The holy grail of steel rulers

[paulrockliffe]

That was the point, inches are a better fit with the size of things and being able to work in inches for rough sizes of things that don't need an exact size is good, but having to then add and subtract dimensions to work out how big all the components should be by adding and subtracting fractions that aren't decimal is an easy way to get things wrong, or spend more time making sure it's right. I'm sure it's easy if you're brought up with it, but that's not the case for lots of us.

The difference between 1mm and 1/16th is irrelevant. What's the difference between 1mm + 5mm + 8mm - 4mm + 10mm and 1/16th + 3/8ths + 7/32nds - 1/4 + 1/2? And how long did it take to work each one out?

 

[MikeJhn]

Come on guys!

1 inch == 25.4mm

7 * (25.4 / 16) = 11.11mm
7 * (25.4 / 20) = 9.89mm

11.11 - 8.89 = 2.22mm

Mike

 

[Woodmonkey]

The later part of this thread is good advert for the metric system

Exactamundo!

 

[t8hants]

The later part of this thread is good advert for the metric system

There never can be a good advert for the metric system !

 

[Beau]

The later part of this thread is good advert for the metric system

There never can be a good advert for the metric system !

Not buying that.
Yes imperial is great for rough work. Use feet and inches myself for this but 16ths 64ths of an inch! madness IMO

mm all the way when accuracy is required

 

[Peter Sefton]

8 by 4 sheet please, 12mm thick

Some systems just work better in different circumstances.

We measure timber in my storeroom in feet and inches and then machine and make in mm, so much easier to be accurate and work in millimetres.

Cheers Peter

 

[Nelsun]

^Indeed. It may be an age thing, but I've no idea how tall I am in metric. Nor what i weigh in Kg. Although, were I to build my own coffin, I'd do it in millimetres

 

[woodbrains]

^Indeed. It may be an age thing, but I've no idea how tall I am in metric. Nor what i weigh in Kg. Although, were I to build my own coffin, I'd do it in millimetres

Hello,

Why would you measure the height of a 6 feet tall man in millimeters? :?

Mike.

 

[MikeJhn]

Do you mean 1828.8 man

Mike

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

I think from now on, I'm going to use the smallest increment on my rules, and measure moderately small dimensions in the multiples of many thousands of these. It seems to make sense to the metric users here, so i suppose it must be sensible, right? (hammer)

Yeah, right!

Took delivery of a fractional dial caliper last week. That will confuse the metric die hards no end. Is it, isn't it more, less accurate; does not compute....Does not compute :duno: :duno:

Mike.

 

[bugbear]

I love metric versus imperial threads. Right up there with sharpening.

BugBear

 

[Woodmonkey]

Come on it's not that hard, metres for big things, mm for small things!
I'm a metre 82 by the way. (No harder to say than 5 foot 11 and 3/4 inches or whatever ridiculous fraction it is)

 

[Beau]

I love metric versus imperial threads. Right up there with sharpening.

BugBear

The difference is that with sharpening there is more than one way that is right :wink:

 

[Nelsun]

^Indeed. It may be an age thing, but I've no idea how tall I am in metric. Nor what i weigh in Kg. Although, were I to build my own coffin, I'd do it in millimetres

Hello,

Why would you measure the height of a 6 feet tall man in millimeters? :?

Mike.

I wouldn't measure a persons height in millimeters because that would just confuse the bejeebiz out of me. It's feet and inches for that for me. But when it comes to making anything, it's metric all the way as that's what works in my head. I grew up with feet and inches so I'm not entirely sure why #-o

 

[transatlantic]

Ladies.. you're forgeting about the middle guy, cm's!

Personally I don't say 102mm or 56mm, .. I say 10.2cm or 5.6cm, and then when it's under say 2cm, will I start using 19mm or 12mm

I'ts funny though as when I try to visualize 1 meter, I will visualize ~3 feet, and when I need to visualize 1 foot, I will visualize a 30cm school ruler. Am I broken?

(I'm 29, and was brought up on the metric system)

 

[Phil Pascoe]

CMs? They are best forgotten. The work of the devil, and a blooody menace.

 

[MikeJhn]

In 1963 when I started work as a draughtsman in the construction industry, detailing Reinforced Concrete we where instructed by our client (Monsanto Chemicals) to dimension everything as normal in Imperial and put the Metric equivalent in brackets beside or underneath, this only lasted a year and we then went totally metric, but all metric dimensions where in mm, far to easy to confuse or not see a decimal point on a wet windy and dirty building site.

Mike

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I left school in 1972, and prior to that we had the option of drawing papers in either imperial or metric. Metric was metres or millimetres, centimeters were an absolute no no - they just invited errors.

 

[t8hants]

Never ever used centipedes, its meters and mills and that includes munching 14 meter steel beams to the required size.
Or Imperial depending on who is holding the tape with me.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I worked with a chippie, long dead now, who would ask me for things like a piece of 6" x 2" 250mm long with a 120mm long 15 mm groove half an inch deep 3" from the side.

And how can we forget ceiling boards and floor boards - one metric, one imperial? We should have done as Oz and NZ - and changed it all at the same time. Currency, weights, distances, volumes, the lot.