How to calculate board feet for project?

[Rod Sheridan]

No problem Tony.

Calculating material needs from a cutlist works well in industry when you have to produce 1,000 chairs.

Some pieces will be suitable for making short pieces because of defects, others will be suitable for long pieces. When you are producing thousands of stretchers for chairs, it all averages out.

The opposite is true of the hobby shop. When looking at a project, I always calculate the number of board feet to get a feel for the project, and an estimate of the cost.

Then I produce a cutting plan, take it to the sawmill along with my block plane and tape measure.

I skip plane a few locations on a piece of wood to check for grain and colour, then decide how it will fit in the cutting plan. I continue on with that until I have enough material, and then add some more.

Often however I don't have to do the above, as I try to keep a few hundred board feet of stuff I use in the rack. This makes sure it's well acclimatised to my house, and saves trips to the mill.

Welcome to the Creek, nice to have you here............Rod.

[Rick Fisher]

I do board footage everyday. (Building supply business).

Wether you buy 3/4" thick or 4/4" thick, your paying for 4/4".

Board footage is a good thing to learn. Just think in terms of 1x12 and it all makes sense.

When buying rough, you need to allow more waste than S2S1E.

[Don Bullock]

My system is a lot simpler. I design the piece (furniture or something else) I'm making around the wood I have. If I seem to need more wood for the job I shop for the best board or boards that will work for the part or parts that I need wood for.