Cottonwood Milling

[MGoodwin]

I know cottonwood is generally regarded as a near worthless wood, but I spotted the 40" diameter along side the road with some promising coloring. Itching to mill something and figuring nothing to lose, my friend and I headed out under heavy rain in the dark. This tree was ideally situated right next to the road so we were really excited about that. Using a flood light** with personal head lamps made the night time milling fairly pleasant. I have 33" of cutting capacity so it required taking a couple passes and then rolling the log 90 degrees to reduce the width. I only have some crappy pics but the grain actually looks pretty cool (or as best as I could tell in poor lighting). I run a stock 066 which I have been pretty happy with. Granted I live in NW Washington where I almost exclusively mill soft woods, excpet for madrona or maple but it does fine on these as well). Fun night out.

**I bought a 2011 Toyota Tacoma and the dealer was trying to tell me about the wonders of having a 400W 100V outlet in the bed of the truck. At the time I just rolled my eyes at the thought of something so gimmicy, but this allowed us to run a single flood light which was huge. Suppose I could also run the benchtop chainsharpener as well :biggrin: ).

 

[MHouse1028]

looks to be nice stuff..I like the dedication of milling at night.Nice work

 

[redoakneck]

Milling at night in the rain rep sent!!!


That wood looks huge if that is a 36" mill!!!

 

[qbilder]

Looks like some purty cotton! Would like to see pics of slabs. Nice job

 

[excess650]

You're a sick pup! Who would have guessed that anyone would CSM at night...in the rain or snow?

I'll be curious to see the coloration in the wood when you can get some daytime pictures.opcorn:

 

[cityslicker]

Tree salvaging at it's finest! Way to go, now there is some gumption! Maybe you should get another light to mount on the mill? I would also love to see pictures of some of the slabs dusted off in the light. Were you able to finish the whole log in one night? This last summer I found a similar sized cottonwood log that I milled (the post is a few pages down) and I was really happy with the slabs I got out of it. It milled very nicely, the bark was easy to peel, the wood seems very stringy so the cuts were not real clean. But like you said most people don't think even once about cottonwood logs.

Maybe cottonwood is the new walnut? Awesome stuff!

 

[mikeb1079]

milling in the dark, now that's pretty sweet.

i too milled some cottonwood that i found along side a road a couple of summers back and i was impressed by how pretty it was. ended up giving it to a friend but i've wondered how it would work. let us know if you do something with it.

 

[MGoodwin]

Cottonwood Part II

So my friend and I headed out under blue skies and cold temps to resume our work on the large cottonwood tree. It was nice to drive up and just start milling. Cut another 5 slabs. Getting to look at the coloring in good light had us encouraged that our labor was not in vain. Here are some pics on day two. Now have ten slabs, thinking its probably not worth going back for more, hard to say. Has anyone done any wood working with cottonwood? Seems like it would be a fairly forgiving wood.

 

[john taliaferro]

I think it would be some nice paneling ,i like the colors .Also the soft wood would be good acoustically .

 

[excess650]

I'm really liking the coloration. Coffee tables and such?

I've not worked with cottonwood, so don't know how it will age or work. Do yourself and seal the end grain to try to prevent checking, and don't allow it to dry too quickly.

 

[cityslicker]

That wood has some really pretty colors in it! You seem to have a great eye for finding the goodstuff! Keep sawing and please keep posting pics! Way to go!

 

[Frank Boyer]

There is a 300 acre state run demo farm in Jackson, MS. that has a large building paneled in cotton wood. It looked good.

 

[rapattack]

There is enough wind fall to leave the living standing if milling crown trees.

 

[kimosawboy]

That seems to be some very nice wood! Up here in the Pacific Northwest all the Cottonwood seems to be on the bland side.
But on seeing your slabs I just might talk to an owner down the road who had some large CW come down in the last storm.
G Vavra

 

[Incomplete]

Gold Mine! Awesome grain character! Two words: Gun. Stocks. Send me a piece for my pistol grip project! ;-)

 

[the westspartan]

Nice looking slabs! I hate milling cotton wood. For as soft as it is, it is slow going with a csm.