Replies

1. 
   ring | Jan 07, 2010 07:02am | #1

   Starn, wherever you are the calculation is always based on a volume measurement. A "board foot" assumes the thickness of 1", but if your material is 2" thick then a board foot is only half a square foot in area. Your lineal meter also is based on a volume measurement or assumption.

   Most of Europe works by cubic meter prices, and for instance in Israel, I pay for French Oak about $1600 per cubic meter. Your piece of 125 x 25 x 1000 is about 0.003 cu.m which comes to $4.80 cost.

2. 
   Starn | Jan 07, 2010 07:21am | #2

   Hi David

   Thank you for that. I was just trying to compare prices for timber. Over here I don't think they work on volume, a 300mm x 25mm x 1000mm costs $26.70 when using the volume formula it should be about $12.00. What started this was I noticed a company selling our local timbers in America, the timbers they are selling you cannot even get unless you know a saw mill operator, for cheaper prices than we pay for standard hardwood.

   Regards

   Starn

3. 
   bones | Jan 07, 2010 09:55am | #3

   An easy calc to put in a spread sheet is (Length x Width x thickness)/144= BF. All measurements in Inches. The trick is how the dealer measures the board. For instance I've see some dealers measure the widest point and some the narrowest point. For your measure i'll assume it's 5"x5"x1". That would be (5x5x1)/144 or .17bf x what ever the BF unit cost is. A cleaner example I'd use is cherry at 6 USD/BF the board is 1.25" thick is 8" wide and 48" long. The calc would be (1.25 x 8 x 48)/144 or 3.3 bf or a cost of 6 x 3.33 or $10 usd. You will need to think volume here in the US. Good luck.

   I'm also assuming measurement in the rough.

4. 
   RalphBarker | Jan 07, 2010 11:25am | #4

   You can tell when your foot gets bored by it going to sleep and getting that tingly feeling. ;-)

   I'm curious. How are different thickness handled down there, Starn? Different lineal prices for different thicknesses? And, what are the typical thicknesses available to you, rough-sawn?

1. 
   Starn | Jan 07, 2010 04:35pm | #5

   Hi Ralph

   Yes, different price per lineal metre for different thickness of timber,eg:10in x 1 in-$18.79

   10in x 1.5in-$43.70

   10in x 2in-$61.77 these are rough sawn and you would pretty well find the limits of what is available without knowing a saw mill operator. Our biggest problem in Tasmania is that nearly all select grade timber goes for export, most timber merchants won't get "specialty" timbers,blackwood,blackheart sassafras,myrtle because the quality is so poor.

   Regards

   Starn