Cuda416
Well-Known Member
The good news is that fractions keep millennials from building your house......the bad news is that in a few years you'll only be able to find uno, dos, tres tape measures.
Lumber question for those in the building trades
- Thread starter Kern Dog
- Start date
-
Cuda416
Well-Known Member
Even as someone, who like most here, grew up using the imperial system, I find it hilarious when people claim things like "We Americans ONLY use the IMPERIAL system!"... puhlease... That just tells me they don't actually understand that by using it, they are, in fact, using something that had it's origins in UK. It's a British system with our own small changes to make it "better"..... I ALSO laugh at Brits who claim they use the metric system exclusively because of how "superior" they are yet they still use a crap ton of the imperial system.. You should have seen the guys face during his presentation about new insulin pumps. I asked about changing it to the system the US uses and he made some snarky comment about the metric system. I then asked him how far it was to London.... he change the subject pretty quick. go figure.
At the end of the day, there is zero reason to not use metric other than we're not used to it. Our entire system is built quite literally around imperial (as we all know) for no other reason than to stick it to the man and we got it wrong.
However, that said, why use something that doesn't follow any accepted base for basic math (by base I'm talking about base of the number system used, base 2, base 10 etc).. Metric is base 10 which lines of better with standard arithmetic operations. It's used in all scientific and engineering efforts and if it helps, lifts the middle finger to the Brits just like driving on the right side of the road. Win/Win.
At the end of the day, there is zero reason to not use metric other than we're not used to it. Our entire system is built quite literally around imperial (as we all know) for no other reason than to stick it to the man and we got it wrong.
However, that said, why use something that doesn't follow any accepted base for basic math (by base I'm talking about base of the number system used, base 2, base 10 etc).. Metric is base 10 which lines of better with standard arithmetic operations. It's used in all scientific and engineering efforts and if it helps, lifts the middle finger to the Brits just like driving on the right side of the road. Win/Win.
diymirage
HP@idle > hondaHP@redline
Cuda416
Well-Known Member
Yeah that's for our benefit.... other countries measure their rim size in metric.... but as you point out, the bolt pattern on the shiny new charger is 5x115.... Times, they are a changing....
Here's the shrinkage values for many domestic softwoods and hardwoods. Wood shrinks differently in the 3 directions. Tangential shrinkage (parallel to the growth rings) is the highest. Radial shrinkage (perpendicular to the rings) is about half of tangential. Length shrinkage is almost negligible. Oak and hickory are two of the most unstable woods, especially in the tangential direction. Yellow pine is in the middle. Kiln dried wood, and wood in your house will settle out at about 8%-9% moisture content. Wood stored outside will settle out about 12% in NE TN. Other locations will be different. Framing lumber is only dried to 15%-20% moisture content. Furniture grade woods and export lumber are dried to 6%-8%.
One more follow up. The board marked in red is considered plain sawn or flat sawn. The board marked in blue is quartersawn. The boards marked in yellow are rift sawn, or half way between the other two. Quartersawn is considered the most stable for obvious reasons. It was/is highly prized for several other reasons as well, especially in the days before kilns.
-
