Member
The big advantage of going metric is it will cut your measuring mistakes to almost nothing. I went metric about ten years ago and I can't remember the last time I made a measuring mistake.
I have both Imperial and metric tools in my shop, truth is it makes no never mind which is used other than a 8mm chisel matches up with a 5/16 mortise chisel and no one that I know of makes a 5/16 bench chisel.
ken
Contributor
Originally Posted by ken hatch
If I *AM* measuring, I try to use metric. The last couple projects that required it had to be imperial.. calling out measurements does no good if the other person has a different scale tape
Well, that and ... while I can tell you how many of what dart I need to double out right now on.. fractional math (especially division) is painful for me.
~mike
happy in my mud hut
Contributor
When I use chisels, if I’m doing something big I grab a big chisel, if I’m doing something small I use a small chisel. I don’t think I’ve ever actually measured my chisels to see whether or not they are exactly their nominal width. Nothing I’ve done has ever depended on a chisel being an exact size.
Contributor
I have no idea whether my chisels are metric or imperial, and I really don't care one way or the other. Likewise whether my plane shavings are thousandths of an inch thick or fractions of a millimeter (I'm guessing they are both!). I'm trying to think of an application in the shop where it might matter and am coming up empty-- today might have been an example, I needed to drill a hole and fit a plunger to it. I had some dowel labeled 1/2" and a 1/2" drill-- easy, right? Of course the dowel was neither round not any discernible even size in any measurement system, nor the same diameter over any 6" length I could find. So I drilled a hole with a drill that was about the size I wanted and went to the lathe and turned a plunger that fit my hole. It seems most everything is like that; if some dimension is constrained by your tooling you fit the other parts to it.
Member
The best advice I ever received was to pick a system and stay with it. Doesn't matter which one as they both work. I've pretty much transitioned to the metric system for my projects. I don't notice any difference other than the math is whole numbers instead of fractions. Like many of you, I avoid measuring if I can. I tend to use dividers, a sector, and other such things when I can.
Member
Working on a job in imperial, neighbour goes on a rant about not using metric, stupid imperial, stupid fractions. Then asks me to rip a board 6 1/2 centimeters wide for him. I said, 65 mm? He looked so confused.
Member
Funny,
ken
Contributor
That is when you tell him you will only work in cubits. If they were good enough for Noah, they are good enough for him.
Member
Where do I get a cubit rule?
Contributor
You could mark your own by starting here > https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop...e?item=99W7850
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
That tape certainly has no inaccuracies!
Contributor
Way back when I was in school, I could never remember the prefixes - as in went with which power of 10. An engineer friend of mone once told me that he had to convert furlongs per fortnight to centimeters per hour on a quiz.
Member
I have a few rulers that are metric on the back. Once in a blue moon I figure something out in metric, but usually I only use the metric rulers when I have to use my Festool Domino or track saw as I can never remember what a 3/4 or 1/2" board/ply/etc. is in metric and the markings on those tools are metric.
Wife is from a metric country. She can now think in Fahrenheit but she looks at me like I'm an alien when I say something like 5/8th of an inch. Her tape measure is in metric.
PS. I'm often mumbling "stupid metric" when forced to use it. I guess we are just used to what we are used to. As a plus I got a lot better with fractions after picking up woodworking.
Last edited by Erich Weidner; 09-03-2020 at 11:10 PM.
Contributor
Ah yes, the time honored Furlong-Firkin-Fortnight system of measurement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFF_system
At the research lab I worked at in college, when we wanted to mess with the uptight engineers, we would give them quantities in hogsheads, rods, pecks, hands, chains, squares, etc.
Member
What, no Smoots?
As far as the metric system goes, Rod Sheridan and I bantered about that some time ago. I'd hate to repeat myself. I haven't come up with any new jokes since.
-Tom
"The worst thing about getting old is losing your short term memory." -Carl Reiner's first twitter post
"The worst thing about getting old is losing your short term memory." -Carl Reiner's second twitter post
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