I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard lengths
of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m lengths
I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula =A1/B1 in cell C1
I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is still
multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the answer
£18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On 9 Mar, 20:28, "The Medway Handyman" davidl...@no-spam-
blueyonder.co.uk wrote:

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the answer
£18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? *In very basic terms please :-)

--

=ROUNDUP((A1/B1), 0) is what you want

Luke

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
om...
I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula =A1/B1
in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is still
multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the answer
£18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk





Put =ROUNDUP(C1,0) in D1, this will show your original calculation but D1
will then show the number of lengths you will need to buy.

Peter

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Thanks very much chaps - sorted!


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:20:26 +0000, John Rumm wrote:

The Medway Handyman wrote:
I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the answer
£18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

A generic solution to that sort of problem in the absence of a round up
function, is to simply add 0.5 to the answer and then truncate all the
decimal places.

But not here...he'd have to add 0.99999 and then truncate.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard lengths
of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m lengths
I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula =A1/B1 in cell C1
I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is still
multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the answer
£18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6¼ lengths, you go and buy 7.

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

--
Frank Erskine

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer £18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6¼ lengths, you go and buy 7.

I can cope with that on smaller jobs, but for costing purposes on bigger
ones its more important.

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

Nah! The jobs don't work out like that.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk


:-)

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer £18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6¼ lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a calculation to
make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards Department
would start chasing him!

(Usual replies patiently awaited)

Unbeliever wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer £18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please
:-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6¼ lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a calculation
to make? Usually 10%

Oh hello its the ****wit again. If you didn't have **** for brains, you
would realise a spreadsheet ( you are clearly too thick o know what that is)
gives a much more accurate figure than 'usually 10%'.

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from
a previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the
useless little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards
Department would start chasing him!

(Usual replies patiently awaited)

What? The ususal reply that you are a sad no life muppet? Did you ever
post anything constructive around here?

How is the council house in Caerphilly?

******.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

gOn Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:29:53 -0000, "Unbeliever"
wrote:

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer £18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6¼ lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a calculation to
make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards Department
would start chasing him!

It's nothing to do with Trading Standards - all he's doing is quoting
a price for a job.
A tradesman can quote exactly what he wants for a requested piece of
work. It's entirely up to the customer to accept or not that quote.

--
Frank Erskine

On Mar 10, 12:29*am, "Unbeliever" wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was 3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer 18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me 21.

What function can I use to sort this? *In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6 lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a calculation to
make? *Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards Department
would start chasing him!

For what, exactly?

MBQ

On 10/03/2010 10:32, Man at B&Q wrote:
On Mar 10, 12:29 am, wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25& not 7.

So, if the timber was 3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer 18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me 21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6 lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a calculation to
make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards Department
would start chasing him!

For what, exactly?

MBQ

The function needed is ROUNDUP

Invisible Man wrote:
On 10/03/2010 10:32, Man at B&Q wrote:
On Mar 10, 12:29 am, wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25& not 7.

So, if the timber was 3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer 18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me 21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6 lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a calculation to
make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards
Department
would start chasing him!

For what, exactly?

MBQ

The function needed is ROUNDUP

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when there's a
big choice of available lenths

stuart noble wrote:
Invisible Man wrote:
On 10/03/2010 10:32, Man at B&Q wrote:
On Mar 10, 12:29 am, wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many
standard lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in
2.4m lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the
formula =A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1
is still multiplied by 6.25& not 7.

So, if the timber was 3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer 18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me 21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms
please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6 lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the
necessary percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult
a calculation to make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over
from a previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap
the useless little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards
Department
would start chasing him!

For what, exactly?

MBQ

The function needed is ROUNDUP

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when
there's a big choice of available lenths

AAMOI this one was to calculate the materials & cost for adding ballustrades
to decking. Given a certain run of ballustrade its handy to be able to
calculate the number of posts & spindles. The handrail is only available in
2.4m lengths at £14 each. A rule of thumb guess could cost you £50 ish on
some jobs.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

Frank Erskine wrote:
gOn Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:29:53 -0000, "Unbeliever"
wrote:

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in
2.4m lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the
formula =A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer £18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please
:-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6¼ lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a
calculation to make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over
from a previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the
useless little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards
Department would start chasing him!

It's nothing to do with Trading Standards - all he's doing is quoting
a price for a job.

I do believe that one lacks a little sense of humour - particularly as TMH
has oft quoted that he is the bees-knees with his local trading standard
officer - ah well! ROTFL

A tradesman can quote exactly what he wants for a requested piece of
work. It's entirely up to the customer to accept or not that quote.

I agree - but surely when quoting or estimating for a job, an amount for
wastage must be included in the calculations, especially as it's not always
(almost never) possible to do the job with the *exact* amount of wood that
is purchased (and that btw, is the material that we are talking about to be
a little pedantic in [expectation of the usual replies])

But I suppose when not allowing for waste in a quotation or estimate, one
can always charge extra to go and pick up some more material - or god
forbid, lose cash on the job by by bearing the lost hours and cost of
travelling ones self at the very least!

Oh-hum - it's the TMH protectionist brigade at work again!

Back to the sack cloth and ashes now, good night!

Unbeliever

John Rumm wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when there's
a big choice of available lenths

That's not too difficult - its basically a version of the old coin
analysis problem that most payroll packages used to do (i.e. work out
the minimum number of each coin denomination required to make up the pay
packets).

You could probably get clever and offer options like least waste, lowest
cost, fewest cuts etc! ;-)

I and probably you wouldn't think twice about doing that. However, I
have a feeling that, if he needs help to find the ROUNDUP function, it
could be stretching Dave's knowledge of Excel a bit.

Colin Bignell

Nightjar "cpb"@" wrote:
John Rumm wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when
there's a big choice of available lenths

That's not too difficult - its basically a version of the old coin
analysis problem that most payroll packages used to do (i.e. work out
the minimum number of each coin denomination required to make up the
pay packets).

You could probably get clever and offer options like least waste,
lowest cost, fewest cuts etc! ;-)

I and probably you wouldn't think twice about doing that. However, I
have a feeling that, if he needs help to find the ROUNDUP function, it
could be stretching Dave's knowledge of Excel a bit.

It prolly would. I've had no training, just worked stuff out by trial &
error.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

John Rumm wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when there's
a big choice of available lenths

That's not too difficult

I was hoping someone would jump in and say that :-)

- its basically a version of the old coin
analysis problem that most payroll packages used to do (i.e. work out
the minimum number of each coin denomination required to make up the pay
packets).

You could probably get clever and offer options like least waste, lowest
cost, fewest cuts etc! ;-)


I'd need to get a lot cleverer than I am to do that but, if you ever get
bored.......
A timber merchant I used to deal with (E.Jones IIRC) had a computerised
saw for sheet materials. It worked out the most economical way to cut,
gave you a quote, and then cut them with the minimum of human
intervention. I never saw it in action, but it was normally booked
weeks in advance.

On 10/03/2010 19:05, stuart noble wrote:
Invisible Man wrote:
On 10/03/2010 10:32, Man at B&Q wrote:
On Mar 10, 12:29 am, wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25& not 7.

So, if the timber was 3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer 18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me 21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6 lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a
calculation to
make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards
Department
would start chasing him!

For what, exactly?

MBQ

The function needed is ROUNDUP

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when there's a
big choice of available lenths

This is similar to a recent programming teaser on the excellent Daily
WTF site - see http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Avoi...he-Splice.aspx.

--
Reentrant

Reentrant wrote:
On 10/03/2010 19:05, stuart noble wrote:
Invisible Man wrote:
On 10/03/2010 10:32, Man at B&Q wrote:
On Mar 10, 12:29 am, wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many standard
lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in 2.4m
lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the formula
=A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25& not 7.

So, if the timber was 3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer 18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me 21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please :-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6 lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a
calculation to
make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over
from a
previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the useless
little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards
Department
would start chasing him!

For what, exactly?

MBQ

The function needed is ROUNDUP

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when there's a
big choice of available lenths

This is similar to a recent programming teaser on the excellent Daily
WTF site - see http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Avoi...he-Splice.aspx.

That looks an interesting site. No constructive replies though.

stuart noble wrote:
John Rumm wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when
there's a big choice of available lenths

That's not too difficult

I was hoping someone would jump in and say that :-)

- its basically a version of the old coin
analysis problem that most payroll packages used to do (i.e. work out
the minimum number of each coin denomination required to make up the
pay packets).

You could probably get clever and offer options like least waste,
lowest cost, fewest cuts etc! ;-)


I'd need to get a lot cleverer than I am to do that but, if you ever
get bored.......
A timber merchant I used to deal with (E.Jones IIRC) had a
computerised saw for sheet materials. It worked out the most
economical way to cut, gave you a quote, and then cut them with the
minimum of human intervention. I never saw it in action, but it was
normally booked weeks in advance.

You can download a free board optimiser from here http://www.maxcut.co.za/

Been using it for ages & very good it is too. Only pain is you have to re
register every month.

Unbeliever wrote:
Frank Erskine wrote:
gOn Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:29:53 -0000, "Unbeliever"
wrote:

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:28:55 GMT, "The Medway Handyman"
wrote:

I'm trying to knock up a spreadsheet to calculate how many
standard lengths of timber I need for a certain run.

For example; if I want to run 15.0 metres of timber, and its in
2.4m lengths I can enter 15 in cell A1, 2.4 in cell B1 and the
formula =A1/B1 in cell C1 I get the answer 6.25.

However I would need 7 lengths to complete the job.

I can format cell C1 to 'show' 7, but anything multiplied by C1 is
still multiplied by 6.25 & not 7.

So, if the timber was £3 per 2.4m piece '=C1 x 3' would give the
answer £18.75, but 7 lengths would cost me £21.

What function can I use to sort this? In very basic terms please
:-)

I'd have thought that it's a bit of a no-brainer that if your
spreadsheet shows that you need 6¼ lengths, you go and buy 7.

That's too easy to work out, and I wonder if he allows the necessary
percentage for wastage - or would that be too difficult a
calculation to make? Usually 10%

Unless of course you have, say, a roughly half-length left over
from a previous job, when you can get away with buying 6, scrap the
useless little bit, and charge the customer for 7...

:-)

He wouldn't do that, he be too afraid the local Trading Standards
Department would start chasing him!

It's nothing to do with Trading Standards - all he's doing is quoting
a price for a job.

I do believe that one lacks a little sense of humour - particularly
as TMH has oft quoted that he is the bees-knees with his local
trading standard officer - ah well! ROTFL

I do believe you are a complete ****ing idiot.

I'm registered & approved by my local Trading Standards because I like to do
things properly - which include accurate quotes.

A tradesman can quote exactly what he wants for a requested piece of
work. It's entirely up to the customer to accept or not that quote.

I agree - but surely when quoting or estimating for a job, an amount
for wastage must be included in the calculations, especially as it's
not always (almost never) possible to do the job with the *exact*
amount of wood that is purchased (and that btw, is the material that
we are talking about to be a little pedantic in [expectation of the
usual replies])
But I suppose when not allowing for waste in a quotation or estimate,
one can always charge extra to go and pick up some more material - or
god forbid, lose cash on the job by by bearing the lost hours and
cost of travelling ones self at the very least!

Or one can use a spreadsheet and get it spot on.

Oh-hum - it's the TMH protectionist brigade at work again!

Its more like the 'stop being a ****wit' brigade.

Tosser



--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

The Medway Handyman wrote:
stuart noble wrote:
John Rumm wrote:
stuart noble wrote:

What he really needs is a spreadsheet where you enter the lengths
required for the job and it calculates what you need to buy for the
minimum wastage. Somewhat more complex though, especially when
there's a big choice of available lenths
That's not too difficult
I was hoping someone would jump in and say that :-)

- its basically a version of the old coin
analysis problem that most payroll packages used to do (i.e. work out
the minimum number of each coin denomination required to make up the
pay packets).

You could probably get clever and offer options like least waste,
lowest cost, fewest cuts etc! ;-)

I'd need to get a lot cleverer than I am to do that but, if you ever
get bored.......
A timber merchant I used to deal with (E.Jones IIRC) had a
computerised saw for sheet materials. It worked out the most
economical way to cut, gave you a quote, and then cut them with the
minimum of human intervention. I never saw it in action, but it was
normally booked weeks in advance.

You can download a free board optimiser from here http://www.maxcut.co.za/

Been using it for ages & very good it is too. Only pain is you have to re
register every month.



Looks interesting