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Thread: Converted the shop today!

  1. #16
    I can't help but be the contrarian here. Looking just at length; Red blooded american system in order of increasing length: inch, hand, link, span, foot, yard, fathom, rod, chain, furlong, cable, mile, nautical mile, league. Poetry, history, tradition, like shakespeare.
    Same for dirty commie earth defiling metric system; attometer, femtometer,picometer,nanometer, micrometer, millimeter, …..blah blah….gigameter, terameter. Boring, soulless, as in me Tarzan You Jane. Don't even get me started on their confusion with weight and mass. OK will start, how can you say you "weigh" say 100 kilograms ( a mass unit) when they mean I weigh 980.665 Newtons. Which brings me to the fact that these rats named their force, energy and power units (Newton, Joule and Watt) after dead guys who never used their unclean system. OK, I will say one good thing about the degenerate metric system. Imagine a smiling bug with a hundred legs,call him a centimeter, Now imagine same bug lying on his back, legs curled, eyes closed. Know why it is called an erg? Cause its a Dyne-Centimeter. Ha Ha Ha and Ha. Ian

  2. #17
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    Ian you left out a 3 finger lid.
    That was very popular in the 70s and 80s
    Aj

  3. #18
    Never! I cannot think in metric. I have to convert any metric dimension to inches or feet and inches to understand it. But I bought a domino so I will have to occasionally use metric to set it. Like I did today. But several of my steel rulers have metric scales so not a big deal. I use fractional dial calipers for thickness. I could try and keep batteries in stock for my electronic calipers that will display metric but I do not see the point. Inches works fine for me. They work a lot better than mm and cm. But if the metric dimensions work for you that doesn't bother me.

  4. #19
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    Well I could go metric but most everything is in inches and feet. And I'm comfortable with inches and fractions.

    Just a bit off topic, what is wrong with foot pounds of torque? Anyone can understand it. The new thing is Newton meters, which makes sense to a few people.

    And while we are at it, what is wrong with PSI? Kilopascal's is nuts!

  5. #20
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    I got real close to puling the plug today and started adding metric conversion stuff to the cart. Then I came to all my squares and rulers, I don't have a lot, but it's still probably in the $300-$400 range of tooling that will become mostly redundant, guess I could sell some of these.

    I need the Incra LS Positioner conversion ($120), a Hammer metric dial gauge for my A3-31 ($100).

    So it's probably a $400-$500 proposition, such a tough decision.

  6. #21
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    Chris, I was fortunate that the set of rules that I already had in the shop were already "dual" metric/Imperial. For my Starett squares, I only needed the replacement rules which I was able to source from Lee Valley. So I got lucky for the most part in that respect. Pretty much all of my power tools are metric by default or are dual scaled.
    --

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

  7. #22
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    I also pretty much use decimal inches, although I can usually do a rough calculation in my head to convert from mm to inches. I just remember it's roughly 0.040" per mm (actually 0.039370078).
    It is also handy to have those digital calipers that convert from mm to inches and visa versa.
    David

  8. #23
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    It's tough to work in metric when you work on a jobsite and must coordinate with other trades. But if you're indecisive about metric vs imperial you can just make everything 19mm (3/4")......they're equal. 😁

  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Hughes View Post
    Ian you left out a 3 finger lid.
    That was very popular in the 70s and 80s
    And procurement from those with large fingers was always advantageous.

  10. #25
    Is a 3 fingered lid what I think it is? If so, as a guy who was in college in the early 60's, I kinda miss the olde days when we sat out in the woods and smoked. Hell now CPA's and judges sniff it and elevate it to fine scotch status, Bah. Also I do want to mention how it starts, first with dual scale speedometers and pretty soon, as in The Invasion of The Body Snatchers, they are here. Don't give them a .3048 meter hold, give em an 25.4 mm and they will take 1609.344 meters. Egads it's to late, they are here. Not even Scotland .9144 meter can save us now.

  11. #26
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    Congratulations. I’ll just say what I usually say; after nearly 4 decades of dreaming in octal and hex I find imperial very relaxing mentally.
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Radin View Post
    I can't help but be the contrarian here. Looking just at length; Red blooded american system in order of increasing length: inch, hand, link, span, foot, yard, fathom, rod, chain, furlong, cable, mile, nautical mile, league. Poetry, history, tradition, like shakespeare.
    Same for dirty commie earth defiling metric system; attometer, femtometer,picometer,nanometer, micrometer, millimeter, …..blah blah….gigameter, terameter. Boring, soulless, as in me Tarzan You Jane. Don't even get me started on their confusion with weight and mass. OK will start, how can you say you "weigh" say 100 kilograms ( a mass unit) when they mean I weigh 980.665 Newtons. Which brings me to the fact that these rats named their force, energy and power units (Newton, Joule and Watt) after dead guys who never used their unclean system. OK, I will say one good thing about the degenerate metric system. Imagine a smiling bug with a hundred legs,call him a centimeter, Now imagine same bug lying on his back, legs curled, eyes closed. Know why it is called an erg? Cause its a Dyne-Centimeter. Ha Ha Ha and Ha. Ian
    Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the observer’s point of view, your contrariness will be resolved one funeral at a time. It’s not American, it’s Imperial developed by the English. it’s not Commie, it’s scientific and used by many intelligent people everywhere including so called red blooded Americans.
    Last edited by Bernie Kopfer; 08-28-2019 at 3:34 PM.

  13. #28
    Ian, informative and funny. And Mel does not usually enjoy comedy with a serious undercurrent.

  14. Glad for you all who are comfortable with metric. I was taught over 50 years ago that metric would be universal very soon. If that works for you, whatever makes you happy in your shop. Decimal inches for me, 38 years in machining industry and metric was rarely used. Memorized decimal equivalents to the 64th long ago and it's easy for me.

  15. #30
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    William, interestingly, metric is all but universal with the exception of the "general public" in the US. Most manufacturing went to metric long ago for the most part, for example, which honestly, was necessary because the market is global, not local. The US was "supposed" to make the switch long ago as you mention, but it was never "enforced" and there has been less than ideal support in the K-12 education system, too. There is that one highway in I believe Arizona, however. Regardless...folks should use what they are comfortable with. As I mentioned earlier, I made the switch for the most part over a year ago and it's been great. I do have to do some client work in decimal inches because I'm making components for them that go into "inch" products, but for anything I'm designing and building, metric gets the nod. So I'm merely celebrating the OP's decision.
    --

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

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