Got an email from Woodsmith today announcing they now are offering plans with metric dimensions.

 

Woodsmith Metric Plans Announcement 

You know, if you think about it, metric sure is easier than imperial to learn, and add and subtract and divide, in your head! I can add and subtract fractions in my head, but working with 10's sure is easier.

It's figuring out what the heck dimension material they're talking about where I struggle...

1/2" x 48" x 48" ply just flows off the tongue better than 13 mm x 1219 mm x 1219 mm

Once the material is sorted, yes any assembly/cut dimensions makes sense then.

Edited September 13, 20187 yr by Grandpadave52

John, I think you're trying to start an argument...or at least a very spirited debate. I've long supported switching to metric, but have always been shouted down by those who resist change.....so I live with the very unfriendly measurement system we have.

7 hours ago, John Morris said:

You know, if you think about it, metric sure is easier than imperial to learn, and add and subtract and divide, in your head! I can add and subtract fractions in my head, but working with 10's sure is easier.

Why bother with either? If it fits, glue it. That may seem imprecise but, in woodworking, it really isn't. Any woodworking system of measurement simply provides a frame of reference. The actual numbers are irrelevant. When we quit obsessing about exactness in numbers, preciseness in the fit comes sooo much easier. Life is complicated enough. 

 

13 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Why bother with either?

You are exactly right! Cut to fit! A mark here, a scribe there, a story stick. Building chairs requires simple story sticks, a quiver of patterns to trace and sticks marked out with lengths for different sizes. One of the reasons why I enjoy building them, about the only time I break out the tape is to do the initial cut out of billets.

 

7 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

1/2" x 48" x 48" ply just flows off the tongue better

It sure does Gramps, I wonder if the Euros have a better way of speaking with each other when referencing material. You know like we say 2x4 but really we mean 1.5" by 3.5". I wonder if they would simply say, "Eh mate, I'd like to purchase a 13-12-12 sheet!". Hey @JariKilpi, we need ya from down under to answer this one!

 

I can say this, I have a ton of experience working in depth with metric, highway work, building bridges, yet all of our jobs today are on US Survey Feet, the initial change over is a PITA, but once you get use to it all flows, either way, it's just hard to make the initial change coming or going. For traditional reasons, I love my imperial, but just think, .001, .010, .100, 1.000, holy cow, I can add and subtract those!

Yep. That's the only thing a tape is good for. 

"Measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk and, cut with a hatchet".

 

 

8 minutes ago, John Morris said:

I can say this, I have a ton of experience working in depth with metric, highway work, building bridges,

Didn't have any experience really with that, but in the manufacturing world I was in, all of our engineering prints were metric as were all assembly instructions. The first thing I had to learn was forget about what it equated to in imperial...didn't matter...once I overcame that mindset, it was easier to digest. All in what you become used to using.

12 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

once I overcame that mindset

You said it all right there! That is the toughest part. When my crew walks onto a metric job, the first thing they want to do is start converting everything from US Foot to metric, I gotta yell at em to stop, and just get used to the metric, even in our pacing on the ground, when you tell a surveyor to go out 150 meters they need to take 150 longer single steps, the average pace of a grown man is 2.5' per step, so as surveyors we are used to counting off in our 5' per two steps, since I have a military bearing still in my head, every time my left foot hits the ground I count off 5', tell me to move out to a position 500 feet away I start walking and count, 5, 10, 15, 20 etc etc till I get to my position. I can hit 500 feet in pacing within a couple feet, pacing shorter distances I am even more accurate.

Now throw in metric, you tell a guy to move out 375 meters, they break out there calculator, punch in 375 x 3.2808' and they try to figure how many paces in feet to get there, I gotta yell at em, knock that s@!t off and pace out 375 long steps! I could a been there before you broke out your calculator! Eventually they relinquish to the fact they are on a metric job, and within days we are all talking the same language. But ya Gramps, that mindset can be hard to change.

I learned many years ago, when I was still working, that metrics are easier than fractional.  The key is to learn to to convert metric to English any more than is necessary.  That’s what confuses most folks.

I am with Gene on this one, mark and cut. Measure for the rough cuts. I worked construction all my days and we used tenths of a foot a lot, and we got accustomed to it .

 

Herb

I suppose familiarity eventually helps. If I had to estimate 10 yards, I'd come close, if I had to estimate 10 meters, I'd be lost. That said, I do think that working in multiples of ten makes more sense than multiples of 12.

Edited September 14, 20187 yr by It Was Al B