# anyone ever mill any aspen ?



## pa.hunter (Dec 8, 2014)

if so, how does it dry will it warp a lot ? i will be using it inside my house


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## betterbuilt (Dec 8, 2014)

Probably a underutilized wood here on the east coast. It warps some and dries more then most. I've used it in a few projects. I had a 3/8 maple floor that was impossible to find more of. I used some 3/8 aspen I had for apple crates to patch the floor with. It's still holding up. The left is the maple, right is the aspen. It's actually a pretty wood. https://plus.google.com/photos/1076...5426633500896201714&oid=107614430480833197202


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## Jim Timber (Dec 8, 2014)

I've been planning on making bee boxes out of it some day. 

That floor looks real nice.


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## pa.hunter (Dec 8, 2014)

betterbuilt said:


> Probably a underutilized wood here on the east coast. It warps some and dries more then most. I've used it in a few projects. I had a 3/8 maple floor that was impossible to find more of. I used some 3/8 aspen I had for apple crates to patch the floor with. It's still holding up. The left is the maple, right is the aspen. It's actually a pretty wood. https://plus.google.com/photos/1076...5426633500896201714&oid=107614430480833197202


did you tongue and groove it or just straighten it up put it down ? i was going to put it on top half of walls and maybe do my floors as well we have tons of it no good for firewood when i have oak maple hickory ash for that all are straight and tall here seems like soft wood rots up fast if falls similar to popular


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## Greenland South (Dec 8, 2014)

I've milled and used quite a lot of aspen in my home both for trim and walls. It does warp and move around a lot as its drying. After air drying it I just ran mine through a planer and let it sit for a while longer until it was at about 15%. Then ran it through the table saw to straighten the edges. It still warps some but I just nail it up. If well secured it doesn't move much. 
I did this room a couple years ago, no issues.


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## Todd Peterson (Dec 8, 2014)

I just started milling this past summer. I started out with aspen. It was standing dead. I was quite pleased with the results. Mine stayed very straight and has some really nice color in it. Plan on starting some projects with it real soon.


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## Jim Timber (Dec 8, 2014)

Those pics are inspiring!


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## Boon (Dec 9, 2014)

Todd Peterson said:


> I just started milling this past summer. I started out with aspen. It was standing dead. I was quite pleased with the results. Mine stayed very straight and has some really nice color in it. Plan on starting some projects with it real soon. View attachment 385335
> View attachment 385335
> View attachment 385338



nice stack!


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## betterbuilt (Dec 9, 2014)

pa.hunter said:


> did you tongue and groove it or just straighten it up put it down ? i was going to put it on top half of walls and maybe do my floors as well we have tons of it no good for firewood when i have oak maple hickory ash for that all are straight and tall here seems like soft wood rots up fast if falls similar to popular


I just straightened it and nailed it down with cut nails. If it wasn't so thin I would have tongue and grooved it. That whole apartment job was pretty low budget.


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## betterbuilt (Dec 9, 2014)

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.


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## pa.hunter (Dec 9, 2014)

betterbuilt said:


> Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.


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## Todd Peterson (Dec 9, 2014)

Like I said, I am very new to this gig but can say that I am 100% hooked. I started with standing dead hoping they would be dry enough that I could put them to work in some projects this winter. Where I live in Southwest Wyoming it is very dry with extremely low humidity. When I sawed this stuff in June of this year, it was around 20 or under on my moisture meter. I carefully stacked the boards with a sticker about every 18" and banded the stack together with ratchet straps, occasionally tightening them as they dried and shrunk. I stored them under a carport. About a month ago I ran them through my surface planer and was very pleased with the results. Moisture meter is now reading 5 or less. I still have a lot to learn but I have found another hobby to keep me busy and getting quality wood at a very reasonable price for the gas and oil.


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## Sawyer Rob (Dec 9, 2014)

I mill quite a bit of it, as I have a lot of it on my place... The butt logs go to the BSM,







and the rest goes to be cut/split for firewood,






Lately, I've been milling those butt logs into 2x4's, and building 1/2 cord boxes,






To put the firewood in,






Aspen has a lot of uses, you just have to keep the negatives in mind, as you build with it.

SR


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## Todd Peterson (Dec 9, 2014)

Sawyer Rob said:


> I mill quite a bit of it, as I have a lot of it on my place... The butt logs go to the BSM,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 Interesting. What species of aspen is that? Most of the aspen in my neck of the woods is quaking aspen. The bark looks much different.


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## pa.hunter (Dec 9, 2014)

Todd Peterson said:


> Interesting. What species of aspen is that? Most of the aspen in my neck of the woods is quaking aspen. The bark looks much different.


we have Bigtooth Aspen in pa.


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## Jim Timber (Dec 9, 2014)

I've got both BT and quaking. Been contemplating making a log shed out of it like up in Alaska.


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## Sawyer Rob (Dec 9, 2014)

Around here, ALL of the tree's like the one pictured (or similar to it) are all called Aspen or Popple by everyone in the woods... That's what I call them too, I have no idea if they aren't "exactly" that or not?

SR


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## Jim Timber (Dec 9, 2014)

Could be balsam poplar. Doesn't look like our aspen aside from the color.

Count your blessings Rob - poplar's better wood.


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## pa.hunter (Dec 9, 2014)

Jim Timber said:


> Could be balsam poplar. Doesn't look like our aspen aside from the color.
> 
> Count your blessings Rob - poplar's better wood.


http://www.visualphotos.com/image/2x3830691/balsam_poplar_forest_populus_balsamifera_and you are right this ts what mine is i think i am going to get some pictures i know one thing the trees i have dont look like they belong here with all the hardwoods and if one falls its rotten and falling apart bye next fall now you got me wondering as well ------- no this is what i have its aspen http://www.greytowers.org/trees/flexslider/images/bigtoothaspen-03.jpg sticks out like sore thumb


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## Jim Timber (Dec 9, 2014)

Aspen's easy to find. The tops resemble paper birch, and the bottoms are grey. Neither of them are even remotely rot resistant, but they're super light (even green on the stump) and dry quickly. They aren't in the same league as pine for strength, but you can compensate for that with thicker boards.

Keep it out of the weather, or above the splash/snow line and it seems to hold up.


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## Jim Timber (Dec 9, 2014)

I've got metric chit tonnes of the stuff, and since the paper mill burned down I've been wondering what to do with it myself.

My main plan is bee boxes and campfire wood, but I've been thinking about other uses lately.


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## Greenland South (Dec 9, 2014)

We have what we call locally Cottonwood and Trembling Aspen. 
The cottonwood are not not good for anything as far as I'm concerned. They are about 100% moisture standing green and rot in less than a summer if on the ground. Can get really big in creek bottoms but tend to be scrubby on the flats. They also have these ugly sticky buds followed by extremely flammable fuz(don't ask how I know this)in the spring. And they are downright ugly. 
The trembling aspen have these small dollar coin sized leaves that make the most amazing sound in almost no wind conditions. They make adequate firewood when split and stacked under cover. They also have a very high moisture content and will also rot out in summer if left on the ground. Standing dead in either is not worth the effort to cut. They also grow extremely large in creek bottoms and reach a good size on the flats. Both get to about 40' tall and have seen them as big as 50" across. 
The trees in the pic are trembling aspen.


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## rwthom279 (Dec 10, 2014)

Jim Timber said:


> They aren't in the same league as pine for strength, but you can compensate for that with thicker boards.
> 
> Keep it out of the weather, or above the splash/snow line and it seems to hold up.




What little bit aspen we have down here seems quite stout once dry. Most gets made into 2x's for barn framing. No advice on using it for interior work.

x 2 on keeping it out of the weather. Like others have mentioned, it seems to begin to decay over night. If drying out in the open, you may want extra height on the foundation to keep said "splash" from reaching it.

Jim, you keep a lot of bees?? _Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread_


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## Sawyer Rob (Dec 10, 2014)

Here's another pict. of what we call aspen/popple,







I mill the butt logs, and then firewood everything else,






SR


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## Jim Timber (Dec 10, 2014)

We don't have any bees (yet), but the plan is to give it a go along with my small apple orchard I just planted in October/November. There's a thread in photo's on the orchard if you want to check that out. I didn't get any finished pics since I was working on it in the dark during the first couple days of rifle deer season. If you don't have a decent LED headlamp yet, you don't know what you're missing. 

We also have quite a few bee keepers in the area, and I figured if I'm gearing up to make 5 boxes, I might as well make 100.  I have no idea how profitable or not they'll be, but I have hundreds of cord of standing aspen so finding something value added to do with it has been on my mind the last couple years since the closer paper mill burned down (not being rebuilt). My stand is rapidly approaching over-maturity (more top wind loss than DBH increase per year), and I'll be losing trees at a higher rate after another 5yrs or so. They're also occupying canopy I'd rather fill with more valuable stems. It's only bringing $100/cord on the landing at Potlatch's transfer yard - which is still 50 miles away. I could possibly find someone to remove it for me, but I'm not willing to endure the collateral damage to the understory when I still don't get paid anything for them.

Aspen has a significantly lower tensile strength than pine, so for using it in structural applications it needs to be sized differently. I realize that it's chipped and used as a main component of OSB, but that's after it's been cooked, slathered in glue, then squished. The tree itself can't support it's own weight once they exceed about 50yrs here.

This is a super handy calculator for helping determine what size boards you need for a given application:

http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/calc/timbercalcstyle.asp


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## pa.hunter (Dec 10, 2014)

going give some a try will let you know how it turns out thanks guys


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## pa.hunter (Dec 10, 2014)

Sawyer Rob said:


> Here's another pict. of what we call aspen/popple,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


i bet it burns up quick don't it


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## pa.hunter (Dec 10, 2014)

Jim Timber said:


> We don't have any bees (yet), but the plan is to give it a go along with my small apple orchard I just planted in October/November. There's a thread in photo's on the orchard if you want to check that out. I didn't get any finished pics since I was working on it in the dark during the first couple days of rifle deer season. If you don't have a decent LED headlamp yet, you don't know what you're missing.
> 
> We also have quite a few bee keepers in the area, and I figured if I'm gearing up to make 5 boxes, I might as well make 100.  I have no idea how profitable or not they'll be, but I have hundreds of cord of standing aspen so finding something value added to do with it has been on my mind the last couple years since the closer paper mill burned down (not being rebuilt). My stand is rapidly approaching over-maturity (more top wind loss than DBH increase per year), and I'll be losing trees at a higher rate after another 5yrs or so. They're also occupying canopy I'd rather fill with more valuable stems. It's only bringing $100/cord on the landing at Potlatch's transfer yard - which is still 50 miles away. I could possibly find someone to remove it for me, but I'm not willing to endure the collateral damage to the understory when I still don't get paid anything for them.
> 
> ...


i was going to just make wall covering thanks for info, i have walnut ,oak red, white, sawtooth, hickory, maple, ash, pignut and more . i only have about 7 patches of this aspen and i am going to clear cut it figured i would make some use of it in my home but , if it burns may split some? but, all i use is hardwoods for that we will see how long burns times are on it== thanks again for info about it


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## Sawyer Rob (Dec 10, 2014)

Yes it burns up fairly quickly, but it's FREE and I'm NOT a firewood snob! It's all I've used so far this winter to heat my house, and I used quite a bit of it last year too...

I also like the price, so no complaints from me...





SR


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## Jim Timber (Dec 10, 2014)

Once dry, aspen's a hot fire with minimal ash and a quick burn. That's why I'm planning on selling the tops for campfire wood. Should be good for a 2-3 hour fire and then no mess to clean up = perfect for camp or weekend social burns at the lake (and if it burns down too quick they can come buy more wood  ). I'll have some oak and maple in there too, but the good stuff will be hoarded for my hot tub, shed, and eventually I'd like to play with a wood fired kiln - although I'm sure I'll have slabs galore for that.

My sister's place in Wisconsin has the green caste bark stuff like Rob posted, but I forget what exactly it is. I climbed one with my Summit deer stand once and about slid down the damn trunk getting down because it was frozen and so was I.


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## rwthom279 (Dec 10, 2014)

I have good luck using Poplar for firewood too. Un-split rounds work very well, but I don't turn my nose up at thin slabs either. If it is wood, we burn it. It all makes heat.

As long as the damper is closed, it makes a nice bed of coals that hold pretty decent. Give it air and it gets HOT and QUICK.


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