I ran a Biesse pod and rail and it is metric. the readouts to set the pods are easier to set in metric as everything is based on 10sOriginally Posted by Pat Barry
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I ran a Biesse pod and rail and it is metric. the readouts to set the pods are easier to set in metric as everything is based on 10s
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Using a SI keyboard I see...
If the second part of my post didn't make the first part of then post obvious, I can't help you.
IT'S A STICK! The Imperial system just has different sticks to choose from. Mixing a meter in with the inch/foot/yard/rod/mile doesn't matter.
Just because something is 12-3/8 inches long doesn't change the fact that it is .314325 meters, or 1.03125 feet, or .0002 of a mile. It's still the same length. Some units are easier than others. Some things it doesn't even matter. Does it make any more sense that one light year is 5.879e+12 miles, or 9.461e+15 meters? (I had to google that one) For volumes, and converting to weight of water, metric is way easier because the system was built around it.
To put it plainly, SI was designed for the science community. The imperial system worked it's way out of a few thousand years of human relation to the body and environment. The inch is similar to the rule of thumb. The foot is pretty obvious. The yard is the human pace.
It's like saying The Swedish Krona is worth more than the Mexican Peso. Nope. It just takes more Pesos to buy a Volvo, but that Volvo has the same value no matter what.
To the OP, make the switch. It doesn't change anything. 3/8 of a meter is still .375m or 14-3/4"
Last edited by Martin Wasner; 02-07-2018 at 8:05 AM.
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That will be the driver, I think. I get along OK with metric distance and weight but KW and Newtons are still difficult.
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For me, the advantage to switching to metric for CNC was that a couple of the early hobbyist communication / control programs were metric only, so one pretty much had to switch.
I also had to work up a bunch of feed / speed charts, and I just found it easier to standardize on one style of unit, and on the smaller hobbyist machines, the finer units allow at least the illusion of more control.
So, I draw up a file in Imperial, open it in my CAM program, set the stock size using Imperial, then switch the program to metric and finish it out --- the app doesn't care about the bizarre decimals, and as long I don't have to deal with them too directly, I'm able to cope as well.
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^Exactly. People are resistant to change because they are CONVERTING (sorry, didn't mean to shout).
Mr. Schweizer has it nailed, as it is about visualization: If someone tells you to cut about 250mm off of the end of a board, do you spend 4-5 minutes converting to fraction inches? Or, do you grab a saw, 'visualize' that you need a piece slightly wider than the span of spread open human hand, and whack it off. Done!
How long to drive 100km on the freeway (non-LA)? 4-5 minutes converting..? Or do you just blurt out, "about an hour"?
I work in imperial, just because I'm accustomed to it and all my 'sticks' are such, but I hate combining or comparing fractions (quick, is 17/32" more or less than 33/64"). And every time I see this and related topics, I resolve to go buy new measuring 'sticks'.
(IMHO +/- 1mm is probably accurate enough for 80% of the woodwork done, and +/- 0.1mm gets the next 19.99%.)
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Curt, weight is in Newtons, as it's a force. The pound is also a unit of force, not mass.
The unit of mass is the gram (or Kilogram), or in the imperial system the unit of mass is the slug.
Canada went metric in the seventies, and for me, science has always been metric as I was in post secondary in the seventies.
At home I switched to metric about 20 years ago for wood working. I find it much easier to design in metric as nobody cares if my furniture has a 3/4" thick board or a 20mm thick board.
Same for table legs, do you care if they're 50mm or 2"? Design is so much easier in metric, when I bought my new shop equipment I specified all metric gauges, makes stuff really easy. Need a 20mm thick piece? Set the planer to 20mm and that's what you get. Need an 823mm long piece? Set the crosscut fence to that and away you go.
Regards, Rod.
P.S. Curt, with all that said, I often see forms with a space for your body weight in Kg or pounds, some further education required
Last edited by Rod Sheridan; 02-07-2018 at 8:49 AM.
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I've never switch to metric, but I use it all the time when dividing or spacing out something.
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Metric is easier to use for most people most of the time. However...
1 - fractions are more precise than decimals. 2/3 is precise; 0.666666 etc etc is not.
2 - the metric systems' claimed logical link to physical reality (e.g.length of the meter as a decimal fraction of the earth's diameter at the equator) is illusory b.s. For the most part the measurements aren't accurate and the claimed relationships more a matter of virtue signallng than reality.
3 - there is a possible ( very hypothetical at this point) deep complication - use of imperial measure is more demanding than use of metric (for simple measurements like inches vs centimeters). Excercising the brain pays off - 1/2" is not smarter than 12mm; but it is more precise and you do have to use your brain a bit more to work with it. There is now some evidence that many 2nd and 3rd generation asians who are genetically identical to 1st and 2nd generation do worse on standardized IQ and aptitude tests than their predecessors and the probable cause for this is that they don't learn to speak, read, and write chinese (or whatever) along with English. i.e. that the complexity of language use excercises the brain and pays off in other skills. Use of imperial vs metric may work the same way simply because it is harder to work with fractions and unrelated (arbitrary) measures.
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Honestly, this is the crux that I found in this journey...stopping the "converting" and just measuring. The challenge behind that is mental visualization still has to catch up since I and many others "grew up" visualizing in different units of measure. I'm slowly but surely getting there. In some respects, it's a little like learning another spoken language...human nature has us "mentally translating", slowly at first, and over time as we become "fluent" we begin to be able to think in the alternative language. Some folks are more suited to this and other's take longer. Ultimately, however, almost anyone will get there via immersion. So my bottom line is that if one wants to embrace metric...do it by committing to it. That immersion is important to move beyond the "conversion/translation" phase and into just thinking in that new system/language.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
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If you’re doing it for a hobby have at it. If you are in the trades forget it, it’ll cost you money every day. Few trades people talk or use metric , so if you think you’re going to change the world , good luck to ya!
NASA uses metric....the Appolo guidance equipment was programmed in SI.
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The control panels for the L.E.M. at least read out in Imperial measure.
Contributor
So then you buy all metric drill bits, metric router bits, etc? If you have to use a vendor, do you convert everything back into Imperial?
Fractions do suck. I have a 12" engineer ruler that spaces each inch with 10 spaces. That's a quick way around the metric problem, sort of. You would really need an inch divided into 20 spaces to get the precision you may want. (1/16" = .064" & 1 mm = .039")
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That comment was (at best) irrelevant. So is the rest of the comment given here.
Just because something has been in use for many years or people are used to it doesn't mean it is easier to use. I am sure using horses to go from point A to point B has been in use for thousands of years.
It is obvious whatever system you use an inch is still an inch. The question is which system is easier to work with. If you find adding/subtracting and multiplying fractions easier than decimal good for you. For most people, calculating how much would be 12 times 2 9/16 will take longer than calculating 12 times 65mm (if you work within 1/16 or about 1mm accuracy these two distances are about the same).
Last edited by mreza Salav; 02-07-2018 at 11:58 AM.
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I guess they don't have those new fangled calculators in Canada yet.
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