Which cut line is correct? Don’t know, both sides are screwed twisted beyond belief. This is the start cut, the first 2.5" inches are for kid’s projects… Another chance at loosing a finger or two. The worse part is that these were the best picks of the day. Every other 2X6 (1.5x5.5 for the non-retarded among us) were worse splintered, bent, twisted. They need to dry the wood slowly in a well spaced stack. I wouldn’t wish any of this wood on anyone for anything.

  • LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz
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    9 hours ago

    (1.5x5.5 for the non-retarded among us)

    I am really not a fan of how common this word is becoming again in everyday vernacular.

  • 15 years ago, I built an extension on a barn stall to suit my wife’s draft horse.

    I am not a carpenter.

    I was not trained. I had no experience.

    What I had was Home Depot, and I’d seen enough framed work and enough videos about people building buildings, and the belief that I could “figure it out.” Also, this was a barn in rural country, and people wouldn’t be living in it so I wasn’t too concerned. So I bought a Saws-All and cut a giant hole in the side of the barn.

    Long story short, I did figure it out, and it wasn’t half bad. Framing the roof gave me the most trouble; I kind of understood the theory, but I had the feeling it wasn’t as neat as it could be; it was the only part of the project that required joining. It had proper siding, a proper roof (with some composite corrugated roofing), and even a ventilated peak with corrugation foam under the top-thingy to frustrate wasps. It had a big-ass sliding door, which I bought pre-made. It had a12" ramp from the door into a paddock made of packed 3/4-minus (second hardest thing). The inside, like the rest of the barn, was just 1x4 horizontal planks, stained, which made everything easier. It didn’t need to be fancy, and the ceilings were all open, so no ceiling work.

    In the end, I learned several things:

    1. Home Depot has everything you need to build a small house, including truck rental to get the material to the house.
    2. I waaay overbuilt it, out of paranoia that I would under-build it. I had double supports every 16" and horizontal cross beams. Like the rest of the barn, there was no floor - it was all packed 3/4-minus - but I poured a 1’x3’ concrete foundation over basebed gravel for the walls. I’m not certain anymore that the original barn had more that 4x4 posts sunk in concrete. I believe that, had I been experienced with building, I could have done the job with far less material.
    3. Home Depots wood is absolute shit. I screwed double 2x6s mainly to try to get the damned things straight enough to build on. And I bought only pressure-treated wood because I wasn’t certain that my siding job would be perfect, but also because this was open to the elements.
    4. I learned to hate Phillips-head screws with a passion that’s lasted the rest of my life so far.
    5. Someone with no experience can do something like build a glorified shed. A 14’ tall, 16x16, sided and corrugated roofed shed, but a shed.

    I was pleased with the result, and I’m grateful for Home Depot because there’s no way I could have done that without them. Not within the season of weekends that it took me.

    The only wood I’ll buy from Home Depot is unfinished shelving wood. Their shelving stuff is outrageously expensive, but it’s clean and straight, and properly cured.

    • altphoto@lemmy.todayOP
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      8 hours ago

      I used to love Philips head screws until one day I tried torx. I’m never going back. I have some Philips around but you know the bits get worn and that damages screws. Sometimes you can’t get the screws out. I just finished a large concrete wall project with all the forms held by the same 20 or so T25 screws. Its crazy how good and reusable they are.

  • DoubleDongle@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Brotip: The Depot isn’t even cheap, it’s just bad. At least in my region, framing lumber from small-time lumber yards is like 2-4% cheaper than the same stuff at a Home Depot or Lowe’s, while simultaneously being considerably better stock. I get custom orders like doors and windows faster and cheaper too. I saved a couple hundred bucks on a flooring project by skipping the Depot a few weeks back.

    Fuck the box stores. Slow, expensive, and bad. They have nothing left but brand recognition.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      I work at Lowe’s and am stunned at what people buy there. In the garden area, why would you count on Lowe’s to have sod?! Go to a fucking sod place if you want more than a few pieces. People pay stunning amounts of money for bags of various rocks when they can go down the road and pay 1/4 that at, guess what, the fucking rock place.

      We’re a big box store for FFS. We’re not the best or cheapest at anything, we just carry it all.

  • bstix
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    11 hours ago

    The lines don’t matter as long as you don’t cut it.

    Place it, then cut it. The cut will be correct if you cut it where you want it cut, not where you think in advance that you want it cut.

  • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    14 hours ago

    Get used to it because Trump will certainly make it harder and harder to get wood from Canada into the US and Canadian wood is of higher quality because it grows more slowly.

    • MBech
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      3 hours ago

      The wood will be stronger, sure, but in modern framing you don’t actually need the added strength. Slowly grown wood is going to be as crooked as fast grown wood. It’s a question about how and where it’s kept. If the wood goes through a lot of drying and remoisturing (not a native speaker, it seems like the wrong word, sorry) the wood will begin to twist and turn. If it’s being kept at a stable moisture and temperature, or at least being dried out consistently, it will stay straight.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        3 hours ago

        But wouldn’t wood that’s more dense absorb less water in the same amount of time though? Meaning that more dense wood would better resist the abuse of transport.

        • MBech
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          3 hours ago

          Possibly, but in practice it’s not going to be that much of a factor. If a piece of wood is laying in the middle of a big pile of wood in a warehouse without humidity control or temperature control, with a big garage door opening and closing 1000 times every day, like most building suppliers have, the wood is going to be twisted as fuck no matter how dense it is.