Should we go to the metric system?

[Gene Howe]

I don't give a rodent's patootie either way. I just wish there was one standard!
If plywood is measured in MM, then make a few straight router bits in MM and advertise them so us non techie idiots can find them along side the imperial ones. Don't advertise "Special Bits" for "undersized plywood".....just sell me a bit that will dado for "3/4" ply. "1/2" ply etc.! Same with dado sets, too.

AND!!!! make all plywood and lumber to ONE measurement standard. I don't care if that standard is from Mars, just make up your mind and settle on ONE!

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Double the tooling, double the inventory, double the packaging, double the errors in ordering and shipping.....

technician miss-read inches for cm.

Mechanics must buy 2 sets of tools to work on cars.

If we all had to buy a PC AND a Mac

8x10 isn't a multiple of any other picture measurement.

Quick, divide 11/32" into thirds.

None of which I find compelling Mitch. I don't think in fractions though. I think in thousandths of an inch, then feet then yards.

Manufacturers are not making things especially for us. They are meeting a receptive market and making money doing it. Carp Diem.

Technicians make mistakes, if not that, then another.

Mechanics can specialize or not, I don't much care.

If sites catered to the MAC, I'd just ignore them.

It is meaningless to me whether the dimensions of a photo enlargement is apropos of anything else in the universe.

I have never heard an argument that supports my going through any effort to accommodate some one else's idea of a measuring system. It doesn't make anything come out better.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have never heard an argument that supports my going through any effort to accommodate some one else's idea of a measuring system. It doesn't make anything come out better.

Come on Cliff, you expect me to believe that you invented your own system rather than accomodating the imperial system?

Regards, Rod.

[Norman Hitt]

Go to the lumber yard and try to get a 50mm X 100mm X 2.44 meter board.

Who would Want One????

Before folks started trying to impose the Metric system on everyone, we had
good quality Plywoods that were called 1/4", 1/2", 3/4", etc, and they actually measured the same, but now we have some metric mess that they still call 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 that but is reduced to the next lower size metric number, and guess what layer of plywood they made thinner......... the face layer, of course. Some of it looks as thin as paper.
(note that they certainly didn't increase the size to the next higher metric number OR improve the quality, because that would have taken more material, right, but we are FORCED to accept it anyhow).

To work on almost any automobile in the US today, you have to have BOTH metric and imperial sets of wrenches, (tool co's like it because they get to sell a lot more tools).

The Imperial system has worked fine here for 200 years, and I really don't care what any other country in the world does, (in their country), as long as they don't try to dictate what we do in ours.

[Tom Winship]

Water and gas pipe for houses is based on ID of std wall thickness pipe. PVC is something else. Pipe used in the oilfield is based on OD (which kind makes sense), but then oilfield barrels are 42 gallons instead of 55 gals like std imperial measure. So now lets change all this to metric and it would really be fun.
Drill bits in the oilfield are measured as the hole size they drill in inches. Probably 20 years ago, API (American Petroleum Institute) said they had to have the metric size printed on the box in parenthesis. No one ever knew the metric hole size.

[Jeff Bratt]

There is one standard - metric. The official definition of the inch is 25.4 mm - the whole imperial system is just a special case of the real world standards. In the original poll, choice #2 will NEVER happen. The real choices are 1) the US finishes its switch to metric or 2) the US continues its path of a "two different measurement systems" society.

Someone else mentioned there has been little progress towards metric since the 70s - that is just not true. Whole industries have switched to metric - it's just that woodworking isn't one of them. Home cooking and recipes is another example where traditional units dominate.

During this long changeover period many will not switch, and won't be forced to. But sticking our collective heads in the sand and hoping that metric will go away is not realistic.

[Bill Cunningham]

Canada got dragged kicking and screaming into the metric age by the Canadian version of Obama, called Trudeau back in the 70's. I can work in either, but being over 60, I'm much more comfortable with feet and inches. Kids today, don't seem to be able to work in either Metric or Imperial. The one thing that no one seems to realize is all the extra money it's going to cost you.. The 10mph over the speed limit 'gimme' that's common now, will drop to 10 kph or 6 mph. So, now you get the ticket at 6mph over, but the fine you get for say 15 miles over the limit, will now apply to 15 klm over the limit (9 mph). When the sign at the gas station says gas only went up 2 cents, that's 2 cents per liter or 7 cents a gallon (U.S). It will be much easier for the oil companies to jack up prices, because a couple of cents here and there does not seem like much. There was a time when we would drive half way across town for a saving of .20 per gallon, now the price goes up .10 cents a liter (37.8 cents per gal U.S.) and no one bats an eye.. It WILL cost you more money..Think not? It's common in Canada. by the way, a 2x4 is still called a 2x4 in Canada, and most construction companies still order 4x8 sheets of what ever.. Somethings will never change, but the areas that allow the government to squeeze more money out of you will expand quite a bit... I Rarely work in metric, and most of my suppliers work in both.. I would not miss it if it were gone, as a matter of fact, I would be money ahead..

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Come on Cliff, you expect me to believe that you invented your own system rather than accomodating the imperial system?

Regards, Rod.

Oh well ya got me there. I didn't invent the inch standard. I grew up with it. So it's what I know and am comfy with.

Anyway did you know that it is a stone cold fact that Metrics are inherently more dangerous even lethal than the inch standard?

[Mitchell Andrus]

Oh well ya got me there. I didn't invent the inch standard. I grew up with it. So it's what I know and am comfy with.

Anyway did you know that it is a stone cold fact that Metrics are inherently more dangerous even lethal than the inch standard?

OK, Ill bite.

How is it a stone cold fact that Metrics are inherently more dangerous even lethal than the inch standard?
.

[Horton Brasses]

You could scrap both systems for woodworking and go with Bob's Rule:

http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/category/bob.html

[Rod Sheridan]

OK, Ill bite.

How is it a stone cold fact that Metrics are inherently more dangerous even lethal than the inch standard?
.

Mitch, don't go there!

It has something to do with 90% of the woodworking accidents in the world happen to people who use the metric system.

Regards, Rod.

[John Coloccia]

Mitch, don't go there!

It has something to do with 90% of the woodworking accidents in the world happen to people who use the metric system.

Regards, Rod.

Maybe, but which would you rather loose: 1" of your finger or 1mm of your finger, hmmm? I think I've made my point.

[Rod Sheridan]

You could scrap both systems for woodworking and go with Bob's Rule:

http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/category/bob.html

That's pretty funny, I enjoyed that.

Bob made an excellent point that the millimetre is a perfect unit for wood working, it's small enough to be accurate without being a problem to read on a ruler, and it's easy to visually split in half to obtain a half millimetre measurement.

I don't buy Bobs argument that 2286mm is hard to work with, how about 228.6cm or 2.286m.

Try converting 2,286 inches to feet and inches in your head.

I grew up with the Imperial system in Canada, however science and engineering had been metric for a long time prior to that.

I switched to metric for furniture building a few years ago because it was so easy to use (Bobs system would also be easy, however who wants to start using a third system?).

My first introduction was through the 32mm system of kitchen cabinet building, quite a revelation, extremely well engineered, easy to work in and completely standardised.

Then I began to design my own furniture using the metric system, if a Morris Chair had a 2" component, I made it 50mm, not an exact conversion because it's better to actually use whole metric numbers if possible.

When I bought a new jointer/planer I ordered the digital height gauge in metric, need a 50mm component, no problem, no measuring required.

I know that sheet goods aren't metric yet except for thickness, and if I'm using them for construction I then use the imperial system.

I think the issue is that many people lack familiarity with the system so they stick to what they know.

I suspect however that if you had to choose a system from scratch, you would go for a decimal based system like the metric system. I doubt if anyone would pick a system with a wide array of constants like the imperial system.

Regards, Rod.

[Dan Hintz]

Laboratory research has been shown to cause cancer in rats...

[Mitchell Andrus]

Mitch, don't go there!

It has something to do with 90% of the woodworking accidents in the world happen to people who use the metric system.

Regards, Rod.

I think 100% of the people who have any kind of accident breath air. There's got to be a connection. I'm applying for a gov't grant to study the problem.
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