Metric v. Standard measurement usage survey / ?

[Jamie Schmitz]

So I am wondering if any Creekers have switched to metric from a standard measuring system while in the process of learning woodworking. To me the metric system seems more user friendly when it comes to woodworking just given the fact that it is lineal as opposed to fractional.

Of course this would be a moot question if you can convert fractions to decimals on the fly.

[Rich Engelhardt]

How about neither and both?
I use a story stick and/or pinch sticks as much if not more.
For small stuff, under 1", I use mostly fractional.

[ray hampton]

So I am wondering if any Creekers have switched to metric from a standard measuring system while in the process of learning woodworking. To me the metric system seems more user friendly when it comes to woodworking just given the fact that it is lineal as opposed to fractional.

Of course this would be a moot question if you can convert fractions to decimals on the fly.

housefly or horsefly ?
standard until I die then you can use what ever

[Jim German]

I agree that it seems like a decimal system would be easier to use. I still use fractions though.

[Greg Portland]

How about neither and both?
I use a story stick and/or pinch sticks as much if not more.
For small stuff, under 1", I use mostly fractional.

+1, I try to avoid measuring anything. When I'm forced to reach for a ruler I use metric.

[Peter J Lee]

I use both. I wouldn't mine using all metric, but I've still got tools that are imperial and a lot of materials come that way.

[Jeff Duncan]

I use both, metric for the CNC boring machine, and standard for everything else. I actually find metric to be OK for smaller measurements, and less so after a couple feet. This is one of those things where you get used to a system and it's hard to change.

I rarely have to convert fractions to decimals though....not difficult to do, but really not something I do often except for comparing metric stuff to fractional stuff.

good luck,
JeffD

[Peter Bell]

Because I live in Australia I have to ask the reason for this question. We use the metric system here, but occassionaly with imported items especially from the States they come in Imperial sizes.

Are you guys changing to the metric system? I believe it is best to stay on one measuring system per project. Unfortunately, here, especially if you are repairing old furniture you have to be aware of old systems because your measurements could be out.

I have seen it is advisable when starting a project to use the same tape measure throughout the whole project. Otherwise small errors might creep in. We get odd sizes when we use imported ply and materials, sometimes they measurements are just convereted to the system used in the Country importing. So\, it is an approx. appears close enough, is good enough for these guys unless you are at the end of the line and have to work around the small measurement discrepecies.

Pete

[mickey cassiba]

Coming from a surveying and then machining background, I use decimal inch, and decimal foot in my personal work. I am proficient in metric calculation('cept volume)but i'll be a foot and inch guy 'til I die.

[Van Huskey]

I use Imperial since well it sounds so regal and thus must be better right? Seriously, most everything I have is marked in imperial only and nothing is decimal imperial so I work in fractions.

[ian maybury]

I use both. We were imperial here (ireland) when i was a kid, and a lot of my early engineering and woodworking experience was imperial - but the country switched to metric in my teens and my engineering education was metric. I have some inch equipment like Incra positioners and work comfortably enough in both - although since they now have metric conversion kits available i might yet go that route.

Decimal inches are just as convenient as metric, i find most woodworking size dimensions easier to remember in inches than mm. It's when it heads off into small fractions (29/64ths and the like ) that i struggle a bit as i never used them enough to get fully intuitive. It's awkward to assign tolerances to fractional dimensions too.

The US insistence on imperial is in one way a bit unlikely viewed from over here (very understandable in another) - in that the UK long since went officially metric.

There's still scope for funnies. To my knowledge in engineering and technical fields in general everything is dimensioned in mm. Yet our entire primary school system has based on some vagary headed off into teaching kids to use cms. No idea why, other than maybe that it keeps the numbers smaller.

ian

[Leo Passant]

This subject always makes me chuckle. The metric system is the standard system throughout the world... except in the US and Liberia! The US doesn't even use the superior British Imperial system, but the much older United States Customary Units.

For woodworking I use the metric system... you just keep counting single units (millimetres) without having to worry about convertions or decimal points. Usually the only drawback is if you can't count to 100.

[keith micinski]

What's Metric??

[Mark Ashmeade]

So I am wondering if any Creekers have switched to metric from a standard measuring system while in the process of learning woodworking. To me the metric system seems more user friendly when it comes to woodworking just given the fact that it is lineal as opposed to fractional.

Of course this would be a moot question if you can convert fractions to decimals on the fly.

Interestingly loaded question! "Switching to metric" from a "standard measuring system" implies several things:

a) That you started out using something other than metric, and switched. I'd have preferred to start in metric, but American market machines are not calibrated thusly.
b) That metric is something other than standard. It is most definitely standard in most of the world.

I learned both systems at school (UK, 70s). Today they learn the metric system, with Imperial as an afterthought.

However, I think that units of mm are insufficiently fine. A millimetre is about a 25th of an inch. Would suffice for most things, but not, for example, getting the width of a dado correct. Thus you're into fractional millimeters, and that's the same math minefield as Imperial. Half a mm? Quarter of a mm? Tenth?

May as well just use inches, because that's what all my equipment is marked in. I can "think" in both, but tend to use Imperial.

[Leo Passant]

However, I think that units of mm are insufficiently fine. A millimetre is about a 25th of an inch. Would suffice for most things, but not, for example, getting the width of a dado correct. Thus you're into fractional millimeters, and that's the same math minefield as Imperial. Half a mm? Quarter of a mm? Tenth?

Why complicate matters with fractions? That's just going backwards. For the occasions you want to measure something less than 1mm, all you have to do is move the decimal point.