1 minute ago, Ron Altier said:

John, I am a novice wood worker. I don't know what 8/4 refers to.

Surely you jest on the "novice" designation!

8/4 is underlined, do you see the double underlines Ron? If not let me know, thanks. If you do see the double underlines hover your cursor over it, and you'll see the definition.

Who buys a single board?

My last purchase was 430 bf of hard maple from a private cutter.  The next will be a mix of 8/4 and 12/4 black walnut along with some 4/4 cherry. I do not know what I'll use it for because it's fresh saw and will have to air dry for about 3 years.

 

1 minute ago, John Morris said:

Surely you jest on the "novice" designation!

8/4 is underlined, do you see the double underlines Ron? If not let me know, thanks. If you do see the double underlines hover your cursor over it, and you'll see the definition.

I see the double underlines, even though they are small, that is very cool that you can put in a definition like that.

That is a cool feature! However, didn't help explain why you chose to express 2" as 8/4

4 minutes ago, John Hechel said:

Who buys a single board?

My last purchase was 430 bf of hard maple from a private cutter.  The next will be a mix of 8/4 and 12/4 black walnut along with some 4/4 cherry. I do not know what I'll use it for because it's fresh saw and will have to air dry for about 3 years.

 

I can't afford more than a single board at a time John. Unless it's for a customer who has paid up front for materials. Really! Come to think of it, it may have just been a case that I could sneak in this board, with my designated funding for the chair jigs, kind of a "What fer" type of board, just because.

Charles, sometimes I discover cool things about this site that I didn't know was there. It is a site that has a cool developer.

at $1.00 a bf I couldn't afford to not pick it up

 

1 minute ago, Ron Altier said:

That is a cool feature! However, didn't help explain why you chose to express 2" as 8/4

Sorry Ron, yes I could have, hardwood lumber is expressed in 1/4's. It's just a standard for un-surfaced lumber dimensions, but my lumber is surfaced, but sold with the 1/4 convention. At a lumber yard where the thickness is expressed in quarters, and the lumber is surfaced, it is still priced at the true 1/4 thickness before it was surfaced. So that piece of ash I have, I called it 8/4, but the reality is, it is 1 3/4" thick, because it was surfaced down. But the lumber yard is still going to charge for the full 8/4 or 2" thick piece of lumber.

For example, a board foot is 1" thick, 12" long, 12" wide. That is how we are charged, even though when you purchase the lumber designated as 4/4, you are truly getting a board that is 3/4" thick.

10 minutes ago, John Hechel said:

at $1.00 a bf I couldn't afford to not pick it up

 

There ya go! Neither could I, that is one sweet deal my friend!

Thanks John, I guess it is kind of like buying a 2x4 and it isn't really a 2x4. 

5 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

Thanks John, I guess it is kind of like buying a 2x4 and it isn't really a 2x4. 

Have you been to Lowes and looked at the lumber recently? They sell a 2x4 but under they have the actual dimensions. The reason, some dill weed sued them because his 2 x 4 was not actually 2" x 4", and freaking WON!

20 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

Thanks John, I guess it is kind of like buying a 2x4 and it isn't really a 2x4. 

That's it! Hit the nail on the head Ron, it takes some getting used too. When I first started buying "real" lumber from the hard wood suppliers, it took me some time to understand why I was getting charged for 4/4 when the true thickness of the board was 3/4"! It finally dawned on me, they are getting the boards, slabs, in the true thickness, then they are surfacing the boards for us, and losing a 1/4" in the process, so they have to charge us for the original thickness they got it as, and their surfacing service.

When I can, I prefer to purchase rough, in true quarter thickness's. I like to surface the boards myself.

15 minutes ago, Chips N Dust said:

Have you been to Lowes and looked at the lumber recently? They sell a 2x4 but under they have the actual dimensions. The reason, some dill weed sued them because his 2 x 4 was not actually 2" x 4", and freaking WON!

Did that really happen?

Rough lumber, hard and soft, is measured in 1/4s because the thicknesses are determined at the saw mill by detents allowing the blade to move in 1/4" increments.

When you buy S2S lumber from a true lumber yard, not a BORG, you may find areas of the board that are un planed. This is often due to the cupping or twisting that occurs between the sawing and planing. The planer is usually adjusted to a final run at +or- 13/16 to yield a board sold as 4/4. Out of geographical necessity, I only buy at two yards. Both are consistent at that 13/16.

 

 

Edited September 19, 201610 yr by Gene Howe

10 hours ago, John Morris said:

Did that really happen?

Yes - I posted a link in a reply in the "Measurements" topic. It was back in 2014

I do the same thing, but with tools.