Sawing poplar

[cutter88]

Very green to saw milling here we will be sawing 20' polar timbers on a wood-mizer band mill... Any tips or things to watch out for?

[GAB]

Watch out for log stress.  It may be difficult to get parallel boards.
Gerald

[Brad_S.]

There are three types of wood often refered to as "poplar" around me.
One is aspen which moves a lot as it is sawn, as mentioned above.
Another is cottonwood. You need a sharp blade as it will wander in cottonwood if dull.
The third is yellow or tulip poplar and it is a joy to saw and dry.

[slider]

Down south we have yellow poplar and most is a joy to saw but sometimes you will hit a batch that will have stress .A good sign is splits in the end of the log.The last batch I sawed gave me fits .If it starts bowing up just keep flipping until you get it to lay down.Here is some that gave me a bad time.

 

[drobertson]

No expert here by any means, but fast growth timber seems to have bad behavior.   I have found that 1" boards getting to a cant of desired dimensions is pretty important.  Taking full 2" is a recipe for major stress relief in the log.  this is almost always the beginning of a battle to the end.  the only poplar I have seen sawn was during the Paul Bunyan show of Oct. 2013.  these were not 20' logs, but seemed to saw very well for every mill in the show.

[OneWithWood]

A good clue to the amount of stress in any log is the position of the pith.  Off centered at either end = stress. 

[21incher]

About 3 weeks ago I needed some tomato stakes for my garden, so I took down a poplar ( cottonwood, sorry I originally made a mistake and posted basswood ) and sawed (125) 7 ft x 1 1/2" square stakes. They sawed great and straight. I sharpened them and pounded them in the ground and as soon as the sun hit them they all started to bend and twist in different directions. Looks like modern art now so I would recommend keeping it out of the sun while drying.

[36 coupe]

Poplar and Basswood are a different species.Basswood is more like white pine.Ive planed Basswood for customers,its a soft wood.The rafters and boards of my bandmill shelter roof are poplar.A straight poplar will saw out good lumber.

[Magicman]

??  "Poplar" is a very "popular" name for several species depending upon where you live.  In my area Tulip (yellow) Poplar is the only one that we call Poplar.

[gullydweller]

Here in PA it is tulip poplar as well.  Some of the nicest timbers in my fathers timber frame home are tulip poplar.  He said they were great to saw and generally don't have any knots until very high.

[36 coupe]

Tulip poplar latin name liriodendron tulipfera is not a poplar.We have aspen here in Maine.It is called popple or poplar.Many trees are given wrong names.Poplar has been called Popular by posters on this forum.Basswood is called the Linden or lime tree.

[cutter88]

No expert here by any means, but fast growth timber seems to have bad behavior.   I have found that 1" boards getting to a cant of desired dimensions is pretty important.  Taking full 2" is a recipe for major stress relief in the log.  this is almost always the beginning of a battle to the end.  the only poplar I have seen sawn was during the Paul Bunyan show of Oct. 2013.  these were not 20' logs, but seemed to saw very well for every mill in the show.

Ok so what I wanna make is 12x12 timbers... So I'm not making lumber but what ur saying is I can't just make a cut on each side and an be done with it? I have to keep Turning the log taking 1" boards off to prevent the log from bowing?

[beenthere]

cutter88
You summed it up pretty well.

You can go for the timber, but you will likely get bowing which you likely do not want. All logs won't bow from stress, but is it worth the risk (which you will have to decide if losing a percentage is worth saving cuts).

[cutter88]

cutter88
You summed it up pretty well.

You can go for the timber, but you will likely get bowing which you likely do not want. All logs won't bow from stress, but is it worth the risk (which you will have to decide if losing a percentage is worth saving cuts).

Ok thanks beenthere... The timbers are just being bolted together to make timber mats so some bowing wont hurt anything thanks again for ur help

[beenthere]

The timbers are just being bolted together to make timber mats so some bowing wont hurt anything

Slab away then. Shouldn't hurt a thing.
But keep in mind that clear poplar 4/4 lumber may be worth more than its value in the slab pile. Just another thing to weigh in your decision-making and add to the profits (as most of the costs are already accounted for).

A bit surprised that yellow poplar is going into timber mats. 

[barbender]

Every time poplar is mentioned we have a long discussion as to what species is actually being discussed. I would guess from Cutter88's location that he is talking about aspen, or Balsam poplar (balmy). I also saw Lyle Niemi calling balsam poplar Black poplar.

[cutter88]

At the pulp mill they call it aspin we just call it black poplar it's gets very big here up to 30" on the stump makes nice timber mats to walk equipment on that or hemlock

[drobertson]

It was back in 08' on a contracted job, all they wanted was 6x8's as many as possible. I took off heavy slabs, two and sometimes three cants per log,  this was pine, I saw lots of bowing, these had to be drilled in a fixture with holes that lined up with existing components, so, bowing had to be managed.  If a bow is allowable, and there is no need for the outside lumber, I agree, let it rip,