Jump to content

Poplar, Tulip Poplar, Yellow Poplar Wood


Lotus

Recommended Posts


I use poplar for most everything. My boats are all B&B designs and for all of the non plywood parts. I like it over fir for three reasons. 1. I like the way it looks. 2. I like the way it works. and 3. I get it very inexpensively from local sawmills. I buy it rough cut and plane it on a small portable planer.

 

You can check out my latest build here: http://messing-about.com/forums/topic/9480-core-sound-17-mk-3-summer-breeze/

Some of the parts that came with the kit are fir, but if they didn't come with it I would have used poplar.

 

On a "big boat" or "yacht" you may want to us fir for the applications you mentioned. I'm sure you'll get plenty of response on the thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Poplar was pretty good stuff once, but now, not so much. There was a time that yellow covered most every barn in many areas of the country, but now finding real yellow isn't practical. Farm raised poplar is now a hybrid of a few different subgenius of poplar. Yellow once was highly prized, but now is lighter, don't hold fasteners as well, doesn't stain well and has poor rot resistance. I miss Robb too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robert. Thanks. I wondered if that was who you meant. I have Flotsam and Jetsam. I've read it several times!

 

PAR. The poplar here is not farm raised. It grows all over up here. I'm guessing it's Yellow, but maybe tulip. I'm not sure I'll have to find out. It may be both.

 

Lotus. If you can get it where you are the way I do, I'd use it. I have no idea what you have in Europe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

See, that's the thing about wood. I get cheap Doug fir cut rough that might curl your toes, because it's all over over here. Also, you really should see some of this lodge pole pine... Good wood don't come from lumberyards or stores, mostly, but from little sawmills. I'm not even kidding about the quality wood you can get from a tree guy or sawyer. They do exist.

Get good quality (more like the left half of that board than the right) wood that is moderately rot resistant and holds fasteners fairly well.

I'm pretty sure somebody built a boat out of European wood at least once...:)

What did you use for your pretty red boat?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robert, if you mean MY "pretty red boat", why poplar of course. Poplar is very popular with me!

 

I agree on "good wood". Good straight grain with out much "runoff", with the grain lines close ogether is the best to use usually. Holding fasteners doesn't concern me much since it's all glued with miracle poxy anyway. Same with rot resistance as my boats sit on a trailer or hang overhead, both under roof. Don't get doug fir here. Anywhere. Wish we did! Love those little local sawmills.

 

Well, I suppose the Mother Country built a few boats in her time. The Europeans used up all of their good trees long ago. I learned when I lived over near New Bern, that most of our long leaf pine was used up in the "Colonies" way back during colonial days. Lumber and naval stores was big industry then. All got used in His majesty's ships! Along with most of the live oak. Cypress pretty much went away over the years, too. What was left was pretty well picked over until the un-civil war when steam and steel ended the need for naval stores and ship building lumber business. But then these United (Kind of) States started gobbling the remainder up for various building needs.

 

Ever hear what happened to all of the trees on Easter Island/ Good lesson for us.

 

Enough messing around with y'all now. I guess I'm rested up enough to get back to sanding, sanding, san......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what it's worth, here's a video showing a simple porosity test using alcohol.  It shows pretty dramatically how red oak will soak up more water than white oak.  And why whiskey barrels are made from white oak.   Maybe this would be a way to test poplar (or whatever) if there's a chance that rot might be a problem.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meester, very interesting video ! I tried this with a mixture of thinner and red stain and tested a 3 inches long tulip ( the only tulip that we can buy in our country ) and it sucked the spirit like a drunk drinker all the way trough in a couple of seconds !!

 

This type of wood we have here is definitely not suitable for boat building 

 

Action Tiger, if you referred to my red boat, I used red real wood, that showed a very good result with the same test !

 

The only problem with red deal is that we can only find kiln dried wood and is very difficult to bend or twist .  All solid woods here are imported from different countries for furniture use so kiln dried is preferred ! 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That video is great. I used white oak for the keel on my Spindrift 11N. It is said to not glue well as it doesn't have the porosity as demonstrated, but I have a cheap blade I put in my tablesaw that I purposely bent a tooth just a bit. It leaves a nice rough glue surface and I haven't had any problems with adhesion on many projects over the years using it. It has taken a beating on the bottom of the Suzy J and doesn't absorb water even when the paint is worn off. 

 

As for the poplar....I don't have much to offer. I've been using Douglas Fir for stuff likely to be wet and eastern white pine for all other cleat stock. I think if the boats trailer sailed and well encapsulated it becomes less important than a boat sitting in a slip with rain water in it's bilge!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also read somewhere that the white oak doesn't glue well, but the reason given was because of oils it contains.  The solution was to give it a wipe with acetone & let dry to get rid of the oil before gluing.  Sorry I can't give  you a pointer to where I read that.  Coulda been PAR.  Sounds like his kind of trick.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Acetone alone works, though I use a combination of chemicals. A quick scrub, let it dry (a few minutes) and immediately apply epoxy. We had a boat show here this weekend and I had the pleasure to see a boat I restored back in '03. I did laminated white oak frames (38 of them) in a moderately heavy power cruiser. They looked like the day I installed them, so white oak can be epoxied, with good prep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I encapsulate teak veneers, but planking stock is left raw. The last teak veneers I did where about 1/10" thick (pretty thick as veneers go) and the epoxy leached through after bagging them down. It wasn't a complete coating, but about 50% of the surface had epoxy oozing through. All oily woods can use this treatment, though straight acetone can leave stuff, because it flashes so fast, which is why I use a mix (toluene, xylene and acetone).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 All oily woods can use this treatment, though straight acetone can leave stuff, because it flashes so fast, which is why I use a mix (toluene, xylene and acetone).

 

All 3 of those flash off very quickly.  Mixing them slows it down? If slowing the flash down is important, why not just add a little mineral spirits?    I don't use xylene at all.  It is a known carcinogen.  Acetone is quite safe, other than being really flammable and dries your skin.  I guess I have never seen anything left behind and  have never had an oily wood glue up fail.  I epoxy all exposed veneers and plywoods.  No serious ding/scratch/gouge in a veneer will repair easily anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In one of the labs where I work we have been moving over to ensolv for cleaning metal parts that have to be super clean.  It is supposed to be less toxic and non-flammable, etc.  Maybe it'd be worth a test to see how it works with gluing.  Actually, now that I think about it maybe I should 'liberate' a small amount to see how it works for epoxy clean-up for the final touch after vinegar.   Hmm.

 

BTW,

Happy Easter!

 

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

Supporting Members

Supporting Members can create Clubs, photo Galleries, don't see ads and make messing-about.com possible! Become a Supporting Member - only $12 for the next year. Pay by PayPal or credit card.




×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.