What can your logs actually earn?
Move the sliders. See the revenue, the running cost and the gross margin; built on our published M12-35A operating-cost model, not marketing maths.
Your operation
Defaults are our conservative planning model. Change anything to match your yard.
per hour
per day
per month
per year
per 1,000 board feet
Three numbers decide whether a sawmill makes money.
Fuel, teeth, belts, bearings, filters, engine and gearbox reserves; everything, costed. At $2.00/bf that's about 1.3% of sales value.
The swing blade cuts both directions and sizes boards to the log, so more of every stem leaves the yard as product instead of slabwood.
Rough-sawn air-dried softwood sells near $2.00/bf. Dried and planed, the same board foot commonly reaches $5–$7. Drag the price slider and watch.
The full running cost, per 1,000 board feet.
Based on 500 bf/hr, premium 20 ft softwood logs at 31.5 in diameter, fuel at US$6.55 per U.S. gallon.
| Cost item | Basis | Per 1,000 bf |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | 3 L per m³ | $12.26 |
| Insert teeth | Replaced every 20 m³ | $5.75 |
| Bronze rollers | Every 200 hours | $3.70 |
| Engine reserve | 2,000-hour life | $2.00 |
| Gearbox reserve | 2,000-hour life | $0.65 |
| Belts, ropes, struts, stone | 3–24 month intervals | $0.81 |
| Filters, oil, blade, consumables | Annual / scheduled | $0.89 |
| Total machine running cost | Labour & loader excluded | $26.00 |
Why operators choose TurboSawmill
Fewer moving parts and robust engineering; less to break, less to fix.
Serviceable components with published intervals. No specialist mill technicians.
US$26 per 1,000 board feet, fuel and consumables included.
Swing-blade recovery gets more product out of every log.
Commercial sawmilling in more than 50 countries.
Designed to keep producing - and keep earning - for years.
Big mill capacity.
Small mill overhead.
The M12-35A bridges the gap between small portable mills and industrial operations. It delivers the output of a far larger mill without the capital cost, the infrastructure or the ongoing overhead.
Simple mechanical design keeps maintenance low and downtime short. Fewer moving parts, robust engineering and readily serviceable components mean more time producing timber and less time carrying out repairs.
Build your sawmill
Over US$1.5 million a year
That figure comes from the conservative model above: 500 board feet an hour, 260 days a year, logs at US$500 per 1,000 bf and timber sold rough-sawn at US$2.00.
It is a planning benchmark, not a promise. Your log supply, species and local market will move it in both directions - which is exactly why the calculator is at the top of this page rather than a number in a brochure.
Back to the calculator10,500 board feet in 17 hours.
Own the machine.
Own your market.
Send us your log supply, species and local timber price. We'll build the model against your market and quote the machine that fits.
Planning estimates only. Figures are illustrative and depend on log quality, species, operator skill, site layout, material handling, maintenance and local market demand. The model assumes premium 6 m / 20 ft softwood logs of approximately 800 mm / 31.5 in diameter, natural air drying with no kiln cost, and excludes labour, loader/forklift, off-bearer, grading, freight, finance, land, taxes and overheads. Not a promise or guarantee of performance. Fuel converted at NZ$3.00/L ≈ US$6.55/US gal (NZD 1 = USD 0.57705, 26 July 2026).