Production Falling - Bucking length Tolerance?

[lxskllr]

Just a matter of curiosity. When you buck to length for a mill, what's an acceptable deviation from spec? For example, some time in the near future I'm gonna be cutting some locust for the boss' farm, and it'll be to 8' lengths. If I were doing this professionally, how tight is that spec held? 8.5' fine? 7.9' hard fail? Is overage better than underage? When cutting for my own milling purposes, I go way over size. If I want a 12' product, I'll usually buck to 13'. I sometimes have some problems operating the mill, so I allow for cutting off defects. Wood for my purposes isn't a scarce commodity, so waste isn't a problem. It can go in my wood stove.

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modified title

 

[Altissimus]

Depends on the Mill price and spec sheet ... here it's usually 6" trim

 

[lumberjack]

+6"/-0"

 

[stig]

+- 2" for flooring logs.
+- 8" for container logs.

 

[Altissimus]

Now that I think on it , the big main mill here's minimal 3" and preferred 6" , though on Veneer grade (different mill) preferred 10" trim ... so anything we thought was real good we cut to Veneer spec

 

[stig]

Trim is simply the mills way of stealing from the fallers.
Free wood for the mill.

 

[Altissimus]

Also Veneer was only 10's and 12's , so if it didn't make grade it could still go even if once in awhile got made into an 8'

 

[chris_girard]

Depends on the Mill price and spec sheet ... here it's usually 6" trim

Same here.

 

[gf beranek]

All trim specs are subject to change without notice.

Between the Fed, State, Corporate and private timber holdings, and all the different mills, trim specs keep changing. I had dozens of different bucking cards. They change constantly.

 

[Altissimus]

Trim is simply the mills way of stealing from the fallers.
Free wood for the mill.

... here in U.S. the stealing is done by the Scalers

 

[stig]

Who do they work for?
The forest owners or the mills.

 

[stikine]

On the west coast, it is mostly done by third party scalers who technically don't work for either the mills or the landowners. There have been cases of fraud and payoffs in the past however.

 

[Altissimus]

In the Greens the Scalers work for the Mill , all decisions final. You do much better on Scale if you bring in a couple few million feet a year.

 

[Altissimus]

With board feet the stick is the stick , where they hurt you or help you depending is on grade

 

[Jomo]

My first exposure to logging as opposed to urban tree removal was an eye opener.

I had no idea most mills and pro loggers prefer their trunks in 33 foot sections.

Loggers that put in 10- 12 hour days rake in considerably more, providing the sections land flat and don't fracture!

Jomo

 

[gf beranek]

When it comes down to the worth of a log, true volume verses calculated volume, everyone in the chain is after a bigger piece of the action.

From the forester to land owner, to the faller, to the logger, to the log trucker, to the log buyer, to the mill... all the way to retail. Everyone in the chain is after a bigger piece of the action. And trim on a saw log is one way the mills gets theirs.

I wrote a chapter in High Climbers and Timber Fallers titled, "Trouble in Paradise" Where in I speak about how everyone in the chain is after a bigger piece of the action. As for "trim" on a saw log the corporations use trim to blatantly steal from the common mans' (timber fallers and loggers) hard work, everyday. All legally.

Trouble in Paradise.

 

[Jomo]

Kinda like outsourcing the labor of America's menial jobs overseas to communists........

Jomo

 

[gf beranek]

You know it.

 

[cory]

If it is just end trim, how is that helping the mill? Seems like it might be hurting them bc it is taking some bf out of the next log?

 

[chris_girard]

I've wondered what gets done with the trim at the mills as well?

 

[lxskllr]

Pulp?

 

[greengreer]

Ours request at least 6" over. Some mills are very picky and will grade down to the next marketable size if less than a few inches of trim.

 

[SeanKroll]

I don't know how trim is stealing.

It's not a surprise.

40'10"
32'10"
Etc is what the price list is.

If the mill paid for the trim, wouldn't the price just be set slightly lower?

You can't make boards out of 10".

A 40' log needs to be square at both ends, and have some material for loss through cutting into shorter lengths.

Nobody wants a 2x4 that is 7.85', or whatever.

 

[Altissimus]

Agreed , the Scalers steal with slipperystick depending on your last name ... one upside here is a mid size local hardwoods only mill that will buy and scale odd lengths (of course with 6" trim) , it can and does add up sending out 11'6" 's or 9'6" 's

 

[SeanKroll]

6" on shortie log adds up quickly.