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PSA: found out the "2x4" lumber size thing goes deeper than I thought
I was at my local lumber yard in Sacramento last week picking up board for a simple workbench and the guy at the counter mentioned that a 2x4 is actually 1.5 x 3.5 inches, which I knew, but then he said even a 1x6 is really 3/4 x 5.5. That got me curious so I measured a few boards I already had in my garage and sure enough every single one was undersized from what the label said. Has anyone else run into this and how do you account for it when you're trying to plan a cut list without wasting material?
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rowan_ross7d ago
Yeah this is one of those things that once you see it you notice it everywhere. Like how a "quarter pounder" weighs less after cooking, or how a 16 oz bottle of juice is actually 15.2 oz if you read the fine print. The lumber thing is just nominal sizing, meaning the name is a label, not a real measurement, and it's been that way for like a hundred years because they dry and plane the wood down after the rough cut. For cut lists I just always work off the actual dimensions, so a 2x4 is 1.5 x 3.5 and a 1x6 is .75 x 5.5, and I add a little slack on length since the ends are often rough too.
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