Lumber Talk

Simple Board Foot Calculator

This board foot calculator from the University of Missouri is the most straightforward and simple to use board foot calculator I have seen. The calculator even includes spaces for quantity and price/board foot to calculate your total price for you.

Calculate Total Weight Using Board Foot

To calculate weight, you can use the wood weights chart at WoodScience (the old home of Lumber Talk) and multiply the weight per board foot of the species of wood by the total board feet given by the board foot calculator.

That is, total weight = pounds/bdft X total bdft

Calculate Board Feet in Logs and Poles

I do not have a board foot calculator for round stock but here is a fairly simple way to calculate board feet of logs and poles. Use the average diameter of the pole or log to find the radius (r, or half the diameter) and use that to calculate the volume of the log or pole in board feet. Remember radius is simply half of diameter. To find the average diameter of a log or pole use:

Average diameter = (tip diameter + butt diameter)/2

Keeping the length in feet, use the average diameter in the equation for the volume of a cylinder to calculate the total board feet. Calculate board feet of logs and poles using:

Board feet of a log or pole = ((pi (r^2)) X length ) / 12

That looks uglier than it is. Once you have the average diameter of the pole, you can treat the pole as a simple cylinder. If you find a good board foot calculator for a pole, please comment on where it is. I will be happy to post it here and link to you for finding it.