I've sawed and dried much yellow poplar in both 4/4 & 5/4 but not for the title subject-2x6 T&G.I have used it as girts/ multi-board beams in pole barns where it's nailed down green(ish).
I find it easy to dry and quite stabile in boards and have used it in my shop for cabinet work. It has the known reputation as harder to keep straight in thicker cuts.
I have many poplar trees ranging from poles up to many very large trees so it's a good choice for my self-use. The few pines we have left on our place will go into wall logs and I may have to buy a few pines too.
I am well aware of poplar beam checking to the heart but have begun to saw it for my 4x6 cabin parts and 2x floor joists, the rest into a few off cut studs & subflooring.
My "real" question:
I have the T&G cutters (I drew them up and had them custom made) as used to make my 8/4 western pine ceilings in my timber frame home addition in 2004. I ran it all on my router table. For that use I bought bundles of western pine KD 2x6 to sort of match the EWP T&G in the old part of the house. FWIW, I'd had recent hand surgeries at that time and forced into KD store bought wood to make it come together.
Now I find KD SPF as a common KD e.g. priced very high and so I'm (retired tightwad) thinking poplar might be a good idea for the ~ 1400BF I'll need? I have seen #2 Spruce 2x T&G sold for cabins cheaper than box store 2x6 counting my labor. I've also been looking for KD, 2x6 "leftovers" but so far only found some a long haul away from an OH truck load accident as it sits.
I can dry the poplar wood indoors under fan circulation on sticks this winter.
The crux of the matter is how straight can I keep poplar sawed to 7/4 x 6" x 8',10',12' ???
I did that last year, sawed 1-3/4", dried, planed to 1.5" and straightened to 5.5" wide on 8-12' poplar. I decided next time I'll saw at 6.25"-6.5" wide.
Some of my alternatives so far:
Local KY saw mill buys truck loads of 2x6" T&G Austrian,tree farm grown Norway Spruce @ $1.40 LF.
Same mill will sell me fresh sawed EWP @ ~ $700/1000BF, which I can get a bit lower at another mill.
A seller on web that's ~ 1.5 hrs from me has all sizes of KD, SYP in best grades for ~ 50-60 cents BF thus cheaper than wet EWP at my local mills. Not my 1st choice in species but quite a favor to an old back as handled once before application.
Yet another option is that I'd saw my own pine trees for the T&G and buy all my pine wall logs from a mill. Fact is I don't have enough pine trees to build the walls from pine and not wanting to try poplar wall logs in my dimension of 6" thick "D" logs. I'll admit that I'm tempted though as got plenty of poplar to harvest.
FWIW, the local large Morehead, KY mills which have dip tanks, kilns and have been selling T&G poplar for some 20+ years now-do not sell 2" poplar in T&G-4/4 only! That in spite of an obvious market for the material in the same buyer market as many of their poplar wall panel and flooring customers.
Thanks for the tip on poplar T&G sizing!
I visit my uncle in Oneida, KY. He just built an addition 20'x40' entirely out of Yellow Poplar. Wall studs floor joists you name it. The king beam in the center of the vaulted ceiling is 8"x20" from what I saw the wood that was going to warp warped during the air dry phase. He pays for wood with no knots because knots are where Yellow Poplar goes crooked. I think he paid $.60/bdft and it was much cheaper then building with big box lumber.
I drive by a millwork factory ~ 15 miles from my house. The only wood they use is Yellow Poplar and there are many thousands of BF on stacks are drying near the road. Their kilns are across the road so they flag people down now and then to load, unload wood. Not one stick is 2" wood.
Has your uncles house gone through a heating season yet?
I once worked with a guy that taught our auto body class who'd built an A-frame home and used large poplar beams. He was talking about how discouraged he was to see large cracks come into his beams after they'd lived there awhile.
As has been discussed here by pro builders, the kit log home industry tried to engineer a kit log home from poplar when large companies like Carolina Log Homes moved into the SE USA from New England in the 1970's. They abandoned the poplar notion long ago. Most common types of pine are used and in my area EWP gained a small local market whereas it was very hard to sell here regionally before the log home became popular. Those companies are gone now but it does sell to local builders near me.
Poplar in old hewed log cabins was very common if it was what they had near the build site, not necessarily the first choice of trees even then.
I still have not killed the 2" T&G poplar notion as yet, time will tell?
It behaves in 2" like trackerbuddy said, it moves when drying but is stable once dry. Heavy timber will very often check pretty substantially during drying. I've sawn a very few free of heart/ well away from the heart beams. They worked but I wouldn't make a habit of it, it tends to release a lot of stress at the mill, that won't improve as it dries, so the trade there is less chance of checking and more chance of warp.
Well I'm off on a tear that has nothing to do with the question :D. With any warp prone woods in heavy timber, if you skim a heavily bowed oversized beam be very mindful of the slope of grain it produces. If it's running out more than about 1" per foot as you look down the length of all sides of a beam start looking it over with a baleful eye.
No it hasn't gone through a winter heating season yet
2'x6' ceiling? Is that the ceiling and the 2nd story floor? Ceiling and roof deck?
Depending on what part of the state you're in You should be able to buy southern yellow pine economically. We buy boards and lumber for $.60/bdft. So I guess Ralph is paying $300 per thousand for the logs.
So far my choices boil down to:
>Saw my own poplar trees as discussed above-all with my own out back lifting every stick over and over-you know how that works I am sure. Low ball price
>Buy local EWP and avoid my saw but still lots of handling but much easier to dry, etc. sells for ~ 50-70 cents BF
> Buy graded, KD SYP 2 x 6 in correct lengths and T&G it using the cutters I already own. sells for ~same price as wet EWP @ ~ 55-60 cents a BF. That same seller is bringing in KD commercial production bundled, ME sourced EWP in cabin grade T&G and shiplap.
>Buy Austrian T&G KD Spruce ("everybody" has it for sale in KY,TN,NC) for ~ $1.35 BF.
It's my back or my pocketbook and I save about half by T&G'ing the ~ 2,300 BF my small build calls for or sawmill and labor time for mill & dry it this winter.
I'm leaning toward mill & dry in 2x6-7/4 poplar or simply buy SYP KD and T&G it.