Tape Measure/Ruler Irritation

[Wade Lippman]

I understand your frustration, but there are just as many times I grab a yard stick only to find it doesn't have the metric I needed.

Sure wish we would convert. Can you imagine never having to screw with two systems again?

[Mike Lassiter]

I understand your frustration, but there are just as many times I grab a yard stick only to find it doesn't have the metric I needed.

Sure wish we would convert. Can you imagine never having to screw with two systems again?

No. Not in our lifetime. Too many things here now to just stop. We'd be stuck in the middle still for decades. But if we had done it back in the 70's when it all started we would be further along now I suppose. Science fields have always used metric where construction has been inches. I imagine if you work and deal with something that is all one or the other it is easier than trying to dabble with both.
But still - it gives us something to disagree on.

[Rich Riddle]

I remember as a child the teachers teaching us the metric system in second grade (1970). They were convinced we were moving toward the metric system. Remember when the soft drinks went to a 2 liter bottle? Well that has been a long time and we are no closer today than 45 years ago in second grade.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Mike: Canada "converted" a very long time ago and we are still "stuck in the middle". I think it's the fault of you guys in the US, being so much bigger than we are. (Please notice the big grin.) We buy 2 x 4's (they're not really 2 x 4, or course), but they are not metric either. We buy 4 X 8 sheets of plywood that may or may not be 3/4" thick. They may be 19mm. It seems to depend of the source. And the list goes on. The cost to change was staggering, and we still have not fully converted - and likely will not in my lifetime.

[Jerome Stanek]

When I was installing drug store fixture we had to take into account where the gondola came from. OSF gondola looked just like Lozier fixture but it was metric and just a shade bigger so a long wall you could gain about an inch

[Mike Cozad]

My first job out of the service was in the semiconductor industry working on photolithograpy machines. It was my first real exposure to metric systems other than the occasional automobile fastener. It was so much easier than converting inches and fractions to decimals, yada, yada, yada. My next job was in metal stamping making food cans. The machines we ran were oldrt than me and were all SAE. When we started buying new machines, many of the manufacturers were in the UE so the machines were metric. It wasn't uncommon for me to come in some morning to find out we didn't "have" the proper metric faster in stock to effect some repair overnight so my ham-fisted shadetree trained mechanic types would have drilled it out and tapped it for an SAE fastener. ALL repairs in the future frustrated him and his brethren because now it was mix and match and hard to tell what was what. Not to mention the repair was normally pretty poorly done with a hand drill and the incorrect size bit for the tap..... I foundd it was usually just their way of making a statement against having to buy metric tools for their tool box...

[glenn bradley]

Brian: If that happens often, you may want to invest in a right to left tape. I'm not being a smart ass. I have one and it does the trick.

I have R to L tapes at the bench and the tablesaw. I have rules in 4R generally but, also have a set of 4 that have the imperial/metric scale on the front only; sometimes useful, sometimes annoying ;-)

[Caspar Hauser]

Would it make sense to mark off your required measurements from your inconvenient source onto story sticks or perhaps one of these,

http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=65359&cat=1,43513 ?

Cheers

CH

[Jim Koepke]

Among my first cars were a lot of VWs. So my tool kit is mostly metric. In the long run it is cheaper to buy a metric set and fill in the SAE sizes that aren't convertible to metric sizes.

For woodworking my preferred ruler is an old Stanley four fold yard stick. it reads right to left. Most of the time now my measuring and marking is done using a story stick:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ry-Stick-Gauge

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-Another-Story

Here are some story sticks being used to do math:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...WMBO-s-Cabinet

The odd jobs is just another tool that can act like a story stick.

jtk

[Kent A Bathurst]

Mike: Canada "converted" a very long time ago and we are still "stuck in the middle". ............. The cost to change was staggering, and we still have not fully converted - and likely will not in my lifetime.

Says the guy who reads everything, every day, printed in two languages.

Grant - imperial v metric is the least of your "conversion" problems. Until the Quebecois are able to make a successful run at annexing the other provinces, in which case everything will be resolved, eh?

[Rod Sheridan]

Says the guy who reads everything, every day, printed in two languages.

Grant - imperial v metric is the least of your "conversion" problems. Until the Quebecois are able to make a successful run at annexing the other provinces, in which case everything will be resolved, eh?

Kent, it all works out in the wash.

When I'm working in Virginia I can't help noticing the increasing use of Spanish..........Pretty soon we'll both have bilingual packaging...........Rod.

[Jim Becker]

As I'm experimenting with metric in the shop, I'm actually thankful that I have both measurement systems available on many of my rules and tapes. And given there is a certain percentage of goods that are referenced in metric, that utility has even more value to me. I don't think we live in a "pick one" world anymore when it comes to measuring systems...

[Ole Anderson]

I have the FastCap righty-lefty. Only problem is that they assumed that most people read the bottom of the tape not the top. I read and mark at the top so for me, it is backwards. I do like their tapes though, they even have a built in pencil sharpener. And English only for me. Metric is not my first language.

And I remember when the Michigan Department of Transportation converted to metric on all of their plans. It lasted for a few years before they gave up on it.

I get a hoot out of all of the Canadian home improvement/inspection shows, half the time they are metric the rest of the time they throw out English units. How is that better? On paper metric makes sense but when a whole nation (USA) was divvied up on the English foot, yard and mile system including billions of legal property descriptions, what is the point of changing. As for the auto industry, I just wish they would go one way or the other. I can deal with metric fasteners no problem. Most American vehicles have both metric and SAE fasteners which is dumb.