who has gone metric?

[MCRIPPPer]

i have to be good at inch pound system because it is used everywhere. at work i machine things in imperial because that's what everyone here uses, but at home, i get to use the lovely system that is SI.

 

[xalky]

I can work in both systems. The problem I have is that I was pretty much raised on Imperial measurements, so I think in those terms.

If someone says to me that a part is 15 1/2" long and 1/2" diameter, I immediately know what that looks like in my mind.

Now, If someone said the part is 1550mm by 14mm diameter, it means almost nothing to me. I have to refer to a metric tape measure or something to visualize what that means.

I can look at an Imperial HEX HEAD bolt and know immediately what size wrench to grab to turn it- Again, that's not the case with most metric bolts. Over the years I've gotten better at "knowing" a metric bolt size by sight, It's taken years of doing to get even a fuzzy recognition.

I think the brain gets locked into thinking in certain terms at a fairly young age, probably early 20s at the latest. After that you become kind of locked into what you learned as a youngster. I'm 49 yrs old. I suspect that most guys my age are in the same boat. )

 

[MCRIPPPer]

In the us we have probably only used the 1000th of an inch for less that 100 years, machinists measured everything in fractions of and inch and most of our tools still reflect this, fractional drills reamers ect. so we really didn't even convert out tools to 1000's of an inch yet that's only been a hundred years.
steve

this really pisses me off. especially on the milling machine when i need to find the radius of an end mill for example. the tooling is fraction and mill is decimal inch! and most of the fractions dont turn into a friendly decimal.

 

[Cobra]

In this country we solidly on the fence! Metric to drive or by flour, SAE to build houses, and both in machine and maintenance shops.
Overall not a big deal to adjust as you need. I think there is too much existing equipment and supplies to make a total change any time soon.

 

[MCRIPPPer]

actually the one thing i think will never change is carpentry. you will never see a 50x100 in the lumber store!

although 2x4 and 4x4 means nothing anyway.

 

[darkzero]

I can work in both systems. The problem I have is that I was pretty much raised on Imperial measurements, so I think in those terms.

If someone says to me that a part is 15 1/2" long and 1/2" diameter, I immediately know what that looks like in my mind.

Now, If someone said the part is 1550mm by 14mm diameter, it means almost nothing to me. I have to refer to a metric tape measure or something to visualize what that means.

I can look at an Imperial HEX HEAD bolt and know immediately what size wrench to grab to turn it- Again, that's not the case with most metric bolts. Over the years I've gotten better at "knowing" a metric bolt size by sight, It's taken years of doing to get even a fuzzy recognition.

I think the brain gets locked into thinking in certain terms at a fairly young age, probably early 20s at the latest. After that you become kind of locked into what you learned as a youngster. I'm 49 yrs old. I suspect that most guys my age are in the same boat. )

I can relate to that, when some one says a few thou or hundreths of an inch I have an idea of the size, but when some one says a few millimeters or a few tenths of a mm I have no clue.

But for me bolt heads are different, when I see one I can usually make out what size it is in both SAE & metric. That's because I used to work in automotive.

 

[John Hasler]

In this country we solidly on the fence! Metric to drive or by flour, SAE to build houses, and both in machine and maintenance shops.
Overall not a big deal to adjust as you need. I think there is too much existing equipment and supplies to make a total change any time soon.

Society of Automotive Engineers to build houses?

 

[darkzero]

Society of Automotive Engineers to build houses?

I used to wonder about the SAE designation for screw threads.... not sure about the building code thing, he probably just used the wrong term but we get the general idea.

United States Standard thread (USS thread), also known as Sellers Standard thread, Franklin Institute thread and American Standard thread, is a standard for inch based threaded fasteners and washers.

The USS standard is no longer supported. It, together with the SAE fastener standard, was incorporated into the Unified Thread Standard. However, the term, USS, continues to be used occasionally today to describe inch based threaded fasteners with a coarse thread pitch and inch based washers that are a little bit larger than the corresponding SAE washer. The Unified Thread Standard uses the term UNC (Unified National Coarse) to describe a fastener that previously would have been designated USS and the Unified Thread Standard uses the term UNF (Unified National Fine) to describe a fastener that would have previously been designated SAE.

SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, is a U.S.-based, globally active professional association and standards organization for engineering professionals in various industries.

 

[MCRIPPPer]

im guessing SAE is metric now? it seems all modern cars use metric parts.

 

[toag]

I am quickly getting my metric mics and depth gauges when i can. Good news is most metric go cheap on ebayz. I have digital for 0-1 so metrics covered there. i think it is easier to "go metric" if you use CNC, since the machine can quickly convert. the parts i am planning to make are metric, and it was a bit of effort to wrap my head around what 20 mm looked like size wise :rofl: