Well have a great two weeks in Tenesse my friend.

Yep..MDF..code word "cheap"... I have used MDF architraves by the way..once again.."cheap". I guess thats what the future holds..houses made from paper, all they need now is figure out how to make concrete, studs, & siding out of it (that won't soak up water like a sponge) & that will happen. I'm gonna take a week or 2 of R&R starting tomorrow & go to Tennessee for a family visit so everything is "Rosy" in my world...at least for the next few weeks..

Ahh good old MDF, loved by some, hated by most lol. We sell a lot of MDF and all i hear is, if you want something make cheaply, use MDF lol. MDF's very popular here in cheap furniture making like units, tables and various types of cases. I can understand it's popularity because it's easy to work with. Easy to cut and shape and no knots. Bet you've used MDF architraves, i have lol. I prefer using real boards like Far Eastern ply redwood hardwood, very strong and very expensive. Usually used in quality unit making. Carrying a 25mm x2400x1200 sheet, you know your carrying a real board lol.

It doesn't sound much different from the way its done here. We don't however deal with the cutting mills. We get our materials from various middle men and not all of those stock interior trim materials like rail parts or trim moulding. We also deal with a few national builders that dictate price on a nation wide scale & we match material to price. Most of the production houses we do around here, are trimmed entirely with MDF..paints up nice, but I still consider it heavy "paper"..

Some of our big regular customers usually dictate how much they want to pay and we calculate what timber grades can cover that order price. Strange way of doing business i know but it usually works out. Well everyones always after the best price for timber, even though some don't actually want to pay a fair price. We're a timber suppler and cutting mill and also can supply just about any kind of order, like mouldings boards logs telegraph poles, joinery timbers, you name we can get it. Basically we deal in just about every aspect of the timber trade, we even supply nails and screws lol. Sounding like an advert now lol. The only thing we don't do is supply to the general public, because it's company firms only like case makers and builders.

Yep..our customers all want top grade wood...for bargain basment pricing..lol..bidding jobs has become a real bloodbath in our world lately..Glad I don't have to do the estimating anymore. I used to love it when someone would ask for a high end labor intensive bid & spec some exotic hardwood (that could only be found in some remote region of Tibet lol), and then ***** how high the price was.
Does your mill just ship rough sawn timber, or do you ship s4s & shaped mouldings as well?

No i don't think the company has anything to hide,their just stupid lol. You problably know there is quite a lot of competition in the timber cutting and supplying trade. Right now we have at least 3 big competitors who we hear through the grapevine occasionally get our contracts usually through a better price, well when i say our contracts, i mean their price bid was lower than ours. But occasionally that can also mean the timber quality may be a lower standard. It's not unheard of for a customer to return timber because it wasn't upto scratch. We deal more in higher graded timber, hence our job quotes are slightly higher, but like the old saying "you get what you pay for". Bit like our tape debate, buy cheap get crap, buy Stanley get quality lol.

Management type's usually don't share a sense of humor with their employees! You would think that they would feel confident enough with their own products & services that they wouldn't fear a shirt logo from a compeditor..lol (maybe they have something to hide)

Yes it's a tradition in golf, that if you hole-in-one. Your duty bound to buy everyone a drink at the 19 hole aka the club bar lol. Cost me about £80 with my hole-in-one lol. We get freebie t-shirts from a lot of suppliers, the only drawback is they'd have the suppliers logo on of cause and our management doesn't like to advertise other timber companies. So we not allowed to wear them at work, stupid i know, but that's management for you! lol. Last year some of us wore some inside out just to wind the office up and it worked lol. Why is it, management never see the funny side of jokes? lol.

I also used to get alot of clothes for freebies as well, but with the present economy, this year I'll be lucky if I even get a "Thong"..lol. Had a fair weekend, although I didn't get out much..too cold for me to out & about. Too bad your friend didn't make the hole-in-one shot, that would have obligated him to buy you all a free "Pint" wouldn't it?