Hi Marine5068,
Only about 1/3rd of what I cut with my CSMs are mine to do with as I like. I mainly mill the logs at a mates (Jeff) tree lopping yard (20 miles/30 minutes away) and the logs are brought back to the yard by Jeff's son (Ross) who also does the tree felling.
The timber I mill is a ~3 way split between Jeff Ross and Myself. Neither Jeff or Ross have done much with their share of the timber apart from using some slabs in nature playgrounds.
Ross and Jeff bring back a lot of logs to the yard and most of these are prepared and sold for nature playgrounds. A single nature playground might use 3-4 bigger and dozens of smaller logs. I get to pick out the better logs and milled these but a few years ago Jeff bough a BSM and we use that to mill the timber and partially prepare logs and beams for nature playgrounds. I haven't used my CSM for about 2 years because the BSM can everything we want to do at the moment.
I have milled at other places, including on a friend's farm about 250 miles away where I milled about 30 logs for them while showing them how to mill with their 3120 and Granberg. This was all just for fun. They no longer mill their own timber as they have a friend ob a nearby property who has a Lucas and other pro BSMer nearby who will come around and pick up logs from their farm and take it back to his place and mill them there - for a fee of course.
Of the stuff I have milled, I have probably sold ~20%$, most of this being live edged stuff. I have given away or traded about 20% (also nearly all lived edged) and the termites and poor storage has led to about 10% loss. I have used personally < 10% of what I have cut. Live edge is indeed popular but I don't charge any more for it.
Just down the road from the treehoppers yard is a CSMer who has a big Cooksaw BSM and he does really nice work. Jeff bought his old BSM. The Cooksaw miller also has a kiln and uses really good storage methods so his slabs are premium quality. I'm pretty sure he goes out of his way to secure premium logs and charges accordingly. We can't compete with him s we don't even try.
I never got into CSMing to make any money. I got into it to gain access to craft wood and found I like building mills and using them. I am a hopeless and impatient salesman and get no joy out of selling the timber almost irrespective of the price that I get paid. When I advertise the timber for sale, because it's 20 miles away from my place I hate the tyre kickers and the haggling and the running around trying to satisfy people ridiculous needs. Often people say they will meet me at the yard and never turn up. These days I tell them I will be at the yard @ X/Y/Z to do something else and they have to be there or miss out. I would rather give the timber away than go through all this BS.
Only about 1/3rd of what I cut with my CSMs are mine to do with as I like. I mainly mill the logs at a mates (Jeff) tree lopping yard (20 miles/30 minutes away) and the logs are brought back to the yard by Jeff's son (Ross) who also does the tree felling.
The timber I mill is a ~3 way split between Jeff Ross and Myself. Neither Jeff or Ross have done much with their share of the timber apart from using some slabs in nature playgrounds.
Ross and Jeff bring back a lot of logs to the yard and most of these are prepared and sold for nature playgrounds. A single nature playground might use 3-4 bigger and dozens of smaller logs. I get to pick out the better logs and milled these but a few years ago Jeff bough a BSM and we use that to mill the timber and partially prepare logs and beams for nature playgrounds. I haven't used my CSM for about 2 years because the BSM can everything we want to do at the moment.
I have milled at other places, including on a friend's farm about 250 miles away where I milled about 30 logs for them while showing them how to mill with their 3120 and Granberg. This was all just for fun. They no longer mill their own timber as they have a friend ob a nearby property who has a Lucas and other pro BSMer nearby who will come around and pick up logs from their farm and take it back to his place and mill them there - for a fee of course.
Of the stuff I have milled, I have probably sold ~20%$, most of this being live edged stuff. I have given away or traded about 20% (also nearly all lived edged) and the termites and poor storage has led to about 10% loss. I have used personally < 10% of what I have cut. Live edge is indeed popular but I don't charge any more for it.
Just down the road from the treehoppers yard is a CSMer who has a big Cooksaw BSM and he does really nice work. Jeff bought his old BSM. The Cooksaw miller also has a kiln and uses really good storage methods so his slabs are premium quality. I'm pretty sure he goes out of his way to secure premium logs and charges accordingly. We can't compete with him s we don't even try.
I never got into CSMing to make any money. I got into it to gain access to craft wood and found I like building mills and using them. I am a hopeless and impatient salesman and get no joy out of selling the timber almost irrespective of the price that I get paid. When I advertise the timber for sale, because it's 20 miles away from my place I hate the tyre kickers and the haggling and the running around trying to satisfy people ridiculous needs. Often people say they will meet me at the yard and never turn up. These days I tell them I will be at the yard @ X/Y/Z to do something else and they have to be there or miss out. I would rather give the timber away than go through all this BS.
