Large flooring project - please review profitability for me

[guy knight]

why not just buy the flooring premade then sell to him with little to no work and reap the profits

[dirk martin]

Ok gang, finally, here's the results:

It all went well. My "real" job is in Information Technology, so I've been so busy traveling to the far Pacific, to give a full run-down on this project.
My sister ended up taking over this project for me, and she did a perfect job getting it out the door.
Using a shaper, rather than a router was indeed the way to go. I still wonder, at times, if a Magic Moulder would have done the job.
I ended up needing more lumber, because many of you were right, that the rough widths I was planning on using, didn't yield enuf raw material.
But, my supplier was happy to get me more QSWO (yes, at the $2 price!...and NO, I'm not gonna give you his contact info, but I will sell you some QSWO at a great price!). I just ordered double the amount, and then resold what I had as left over, as milled flooring blanks, of various widths.

I now own a nice Grizzly shaper, and an upgraded Woodmaster. I had them put the 7hp motor on the model 718, installed link belts, and it's a fantastic machine.

I ended up jointing on the shaper, and ripping to width on my tablesaw with stock feeder. I didn't want to mess with the gang ripping on the Woodmaster.

Oh, and just a side note, someone was wondering if they make router bits for flooring (rather than shaper cutters), and yes they do. No, I didn't use them.

The amount of waste chips was staggering, but easy for me to use as mulch, and to burn.

Labor wise, my well trained, boyscout's are happy to have leaned some new skills, and really seamed to enjoy what they were doing. Everyone has their fingers and eyes, as safety comes first in my shop.

Sorry to have ignored so many of you, but will certainly do this again. I'm currently looking at a smaller job, in Purpleheart, as I've got a LOT of Purpleheart that's 18" wide and greater !! And, yes, I paid a bit more than $2/bf for that !!!

I do have a guy, less than a mile from me, that has a 4-5 sided moulder. I'm very interested in seeing what he would charge me, if I provided him with the milled blanks....

[Peter Quinn]

Glad to hear you made a success of this project. Purple heart huh? I just made up a small pile of that for a client, S3S flattened. Not so much fun to work with IMO. I'm guessing that the guy with the molder may also have a straight line or gang rip capable of processing that material much faster than you can. Just a guess, but big machines tend to travel together in packs! Where I work 2 guys could process 4000SF of QSWO form lumber to finished floor in under 2 days, but they don't allow children to work in the mill. What others suggested originally was that you may find a better business selling floors than making them slowly by hand or with small machines. Perhaps not if you do one floor every two years, but should the frequency increase, its nice to have an outsource to meet demand. Well good luck with it, and glad you checked back in to let us know how it all worked out.

PS, and much like a good spy meeting, as far as I'm concerned this flooring venture of yours never happened! No pics, no floor! At least a few shots of a dirty shaper and a dusty wood master! I expect a man in IT to be more forthcoming with digital photos, install shots, etc. People love pictures.

As far as that QSWO supplier......"Ve have vays of making you talk..."

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Always glad to hear a story with a happy ending... but yes, pics would be great!