Gone metric?

[Halgeir Wold]

Well... ofiicially, there are two countries left in the world that use imperial units, - the USA and ..... Myanmar....
Sorry, guys.... I just couldn't resist......

[ChrisA Edwards]

I would love to go metric, but my hold back is all my measuring tools are Imperial and pretty much would become redundant.

I estimate to replace the hand tools, plus the measurement systems on my table saw, planer, etc, would cost about $600-$800 conservatively.

[Frank Pratt]

I finally went metric a few months ago and it as been a non-event. The most painful thing is that the tape I like to use the most is metric/imperial & I hate those. I'll remedy that soon though. I really don't miss the inches at all.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Don't let anyone tell you that Canada has gone metric - at least when it comes to carpentry and woodworking. Joists are still on 16" centers. We still buy plywood in 4 x 8 sheets. Framing lumber is 2 x 4s. The fact that were are somewhere in the middle causes no end of problems. 3/4" plywood is not 3/4". It is 19mm. But the sheet is 4 x 8 or maybe even 49" x 97" so that it yields a 4 x 8 with square corners. The router bit used to make the dado to accept this plywood is a 3/4" bit. So it no longer fits the plywood the way it used to. It's a real pain in the butt.

[Brian Holcombe]

I prefer decimal inches over anything else.

Plywood is weird, it’s metric, poorly converted to imperial and generally sold in 4’x8’ sheets. It’s the making of a woodworking based standup routine.

[Mike Kees]

I have quit milling my lumber to imperial dimensions,for some reason 3/4'' has always felt to thin to me. I find it far easier to mill to 20mm thickness. Also has made set up on my shaper easier for rail and stile cuts. As Grant said earlier officially we are Metric ... in real life especially as a carpenter we are stuck between two worlds. Our plywood dimension of 4'x8' will never change unless the U.S. changes,so never. My apprentices still go to technical training and work in "Metric" with "soft conversion" sizes for 2"x4" like 38x89' s. I would love to be able to frame in Metric,all the math is easily accomplished in your head. In reality I will probably be stuck with using two systems for life.

[johnny means]

If you use story sticks, you don't even have to measure _anything_. It's all relative.

Story sticks won't work in the vast majority of woodworking.

[Derek Cohen]

I initially grew up in Imperial, and school converted to Metric when I was 10 years old. My life experiences kept both alive. Over the years in woodwork, the push of hand tools made Imperial more important - all the old chisel and plane blades were in Imperial. It becomes important to slave the two areas. As machines, especially European machines, have increased their presence in my work shop, so there has been the increased need to work with Metric.

Life would be cheaper, not necessarily simpler, if there was one system. As it is, both co-exist in my workshop. This is not a big deal since I can visualise in both.

Here is an example of Imperial Wood Owl bits (on the far right) for braces, along with Metric Star-M bits for the drill press or cordless drill ...





Regards from Perth

Derek

[Doug Dawson]

Story sticks won't work in the vast majority of woodworking.

That is not true. It's correct that there are some places where it's useful to measure, but most of the time you're using the story stick to do it.

[Michael A. Tyree]

Ones age matters in the scheme of things. I am 76 and lived many years off metrics but once i entered into the world of skilled trades (several overall) I became sort of bi-lingual as it were. I still see no problem personally thinking in both directions, for the work at hand and as the situation dictates. In industry we worked both directions and during apprenticeship had math up through first year trig and calc so not hard to think in numbers. I still keep my old shop math book at hand from apprenticeship for those times real math comes into a design and I've forgotten the basics. it very similar overall to the math book anyone my age had around the Jr High 7th & 8th years of math class. I got into British cars long ago and Whitworth tools, but came to my senses soon enough and became a German car guy, later working on them for $. On USA helos was mostly SAE, then in industry a smattering of all the above, mostly SAE. I went back to college at age 30 in 1973 and wrote a paper in my Technical Writing class on a hot topic of that time- Metrification. I remeber certain companies who were international, yet stubborn to switch, one was Caterpillar. I wonder how many billions of $$$ it cost them to Asian mfg.'s over the years since then?
In my shop, sawmill, etc., I think fractions in wood and will never change. I change to decimals when into a machine and go metric on my motorcycles, scooter and cars, except the Ford F-150 of course...

[Pat Barry]

Just going metric because you don't like fractions is mind boggling. You will be doing metric to inch and foot conversions and back again, at least mentally, more probably with a calculator for the rest of your life. This just makes things worse, not better. The only people who like metric are either born into it, or use it for scientific endeavours. Scientists are smart enough to separate their science from everyday life. JMO. YMMV

[Rod Sheridan]

How do you guys who have converted to metric deal with things such as router bits and dado sets? I'd love to convert, but it seems that having to deal with a 12.7mm straight router bit could make the math a bit weird. It seems like so many things seem to be based on fractional inches and I haven't seen otherwise.

Hi Myles, dado is easy, you shim to the desired width. In my experience I would never design a part that’s 12.7mm, I would use 13mm.

As you’re aware plywood in NA has been metric in thickness for decades, and of course metric router bits are available, most of the tooling in the world is metric.

I went metric in design and fabrication more than a decade ago. I find it far easier to use.

In practice nobody can tell if a leg is 2 inches thick or 50mm, so go to easy sizes. No 3/4” thick material, use 20mm, it makes the arithmetic so easy....Rod

[Rod Sheridan]

Pat, I went metric in woodworking in my late forties.

I don’t do any conversions, if I am building a shed I use Imperial as sheet goods are Imperial in width.

When I make furniture or cabinets I use metric as it is much simpler, and of course cabinets are based on the 32mm system so stay with metric.

I almost never do any measurement conversions...Rod

[Rod Sheridan]

Well... ofiicially, there are two countries left in the world that use imperial units, - the USA and ..... Myanmar....
Sorry, guys.... I just couldn't resist......

Ha, I made a shop layout drawing for my brother in metric.

He asked for it in Imperial so I converted the drawing and in the title block under scale I put “Imperial, just like Botswana”.

We still laugh about that...Rod

[Mark e Kessler]

Did anyone say they didn’t like fractions? Sorry but metric simplifies everything and its not that difficult to use both, I did say earlier that I had been using imperial for 30years which for the most part it is true Metric always took the back seat when it came to woodworking, only if I had to kinda thing. When I had my business I had to do both, now that I am in engineering metric.

There is nothing wrong with imperial and as Brian H said decimal inches is an excellent way to go as well, i can pretty much look at fractions and do it in my head no pencil paper or calculator needed, my main driver for change was that my planer readout is either metric or decimal to the thou and adjust in 5thou increments which put my feeble mind in a world of hell....

The key to switching is you need to switch it all, on your saws, planer etc... and instead of having that one metric tape measure around for that one time you need one imperial tape around. Could be tough for some as you need to rebuy your measuring rules etc, but honestly you don’t need that many and the others could be sold here pretty easily, especially that “red” stuff that everyone seems to like.

Mark

Just going metric because you don't like fractions is mind boggling. You will be doing metric to inch and foot conversions and back again, at least mentally, more probably with a calculator for the rest of your life. This just makes things worse, not better. The only people who like metric are either born into it, or use it for scientific endeavours. Scientists are smart enough to separate their science from everyday life. JMO. YMMV