Calculator
Board foot calculator, lumber, by the foot.
Thickness in quarters, width and length in inches, and the price per board foot: the cost of a board, a stack or a whole project.
The boards
Length is in
ThicknessWidth, inLengthQty
$
Board feet
0
Cost at that price-
Cubic feet-
Cubic meters-
Linear feet, all boards-
A board foot is a piece 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch: 144 cubic inches. Hardwood is priced by it; the thickness is counted in quarters of an inch, so 4/4 is one inch and 8/4 is two.
How the yard counts it
board feet = thickness (in) × width (in) × length (in) / 144. Thickness is the rough-sawn size in quarters: a 4/4 board is sold as one inch thick even after it has been planed to 13/16 or 3/4. Widths are measured at the narrow end of a tapered board, and length rounds down to the foot at most yards. If a board is sold surfaced, the price per board foot is usually higher but the count still uses the rough thickness.
Buying for a carving habit
- A 4/4 basswood board 6 inches wide and 4 feet long is 2 board feet, enough for a dozen small carvings or a stack of pyrography plaques.
- Thicker is better for spoons and figures: 8/4 (two inches) gives blanks you can orient to the grain.
- Ask for shorts and offcuts. Many yards sell boards under four feet at a discount, and a carver never needs the length.
Metric: one board foot is 0.00236 cubic meters; a cubic meter is about 424 board feet.
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