Regularising

[artie]

Spell check seems happy, so that must be the way to spell it.


Anyway on to my question.

I use quite a bit of 2 by 1 1/2 "regularised softwood.

or 50 by 38.

The problem is that it is hardly ever twice the same size, even in the same order if I buy 5.4 m lengths and 4.8s they will be a few or more mm difference.

This is not new, I have suffered for years, and all suppliers are the same, no matter how much I bitch or how often they promise the result is always the same.

The only answer I can think of is to buy the wood in bigger sizes and cut it down myself.

That would be time consuming and I would need to invest is a saw and planer of some sort.

It doesn't need to be planed all round just the same size.

Does anyone think it would be worth looking into.?

 

[deema]

I'd buy 3x2 scant and cut it down the centre, it's far cheaper and you get regular sized pieces.

 

[RobinBHM]

Ive found regularised timber to be consistent from a single supplier for common stud and joist sizes. So for example 6 x 2 is usually 145 x 45. Regularised softwood was introduced to help carpenters line up studwork easily. Joist hangers are now made to suit regularised joists such as 45mm and 47mm. I wonder if the section you use is not considered a section used in common construction. If it isnt consistent, its not really regularised!

If youve noticed the section varies according to the timber length, perhaps the packs of timber these came from were sourced from different suppliers. I would have thought one mill would set up their high speed moulders to run the same section each time.

If you buy quite a bit of timber from the same merchant it would be worth asking them what the section should be and if they can supply it to that. Alternatively ask them what lengths their packs are and buy your whole order from the same pack.

If youre using quite a few metres per order, it would be quite an effort to machine it yourself.

 

[artie]

I buy around 1000 m every few weeks, it would be a lot of work for me to process it.

I will enquire about 3 by 2 scant, not heard about it before.

I think, what happens is that they cut it from different stock and they size it to reduce waste rather than to give a consistent size. I could be wrong.