Canningvale – M12-25A (showcase)

“It’s shown proven to be very reliable.”
Canning vale Timbers PTY
John Mavros.
Melbourne, Australia.

John has an extensive history operating the larger commercial sawmills, after some health issues he had to sell most of his gear on but kept the land and buildings so that he could continue within the timber industry, by purchasing timber and then on selling to his existing customers. He did not expect to get back into the business of sawing timber. However, his customers were continually after more custom offerings, which tended to take a lot of time sourcing while extending out delivery lead times. That is when the company started to look at getting a portable sawmill. Being able to offer custom sawn timber had become an important aspect of the business.

Canning vale Timbers PTY (based in Melbourne, Australia) purchased an M12HD-25A in January 2019. They purchased the mill after looking at several sawmills on the market which included, Lucas mill, Mahoe, and the Peterson ASM. The Turbosawmill had a few features working in favour of their decision, Turbosawmill offered a 12” automated option with an open style single beam design. The machine also offered digital sizing.
It took a couple of months for delivery but Jake Peterson – the designer showed up on-site and provided training.

Shannon Helmers operates the sawmill. He is a one-man-band working on his own every day. The Turbosawmill sits within an exceptionally large building (which used to house all the bigger sawmill machinery). Shannon Operates the mill with the assistance of a forklift and a secondary bench-style mechanized resaw (for the bottom flitches of the processed logs). Shannon prepares the log by washing it down with a water blaster and then brushing off any potential rocks and stones. The extra time to do this really prolongs the life of your carbide teeth he says. He recommends using water as it generally keeps things cool which equates to less hp and more accurate cuts. Daily maintenance includes wiping down the beam rails from sawdust, applying lubricant on the chains, and moving parts.
Shannon cuts around 5 cubic meters in a day (2,110bf) but has had days sawing more than 8 cubes (3,376bf). Most timbers are sawn into farm rails 1×6, 2×6, 3×2 although often gets asked for more specialized cuts. The 12” saw allows this to be done with ease. Over the last 2 years, he has over 2100 hours logged on the mill and sawn over 520 cubes of sawn timber (220,000bf). The mill produces around 2-3 cube of sawdust every day. The sawdust and scrap wood are then collected and sold to the local farmers for use around the farm. Shannon’s typical day entails a lot more than just sawing timber.

The sawmill is one of the very first generation 2 Turbosawmill ‘Heavy duty’ models to hit the market. This unit featured an 18kw (25hp 3 phase electric motor) with its whopping 12” cut circular blade capability and automated feed system.

Shannon mentions there were some teething issues during the initial stages, but Jake Peterson (owner of the company) was very quick to react and offer solutions for these:
• The first blades sent out utilized the industry standard insert style carbide teeth. The teeth on these blades at times vibrated forward, in fact, some had come off the blade during use (it has been known to happen in the industry). Turbosawmill quickly developed a robust (patent pending) solution that would help to prevent this from happening again. Once the blades were upgraded to the new concept, no further issues had been recorded. This solution is now offered uniquely on all Turbosawmill models and is one of the proprietary advantages.
• Rollers were wearing a little excessively due to the heavy electric motor. But the design was soon improved which extended the life of these plastic rollers. Ultimately Jake advised that simply riveting a stainless angle on the alloy beam would mean the saw could be run with straight bearings mitigating the need for 250hr plastic roller replacements. Shannon is currently considering installing these rails to further reducing maintenance costs. Turbosawmill now offers Brass rollers for extended life wear.
• At around 1000hrs the gearbox input shaft became loose which needed replacing. 5 hours of downtime was all that was needed to correct this, a replacement was sent out.
Turbosawmill records show minimal parts were required over this time.

Here are some indicative costs to date running the machine (not including the electric power bill) during the 2 years of successful operation:
• 22 Wear rollers – the total cost of $220. Some of these wore prematurely (under 50 hrs).
• 38 Carbide teeth – the total cost of $432.
• 12 Belts – the cost of around $720.
• Shannon recently switched to Gates Kevlar belts for a better life.
• 1 replacement input shaft and spare gearbox $625.
• 4 x replacement drive ropes – the cost of around $120.
• Shannon recently switched to higher grade 14mm rope; this has offered a much longer life.

2 years of operation, 2100 hrs and 520 cubic meters (220,000bf) of timber later shows: maintenance and running cost of $2,117 is not bad! Works out to be around $4 per cubic meter (422bf) of sawn timber (not including other overheads such as the power to the saw).

Shannon explains that the mill is very versatile, just the other day he cut up a 4ft diameter Grey gum hardwood log yielding around 4 cubic meters of timber, you simply cannot do that on a lot of machines.

Shannon was asked specifically about some of the features of the sawmill:

✓ SINGLE BEAM OPEN ACCESS DESIGN
To date, he has not damaged the beam. The open side of the log is extremely accessible so loading the logs and removing timber is no trouble. In fact, cleaning up the mess around the mill is also extremely easy. He simply installs a blade onto the forklift and pushes all the sawdust through the frames to one side before milling the next log.

✓ INSERT BLADE TECHNOLOGY
The insert style teeth Turbosawmill offers has provided an easy solution for on-site maintenance. They have no welding facilities and are not put out, having to send the blades on to get serviced. No blade tension issues had been recorded during the operation. In fact, at one stage the blade did start to wonder during cutting, after sending it to the saw doctor it was found the issue was in the sharpening. Turbosawmill sent out a new, revised design which locates onto the shank and uses a drill for sharpening. This solved the problem and is also now offered on all Turbosawmill models as standard. Before this, the tooth was sharpened using a jig which was held upon the blade and sharpened almost freehand (other manufacturers still use this method).

✓ DIGITAL SIZING
Digital sizing is a real asset, it’s extremely accurate. I do not have to check things over with a measuring tape. We have had zero issues with this system since we got it. It’s shown proven to be very reliable. Your vehicle has more electronics in it than this mill. The system is simple, very neat, and professional. All the controls are low voltage too making it extremely safe. Operating the mill using this feature is now second nature for me.

Both John and Shannon are extremely happy with their mill choice.