But wait, those might be metric dicks.
this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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More pixels
Can you make it bigger? I don't want to have to get my reading glasses, they're in the other room
Sorry, I'm still having trouble reading it, can you make it a little bit bigger? Maybe also change the colors a bit, like inverted or something
Username checks out!
242 dicks
In a row?!
Try not to suck any dicks on the way to the parking lot!
37???!?!?
Hey, you, get back here!
I was hungry
USA congress?
In parallel!
Really nailed in good there.
What’s even more annoying is that a 2x4 (pronounced two-by-four) isn’t 2 by 4 inches. It’s 1.5 x 3.5 (sometimes even a 1/16 under).
It’s all because of some unfinished lumber bullshit, but it’s still not as confusing as pipe and hose fitting sizing at least.
Worse still, the pattern does not continue like one would expect.
- Nominal: 2x4 -- Actual: 1.5" x 3.5"
- Nominal: 2x6 -- Actual: 1.5" x 5.5"
- Nominal: 2x8 -- Actual: 1.5" x 7.25"
- Nominal: 2x10 -- Actual: 1.5" x 9.25"
- Nominal: 2x12 -- Actual: 1.5" x 11.25"
There's just an arbitrary point where they decided to take an extra 1/4" bite out of it. I'm not sure whether that's more of an effect of shrinkage from kiln drying being proportional to the original length or an effect of industry practice to mill smaller boards to eke out more cuts per tree.
And for the record, yes, I am aware the discrepancy is not entirely explained by shrinkage. They do a planing step after drying. But the shrinkage is a not insignificant part of it. They have to round down to the nearest convenient dimension from wherever the shrinkage stops.
If longer boards shrink more, the finished boards would necessarily have to be smaller. I question whether that's the effect at play, though, because I believe there was a phase in the industry where that extra quarter inch wasn't taken off, and they changed their minds about it later.
pronounced two-by-four
Unless you're in the south, in which case it's pronounced "tuba-fur".
And I also forgot about the Mainers and their two-by-faws
It's because the actual cut is 2x4, and the wood shrinks. The typical shrinkage is known and accounted for. It is a treat when a house has an actual 2x though, i.e., it was cut divided by the shrinkage ratio, or cut dry. Related to why framing is done "on center", i.e., "16 on center".
That’s not from shrinkage (well the 1/16 might be, especially newer fast heated junk at the Homely Despot). It’s from when they mill the rough sawn 2x4 down to “finished size”. You can buy actual 2x4s, but they won’t have the nice planned surfaces or beveled edges.
I’m not wondering why it’s that sized, I’m annoyed why they insist on calling both rough saw and finished items 2x4s.
I had to go back and re-read the history of dimensional lumber. 2x4 was an actual 2x4 cut until recommendations by the Forest Products Laboratory (American Lumber Congress?) in 1919 to balance functional and economic requirements (1 5/8 x 3 5/8). It's neither the shrinkage nor just milling after drying, they literally just cut it smaller. And if my last 20 trips to big box stores with lumber are any indication, they don't care about cupping or warpage either.
Yeah whenever I need lumber I plan to set aside at least half an hour to dig through the piles to find OK boards.
You can't convince me that wood shrinks by 35% by crossection. No way.
Yup, that was wrong.
The European mind cannot comprehend that as wood expands, dicks also expands
This makes total sense
That's why pools are so expensive.
This is a terrible measurement unit, even worse than the one we came up with in college for rockets, where we used elephants. Dicks come in all shapes and sizes.
That’s why the standard dick was introduced
No, that's just Dick, he's a good guy.
Good guy, very standard.
...and holes
!anythingbutmetric@discuss.tchncs.de
Measure twice, cut once!
I assume they're erect but are they end to end or side to side?
Docking
my forst thought would have been dicks lumber down the street but I dont know if they put their name on the wood
silly americans have units of time where there are 60 seconds in a minute, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year, and every four years there's an extra leap year! LOL backwards hicks
You got the leap year rule wrong.
Every fourth year unless the year is divisible by 100 unless the year is also divisible by 400
And it's a leap day that's inserted, not a leap year
And anyway we're talking here about measuring in dicks
metaphor
You got the leap year rule wrong.
Every fourth year unless the year is divisible by 100 unless the year is also divisible by 400
You got the leap year rule wrong.
Every fourth year unless the year is divisible by 100 unless the year is also divisible by 400