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When I buy lumber, I know the bdft I need plus 20% for scrap, so measuring isn't necessary. The lumber is always RWL and normally "Blank" grade. The lumber is stacked on the forks of a forklift which are usually 4' long. If the boards are + - 8' long are laid out onto the forks, a full layer of wood would equal 32 bdft + - a foot or two. If I need 100', 2 1/2 layers will get me near or over what I need. Unless I need one or two specific sized boards, the suppliers employees have have a tape measures, so I use theirs to measure and get what's needed.
At the shop, like Glen, all my measuring from then on is at the 10" mark. I started doing it that way while working in aviation. All dimensions are numbered as "inch stations". Station 0 is the front end of the probe protruding from the nose of the aircraft while in prototype stage. On the planes I worked on, that probe was just over 100 inches. When we were to install something inside the aircraft, the print would state, station 867. You don't want to make any mistakes on a 50 million dollar corporate jet, so using the 10" burn made it a lot easier for me to keep track of what I was doing than burning 1 inch and doing the math to keep things in order.
I do see all the pros on the TV shows mark their cut llines using a dull pencil, and they end up making a mark that looks like it's 1/8" wide. They make their cut, then say, "Purrfect"..... Cracks me up. I was told swipe the pencil once leaving a fine line, not a line that looks like it was done with a brush. .................. Jerry (In Tucson)
At the shop, like Glen, all my measuring from then on is at the 10" mark. I started doing it that way while working in aviation. All dimensions are numbered as "inch stations". Station 0 is the front end of the probe protruding from the nose of the aircraft while in prototype stage. On the planes I worked on, that probe was just over 100 inches. When we were to install something inside the aircraft, the print would state, station 867. You don't want to make any mistakes on a 50 million dollar corporate jet, so using the 10" burn made it a lot easier for me to keep track of what I was doing than burning 1 inch and doing the math to keep things in order.
I do see all the pros on the TV shows mark their cut llines using a dull pencil, and they end up making a mark that looks like it's 1/8" wide. They make their cut, then say, "Purrfect"..... Cracks me up. I was told swipe the pencil once leaving a fine line, not a line that looks like it was done with a brush. .................. Jerry (In Tucson)
