For those of a litgious temperment

[finneyb]

How big is a 4 x 4 timber?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/na ... 15874001/#

Brian

 

[RobinBHM]

And thats why we the 'may contain nuts' on packets of peanuts and 'caution hot contents' on coffee cups.

My sister in law has a nut allergy and she finds so many products now say, produced in a factory producing nuts, or this product may contajn traces of nuts.

Now we might get timber stamped 'this 4" x 2" might not be 4" × 2"

I do think that CLS is miles undersize though

 

[marcros]

And thats why we the 'may contain nuts' on packets of peanuts and 'caution hot contents' on coffee cups.

My sister in law has a nut allergy and she finds so many products now say, produced in a factory producing nuts, or this product may contajn traces of nuts.

Now we might get timber stamped 'this 4" x 2" might not be 4" × 2"

I do think that CLS is miles undersize though

but peanuts aren't nuts!

 

[Rorschach]

Maybe it's time that they sorted out some of the stupid systems that only serve to confuse.

I understand why the sizes are listed as they are, but I think it's time that things changed to be honest. It's not like it is difficult to list actual product sizes is it?

 

[Beau]

Maybe it's time that they sorted out some of the stupid systems that only serve to confuse.

I understand why the sizes are listed as they are, but I think it's time that things changed to be honest. It's not like it is difficult to list actual product sizes is it?

=D>

This whole crazy system did my head in when building our house. It was just as the new regularized timber was becoming the norm. All the architects drawings were done based on the old imperial being what they claimed but could only get planed regularized wood which was undersized. Had to check with structural engineers that the new skinnier timber was up to the job.

 

[RossJarvis]

My understanding is that the 4" x 2" etc referred to the nominal size of the sawn timber, so by custom that was the size referred to by everyone, even when the wood was planed. Once planed all round you'd lose about 1/4". So 4 x 2 was either 4 x 2 if sawn or 3 3/4 x 1 3/4 once planed all round. In practice over here the dimensions for construction timber are shown in mm sawn wood is usually quoted as 100 x 50 and will be roughly that size. Planed timber is often quoted with the initial sawn size and the finished size (100 x 50 finished to 94 x 44). A lot of architects/engineers seem to follow the old habit of quoting the standard initial size, so I can see how it can lead to confusion.

In the article quoted, if the standard finished timber is generally always 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 I'd say the claim may have some merit as either they're planing a heck of a lot off (unlikely) or they're starting with sawn wood already 1/4" too small. If it's just sawn timber, they're definitely playing at urology.

 

[RobinBHM]

I suppose it goes back to the days when studwork was just sawn timbe and was probably full to size.

Now regularised timber is produced, it comes from the same stock size but is planed on 4 edges, often with an eased edge

The frustrating thing is that there is no standard for sizes, so one merchant might have stock 99 x 47, another 95 x 45 etc etc

I guess that merchants may buy in from various timber suppliers so they dont always know what the finished size will be and therefore dont want to specify a finished size

I believe joist hangers are available in widths of 50mm, 47mm, 45mm or something like that!

Its surprising how often designers and architects do designs for hardwood items with finished thicknesses the same as nominal sizes, IE components finishing at 50mm -needing 63mm sawn timber to start with.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

The cynic in me thinks that the rise of "skinny" sizing of carcassing timber co-incides remarkably well with the rise of MDF and chipboard! Why make one saleable product from a piece of wood when you can make two?!

I also find the seemingly random variations in skinny sizes annoying, but not quite as annoying as the intermingling of metric and imperial dimensions - is my 4X8 sheet of ply 2440mm or 2400mm long (it depends)?

Cheers, W2S

 

[bugbear]

I know about the planing allowance thing, but was the old size inclusive or exclusive of the saw kerf?

BugBear

 

[Phil Pascoe]

4" x 2" that is 4" x 2" obviously excludes the kerf, why shouldn't PAR?

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

We used to call 4x2 that had been PAR

..... "EX 4x2" so people knew the difference.

 

[Jonzjob]

4 x 2 is used for cleaning a 303 and is a bit of cloth :? :? :? not wood.