this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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American measurements (vegantheoryclub.org)
submitted 2 days ago by cm0002 to c/memes
 
top 46 comments
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[–] gofsckyourself 21 points 2 days ago (3 children)
[–] cm0002 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Can you make it bigger? I don't want to have to get my reading glasses, they're in the other room

[–] gofsckyourself 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] cm0002 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] Klear 2 points 1 day ago

Username checks out!

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Try not to suck any dicks on the way to the parking lot!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

Hey, you, get back here!

[–] joel_feila 5 points 2 days ago

I was hungry

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

USA congress?

[–] dwemthy 2 points 2 days ago

In parallel!

[–] someguy3 1 points 2 days ago

Really nailed in good there.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

pronounced two-by-four

Unless you're in the south, in which case it's pronounced "tuba-fur".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

And I also forgot about the Mainers and their two-by-faws

[–] dx1 -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

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".

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] dx1 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah whenever I need lumber I plan to set aside at least half an hour to dig through the piles to find OK boards.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can't convince me that wood shrinks by 35% by crossection. No way.

[–] dx1 3 points 1 day ago

Yup, that was wrong.

[–] NocturnalMorning 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That’s why the standard dick was introduced

[–] NocturnalMorning 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, that's just Dick, he's a good guy.

[–] Dasus 2 points 2 days ago

Good guy, very standard.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

...and holes

[–] Shardikprime 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The European mind cannot comprehend that as wood expands, dicks also expands

This makes total sense

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot 1 points 1 day ago

That's why pools are so expensive.

[–] LovableSidekick 1 points 1 day ago

But wait, those might be metric dicks.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Measure twice, cut once!

[–] gofsckyourself 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] cm0002 3 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I assume they're erect but are they end to end or side to side?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

my forst thought would have been dicks lumber down the street but I dont know if they put their name on the wood

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

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