OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

262562 "yorkshireman@y..." <yorkshireman@y...> 2017‑06‑25 Re: [SPAM?] duh????
Tom ponders sizes…

It was my understanding from away way back that the timber was cut in the mill
at 2” x 4”
it then dries out, and shrinks a bit - actual amount varying according to
species and degree of drying.   But the buyer knows what species, so knows how
much it has/will shrunk/shrink
Then it needs to be surfaced, and again, the amount of surface to be removed
depends again on species, and what you’re using.  I’ll claim to lose less timber
by hand surfacing than using an el*ctr*c planer, and, as we have discussed here,
absolute sizes are less important than consistent sizes (usually) unless you are
making  things where thousands of parts are needed to be interchangeable.

So we can see why someone selling timber could only state “this timber started
as a 2x4 of oak / beech / oregon pine /sycamore / birch (pick one) “

Equally, as Tom says, nowadays, in these times of collective abrogation of
personal responsibility it's probably way past time that the industry began
catering to the current crop of ill trained and ill informed DIY newcomers who
want instant Ikea gratification and provide some accurately sized material.
Maybe it would be better if it didn’t keep expanding and contracting due to the
humidity.  Then you could guarantee it’s size.
Ah - I have the answer - we’ll use plastic.  Make your furniture from the wonder
material “plastic”  just squirt it into a mould, and out it comes.  Forget that
boring fiddly hand work - you want a chair? just buy a couple of kilos of
‘plastic’ and a mould.  Use your skill to fill the mould, wait for a half hour,
and out pops a chair.


In the EU, they’d spend five years and come out with some sort of labelling
requirement, and in the USA you start am opportunistic law suit to enrich your
lawyers.  I can see both sides of this.  Meantime, I'll just keep on taking a
tape measure to the yard and buy planks.


Richard Wilson
A galoot in Northumbria

wishing Tom a slightly belated Happy Birthday…

Recent Bios FAQ