May 25, 1917 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



23 



Veneers Versus Resawn Lumber 



Users Who Manufacture Their Own Thin Stock Usually Omit Factors 



of Expense 



HE CHICAGO SALESMAN of a large veneer 



manufacturing company, which distributes a 



large portion of its product among the sash and 



door people, recently bumped up against a 



problem in the form of a customer who announced that 



he was going to manufacture his own eighth-inch stiles, 



instead of buying the material from the veneer man. 



Stile material, cut to size and able to pass muster as to 

 clearness, etc., is a rather expensive article, compared 

 with veneers sold random widths; a fact which is 

 accounted for, of course, by the heavy percentage of 

 waste involved in getting out this material. Any kind of 

 veneer dimension order involves waste, and manufac- 

 turing stiles for the door factories is just about as diffi- 

 cult an operation, from this standpoint, as anything that 

 could be mentioned. That is why there is usually a 

 differential of from $ 1 to $ 1 2 a thousand between rotary 

 oak veneers and stile stock. The difference in the cost 

 of manufacture is what makes the difference in the price 

 — and even then it is not always possible to supply the 

 material. 



As an evidence of this, a buyer who needed a car of 

 oak for immediate delivery to his door factory recently 

 offered $7.50 a thousand premium for stile dimension 

 sizes, but he found a lot of trouble placing the order, for 

 the reason that few veneer houses had a sufficient stock 

 on hand to ship the car at once. It is hard to produce 

 this material in quantity, both on account of the size and 

 the severity of the requirements as to grade. 



Getting back to the proposition of the man who is 

 resaw^ing his lumber into one-eighth-inch stock, in place 

 of buying the veneers as manufactured in the usual way, 

 the chances are that this chap is one of those who regularly 

 fool themselves as to the cost of performing certain opera- 

 tions in their own plants. TTiey are inclined, when it 

 comes to figuring any particular operation, to insist that 

 the men would be there anyhow, or that the machinery 

 was already in place, or the overhead expenses already 

 established, so that no additional charges, above the 

 cost of the material and power, w^ould have to be figured. 



But if every manufacturer figured that way on every 

 operation, he would soon be starting a trip which would 

 end in the poor-house. It would be over the hill for 

 little Willie. Overhead is constantly present, and it per- 

 tains to every operation. It is robbing Peter to pay 

 Paul to talk of loading all of the overhead on one thing, 

 and not making another pay its proportion of the cost. 

 It should be figured on everything just as all of the time 

 that a man puts on a proposition should be figured. TTiat 

 is the only way to get a just comparison of costs. 



In this instance, the manufacturer is able to resaw his 



lumber so as to get four pieces of one-eighth-inch 

 thick, the kerf accounting for the other half-inch. On 

 the basis of $60 plain oak, this makes his veneers cost 

 him for material alone $15 a thousand. He figures his 

 labor and power and handling, and concludes that the 

 total cost of his stiles is $2 7 a thousand, whereas he would 

 have to pay around $30 to the veneer concern for this 

 material. 



As suggested, he is making a mistake if he is not in- 

 cluding overhead, for there is no reason w^hy overhead 

 should not be applied to this as w^ell as to any other opera- 

 tion in his plant. He must also figure the cost of drying 

 the lumber, for the stock must be put through the kiln 

 and dried perfectly before it can be resawed with safety. 

 And even then, as will be indicated a little further along, 

 his situation is not altogether satisfactory in this respect. 

 The cost of handling lumber through a kiln is several 

 dollars a thousand, and this expense would be saved if 

 veneers instead of lumber were used. 



The manufacturer referred to also refuses to make any 

 allowance for the cost of cutting his lumber to the exact 

 dimensions required for this work, whereas the veneer 

 manufacturer necessarily charges at least $ 1 a thou- 

 sand for it. He points out that he can use the waste 

 which he gets in this operation for his moldings, and that 

 as he is thus manufacturing a regular item of his produc- 

 tion, he can afford to charge the cost of the work to this, 

 instead of to the manufacture of the thin stock. 



He also contends that since he does this work during 

 times when his plant is not otherwise busy, putting his 

 material into stock to be used when needed, he does not 

 need to include the regular charge for labor. The men 

 are on the payroll and have to be paid anyhow, he points 

 out, and anything they do when they would otherwise be 

 idle is clear gain. But this manufacturer knows that he 

 could lay his men off if he had nothing for them to do, so 

 that the idea of figuring less than the full charge for labor 

 is not at all logical. 



In other words, the only way this buyer can justify his 

 plan of resawing lumber into veneers is by figuring costs 

 on an entirely unreasonable basis. If he figured the same 

 way on all of his operations, he w^ould have to close his 

 plant before the year was out. 



There is one feature of this plan which deserves com- 

 ment, and that is the matter of drying. As suggested 

 above, the cost of drying is not inconsiderable, while it 

 is questionable whether veneers cut out of lumber dried 

 in the usual way are in as good condition for use as those 

 which have been dried after being manufactured. It is 

 pretty difficult to dry an inch board so thoroughly and 

 so uniformly that there is no uneven distribution of mois- 



