Uh people...by your own admission, calling it a "tubafore" and other colorful coloquialisms have inadvertantly identified the crux of what this piece of lumber really is.
Let's look at this with a comparison.
When I use my socket wrench, I ask for the three-eighths inch driver. When I nail a piece of wood, I ask for a two-by-four. Notice that the two-by-four doesn't reference a measurement? Two-by-four is just a name...regardless of what it used to mean, in today's vernacular, two-by-four is nothing more than a name for a piece of lumber that measures 1.5 by 3.5 inches...nothing more than that. And why is that? Well, it's convenient....I mean, how much carpentry would get done if you had to ask for the "one and a half by 3 and a half *inch* stud" several hundreds of times a day?
Although, in today's modern house building techniques, most of those people nailing up walls and such don't even have to know what they are doing....
I recently had a house built and found that the foreman draws lines with colored spray paint. This color matches the color on the ends of pre-cut studs and matches the color on the heads of the nails for the nail gun. Plus, the ends of the studs are numbered, so that they are joined with like number studs...Just match the color and the number and power in a nail...sheesh!
Ed
web/gadget guru
http://newton.tek-ed.com (download Newton packages)
matthiasm <mm@matthiasm.com> wrote:
On 30.04.2008, at 12:23, Steve Scotten wrote:
> I'm not saying it's right, but it's hardly news. The 1.5" x 3.5" has
> been the standard for almost fifty years and the 1.75" x 3.75" for
> over a decade before that. At this point in the game, no one should be
> alarmed by this discovery. If they are alarmed, like Matthias was,
> they should be assured that it's all right. The sky is not falling,
> the sky fell a long time ago.
>
> That's all I intended.
But, but, but..., but I am German, and while this fact is hardly
puzzeling for an American, for a young immigrating German, the world
almost stops rotating and the universe collapses, if something that is
called "53mm by 106mm", we *will* have planned our project to that
precission and expect acuracy ;-).
To an American, probably feels like loading a 12 gauge shotgun with 16
gauge shells -- NOOOOoooooo......
;-)
Matthias
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