Swingman wrote:
Morris Dovey wrote:

We /can/ talk about tolerance, but to do so meaningfully and with any
real degree of precision we need to know the species, to look at the
way the board was sawed, consider the dimensions and the grain, heft
the board to assess its density, measure its moisture content, think
about the joints we plan to use,...

As in all things, those who delve too deeply into the theoretical rarely
find time to practice the practical.

It pretty much depends on the project. When building largish optical
stuff with wood, the theoretical aspects became important fairly quickly...

....and my discovery was that the the needed precision did require more
time than usual to get things right - but it was a one-time cost worth
every second spent.

My take, even on non-precision woodworking, is that knowledge and
understanding are more likely to contribute to quality of result than is
their lack.

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/