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Comment by kevin_thibedeau | Hacker News Reader

> stunningly consistent

Except now they've found a new way to cheat by putting excessively large radii on the corners of construction grade lumber.

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I don't see this as a cost saving - the radius isn't material that would make it onto another piece of lumber, it'd be the waste between rectangles. In addition, keeping a machine tuned and sharp to cut the radius costs money.

I would assume two possible reasons: the radius reduces stress concentration, and facilitating handling and packaging (think splinter fall-off debris, and likelyhood to bind up on a sharp edge)

    > it'd be the waste between rectangles.

It's certainly not being wasted, you can e.g. break it up and use it as material for an OSB, sell it as sawdust etc.

Pellet fuel.

I had intended to point out the minimal amount of this material; I'd be surprised if you could offset the cost of additional milling just to recover it

I thought the radii was a feature because right angles are more difficult to slip into place and tend to splinter more. You're probably right that it's a cost-saving measure though.

The wood in the radii is lost to sawdust. Perhaps they sell this sawdust as a product, but it’s more likely just to make it easier to handle and less likely to get damaged or damage something else.

It’s a “coproduct”, the value of which is roughly inverse to the price of lumber and other finished manufactured end products. It goes into things pulp and paper, pellet stove fuel, cogen plants and if useless for anything else, the “hog” in the basement of the mill. Fun fact: any contamination of chips with plastic or metal makes the value of a load as large as a rail car worth zero, so QC are super anal about keeping it out

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