Whew, guess I might have to check the "big box" stores more often. I buy my hardwoods from a local sawyer and mill them myself, but recently had the need for some plain old Pine boards to box out some basement windows. Not all of them were set back exactly the same amount, but I found that the deepest I'd have to go was just a sliver over 7-1/4". I figured, "Cool. I'll just get some 1x8's. The commons were on sale, to boot. Got them home, measured up my first one. "Yup, this one's right at 7-1/4". So, I set the fence on my TS for 7-1/4", threw the board up there and....and.....and...."Wait a minute! I must've set my fence wrong!" Nope. Fence was right. Upon closer inspection, I found a marking on the board which did indeed show it as 3/4" x 7-1/4"!!! What the hey? OK, so I don't go back quite far enough to when a 2x4 was a true 2x4, but I do remember 1-3/4"x3-3/4". I also remember that boards were typically 1/4" shy of the thickness dimension and 1/2" shy of the width. When in blazes did the other 1/4" disappear?! Or was this just something specific to this particular big box? Seems to me that calling it a 1x8 is really, *REALLY* stretching it a bit, no?!