Board Feet

[PeleSoccer33]

Hi everyone,

I have recently taken an interest to building my own bass. I was researching wood on the internet and had a few questions. This may seem like a noob question but I used the search function and couldn't find what I wanted.

How is a board foot measured? Also, about how many board feet are used in an average bass body?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[T2W]

Board foot means a certain length for a certain width, example: if you have a 6" wide plank of wood , one board foot will be 24" long. its as simple as that.

[dasberd777]

thickness x width x length/144 = bdft

[PeleSoccer33]

Thank you very much. Now everything makes a little bit more sense.

[tribal3140]

to reiterate

a normal bd ft is 12"x12"x1" (144 inches)
thickness is measured in quarter inches.
5/4" = 5 quarter inches or an inch and a quarter
6/4"= inch and a half
8/4 =2"
10=2.5 and so on

s2s means surfaced two sides
s4s means surfaced 4 sides (thicknessed, planed and jointed of straightlined)
skip dressed is a quick trip over the jointer to reveal color/grain, imperfections

an average body blank is 5 bd ft
2 pcs 6/4 for a top bass to 8/4 for no top bass and i use 4/4 for top and backs with lams



anything else relevant?

[PaleMelanesian]

Surfaced wood is usually (always?) smaller than the specified dimension.
4/4 is less than an inch, sometimes as small as 3/4.
6" wide can be as small as 5.5" wide.

Plan accordingly.

[wilser]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Surfaced wood is usually (always?) smaller than the specified dimension.
4/4 is less than an inch, sometimes as small as 3/4.
6" wide can be as small as 5.5" wide.

Plan accordingly.

That is because these measurements are for ROUGH CUT LUMBER straight out of the mill. So if you get rough lumber, it'll be very close to 1" un 4/4 case. The thing is that when you 'dress' the wood (put it through the planer and clean it up) you end up with 1/8" to 1/4" less. Most 4/4 is about 7/8 and so on.