2-8 MEASURING WOOD Although the System International (S!) has already superseded the English System of measure, the board foot as the unit measure of lumber popularly and widely used is still presented for reference in preparation for the transition from English to Metric approach. A board foot is actually one square foot of wood one inch thick. The formula being used in computing board foot is: txwioix t 12 Board Foot = Where t = thickness in inches w = width in inches L = Length in feet This formula is being used for sawed wood of commercia! dimensions. Example: Compute the board foot of the following iumber 5 pes ~ 2x6" 14" Ba. ft.- 5x 2x6 x 14" 12 = 70 Note* Under the English measure of umber, the length is always ordered at even length. . The above formula could not be usedin finding the board foot of logs. Instead, the following formula is applied: (0-4)? xL 16 Board ft. = Where D = smaller diameter of the logs in inches L.= Length of log in feet 4 and 16 = are slab deduction allowance which are constant in the formula Ad.Figure 2-4 Illustration; From the above figure, find the total board foot that could be derived from the Jog for commercial purposes. Solution: 24 — 4)2 Board Ft. EP ne . _ (20)? x 18 - 16 = 450 bd. ft. Sometimes lumber is computed by the linear foot method, Applied to lumber having a width and thickness of 2 inches or less. The linear foot-method is simply multiplying its length in feet by the unit price. To convert linear foot to board foot Linear foot of lumber size. divide length by _to get 1x2" ~ 6 ~-— bd. ft 2x2 —------ 30 ~—— ba. ft2--9 ENGLISH TO METRIC MEASURE OF WOOD Lumber is customarily computed in terms of board foot which simply means that one board foot is equivalent to 1 inch thick, one toot wide and one foat long wood. To find a board foot of a piece of wood say 2” x 6" x 20’ the thickness is multiplied by the width and length divided by 12 thus 2 x 6 x 20'= 20 bd. ft, * 12 Feliowing such principle where one inch is the unit measure in a foot, one centimeter is also the unit measure in a meter, the above piece of luraber could be written as 5 x 15 x 6m = 4.5 board meter 100 where: 2” = 5 cm; 6" = 15cm 20° = 6 meters From this example, we could then say that a board foot multi- plied by .225 is converted to a Board Meter. Thus, 20 x .225= 4.5 Bd. im. Most probably, the length of lumber under the $I measure will be at the intervals of .50 m phasing out the even length of lumber in feet. Example: 2" x 4" x 16" will be ordered 5 cm x LO cm x 5 m. 2-10 MANUFACTURED BOARDS Manufactured boards are made of wood but does not appear in their natural state. This type of building materials can be classified as a type of lumber as they are the by-product in the manufacture of lumber. The complete utilization of wood has led to an ex- panded field of manufactured boards. There are different types of manufactured boards available such as: 1, Plywood = is made of an odd number of veneer sheets glued together with the grains running at right angie toeach other. Forest laboratory test show that plywood shrinks less than ‘2 of 1% in drying from saturation to 6% moisture content which is less than the shrinkage of solid wood of the same species under similar conditions. 51Plywood is light in weight and strong that screw or nail can be driven close to the edges without danger of splitting. Plywood thickness varies from (1/8") 3.2 mm; 4.7 mm (3/16")}; 12.7 mm (%"} to 25 mm. available in 3 to 5 ply panels, The different types of plywood are: 1. Soft Plywood = The mest common for structural use, 2. Hardwoed Plywood = Are used for panelling and finishing where usually only one face is hard finished. 3. Exterior or Marine Plywood = {s made for external use, sometimes used for construction of boats. FWE-PLr LaMbeR Cone ConsrAUCION Line séte r= race race: 4 ACK ACK CROREBANOS cone cont FNE-Por Loroasoanns MATIPLY VENEER CORE CONSTRUCTION ——AARTICLEBOAND CORE CONSTRUCTION. — FAvE-PLY EONETAUCTION ates WITH BaAMOHO OF RAR IN Typical plywood construction Figure 2.5 2. Hardboard = Hardboard or pressed wood is made from wood chips which are exploded into fibers under steam of high pressure.The lining in the wood itself binds pressed wood together with no fillers or artificiat adhesives ap- plied. Pressed wood is equally strong in all directions but very brittle. Its color varies from light to dark brown. 3. Particle Board: \s manutactured from wood chips, curls, fibers, flakes, strands, shaving, slivers, strands etc., bound together and pressed into sheets and other molded shapes. Particle board has equa! strength in alt directions of a given cross sectional area, it is not brittle and can resist warping. 52