Factors affecting the value of moulded products from yellow-poplar lumber

The increasing interest in using yellow-poplar lumber for moulding and millwork has brought about the need to know how the final product value is affected by various material and processing variables such as sawing pattern, drying regime, log size, log grade, and lumber grade. To quantify the effect of these variables, 227 yellow-poplar logs were sawn into 18,237 board feet (BF) of 4/4 lumber. Approximately one half of the logs were grade-sawn and the remainder was live-sawn. Approximately one half of the lumber from each sawing pattern was dried in a dehumidification kiln (DH) and the remainder in a conventional steam kiln. After drying, the lumber was ripped into moulding strips, which were machined on a 5-headed moulder. The moulded strips were assigned a product value and were summed by board. The board data were summed by log. The log value was converted to $/thousand BF by dividing total product value by the BF of lumber recovered and multiplying by 1,000. Statistical analyses indicated that grade-sawn logs had a higher moulded product value than live-sawn logs. Lumber dried in a DH kiln had a higher moulded product value than lumber dried in a steam kiln. Higher grade logs had a higher product value and larger logs tended to result in higher product value. The data also showed that converting rough, green lumber into moulded products resulted in value added ranging from over 200 percent for FAS lumber to over 500 percent for No. 3 Common lumber.

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