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Thread: Will 2020 be the year?

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Dufour View Post
    But plywood is all metric now. and 2x lumber has been small since the 1950's. I think it is interesting that building codes have not been modified to reflect the metric changes. The plywood for shear walls is actually a mm or so less then required but no one cares. Of course this is similar to using the old span tables that were designed for old growth lumber. But the east and west coast have dis-allowed clipped head nails and I am sure the middle of the country will do the same.
    Bill D.
    Bill, I agree, the trades have lots of little goofinesses to deal with, and that's my point. A framer knows how to space studs to fit the standard size products as they exist now. He knows that 3/4 ply is actually a little less, and that a 2x6 is actually not. It's a system that has warts, but works. Throw in a whole new level of craziness by changing the units of measure, and see what happens. Shoot, I make my guys use story sticks as much as possible just to avoid some of the measuring screwups with a measuring system they "understand" already.

    George illustrated the problem well when he said "40 cm". This actually has nothing to do with the metric system, it's actually about the industry standards. As the engineers, manufactures, and trades develop and incorporate product into the standard, it doesn't just happen. It's a process that works for each level. If one of those levels finds the product decreases the profit margin, it won't get used. I use Schluter products often, I can buy Kerdi board in several sheet sizes. I lay out tile in metric because it's easier math usually, but I buy the larger 4x8 sheets because they fit the room better and have less waste. Schluter makes the product in Canada, but the sheets raw sizes match building standards (4x8). If they didn't, I wouldn't use it.

  2. #32
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    I actually prefer buying the 4x8 sheets that are 49x97.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    I actually prefer buying the 4x8 sheets that are 49x97.
    I take it you mean inches and not mm?
    Ken

    So much to learn, so little time.....

  4. #34
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    When I was installing CVS pharmacys we would get some fixture from a Canadian company and their peg board was just a little wider then the Lozier fixture I had to leave almost 1/16 inch for each section It would throw off the other installers as it would not fit when they stated from the wrong end. This was a big problem as those installers were not really carpenters but just a bunch of women and a few flunky guys that were not trained very well. They person that trained them always had them start at the open end and work into a corner. and they never really leveled the fixture and wondered why the shelves wouldn't go in.

  5. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ken Fitzgerald View Post
    I take it you mean inches and not mm?
    Yea....it was just a reference to "nominal sizing" that had just come up relative to materials. I really do like the extra inch, of course, it's not generally applicable to building materials. Only the "good stuff". I do most of my actual measuring in metric at this point, however.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  6. #36
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    I actually prefer buying the 4x8 sheets that are 49x97.
    On one hand I like that also - but - on the other hand I don't.
    I have two 55" tracks for my track saw & one 42" track.
    The single 42" is no good for either 48" or 49", but, a single 55" and the 42" can just fit on a 48"x96" sheet & be usable - it takes a bit of manipulating - but - I've done it several times.
    No way no how can those two be used together on a 97" sheet.

    In case anyone asks or wonders - - I use the 42" & 55" instead of the two 55" sections because they mate together perfectly. The two 55" don't product a "perfect" cut.


    I thought it was significant in 1974 when they started selling gasoline in liters. Obviously I was wrong.
    I think that was more a failed PR stunt than anything else. That's back when OPEC started to turn the screws on us and people were mad about the price of gas per gallon. Putting up a price per liter instead gave the false impression that gas was cheaper. It failed in a spectacular manner, IIRC.

    Anyone else but me sick and tired of metric conversion discussions? Seriously, probably the biggest waste of time you can think of as far as I'm concerned. LOL
    Yeah,,,well,,sort of it is - I tend to agree,,,but,,,recent world events got me thinking about it. It looks like a couple of new players are going to be making a splash in the manufacturing world & both will be metric.
    Last edited by Rich Engelhardt; 06-17-2018 at 6:16 AM.
    My granddad always said, :As one door closes, another opens".
    Wonderful man, terrible cabinet maker...

  7. #37
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    I probably mentioned this before but when Dennis Archer was mayor of Detroit, he sent out a directive that all future city contracts were to use metric units only

    It was, of course, printed and sent out on 8.5 x 11 inch paper.

    It was and as far as I know continues to be ignored.

    At the water board we did use red for run and green for off. It dated back to the days of steam and those johnny-come-lately traffic signals just were wrong. It did create a lot of fun for the contractors trying to build us stuff.

    -Tom

  8. #38
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    I think that was more a failed PR stunt than anything else. That's back when OPEC started to turn the screws on us and people were mad about the price of gas per gallon. Putting up a price per liter instead gave the false impression that gas was cheaper. It failed in a spectacular manner, .[/QUOTE]
    I seem to remember that the mechanical gas pumps were unable to price higher then 99.99 cents per gallon. So they had to price by a smaller volume. It did make the pumps about four times faster.
    Bill D

  9. #39
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    Of all the countries in the world, only three backwaters still use the archaic Imperial system of weights and measures:


    • Liberia.
    • Myanmar (a.k.a. “the country formerly known as Burma”)
    • United States of America.

  10. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stewie Simpson View Post
    Of all the countries in the world, only three backwaters still use the archaic Imperial system of weights and measures:


    • Liberia.
    • Myanmar (a.k.a. “the country formerly known as Burma”)
    • United States of America.
    And yet we still manage to have the largest economy in the world, go figure?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...y_GDP_(nominal)

    ETA wiki link.
    Last edited by John Lanciani; 06-19-2018 at 7:25 AM.

  11. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Donley View Post
    Was it not confusion over imperial or metric that had the Hubble telescope sent up with the wrong grind on the lens making it unusable until a house call in space to fix it ? Opps.
    No Scott, it was a positioning error during the grinding process that produced the wrong shape optics in the Hubble telescope.

    The Mars Climate Orbiter was lost because Lockheed Martin used Imperial units instead of metric.

    regards, Rod.

  12. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Parks View Post
    It seems like you think metric is inevitable.
    If you do any work on a modern car, you will likely see a lot of it already is metric.

    Our milk is still in gallons, but our soft drinks are sold in both metric and ounce measures.

    It may be another century or two before we convert fully to metric. It will be sooner if we go through an economic blunder in the next few years.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  13. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rich Engelhardt View Post
    It looks like a couple of new players are going to be making a splash in the manufacturing world & both will be metric.
    I'm curious Rich, who?

  14. #44
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    If someone gives me a house or a door or cabinets to build with metric measurements, that's what I will build. Makes no difference to me.

    So far that has not happened.

  15. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    I actually prefer buying the 4x8 sheets that are 49x97.
    You wouldn't if you were sheeting a roof.

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