On 3/29/2011 1:34 PM, mm wrote:
On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:12:49 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:15:42 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:



When I worked construction a long, long time ago the old pros called it
"chip board"

Isn't chip board the stuff made with chips, some 4" long, and particle
board the stuff made with particles, pieces no more than 3/8" long.
The latter is used for cheap furniture and comes in 4x8 sheets too,
but chip board is a lot stronger. (but that doesn't mean it is good
for for wet places like bathroom floors.)

That sounds right, but I'm working off a memory from nineteen seventy
something when it was fairly new and held in great contempt by carpenters

I hold it in contempt too. When I was in college they replaced the
radiators in George Williams College, now a dorm for U of C, and htey
forgot to put one radiator back. When they turned the steam back on,
tThe desk and the wardrobe swelled to 3 times and the guy whose room
it was couldn't get them open to get his clothes, etc.

They are equivalent to the meat they sell which they call "chopped,
flaked, and pressed". That is, it's the meat they scrape off the
knife when they are cutting real meat for other people. (and that's
the good part.)

OTOH, it's a shame to waste all that junk if it can be used.


used to working with plywood. Chip/**** board seemed to be their name for
anything that held bits of wood connected by glue. Additionally, these old
gruffsters would NEVER use a four syllable word like "particle board" when
there was a two syllable word like "chip board" available!


Particle board has its place. It is fine as underlayment in a living
room or bedroom if you aren't putting down a real hardwood floor, and
SWMBO insists on W/W carpet anyway. Dense, very flat, gives floor a
solid feel, and holds up okay if you know it will NEVER get wet. And it
can be an okay middle layer between 2 or 4 plies of real wood, if it is
the high-pressure stuff. (Back in the day, that is what most speaker
boxes- remember walnut floor speakers?- were made of.)

I really hate seeing people using it as a structural member, though-
mainly in crap furniture, kitchen cabinets, or premade faux-woodgrain
shelving boards. Doesn't hold connectors worth a damn- even those barrel
inserts like the kit furniture uses in corners, and can't hold any
weight over even a short unsupported span. I've even seen people use it
for stair treads, which I think should be a code violation.

--
aem sends...