Maple Logs from Oregon

Schroeder; For the other side of the USA. I can only say – How nice of you to be a source of some the finest maple around.-

But I can’t participate at this time. I sure that trucking to the east coast would be quite high.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Count me in…I’m interested

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

How can there be no market for this type of wood?? Curly Mape here in New England goes for $7-$15/BF. You’re making me cry!! Thanks for thinking of us.

I, too appreciate the offer, but feel as Karson does that the trucking fee to, Louisiana would put this deal out of my reach. I hope many of the LumberJocks will be able to take advantage of your generousity.

-- Jesus is Lord!

$26 a ton!... I’m so sad, but thrilled for anyone closer to your neck of the woods.

I hope you’re able to sell it. such a shame to waste such good wood. Even if a bunch of us chipped in, I’d guess anyone east of the Mississippi is outta luck.

Can’t you just put a couple stamps on it?

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Thanks for the offer Schroeder. I estimated the delivery charge from Oregon to Iowa and it would be above $2,000. If I had good transportation and the time, it would almost be worth the drive using a pickup truck and trailer to get what I could. Maybe someday.

-- There are three types of people in the world, those who can count and those who can't!

I am new to this but would be very interested and would like to talk with you about cost if we came up to pick the wood up ourselves. My buddy and I have big duramax powered deisel trucks and they love long drives with trailers.

Drew Armstrong

-- Drew, Pleasant Grove, Utah

This is definitely something to keep in mind. I’m only about 350 miles south o’ the border. As soon as I figure out where to put it, I’ll start planning arrangements. If now now, I’m sure you’ll be cutting again.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

Why can’t this happen in Texas? :-(

-- Making sawdust is what I do best

Well Drew if you and your buddies LOVE long drives, I’m sure we could come up with a nice long route for you…. you could swing by our neighborhoods like the Ice Cream Man… There’s enough of us to almost make it worth your while ;)

Make mine a maple!

I don’t have room for a whole truckload anyway, but I’m sure I could find space for a ton or two, if not a couple of bookmatched wide boards!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

I’m with you Scott. Drew, please add Cedar Park, TX (suburb of Austin) to your route :-)

-- Making sawdust is what I do best

You guys are funny…. I have a JOB… but the trip would be fantastic (My kind of vacation) but the wife would not go for it I am afraid… However… I have a 14×8 trailer with 2 7500 lb axels on it and another that is similar sized… I am serious about driving it up…

Drew

-- Drew, Pleasant Grove, Utah

Dang it, I don’t have the space to store anything or the ability to mill it, or even, right now, much in the way of spare capital to pursue anything on a business scale with it, but I’m just down the coast a ways.

How can we do this? Sounds like a truckload would be $600-800 in raw wood, probably another hundred or three in moving it to the mill, whatever milling costs are and then we’d either have to split it up there or pay for a year or two of drying storage before we got it shipped out to various people.

Drew, I’m just north of San Francisco, and I’ve got acquaintances in Sacramento and Fresno who could probably be talked into taking a moderate quantity of interesting wood. If you were doing the drive would you come over I-80 to I-5 and maybe we could set up to subdivide a load in Sacramento? Or I could probably figure out how to get a few tons from Oregon down, worst comes to worst see if I can rent some space near Sacramento for primary driving and go rent a Ryder or something.

I guess that’d be an excuse to finally get a planer [grin].

How many board feet can we expect to get out of a ton of logs?

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

We can offer food along the way, you’re wife’ll love it! ;)

Seriously though, can’t wait to hear, and see all the good things that come of this maple harvest.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Obi and I are trying to set something up as well, we are both around Fresno. Plus Bill is in Turlock and he might want in.

-- Rob McCune

I’m interested, how do I proceed?

-- MikeB, Aurora, Oregon

I’ve sent a private message to Rob, but a full semi-trailer van for the 600 miles between Bend, Oregon (just as a ballpark, I don’t know where the mill actually is) and Fresno appears to be under $1300. 5 of them (I don’t know what wastage is in the mill, but that’s a rough guess based on 8-10 truck-fulls going in) might even be less. Might not.

I’ve been reading various Oregon State and US Forest Service publications, trying to guess at what waste from log to mill is (Looks like a self-loader carrying 22 tons of logs yields between 2,000 and 4,500 board feet, a long loader is 3,200-6,000 board feet, depending on log taper and age of tree, giving that 8-10 truckloads estimate a range from 16,000 to 60,000 board feet).

I don’t know what milling price is, but I’d be in for a few thousand bucks, and maybe renting a yard somewhere in the Central Valley for a year for drying… And if we did that, Drew, you could plan your trip to the Sierra, maybe take in Yosemite, King’s Canyon and Sequoia national parks, a year ahead.

Of course doing it at this load size means that that’d probably cost circa $20k minimum, which means we’re at moderately high levels of trust or a small business, but let’s see if we can move forward. Sounds like we’ve got 4 days.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

I am interested, if the costs are not too high.

I think Drew should pick up several loads, drive them down through California to unload them. Another trip could be made through Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, etc. to catch our other Lumberjocks. A third truck can swing through the east coast and pick up the rest.

Of course, someone better let Don know. He might want to ship some to Australia.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

What I am understanding is that Schroeder will get the wood to a local mill to reduce shipping, have his sawyer cut it, then we come up and get what we can haul and let it dry on our time. My father runs a trucking company in Kansas and his drivers run through here once a month or so. We might be able to utilize his trucks at a slightly discounted rate, maybe $1 a mile or so. The driver can pick up a load while doing a round robin or something, bring it through and drop partial loads with each of us as he goes. I am not so sure about renting a yard because I don’t have that kind of capital to invest. I was planning on getting 1000 bf and just let it dry in some spare space I have along side my house. I am in for maybe $1000 but thats a big maybe.

-- Rob McCune

Keep me posted… I need to contact my “people” and I’ll know more as the time goes by. It appears that we have a couple of months to get this all arranged. I’m thinking about 200-250 bf of 2”...

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I am sure I am just going to be making a run direct from here to there through Boise guys. It is high work season for me and my buddy is 30 days from a new baby and is starting a new home so it is not a great time but the deal has me very interested. Lets get Rob to get some real trucks to deliver some real loads… My truck will only get about 14,000 lbs anyhow and I have a music box I need some wood for;-)

Drew

-- Drew, Pleasant Grove, Utah

I would like to possibly get in on this deal. I live fairly close to Drew in Utah…...

-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT

I talked to my dad and he says he can get freight on a semi for about $1 a mile. He also wants to get in on it because he does woodworking as well. He has a friend as well who runs a custom shop in KC that he thinks might want in. I think we could get a real order in for the wood if it is available. He said we could reasonably do 45,000 lbs on a load for $1 to $1.50 a mile. That puts us at $1000 per truck load to Fresno.

-- Rob McCune

Schroeder, how large (I guess the measure is length by circumference up six feet) and what sort of taper do the logs have? Which is an indirect way of asking how many board feet (wet) can we expect per ton? What are milling charges going to be? I assume that since I can buy fir for roughly $.70/board foot that milling charges are going to be in the $.25-$.30/bf.

If there’s 50% wastage, that says we buy two truckloads of this, which is about $500. Ballparking (because we don’t know any more), call it 3 hours * 2 trucks to the mill. That’s $390. At 50% waste, that should mill to roughly 3,000 board feet and Rob’s 45,000 lbs, let’s pull a number out of our butts and say $750 mill charge ($.25/board foot). Plus a semi-trailer to Fresno ($1000), and miscellaneous, a lot to unload and divvy this stuff up (anyone got a business whose parking lot we can borrow?) and rental of a forklift to unload it, probably another $300.

That’s $3000, or a buck a board foot, to Fresno.

Now it’s not usable for at least a year per inch, so anyone wanting “in” on this will need to have a place to store their share for drying for a year or two (or four), and you’ll have to rent a trailer or a U-Haul to get it to your place, and you’re probably seeing the price up to $2/board foot.

Which is a decent price, but you can buy 5 year seasoned big leaf maple in Sacramento for $3.50-$5/bf.

So I could be in, if anyone’s putting this together chalk me down for a big portion of that load, but this is really itching for someone who’s got the lot to store it and the business to go through huge amounts of it. But if it doesn’t come together fairly easily it’s a lot of hassle for a 30% discount…

Oh, and should anyone want to contact me, danlyke@flutterby.com or 415-488-4053.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

Well considering Maple is about $6-8 a bf here, thats more than 30%.

-- Rob McCune

I can get dried 4/4 Maple in Modesto for about $3.50 but I’m looking for some 2” stuff for Heirloom Rockers.

Rob, maybe we could get a truck load brought to the central valley and save Drew some mileage?

Just a thought. Also closer to Texas… maybe we can start some kinda network.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I’m rapidy being overwhelmed here – I think I may have to resort to going back to offering logs. The logistics to set up a sawyer is getting too large, (and I think the sawyer I know is getting a little flaky). So if you thik you can use the logs, and have ability to get them on the landing (I can load on the truck), then I’m sure I can arrange them for market pulp price (or around $26/ton). Also – I am interested in helping Lumberjocks, but not interested in helping anyone who is going to resale.
Schroeder

-- The Gnarly Wood Shoppe

obi, You do know that 8/4 wood will have to dry about 2 to 3 yrs (maybe more)?

-- Phil, Chattanooga,TN

Yeah, Schroeder, as I’ve looked into this further it’s become apparent to me that the guys who get the logs from you to me earn their money. This would be a great deal for someone who’s going to use 10,000bf, but for us home hobbiests we should probably be looking for our deals in smaller lots.

Do appreciate the offer, though, and I hate to see good wood go to pulp, and I’m happy to have learned what I have about the process of getting it from stand to board, but, yeah, managing this process is a business.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

Schroeder, just out of curiosity, and, although it looks like it’s not going to come together this time, for future reference, can you recommend any sawyers you work with up in your area? That’s my big unknown. There are a few guys with portable mills (bandsaw on rails kind of thing) in my neck of the woods, but… And it’d be absurd to bring a log truck down here as they’d have to charge both ways, whereas standard freight service could fill the truck with something else for the return trip, so milling close to cutting should (rougly) halve the price of shipping.

Rob, that’s got to be for S2S if not S4S, right? What we’re talking about wouldn’t be surfaced, you’d need at least a planer (for the wide surfaces) and a high quality circular saw on a rail or a jointer (for the edges). And if the drying doesn’t go smoothly, you may need a wide jointer too, and that’s big bucks. However, if you’re paying $6-8 for unsurfaced wood in Fresno, go ask the guys at the north store of Ideal Saw Works store at Herndon and Blackstone (try not to drool on the carpets) about their sources. On Sunday evening, the Rob who works there told me he gets his broadleaf maple at roughly $4/bf in small quantities. Or do a bit of poking around on Craigslist or the web. You might have to buy 250 board feet minimum to get a deal, but if you’re doing anything more than small boxes you’ll go through that fairly quickly. And anything we do with Schroeder is going to be at least that big per person.

Obi, yeah, Phil’s right, anything 8/4 would need to sit for at least two years. In fact, now that I think about it, if the shipping costs are up front and you tie up the capital of this endeavor for drying time, you’re starting to get pretty close to the markups…

This could be a really cool deal for someone who wants to do it in bulk (ie: a decent sized high-end cabinet shop). However, even though the communal “can do” spirit is really cool, it’s a big undertaking for a bunch of people who only know each other online. Someone (or two or three people) would be fronting thousands of dollars, there’d be all sorts of opportunities for miscommunications or “but I wanted…”, if someone didn’t make it on the day the truck arrived there’d be a bunch of people with more lumber than they’d bargained for on their hands.

When I first started researching this I was really excited, now I’m in the “it’d be a fun learning experience, but I’d only do it without profit once.”

Oh, and, Phil, I spent 9 years in ‘nooga in a previous life and still get pangs of wanting to move back there. I miss the Ocoee, Sunset Rock and the Tennessee Wall, Signal Point and associated falls, descending the W road at 50+MPH on my bicycle (and climbing past the flying saucer house), Chaco & Eddie’s Coffee Shop in the Dr.’s Building on McCallie, and skating in the Provident parking lots in between pitchers at the Stone Lion over on High Street.

Although that last one is no more…

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

I would DEFINITELY be interested in a load of maple logs! How can i contact you to get further details? Thanks for any info! Roland

-- Roland