If you only need integers, why are the measurements of your home hardware and tech specified in 1/8ths and 1/16ths of an inch? Stick to whole inches or shut up.
But then you’ve got a space that’s 5’ 7 3/8" and you need a clearance of 7/32" on each end, so your piece should be…uh… 5’ 6 15/16" long. So much easier than metric, right?
In metric it would be 1711mm (or 1.711m) and you’d need to take 5.5mm off each end, so it’s 1700mm. (For the record, I picked random numbers in imperial and only did the metric conversion afterwards, I just lucked into the nice round number here.)
I dunno. You need how many sig figs you need in whichever system, but switching between a factor of 12 for the feet, base 10 for the inches, and the equivalent of binary decimals for the partial inches sure does take getting used to. I’ve finally gotten used to it enough that I can do it in my head, but I prefer to work on metric for most things.
I acknowledge that machinists just use thousandths of an inch, which does greatly improve working with that system, but it also introduces a third kind of measurement that can’t easily be interconverted with the other two. I dunno. It just feels like we’re doing way too much work propping up this archaic system when literally everyone else in the world is using something simpler and we could just be on the same system.
What matters is how many white collar keyboard warriors will sit there and act they know better as if they have a clue about machining or its history lol. I promise you in those 190 countries there are many still using SAE for lots of processes. Guarantee you not a chuck key on the planet isn’t in standard even if the rest of the machine is metric 🤷 do NOT take this as me stating that SAE is somehow better, I’m just stating the fact that machining was born in SAE, and if your lathe is more than 40 years old (the lathe I work with is from the late 1930s) it WILL be in standard. In whatever of the 190 countries you are in what size drive turns your sockets? Oh right, quarter in, 3/8ths, or half in. What unit of measure is the wheel on ur car? Right, inches. Globally some stuff has just stuck with SAE for reasons I cannot explain. You don’t have to like it, it’s simply the facts of the world.
Born and raised on a farm, fixing farm equipment, did work on a autoshop and later gig work as welder in larger refineries and paper mills. Got my CNC operator licences too.
Only times i have seen inches in use was when i was moonlighting at the saw mill. We talked about two by fours, but the saw was calibrated with mm (50×100mm/ so it was not even the close to inches). Oh and my friends shitty transam that had the assbackwards lug nuts and was a pain to find right kind of hoops for.
If you want rest of my life too, i decited at some point i dont want travel for work and went to a culinary school where i meadured everything in grams and dl (also met my wife there.) Decited the pay was not worth of the hours and studied programming, but job market kicked my ass. Went in to sales and later found a company where i was able to use my culinary, programming amd sales history and now i have 8to16 job and my own team.
Never seen a lathe that has not used mm. Even the old ones lathes and colum drills from the 50’s i have seen use mm. My home town does every august work shows with old machines like steam engines, tractors and locomotives and as far as i can remember even those have both mm and inches in the levers and knobs. I think the closest i have seen with the old machines using imperial are some cars with mph meters. (Favorite being old marshall tractor with shotgun starter, having very optimistic meter going up to 100 mph.)
Well seeing as you worked in an auto shop you know all about the continuous global use of standard measurements! Your tires are always in inches, even when a metric tire (wheel size to be more specific). Every ratchet made is in inches as well as I previously stated. You cant get away from it. I’m not sure why square drives in ratchets haven’t moved to metric considering not many are made in the states anymore, you will use a Taiwanese ratchet to turn a chinese made metric socket using a SAE sqr drive. Wheels I don’t understand the faith to inches either, not like most cars are made in the states. I’m impressed the equipment from the 50s wherever you are doesn’t have inch measurements, as a every machine ive seen of that vintage or older is exclusively in SAE but I suppose my anecdotal evidence is every bit as valuable as yours.
Your life sounds as though it has been quite interesting, neat variety of work you have performed. If you are curious about machining history, I recommend looking into Robbins and Lawrence machine shop. I live nearby and they are the first place on earth to achieve interchangable manufacture on a practical scale. This is what led to SAE being so common on legacy machines and manufacturing for 100+ years after! It was the birth place of machining as we think of it today, but before cnc (1845).
Yet I only need an integer when using the imperial system, and I don’t have to repeat 3 into infinity.
If you only need integers, why are the measurements of your home hardware and tech specified in 1/8ths and 1/16ths of an inch? Stick to whole inches or shut up.
But then you’ve got a space that’s 5’ 7 3/8" and you need a clearance of 7/32" on each end, so your piece should be…uh… 5’ 6 15/16" long. So much easier than metric, right?
In metric it would be 1711mm (or 1.711m) and you’d need to take 5.5mm off each end, so it’s 1700mm. (For the record, I picked random numbers in imperial and only did the metric conversion afterwards, I just lucked into the nice round number here.)
I dunno. You need how many sig figs you need in whichever system, but switching between a factor of 12 for the feet, base 10 for the inches, and the equivalent of binary decimals for the partial inches sure does take getting used to. I’ve finally gotten used to it enough that I can do it in my head, but I prefer to work on metric for most things.
I acknowledge that machinists just use thousandths of an inch, which does greatly improve working with that system, but it also introduces a third kind of measurement that can’t easily be interconverted with the other two. I dunno. It just feels like we’re doing way too much work propping up this archaic system when literally everyone else in the world is using something simpler and we could just be on the same system.
⅓m is 1.093504 feet or 13.12205 inch. I don’t see how it’s more convenient.
Work in a machine shop for a week and get back to us
Uh? Done. What happens now?
What machines do u run in what country?
What does it matter? I could say any one of the +190 countries and the answer would be more or less the same.
What matters is how many white collar keyboard warriors will sit there and act they know better as if they have a clue about machining or its history lol. I promise you in those 190 countries there are many still using SAE for lots of processes. Guarantee you not a chuck key on the planet isn’t in standard even if the rest of the machine is metric 🤷 do NOT take this as me stating that SAE is somehow better, I’m just stating the fact that machining was born in SAE, and if your lathe is more than 40 years old (the lathe I work with is from the late 1930s) it WILL be in standard. In whatever of the 190 countries you are in what size drive turns your sockets? Oh right, quarter in, 3/8ths, or half in. What unit of measure is the wheel on ur car? Right, inches. Globally some stuff has just stuck with SAE for reasons I cannot explain. You don’t have to like it, it’s simply the facts of the world.
Born and raised on a farm, fixing farm equipment, did work on a autoshop and later gig work as welder in larger refineries and paper mills. Got my CNC operator licences too.
Only times i have seen inches in use was when i was moonlighting at the saw mill. We talked about two by fours, but the saw was calibrated with mm (50×100mm/ so it was not even the close to inches). Oh and my friends shitty transam that had the assbackwards lug nuts and was a pain to find right kind of hoops for.
If you want rest of my life too, i decited at some point i dont want travel for work and went to a culinary school where i meadured everything in grams and dl (also met my wife there.) Decited the pay was not worth of the hours and studied programming, but job market kicked my ass. Went in to sales and later found a company where i was able to use my culinary, programming amd sales history and now i have 8to16 job and my own team.
Never seen a lathe that has not used mm. Even the old ones lathes and colum drills from the 50’s i have seen use mm. My home town does every august work shows with old machines like steam engines, tractors and locomotives and as far as i can remember even those have both mm and inches in the levers and knobs. I think the closest i have seen with the old machines using imperial are some cars with mph meters. (Favorite being old marshall tractor with shotgun starter, having very optimistic meter going up to 100 mph.)
So… whats going to happen now?
Well seeing as you worked in an auto shop you know all about the continuous global use of standard measurements! Your tires are always in inches, even when a metric tire (wheel size to be more specific). Every ratchet made is in inches as well as I previously stated. You cant get away from it. I’m not sure why square drives in ratchets haven’t moved to metric considering not many are made in the states anymore, you will use a Taiwanese ratchet to turn a chinese made metric socket using a SAE sqr drive. Wheels I don’t understand the faith to inches either, not like most cars are made in the states. I’m impressed the equipment from the 50s wherever you are doesn’t have inch measurements, as a every machine ive seen of that vintage or older is exclusively in SAE but I suppose my anecdotal evidence is every bit as valuable as yours.
Your life sounds as though it has been quite interesting, neat variety of work you have performed. If you are curious about machining history, I recommend looking into Robbins and Lawrence machine shop. I live nearby and they are the first place on earth to achieve interchangable manufacture on a practical scale. This is what led to SAE being so common on legacy machines and manufacturing for 100+ years after! It was the birth place of machining as we think of it today, but before cnc (1845).
The entire planet’s machine shops do fine.
1x1x1 metre cube holds 1000L of water, and weighs 1000kg.
You only repeat 3 to the number of significant digits necessary.
Isn’t that grade 4 math?