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Rich Riddle
02-09-2015, 10:03 PM
Went to use a tape measure and noticed it had SAE on one side and metric on the bottom. Noticed the yard stick also has Standard on top and metric on bottom. Threw them both in the trash. Pick a team, any team, but stick to one.

Malcolm Schweizer
02-09-2015, 11:17 PM
I actually could have used that measure. I had a boat build going in metric and another in standard. By the way, speaking of picking one- the world has picked metric. So easy to loft plans in metric versus standard.
http://gizmodo.com/5786004/these-are-the-three-countries-who-dont-use-the-metric-system

Bruce Pratt
02-10-2015, 2:54 AM
better do the same for your car/truck... the speedometer probably reads in both mph and kph....

Randy Red Bemont
02-10-2015, 6:51 AM
I have a tape measure like that. I use it to convert measurements from one to the other. Comes in very handy at times. My everyday tape is standard.

Red

Rich Riddle
02-10-2015, 7:03 AM
better do the same for your car/truck... the speedometer probably reads in both mph and kph.... I don't need to flip the speedometer upside down to get the good reading though.

Brian Tymchak
02-10-2015, 7:59 AM
Went to use a tape measure and noticed it had SAE on one side and metric on the bottom. Noticed the yard stick also has Standard on top and metric on bottom. Threw them both in the trash. Pick a team, any team, but stick to one.

I have one like that and occasionally find the metric side useful. But it seems like I'm always in a situation where I want the scales reversed side-to-side on the tape. I have to sight across the tape to mark. Drives me nuts..

Grant Wilkinson
02-10-2015, 8:48 AM
Brian: If that happens often, you may want to invest in a right to left tape. I'm not being a smart ass. I have one and it does the trick.

Mike Lassiter
02-10-2015, 9:22 AM
I remember when the auto industry started using metric fasteners in the cars and trucks made in the US. You've invested thousands in tools and now you cannot do some very basic things without again having to start over buying metric wrenches and sockets to do simple things like you've done for years. Where you were use to seeing a 3/8" hex now you have a 10mm head, or the changing a 1/2" to a 13mm, 9/16" to 14mm. Many things became 15 mm. Didn't just totally change over but did force you to have to start over with buying new tools and trying learn to spot a 10mm verses 3/8" by eyeball when you were looking at what needed to be removed. It's hard to look at a 3/8" - 10mm, 1/2" - 13mm, 9/16" - 14mm and so on and tell them apart unless you do it often and get use to the slight difference. And again had to spent hundreds to thousands more for tools to make a living with.

Construction in US is and has been pretty much based on inches and feet forever. I know there are likely other needs for a retractable tape measure besides that were metric could be needed instead of inches but I too find the scale divided with one on either side to be undesirable when measuring anything to do with building. We do some stuff that occasionally calls for metric, but thankfully it's done in Corel Draw mostly were I can change the units to metric for that specific job.

I have a tape like the one the OP mentioned and I too dislike it because it always seems the metric scale is always on the side I need to measure inches from. I think it is fairly short, not sure - it's in the "junk drawer" and only used in a pinch when a real tape measure isn't at hand. Makes you wonder if that was by accident or design. And they have one that is reversed I see so we can buy another one in order to use it like we want to. Kind of like with the wrenches......

Myk Rian
02-10-2015, 9:44 AM
I don't see a problem. I bought a tape BECAUSE it had both.

Mike Lassiter
02-10-2015, 9:57 AM
I don't see a problem. I bought a tape BECAUSE it had both.

And I bought one that didn't because we don't build anything in metric around here.

To each his own.

Jim Matthews
02-10-2015, 10:23 AM
I find my measuring tapes very useful, if I use them with a sharpie marker.

That makes transferring dimensions easier. I can't speak to other methods,
but measurements are rough for me - I get the exact fit from the parts, themselves.

Brad Adams
02-10-2015, 11:19 AM
I wish you could buy a tape in the US with only metric on it. They are very hard to find. Its so much easier to build furniture in metric.

Rich Riddle
02-10-2015, 11:27 AM
I wish you could buy a tape in the US with only metric on it. They are very hard to find. Its so much easier to build furniture in metric.
Amazon can be your friend when you want something like that. I have the following tape when needing to measure in metric.

http://www.amazon.com/Starrett-KTX34-5M-N-Measuring-Graduation-Interval/dp/B00ELMS1G8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1423585511&sr=8-5&keywords=metric+tape+measure

I simply dislike the tapes and rulers that have both scales.

Dave Zellers
02-10-2015, 12:08 PM
I have been thinking it would be interesting to make a cabinet only using metric from design to completion but haven't done it yet. This has got me thinking that again.

I'll have to check how many milliliters of finish I have left.

Brian Tymchak
02-10-2015, 12:16 PM
Brian: If that happens often, you may want to invest in a right to left tape. I'm not being a smart ass. I have one and it does the trick.

Thanks for the tip Grant! I didn't realize those existed. Think I will be picking one up very soon.

Wade Lippman
02-10-2015, 12:29 PM
I understand your frustration, but there are just as many times I grab a yard stick only to find it doesn't have the metric I needed.

Sure wish we would convert. Can you imagine never having to screw with two systems again?

Mike Lassiter
02-10-2015, 12:40 PM
I understand your frustration, but there are just as many times I grab a yard stick only to find it doesn't have the metric I needed.

Sure wish we would convert. Can you imagine never having to screw with two systems again?

No. Not in our lifetime. Too many things here now to just stop. We'd be stuck in the middle still for decades. But if we had done it back in the 70's when it all started we would be further along now I suppose. Science fields have always used metric where construction has been inches. I imagine if you work and deal with something that is all one or the other it is easier than trying to dabble with both.
But still - it gives us something to disagree on.:)

Rich Riddle
02-10-2015, 5:43 PM
I remember as a child the teachers teaching us the metric system in second grade (1970). They were convinced we were moving toward the metric system. Remember when the soft drinks went to a 2 liter bottle? Well that has been a long time and we are no closer today than 45 years ago in second grade.

Grant Wilkinson
02-11-2015, 10:16 AM
Mike: Canada "converted" a very long time ago and we are still "stuck in the middle". I think it's the fault of you guys in the US, being so much bigger than we are. :D (Please notice the big grin.) We buy 2 x 4's (they're not really 2 x 4, or course), but they are not metric either. We buy 4 X 8 sheets of plywood that may or may not be 3/4" thick. They may be 19mm. It seems to depend of the source. And the list goes on. The cost to change was staggering, and we still have not fully converted - and likely will not in my lifetime.

Jerome Stanek
02-11-2015, 11:46 AM
When I was installing drug store fixture we had to take into account where the gondola came from. OSF gondola looked just like Lozier fixture but it was metric and just a shade bigger so a long wall you could gain about an inch

Mike Cozad
02-13-2015, 7:32 AM
My first job out of the service was in the semiconductor industry working on photolithograpy machines. It was my first real exposure to metric systems other than the occasional automobile fastener. It was so much easier than converting inches and fractions to decimals, yada, yada, yada. My next job was in metal stamping making food cans. The machines we ran were oldrt than me and were all SAE. When we started buying new machines, many of the manufacturers were in the UE so the machines were metric. It wasn't uncommon for me to come in some morning to find out we didn't "have" the proper metric faster in stock to effect some repair overnight so my ham-fisted shadetree trained mechanic types would have drilled it out and tapped it for an SAE fastener. ALL repairs in the future frustrated him and his brethren because now it was mix and match and hard to tell what was what. Not to mention the repair was normally pretty poorly done with a hand drill and the incorrect size bit for the tap..... I foundd it was usually just their way of making a statement against having to buy metric tools for their tool box...

glenn bradley
02-13-2015, 8:29 AM
Brian: If that happens often, you may want to invest in a right to left tape. I'm not being a smart ass. I have one and it does the trick.

I have R to L tapes at the bench and the tablesaw. I have rules in 4R generally but, also have a set of 4 that have the imperial/metric scale on the front only; sometimes useful, sometimes annoying ;-)

Caspar Hauser
02-13-2015, 9:41 AM
Would it make sense to mark off your required measurements from your inconvenient source onto story sticks or perhaps one of these,

http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=65359&cat=1,43513 (http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=65359&cat=1,43513) ?

Cheers

CH

Jim Koepke
02-13-2015, 3:23 PM
Among my first cars were a lot of VWs. So my tool kit is mostly metric. In the long run it is cheaper to buy a metric set and fill in the SAE sizes that aren't convertible to metric sizes.

For woodworking my preferred ruler is an old Stanley four fold yard stick. it reads right to left. Most of the time now my measuring and marking is done using a story stick:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?226134-Story-Stick-Gauge

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?227480-Here-s-Another-Story

Here are some story sticks being used to do math:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?226983-Story-Stick-Math-amp-SWMBO-s-Cabinet

The odd jobs is just another tool that can act like a story stick.

jtk

Kent A Bathurst
02-13-2015, 4:14 PM
Mike: Canada "converted" a very long time ago and we are still "stuck in the middle". ............. The cost to change was staggering, and we still have not fully converted - and likely will not in my lifetime.

Says the guy who reads everything, every day, printed in two languages. :D

Grant - imperial v metric is the least of your "conversion" problems. Until the Quebecois are able to make a successful run at annexing the other provinces, in which case everything will be resolved, eh? :p

Rod Sheridan
02-13-2015, 7:43 PM
Says the guy who reads everything, every day, printed in two languages. :D

Grant - imperial v metric is the least of your "conversion" problems. Until the Quebecois are able to make a successful run at annexing the other provinces, in which case everything will be resolved, eh? :p

Kent, it all works out in the wash.

When I'm working in Virginia I can't help noticing the increasing use of Spanish..........Pretty soon we'll both have bilingual packaging...........Rod.

Jim Becker
02-13-2015, 9:19 PM
As I'm experimenting with metric in the shop, I'm actually thankful that I have both measurement systems available on many of my rules and tapes. And given there is a certain percentage of goods that are referenced in metric, that utility has even more value to me. I don't think we live in a "pick one" world anymore when it comes to measuring systems... ;)

Ole Anderson
02-14-2015, 12:43 AM
I have the FastCap righty-lefty. Only problem is that they assumed that most people read the bottom of the tape not the top. I read and mark at the top so for me, it is backwards. I do like their tapes though, they even have a built in pencil sharpener. And English only for me. Metric is not my first language.

And I remember when the Michigan Department of Transportation converted to metric on all of their plans. It lasted for a few years before they gave up on it.

I get a hoot out of all of the Canadian home improvement/inspection shows, half the time they are metric the rest of the time they throw out English units. How is that better? On paper metric makes sense but when a whole nation (USA) was divvied up on the English foot, yard and mile system including billions of legal property descriptions, what is the point of changing. As for the auto industry, I just wish they would go one way or the other. I can deal with metric fasteners no problem. Most American vehicles have both metric and SAE fasteners which is dumb.