anyone ever mill any aspen ?

[Jim Timber]

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.

 

[Greenland South]

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.

 

[rwthom279]

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

 

[Sawyer Rob]

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

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

SR

 

[Jim Timber]

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

 

[pa.hunter]

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

 

[pa.hunter]

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

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

SR

i bet it burns up quick don't it

 

[pa.hunter]

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

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

 

[Sawyer Rob]

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

 

[Jim Timber]

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.

 

[rwthom279]

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.