I need a new trailer deck for my 20' goose neck. I talked to a couple band mill guys about cutting me some poplar for the decking and then it is going to be pressure treated at a local treater. He said he would do it for free since I do a lot of business with them. Anyway neither of the band mill guys would give me a price? And one of the guys I would have had to bring a log or logs to cut. So what the heck I'll do it myself. Everything was going great. Then I got to the center of the log. Two cuts split like that. I remembered that one of the band guys said they box out the center of poplar logs and take the fence boards they cut from the outside of the log. The last cuts were better. The wood has been sitting for a couple weeks and the splitting hasn't gotten any worse. Hopefully I can get a usable deck out of these boards.
Your pics aren't working for me. I really want to see what it looks like too.. I've got some real monsters that I've thought about milling up someday. Thanks for the tip about boxing out the center. I probably wouldn't have thought of it myself even though every poplar I've cut into has been rotten in the middle.
Poplar is real pretty lumber. Pressure treated should last a good while. I built one garden bed out of it. 2 years old so far with just stain on them.
sorry to see that happen,great plans don't always turn out like you want.do you have a plan b for the split boards?
The plan has always been to turn it into dimensional, so I am going to salvage what I can out of the split slabs. I would have cut two sides of the log but at 16'8" I can't really run them through my table saw in the shop. Probably to 4" and 6" widths maximizing the usable wood.
Venture across the border into Yankee territory and you can have your pic of poplar trees from my place. A few of them are a minimum of 30" across in the center of the board. I have some huge ones.
Nice thing about those split pieces is that the two sides are actually quartersawn wood. Pretty stable now that the stress is removed, and it would be worth keeping for furniture projects. If those were my boards I'd set them aside to dry for future use.
Yep, pop always said poplar is popular with the furniture making population.... Poplar isn't effected much by changes in humidity so its used a lot in framing covered furniture like couches and chairs. But it is good for lots of other projects...one of my lean-to's rafters are 2 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 16 poplar. When dried its kinda knarly to drive a 60d ring shank through though....
