I won't say anything political, but I'm up for a beer.
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Relocating to the USA
- Thread starter -Asdfgh-
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Relocating to the USA???? Heck, I’m getting ready to move out. This isn’t the country I raised in, and frankly not real impressed with what’s coming down the pike. I hear they actually have paying gigs in other countries.
The whole of Europe was on its knees after WW2, but it was the UK that was in such a mess two decades on... I believe Italy currently holds the "sick man" title. Interesting that the term dates back to the 1800s and the decline of the Ottoman Empire
The UK was in a massive amount of debt after WW2. Pretty much all the countries in the rest of Europe were forged anew in 1945 so could ignore past debts, which was very handy.
It doesn't! We only use pints and miles now. One's for drinking, one's for driving.
Canada went fully metric in the 70s when I was still a young lad. Speed, temperature, distances, mass, etc all measured in metric. Lumber still largely marketed and referred to in imperial units. My doctor still takes my height and weight in imperial. I still think in miles, MPH, feet, inches, pounds, etc. I can do the conversions quickly if I need to. To this day, cars sold in Canada have both metric and imperial markings on the speedometer.
I know in the UK, metric is used for lumber. It’s hard for me to grasp a 2x4 being referred to as 38mm x 89mm.
But like anything, you get used to it.
"NASA lost its $125-million Mars Climate Orbiter because spacecraft engineers failed to convert from English to metric measurements when exchanging vital data before the craft was launched, space agency officials said Thursday.
A navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet and pounds."
Mars Probe Lost Due to Simple Math Error
A navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet and pounds."
Mars Probe Lost Due to Simple Math Error
38x89 is 1.5" by 3.5" so I hope it's not called a 2x4 as it would be daylight robbery as it's only 65% as much wood!
And thus I ask, would we stand for a pound of coffee containing only 14 ounces? How did the lumber industry get away with this?
2"x4" is the nominal measurement of the lumber as it's milled from raw timber - traditionally the measurement before kiln drying lumber back in the old days. The kiln drying would shrink it down to actual measurements. Been that way for decades, maybe even a century. The 2x6 framed walls in my 100 year old house aren't quite 2" x 6".
For dimensional lumber, these days it's probably more convoluted but the 1/2" missing in each dimension actually helps in builds - let's say where studs meet window frame meets 1/2' drywall. Flush fitting. There's also 2x4 studs that are precut to 92 5/8" to accommodate for top and bottom plates of a standard stud framed wall to reach 96" even. Normal 2x4 stud is 96".
Don't think we're being duped. Kind of like a "pint" of draft beer being served in any number of different sized glasses: 16, 16 5/8, 20oz. It's just a name. A "pint" bottle of beer in Canada is standardized at 341ml. I don't order a "341 mil", I order a "pint".
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When you say 2x4, it's understood that you want a 2x4 that has been surfaced to nominal dimensions of 1.5" by 3.5". Two by Four is also easier to say than One and a Half by Three and a Half. I suspect laziness of saying three syllables versus nine played a part, but it's understood that a 2x4 isn't 2" by 4".
EDIT: Here is more than you would ever want to know about dimensional lumber:
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/misc/miscpub_6409.pdf
TL;DR - rail shipments made local standards obsolete and eventually the 1.5" x 3.5" dimensions became standardized but the 2x4 name remained.
EDIT: Here is more than you would ever want to know about dimensional lumber:
https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/misc/miscpub_6409.pdf
TL;DR - rail shipments made local standards obsolete and eventually the 1.5" x 3.5" dimensions became standardized but the 2x4 name remained.
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30" is sometimes 30.291" so that they can just reuse the fret saw jigs for 34" and not use the last two frets (or first two frets)
