Has anyone done cottonwood on a CSM?

[oldsaw]

First time today. Had Chopwood out to see "Junior" (his former 3120) in action. A lot of tension and movement, but the stuff was a bear to cut. A 24" log was a harder cut than the last 36" oak and walnut I've went through. It was a slow crawl, but we got through it. Had to jockey the saw to get any speed at all.

Who has experience?

Mark

 

[CaseyForrest]

Ive got some rottenwood 2x4's in the playhouse. Other than it stinks real bad, I didnt have any problems cutting it. Softer than the White Oak I have.

 

[woodshop]

Never milled cottonwood, interesting that it would be tough to mill, I would think being so soft, that it would be piece of cake. But then I had a butternut (relatively soft) tree give me fits, it gummed up my bandsaw blades in a heartbeat, got them so hot one broke middle of cut.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I would think it's the water content causing it not to clean out well.

I've "ripped" big cottonwood into manhandle blocks with standard chain and the sprocket cover allways gets packed.

Almost as bad as willow.

 

[oldsaw]

I would think it's the water content causing it not to clean out well.

I've "ripped" big cottonwood into manhandle blocks with standard chain and the sprocket cover allways gets packed.

Almost as bad as willow.

That was kind of my theory. The moisture content was pretty high, and the sawdust was pretty wierd. Jockying the saw kind of allowed some of the sawdust to fling off, and got me going a bit faster, closer to "normal".

Mark

 

[pitkas]

My friends father-in-law used cottonwood to build his house with. There is not a straight wall in the house. The drywall is poping off. The 8x8 beams are squished down to 5" where they go over a footing.
A mill slipped in some cottonwood planks for a deck I built. I used a 16d nail for spacing. Now there is a panny gap in between the planks.
Cottonwood sux.

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

This was black cottonwood. It did stink, but wasn't that bad to mill.

 

[klickitatsacket]

cotton wood makes excellant flat trailer decking. It never smooths out like other woods. When I was a kid working for farmes. Trailer decks made with fir or oak would polish out and become slick on the hay trilers. The ones decked with cotton wood always stayed textured.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

cotton wood makes excellant flat trailer decking.

I've talked to a guy with a band mill who uses poplar and red/silvermaple on pickup flatbeds for that very reason.

It dries rather light too.