Moving to England

[kafkaian]

Dan,

Welcome

Bring some wood with you! Or preferably anchor a hardwood forest the size of Virginia off the west coast (without bridging across to mainland Europe).

All the best

Ian Haplogroup I

 

[NickWelford]

Welcome Dan. (Hey guys - he might be a colonel or something.....)

So all you others..... bear in mind that although Dan is here he has a US postal address, in the AFP number, so can help you order tools with low shipping (and dare I say it, no customs charges .....) so invite him round to share that bottle of scotch.....

Oh yes, Dan - supermarkets regularly have good malts on special offers and you can get some reasonable stuff for $30. There are hundreds of different single malts, so enjoy the experience.

Whereabouts are you being posted from? My step-daughter is USAF and is stationed in Greenland at the moment - no toolshops there either! Or trees......

 

[White House Workshop]

Our pints are 20% more than yours so are our gallons

Not true as written. Our pints and gallons are 25% more than the US ones. Written the other way round, US gallons and pints are 20% less than ours.

US pint - 16 floz, UK pint = 20 floz. so 4 floz difference.

Back on topic - those yellow portable transformers (shown earlier) will work for the lower powered tools, but if you have any heavy stuff like a tablesaw it'll burn them out - I speak from personal experience. I bought a large 110-240 transfromer in the US and brought it over here - again FAR cheaper in the US ($100 there versus about $350 here).

Bring some consumables with you - 10" saw blades, for example, and recip saw blades - all cheaper there.

Wood prices in the US have been creeping up and there isn't a lot of difference on basics now, although exotics are still much cheaper there - and most of them you can't get here anyway (no demand, so no import). However, if you've space in your shipping container, put some boards in!

Welcome to Blighty!

 

[Sgian Dubh]

US pint - 16 floz, UK pint = 20 floz. so 4 floz difference.

There's a bit more to it than even that. The US fluid ounce is bigger than the Imperial fluid ounce. As you say, there are 16 US fluid ounces in a US pint, and 20 Imperial fluid ounces in an Imperial pint, but that's not the same as 4 liquid ounces difference in volume using either measure.

The way I go is with litres to compare because a litre is a litre is a litre. For instance, from memory meaning I could be a bit out, A US gallon is 3.85 litres and an Imperial gallon is 4.54 litres.

Back to electrical stuff, when I moved back to the UK after ten years living in Houston, Texas (probably the most miserable climate in all of the USA incidentally) I just brought over all my US configured small power tools and use them with one of those yellow transformers others have suggested. They work just fine with the correct plugs and sockets attached to the leads at appropriate places.

Fixed machinery, eg, cabinet saws and planers are best left in Americaland as they won't work over here without some serious fiddling and expense. Slainte.

 

[White House Workshop]

US pint - 16 floz, UK pint = 20 floz. so 4 floz difference.

There's a bit more to it than even that. The US fluid ounce is bigger than the Imperial fluid ounce. As you say, there are 16 US fluid ounces in a US pint, and 20 Imperial fluid ounces in an Imperial pint, but that's not the same as 4 liquid ounces difference in volume using either measure.

So how do you figure this:

In the UK - a pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter
In the US - a pint of water weighs a pound

Maybe the weights are different, too?????

On to the litre conversions as quoted - 4.54 is 18% bigger than 3.85, which is neither 20% or 25%. Are American litres different?

What's the right answer? The right answer is that a fluid oz is a fluid oz in BOTH countries. Just to check, I took my wife's 1 cup measure bought in the US back in about 1982 and poured one cup of water into our old-fashioned British measuring jug - and it showed 8 fluid ozs. Now, there are 2 cups in an American pint......

Work it out for yourself. :wink:

 

[Chris Knight]

Google says:-


1 Imperial pint = 1.20095042 US pints

1 US pint = 0.832673844 Imperial pints

 

[Jake]

What's the right answer? The right answer is that a fluid oz is a fluid oz in BOTH countries.

It's not quite that straight forward: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_ounce

 

[George_N]

Hi Dan and Welcome to the forum.
Since you have already indicated your liking for scotch whisky I hope you'll find time to travel north and sample some at source. The Glenkinchie distillery isn't too far from where I live but I find their single malt a bit bland. My preference is Highland Park, distilled in Kirkwall, Orkney. Unfortunately the prices are similar to what you are used to paying because of our high tax on alcohol (just wait 'til you fill up your car with petrol).

To add a little to the discussion on weights/measures/volumes, according to Wikipedia (reliable?) an imperial fluid ounce is equal to 28.4130625 ml whereas a US Customary fluid ounce = 29.5735295625 ml, so according to that source, not exactly the same.

 

[doorboy]

00dannyboy,
When you go to Scotland to "investigate" the whisky, check out a distillery called "Edradour" near the town of Pitlochry. Great whisky--though expensive--set in one of the prettiest parts of the world.
Enjoy your tour over there and stay safe.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

So how do you figure this:

In the UK - a pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter
In the US - a pint of water weighs a pound

Maybe the weights are different, too?????

Well, a pound is a pound, but there's 128 liquid ounces in a US pint and 160 in an Imperial pint, so right away we know there's something askew with that 4 liquid ounce difference between a US pint and an Imperial pint. This translates into the 8 lb US gallon and the 10 lb Imperial gallon.

"1 US fluid ounce = 29.5735295625 millilitres ≈ 1.041 imperial fluid ounces
1 imperial fluid ounce = 28.4130625 millilitres ≈ 0.961 US fluid ounce" (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (2008) Comparison of the imperial and US customary measurement systems, [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... nt_systems [Accessed, January 28, 2008])


Now, when you get to tons it gets even more whacky. A British ton is 20 hundredweight (cwt) or 2240 lbs at 112 lbs per cwt.

The American ton is also 20 cwt, but it comes in at 2000 lbs! Huh you may go. In their cwt they have 100 lbs.

To eliminate all confusion (sic, and ha bloody ha) these two types of ton are the long ton and the short ton. I bet you can work out which is which!

I think I'll miss out the 1000 kg tonne, aka metric tonne, altogether for now.

On to the litre conversions as quoted - 4.54 is 18% bigger than 3.85, which is neither 20% or 25%. Are American litres different?

I provided a wrong figure from memory. I got the Imperial gallon right at 5.54 litres: it's actually 5.546 litres, but I just use 5.54 as close enough for most things. The US gallon is 3.785 litres, not 3.85 as I said earlier. My error, but I don't always remember all the conversions spot on, and jings I've probably spent too much of my life juggling between different systems of measure, ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[Digit]

See what you've started Dan? :lol:

Roy.

 

[Woody Alan]

I provided a wrong figure from memory. I got the Imperial gallon right at 5.54 litres: it's actually 5.546 litres

Are you sure? I thought it was 4.545454etc recurring

Alan

 

[00dannyboy]

I'll have to sneak in wood where i can. They wont let you ship "wood" on its own. So, i might have to make some wooden "boxes" that they wont recognize. lol Any requests for exotics? (in small quantities of course) And, it'll be made into something.

Scotch: I'm sure i'll have to tour more distilleries than my wife will think appropriate. Hopefully she'll get tired of tagging along on those excursions and eventually leave me to my vice. lol That seems like a plausible plan.

As for whatever tools i order from the states. Hopefully they are shipped cheaply. As long as i can beat the price of something "on the economy" i'll be happy. I have to feel like i've won at something. If i cant win with the tools then it's back to scotch tour.

You guys are hilarious. all this banter about the liter and ounce and pint and gallon. At least you all have a sense of humor. some "people" on this side of the pond tend to get caught up in their own seriousness.

slainte,

dan

 

[Digit]

some "people" on this side of the pond tend to get caught up in their own seriousness.

You'll meet a few of 'em here Dan, believe me.

Roy.

 

[doorboy]

By the way, Dan.
While driving--stay to the LEFT.

 

[Slim]

By the way, Dan.
While driving--stay to the LEFT.

Why? A lot of the drivers I encounter in Bradford don't. :roll:

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I provided a wrong figure from memory. I got the Imperial gallon right at 5.54 litres: it's actually 5.546 litres

Are you sure? I thought it was 4.545454etc recurring

Alan

You're correct Alan. I think I had a 'fat finger' moment and hit the 5 instead of the 4 in the first instance in that post and then, through concentrating on what I'd already typed, I repeated the incorrect 5 again.

Yes, it's 4.456 litres per Imperial gallon, not 5.456 litres. Apologies to all for confusing things.

The funny thing is that I got it correct in my earlier post. Oh well. No-ones perfect. Slainte.

 

[Devon Transplant]

Hi Dan and good luck on your transfer. If you've been with the Air Force for some time, I expect it's not your first (nor will it be your last).

I'm a Yank who transferred over here for work reasons almost 6 years ago, and then upon retirement decided to stay. And as with any place in this world, there are good and bad things here. You've seen a few postings about the good side, like REAL beer, a sense of humor that still surprises me at times and from the woodworking perspective, probably better hand tool skills than you'd generally see in the US. I find the biggest downside is the cost of almost everything. A rule of thumb is whatever you can buy in the states in dollars will cost the same in pounds here. And with the exchange rate now about 2:1, that means you'll be spending twice as much for tools. And booze, including scotch, is overpriced due to the taxes. You can buy good malts cheaper in Spain than you can here, and that includes Scotland.

So max out your moving allowance, and bring all the tools you can afford (or can convince your wife to let you buy). But once you're here, try to do as much as you can away from the base, including buying real vegetables and meat from a farm rather than at the BX. Visit your local (pub) and get to know your neighbors. And finally, be happy that you'll have moved to a country where people take pride in making fun of their politicians, celebrities and each other.

 

[00dannyboy]

Thanks for the advice.

Ive got 10 years in now and only 10 to go. Woo Hoo! Im excited to move to England and especially to woodwork in England as well. Maybe I can finagle my way into a makeshift apprenticeship in my off time.

I'd like to go to germany for an assignment as well. After that, the Air Force can do with me what they have already been doing with me. lol

I know what you mean about real vegetables and meat. I grew up in a junkyard and my mother and grandfather also farmed on an acre out in the back of the yard. nothing like home grown anything. tomatoes, watermelon, ad infinitum. maybe some real cheese over there too.

Cheers,

dan

 

[srs]

Hi, Dan

Mildenhall or as more than a few locals call it Moldyhole is not a bad place to be living, well I hope so as I've moved here a couple of months ago, not a lot I wish to bring to the "pint" debate but as mentioned before stay on the left (I've already seen 4 good shunts involeing your countrymen)

Oh, just one suggestion try the Thai takeaway / restraunt in the village it comes well recommended.

Simon