Golden Nuggets here, Good Stuff

[@FirStub]

very helpful video. Thanks a lot

[@ermboy1924]

Great job bud a lot of good information

[@Brian-mc4pd]

Thanks for the great info, awesome vid. If just starting out, you probably won’t have any lumber that is not green. So you think as long as your upfront about it, it can still be profitable? Not as profitable as seasoned lumber, I’d guess? Does one generally sell better than the other? Do you generally have roughly equal quantities of both on hand? I know you talked about variety, but I’m asking just in vague, general terms. Thanks again brother. Look forward to more from you

[@charleyandsarah]

all depends on your market and whatnot, but it's definitely possible to make a profit with green lumber. we found a good group of people in the savannah, ga area who bought a lot of green lumber (and yes, we were honest with when it was milled). they preferred the discount and didn't mind waiting to use it. I think it's kinda like buying a house... you're going to have some people who only want move in ready while others are looking for sweat equity.

[@user-qo7nt7cz9f]

Great video. I like how you incorporated the cat into presentation.

[@charleyandsarah]

Guard kitties are crucial for a lumber yard

[@djdavis1301]

Aye Charley man I have some questions how can I get ahold of you ?

[@MrBAchompBAchomp]

Thank you for the great information, but I have to say the real star of the video is that cat on your slabs ! 😁👍

[@Schnot]

What thicknesses do you normally keep around? 4/4 and 8/4? Everything in between? Do you sell just green or do you kiln dry any of it?

[@charleyandsarah]

more 4/4 and 9/4 for my live edge slabs. 8/4 is on the small side or slabs. I keep thinking about having 8/4 boards like 2x8 or 2x12s, but I very rarely see demand for that. 4x4s and 3x3s seem to be good to have on hand as well for leg stock or random projects

[@tomweightman9341]

Good people right here.

[@teamstucker624]

Thanks for the education and information just subbed to your channel.

[@PatrickWagz]

good info thanks Charley

[@tfknauss]

Thanks for sharing, good stuff!

[@DuNguyen-my4rq]

good information good point Thanks

[@09vrodz]

great video

[@jimmclean4876]

Good lesson very good thanks

[@cancelchannel3394]

I don't cut logs to lumber for other people, only my logs for myself 😊

[@Joestacemazjojo]

A ton of great info brother, appreciate you helping us out with this. Is this by chance your full time job and if so how long to get to this point? Subscribing now, hoping to find some more inspiration here.

[@MrThenry1988]

Dang man. I was looking for this.

[@William1221-q1e]

any idea how to find trees to cut down to make into lumber? I'm looking into buying a sawmill I'm surrounded mostly by pine and not sure how to get wood or how big it needs to be for lumber

[@charleyandsarah]

what sort of lumber are you looking to produce? unless you are doing cuts you can't find at lowes/depot, you're most likely not going to be able to compete with their prices with pine. if you are looking for more specialty trees, you may call around for tree companies... or put ads on craigslist and see what individuals have, you'd be surprised, but caution since some folks are easier to deal with than others :-) oh... and if you are looking to do a portable mill, you can try teaming up with a tree company so they set you up. we've done that a few times. tree company cuts down the tree, limbs it, and moves it into position for your mill to come by at a later date.

[@William1221-q1e]

@@charleyandsarah I'm looking to do some larger cuts I'll also look into tree companies as there are several around here

[@Devoneakapimp]

Please help. I'm about to purchase an acre of land with tons of pine. What do you recommend I do with the wood? I'd like to make some $. Is it worth purchasing a mill? Property cost $2200.

[@charleyandsarah]

Not much money in pine, I'd think you could make some nice outbuildings though. If that's all ya got, I'd be looking at the LT10, or LT15 if you got bigger logs, but you'll need a tractor/loader of some sort to save your back.

[@MrJamal454594]

I want to import lumber in Bangladesh. How can I contact with you?

[@thebunnyfoofoo]

cat in upper right is stealing the show

[@southernsawyers6543]

what about pecan wood.what would be the best way to sale slabs or boards ?

[@charleyandsarah]

Probably slabs or mantles. Boards don't carry as much value with unique species

[@southernsawyers6543]

thx for the reply you sure helped on starting out

[@dellrand3628]

Where are you located,this is all interesting.

[@shednut2666]

Thank you for sharing

[@mrbrown3462]

I agree with most of what you said but I disagree with the credit card and check. There are many of us with mills and it is our side gig and if we start taking cards and checks we then have to become a business and then claim it on taxes. We have been sawing for 15 years and what we make on our lumber per year pays for my family's vacation every year that we wouldn't have if I had to open a business and pay taxes on what I earn. Most people don't have a problem paying cash.

[@charleyandsarah]

I mean, you do you, but thats called illegal. Your bank does not report anything to the IRS anyway, so you can still break the law and take credit cards

[@Glock2201]

@@charleyandsarah Actually it is not. You are allowed up to $600 a person without claiming it. Also have to figure in the money you spent on the sawmill which will take a while to pay off.

[@daveklein2826]

Sorry, but you should paying taxes.....jeez

[@morgansword]

I stopped you while I was thinking about this cause I tend to forget... dimension or rough cut? I know what I have is rough cut but people can't nail it next to dimension wood so if they started building with dimension wood hen they pass you buy... Can you clear that up for me?? Thanks in advance.

[@daveklein2826]

If your customers are buying your wood to build with in the rough cut stage they are very, very dim light bulbs

[@powhana6019]

Is it good to stock a variety of wood?

[@lukewarm2075]

Youre right more sales with credit cards 😁

[@lostinsperry1988]

Thank you!

[@eddiewildsmith9721]

Hey Charley & Sarah. Great video here! I noticed at some point, you said something about being around Savannah. Are you near there now? I've just purchased a new Woodmizer LT40 Wide, and I sure would appreciate a little time to pick your brain! :) I'm in Brunswick..

[@charleyandsarah]

ah sorry, missed us. we're in the asheville area now. we lived in savannah for about three years and moved to nc about two years ago.

[@charleyandsarah]

If you're looking to do portable stuff, give Bart Haigh a call. facebook.com/HaighWoodShop/ He does large chainsaw milling, but sometimes needs some bandsaw milling (for the smaller stuff). He said he found a guy with an LT35, but doesn't sound all that productive. He's in Wilmington Island in Savannah. -charley

[@vandelayindustries6128]

Just curious, do you have Finnish ethnic background? You look like you do. They got some good craftsman.

[@charleyandsarah]

thanks, but nope

[@timmoore6466]

pro tip set playback speed to X1.75

[@daveklein2826]

Pro tip, block you

[@wilbertnez4577]

Lol cool 😎

[@parkermichael620]

im probably younger than you and all i carry is cash

[@charleyandsarah]

and we take cash. but also taking credit cards has allowed us to bring in a lot more money.

[@mrMacGoover]

Man that cat is demanding of your attention!

[@zeke1eod]

Thanks for sharing, I offer a service for attack cat removal lol God bless

[@jurorx]

Variety is the spice of life, until your wife catches you, then its the end of your life ;)

[@charleyandsarah]

Lol, although one could argue that your life was over before that, hence the need to cheat. Getting caught is just the culmination of such events.

[@kenmoule825]

Or maybe you had, na..... never mind.

[@blankireland5119]

I hate cash, I’d always have a bill in my pocket? I owe enough without more bills! Then if it falls out of your pocket guy behind you never says “hey bud you dropped a 50$ bill.” Then you buy something and they give you so much coins, your pulling up your pants all day. And lastly if you fold it in half and stick it in your pocket you think you got m,only to spend twice, until till time

[@alanfranks1023]

a lion ...... run

[@twagner6155]

I disagree with going cheap. The price of doing business is not up to discussion. I went to business school and found that my own ideas about business were wrong. If you sell BMW's versus Chevys, you might sell more Chevys but the BMW's are more profitable and require less inventory.

[@raymondswilson2012]

Cash is king. Credit cards you tax.

[@charleyandsarah]

no... that's tax fraud.

[@raymondswilson2012]

@@charleyandsarah Ok. Pretend you never do a all cash transaction.

[@charleyandsarah]

We do but we still report it, so the tax is the same as credit cards

[@ezriderspewstruth8867]

Bang. No more kitty. Engine coolant in water bowl. Meow meow no more jk that’s messed up

[@erniet9935]

You are part of the problem not carrying cash and only using plastic....and you are wrong...of all my friends, I'm 74 and have a circle of around 2300 people that we interact with and mre than 80% of us only carry cash and avoid plastic like the plague!

[@charleyandsarah]

We accept both cash and credit cards. Cash is gone if a mistake happens or someone takes it. Meanwhile credit cards come with security against fraudulent charges or someone steeling it.

[@bryanseward3649]

Ernie T unfortunately you and your circle are not the majority. That may be your preference but he is 100% right. He is not part of any problem, because there isn’t one. 75% of people use cards for purchases, with the exception of fast food and coffee shops.

[@daveklein2826]

LMAO HE NEVER SAID HE DOESN'T TAKE CASH

[@daveklein2826]

LMAO