The Foot of a Board

[rrich]

I've noticed that some have taken umbridge of the lowly foot of a board.

Well, it's worse than that.

A board foot is 144 cubic inches. (Metric conversion is not necessary because you're smart enough to NOT use a board foot!)

144 cubic inches? Well, not always. If the wood is 12 inches by 12 inches and 3/4 inch thick, it's still 1 board foot. Half or quarter inch thick, it's still 1 board foot.

If a 6 foot board is 5 inches wide at one end and 5-3/4 inches wide at the other end, it's 3 board feet. (The timber seller rounds up.)

If you have 6 boards, 6 feet by exactly 5 inches it is 18 board feet not 15 board feet. Boards do not come in odd number widths. What's that? You don't believe me? Just ask the thief that sells the timber.

AND if the boards are thicker than 4/4, the seller charges at 6/4. More than 6/4 thick, the seller charges at 8/4. Boards greater than one inch (4/4) do not come in odd number thickneses.

Was the board straight line ripped? Well the board feet just grew by 10%. (It still must be run through a jointer to be used. Straight line rip my rear end!)

[ozwinner]

:eek:
Thank ( insert your god here ) for metric.
Metric is soooo easy.....
Al :confused:

[echnidna]

I've noticed that some have taken umbridge of the lowly foot of a board.

Well, it's worse than that.

A board foot is 144 cubic inches. (Metric conversion is not necessary because you're smart enough to NOT use a board foot!)

144 cubic inches? Well, not always. If the wood is 12 inches by 12 inches and 3/4 inch thick, it's still 1 board foot. Half or quarter inch thick, it's still 1 board foot.

If a 6 foot board is 5 inches wide at one end and 5-3/4 inches wide at the other end, it's 3 board feet. (The timber seller rounds up.)

If you have 6 boards, 6 feet by exactly 5 inches it is 18 board feet not 15 board feet. Boards do not come in odd number widths. What's that? You don't believe me? Just ask the thief that sells the timber.

AND if the boards are thicker than 4/4, the seller charges at 6/4. More than 6/4 thick, the seller charges at 8/4. Boards greater than one inch (4/4) do not come in odd number thickneses.

Was the board straight line ripped? Well the board feet just grew by 10%. (It still must be run through a jointer to be used. Straight line rip my rear end!)

Please notice this is an aussie baseed forum.

Your arguments are totally irrelevant to aussies as we are metric.

There are holes in your arguments but I couldn't be bothered answering them as your arguments really ought be answered by those in this world who stick to antiquated measurements.

[Christopha]

What Al and Bob said....... your argument is irrelevant.... besides that, back in the dark ages when we did use your archaic system we called 'em "Super Feet"....

[fxst]

I've noticed that some have taken umbridge of the lowly foot of a board.

Well, it's worse than that.

A board foot is 144 cubic inches. (Metric conversion is not necessary because you're smart enough to NOT use a board foot!)

144 cubic inches? Well, not always. If the wood is 12 inches by 12 inches and 3/4 inch thick, it's still 1 board foot. Half or quarter inch thick, it's still 1 board foot.

If a 6 foot board is 5 inches wide at one end and 5-3/4 inches wide at the other end, it's 3 board feet. (The timber seller rounds up.)

If you have 6 boards, 6 feet by exactly 5 inches it is 18 board feet not 15 board feet. Boards do not come in odd number widths. What's that? You don't believe me? Just ask the thief that sells the timber.

AND if the boards are thicker than 4/4, the seller charges at 6/4. More than 6/4 thick, the seller charges at 8/4. Boards greater than one inch (4/4) do not come in odd number thickneses.

Was the board straight line ripped? Well the board feet just grew by 10%. (It still must be run through a jointer to be used. Straight line rip my rear end!)

YAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWN
bored where you?
who cares what you opinion or point is its metric here mate.
Pete

[bsrlee]

Just remember - the big Yankee timber companies are buying out everything local they can - soon your 2x4's (50x100) will shrink from 45x90 to 37x75, like the stuff they are selling in North America. What hapened to the 1/8th inch (3.15mm) allowance for a cut? - it seems to have grown to 1/4" (6mm) on the narrow side and blown out to over a 1/2" (12mm) on the long side, and north of the Equator they seem to be using even thicker saws:eek:

[Grunt]

My foot was bored, so I let it watch a DVD.

[ivanavitch]

Cut him some slack you blokes.

Rather than having a shot, chuck him some empathy like this...

"you poor bastards"

[keith53]

(Metric conversion is not necessary because you're smart enough to NOT use a board foot!)

Rich,

You'll have to make some allowances here for the replys you're getting. Its late at night and your board foot description is pretty heavy..

We don't need 'board foot/feet'. Us Aussies sussed that old scam out in 1772. You might not know this but that's what caused the Mutiny on the Bounty. Captain Bligh wanted to retain the imperial system with all its shortcomings and Mr. Christian and his cohorts could see the merit in the metric system. Bligh, incidently, was trying to market this imperial (crib a bit more) system to the recently formed American colony's. It was the Shakers who saw the imperial system for what it was, it's just taken you 'guys' a little longer to figger this out s'all..

Lately, of course, the metric system made things a whole lot fairer.

We've had this outmoded system here (generally) called honesty. Any timber merchant that tried to do things your way would probably get to his car at the end of the day and find it had four flat tyres. :D

But, then again, one of our heros is Ned Kelly.:D :D :D :D

Cheers,
Keith

[Kev Y.]

AND if the boards are thicker than 4/4, the seller charges at 6/4. More than 6/4 thick, the seller charges at 8/4. Boards greater than one inch (4/4) do not come in odd number thickneses.




Why dont you yanks say what you really mean.. ONE INCH is ONE INCH NOT 4/4, down here a 4/4 is a fence post! and you have the nerve to call your selves a SUPER POWER! :cool: :rolleyes:

[Greg Q]

Hey Rich...

That doesn't seem to be the case at other lumber retailers that I have used in the States. Especially charging full pop for 1/4 stock.

Where are you shopping for wood?

As to some of the other replies, who knows? Its not a full moon-must be something else.

Greg

[TassieKiwi]

Caveat emptor..........and, don't be so rude you lot.:p

[Felder]

My foot was bored, so I let it watch a DVD.
"Footloose"??:):p

[AlexS]

For a nation that prides ourselves on our sense of humour, some of the posters seem to have had an irony bypass. I reckon Rrich was making a good point about some of the rip-offs he's experienced.

Some good advice though - think metric, it's a dozen times easier.

[Iain]

Maybe we should call our timber 'Plank Metre' or something appropos to metric.

[bennylaird]

Stick to our principles and don't give an inch!!!!!!!!:mad:


(sorry 24.5 mm):eek: :D

[Lignum]

The well known timber yard where i get mine from out Dandy way still call it 4 be 1, and 3 be 1, and 4 b 4, when i order, its only when the invoice is totaled its in metric. And today i was ordering ply and masonite from another supplier and he kept refering to it as 8 by 4 sheets. It wont go away because its just to easy to say:)

[Paul H]

Give someone 25.4mm and he'll take 1.609344 km

Paul H

[MurrayD99]

Hell with this. Lets revert to Super Feet (and pints and cubic inches and bhp) when we do the political union thing. Then you know where you stand. No doubt this'all was high on the agenda between John & Helen.

[Daddles]

I don't understand what all the fuss is about. We all know that whatever sized lump of wood you buy it'll always be just a little bit too small for the job:rolleyes:

Richard

[Iain]

I don't understand what all the fuss is about. We all know that whatever sized lump of wood you buy it'll always be just a little bit too small for the job:rolleyes:

Richard
Maybe so, but to revert and keep this going, by how many board feet or part thereof, I mean Richard, wheres your credibility when down at the pub tonight you are complaining 'the timber for that table I was making was too small', you must stand to impress and quote ''the timber for that table I was making was .o3 of a board foot too small' and wait for the looks of envy and admiration.

[Felder]

you must stand to impress and quote ''the timber for that table I was making was .o3 of a board foot too small' and wait for the looks of envy and admiration.

Or complete confusion........:p

[Iain]

Or complete confusion........:p
BUt Richards only presents at quality drinking establishments from what I have heard, 'I say old chap, one glass of Grange Hermitage 97, theres a good chappy';)
(bear in mind he does live in SA and the beer is unpalatable)

[Daddles]

(bear in mind he does live in SA and the beer is unpalatable)

It's okay Iain, we've fixed the supply problem and can get the local brews again - we don't have to drink Victorian beer anymore :D

Richard

[Greg Ward]

To take metric to its extreme, the French after the revolution built clocks with 10 hour time periods, not 12.........

So are all you late nighters who stay up until midnight, going to push for a 10 hour day now?

Talk about a lot of agro late night drinkers.....
I never thought inhaling wood dust was a serious problem, but now after reading some of these threads, I'm not so sure.
This is a forum... right?
People have the right to make statements...... right?
And others can respond....... right?

But simple manners dictate that if you have nothing concrete to say, take another drink and go and kick the dog.
Regards
Greg

[Daddles]

I had a maths teacher who used to say that "the only thing the French did right was to invent the metric system ... and they got that wrong" :D

They did too. The original metre was defined as the length of the meridian passing through Paris divided by some number. Problem was, in those days, they had the size of the earth wrong (by quite a bit) and so the metre was shorter than it should have been :D

Ahhh the French, who else would include a basket of eggs and a ploughed field in a motor car specification (the 2CV:D )

Richard

[Gaza]

at my dads timber yard, the guys in the office talk in 4x2, 3x11/2 etc but if they give an order to the ordermen to pull out its all in metric, if its not they look at it like from mars.
All invoices we recive are in metric even from O/S when importing.
I am young but perfer to use feet / inches when talking, but always use metric in writing.

[scottyk]

If you buy speciality timbers in Tassie, all prices are worked off the Super Foot, in my experiance.
So it's still used and relevant info for us.
Scottyk.

PS 400sf = 1m3

[rrich]

Thanks for the laughs... I've been away for a while and when I saw in another forum someone defining a board foot as 2.36 Liters, (which makes as much sense as a board foot) I knew I had to come back to this fun group..

As I said, all of you were smart enough to get away from the absurd measurements based on length of some ancient anglo-saxton foot. Unfortunately for us, the ladies are the ones that refused to cook using the metric system. That bit if insurrection basically ended the conversion to metric in this country. (Actually faster than it started.)

My woodworking has been interupted by NASCAR.