SuperFeet SuperFoot?

[WillyInBris]

Hi peoples,

Can Someone please explain what a SuperFoot and SuperFeet are:doh: , I realise that they are measurements but did a bit of a search on gogle but really didn't have much luck a few laughs though.

I am a metric guy and whilst I can handle Feet and Inches I have never herd about SuperFeet SuperFoot

[Big Shed]

Here you go:

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/board-foot-BF.html

[Barry_White]

Hi Willy

Prior to metrication all timber was sold by the superfoot which is 1 foot x 1 foot x 1".

The yanks still use it but here in Oz although they will say the price is so much a cubic metre or per cube all dimensioned timber is sold by the lineal metre.

[WillyInBris]

Thanks BigShed

so 300mm X 300mm X 25mm approx :2tsup:

[Jedo_03]

well there ya go....

Definition - superfoot

One square-foot of one-inch thick lumber (12 x 12 x 1 inch). Used as a unit (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/unit.html) of lumber-volume

imagine the guy in bunnies face if you ast him for 12 superfeet of durian

(and imagine my face if he said "durian dun come in 12 inch widths...)

spose not that distant from our cubic metre ideology....

Jedo

[joe greiner]

Thanks BigShed

so 300mm X 300mm X 25mm approx :2tsup:

"approx" indeed. Murrican timber is described by undressed dimensions (No, I don't mean nekkid). Actual size of such a "board foot" (BF) would be 305 x 292 x 19, also approx.

Never heard of it called a "superfoot." Large quantities are sold by MBF, = 1000 BF.

Joe

[Barry_White]

Joe

Superfoot was possibly an Austrailian term which was the same as your board foot.

[munruben]

Yep, I remember the days of the super foot but just to clarify a point, The timber we bought this way was not made up of boards that were 12 inches wide. To put it simply, if you were purchasing timber that was 4inches wide and 1/2 inch thick, you would actually receive 6 boards of that dimension if they were 1 foot in length.
Of course, no-one in reality purchased just 1 foot of timber in this way, it was used for bulk purchases of timber but the same principle applied and thats how you calculated it.
The little guys still bought their timber the same way as today, not by the super foot method.

[Barry_White]

Yes when I was an apprentice patternmaker the boss used to buy the timber by the superfeet. A six tonne truck load of either Sugar Pine, Yellow Pine or Beech 18" wide x 2" thick 18 to 20 feet long

[Paul B]

Anagote's in Tempe (in Sydney) still use superfeet. I was there last week and their price list was all per superfoot.

It's a good unit of measure for the little guy. I don't even know what a cubic meter of timber looks like, nor do I give a rats, 'cause I'd never buy one - my guitar projects aren't that big. But if I pull a few good 1/4 sawn boards out of a stack, I'll have a pretty good idea what the price is gonna be without bothering the lumber yard guy to calculate it for me.

[Scribbly Gum]

Malcolm Ward from Boutique Timbers uses superfeet in all his sales.
Saw Malcolm at the Sydney Wood Show on the weekend with a large range of stunning slabs. His prices looked good too.
Regards
SG:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

[woodturner777]

myself i am still one of the old School, feet and inchs is much better,
S/F 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 inch thick now 424 super foot is one cubic metre so you work that out, now if some one was lost and i was told that they were 5foot 9inchs tall i would know who to look for, but if i was told his hight in metric he would stay lost for ever. cheers,

[rupert goodall]

i see a few people have correctly explained what a super foot is ...........i think around mid seventies we went metric ....and timber becam a cubic metre........here are a few mathematical equations i use when buying in superfeet from usa and converting .......we also buy in metric tons from india , but thats a whole different story.......

ok in a cubic metre there is


100metre of 200\50mmor 8\2 inch
400metre of 100\25 or 4\1 inch

im pretty sure there are 400 super feet per cubic metre......

cheers


rupert....www.woodworld.com.au

[les88]

When I was going to tech in the early 50's I am sure in the theory exams was : that 12 superfeet = ?
les
:doh:

[joe greiner]

When I was going to tech in the early 50's I am sure in the theory exams was : that 12 superfeet = ?
les
:doh:

One cubic foot.

Joe

[AlexS]

About 425 super feet to the cubic metre. One super foot is 12" x 12" x 1"

[IanW]

......
im pretty sure there are 400 super feet per cubic metre......
cheers
rupert....www.woodworld.com.au

428.571428571428. superfeet to the cubic metre (to the nearest billionth of a SF.)

The 'super' is the only unit we lost in the conversion to metric that I lament. It is a very convenient measure of VOLUME. The nearest equivalent in the metric system is the Litre, and I don't know why we don't make more use of it.

The superfoot can be readily visualised in the sort of standard dimensions we use - i.e. a 1 inch board 12" x 12" or 6" x 24" and so on. With a little experience, you could quickly calculate the number of superfeet ("boardfeet" across the Pacific) needed for a typical cabinet job.

A superfoot is 2.37 litres, so a litre is a little less than half a super (0.42).

A board measuring say 25 x 100 x 400mm would be a litre of wood - could still be a useful measure.

And I would love to watch the face of someone in a wood store when I wandered in and asked for "800 litres of NG Rosewood, please..."

:o :U :;

[journeyman Mick]

................And I would love to watch the face of someone in a wood store when I wandered in and asked for "800 litres of NG Rosewood, please..."

And I'd love to see your face when they gave you 800 litres of NGR sawdust after you'd paid! :doh: :o :;

Mick

[IanW]

And I'd love to see your face when they gave you 800 litres of NGR sawdust after you'd paid! :doh: :o :;

Mick

Yairs, Mick - it would be a sight! More like: :o :doh: :C :C :C

You are right - most people think of a litre as a liquid, or as near to liquid as sawdust can be, but it's just a measure of volume, after all, same as a cubic foot is a measure of volume, which you could equally express as '6.25 gallons'

Hmm, wonder what I could do with a couple of thou's worth of Rosewood sawdust??? :C

Cheers,

[joe greiner]

Some conversion factors, memorized years ago, you just can't expel. One gallon = 231.00 cubic inches. Soooo what?:doh:

Joe

[MurrayD99]

Some conversion factors, memorized years ago, you just can't expel. One gallon = 231.00 cubic inches. Soooo what?:doh:

Joe


Ha Ha... So, Joe, shall we head down to the Chevy dealer and negotiate a price for a one-and-three-quarter gallon Impala SS. I'm thinking of the one with the 5.3 litre V8. What they do with cubic inches when I wasn't looking?":2tsup:

[BrettC]

I was at Anagote a few weeks back too - great service BTW (no affilitation etc...) their Superfoot is to my understanding exactly the same as the American "board foot".