What is 2x4, 2x6 board?

[goodstudent]

What does 2x4 or 2x6 wood mean? Does 2 mean the wood has thickness of 2 inches?

 

[Barb_D]

It's actually a little less than two inches once it's finished, but it started that way, yes.
It's close to two inches thick and four or six inches wide. A 2x4 is very common.

 

[goodstudent]

So does 2x4 mean that it is a square shape wood, 2 inches is the thickness, 4 inches is the length and 4 inches is the height?

 

[goodstudent]

There are other sizes like 2x10,

Is is understood that the first number "2" (before the x) is always the thickness? Then the second number (after the x) is the length and breadth? The length is 10 inches, breadth is 10 inches, and it is a square shape?

 

[HanibalII]

Generally, they count the smallest number as the thickness and the largest number as the width.

So even if somebody said 4x2, they would still recognise it as 2x4.


(My pop's a carpenter.)

 

[emsr2d2]

There are other sizes like 2x10,

Is is understood that the first number "2" (before the x) is always the thickness? Then the second number (after the x) is the length and breadth? The length is 10 inches, breadth is 10 inches, and it is a square shape?

There are only two numbers. They are the thickness and the width. The length of a piece of wood would generally be cut to whatever length you want. Here is a piece of 2x4: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._4_Clue_Stick.jpg/220px-2_By_4_Clue_Stick.jpg

 

[goodstudent]

Sometimes I see 3 numbers are listed as dimensions, e.g Num1xNum2xNum3

Is it always listed as Num1=thickness, Num2=width, Num3=length ?

Is there is a standard rule that everyone will follow when they write Num1xNum2xNum3

 

[bhaisahab]

Sometimes I see 3 numbers are listed as dimensions, e.g Num1xNum2xNum3

Is it always listed as Num1=thickness, Num2=width, Num3=length ?

Is there is a standard rule that everyone will follow when they write Num1xNum2xNum3

These days the measurements are usually in millimetres, 75 x 100 x 2400, for example. Yes, it's thickness x width x length.

 

[BobK]

...But when I was editing a DIY book in the early '80s, there was an unholy mixture. I'm not sure of the details now, but I think in manufactured composites like hardboard or chipboard, they used metric for the depth but imperial for the length and width - say, 'A 4 foot by 6 foot piece of 5mm plywood'. (In the UK, metrication didn't happen until the '70s though, and by now the situation may be less confused than it was only 10 years after the law was changed.)

b

 

[bhaisahab]

...But when I was editing a DIY book in the early '80s, there was an unholy mixture. I'm not sure of the details now, but I think in manufactured composites like hardboard or chipboard, they used metric for the depth but imperial for the length and width - say, 'A 4 foot by 6 foot piece of 5mm plywood'. (In the UK, metrication didn't happen until the '70s though, and by now the situation may be less confused than it was only 10 years after the law was changed.)

b

The last time I bought a sheet of chipboard (about two months ago) it was 1220mm wide x 2440mm long x 18mm thick.

 

[Barb_D]

In the US, we can't think that way.

 

[SoothingDave]

In the US, we can't think that way.

Unless it's tires. A P195/70R14 is 195 mm wide on a 14 inch rim.