Electronic conventions I hate

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Since you brought it up, I also respect mm and hate them. They're particularly unsuitable for some building trades, notably carpentry. Instead of a nice 4' x 8' piece of plywood, you're gonna make me specify a 1220mm x 2440mm sheet? Total nightmare.

Besides, most folks who work with wood know that it's actually easier, in most cases, to use fractional inches divided by 8ths or 16s, rather than power-of-10 mm or cm. Believe it or not, it's actually easier (again, in most cases) to divide distances using fractions. Carpenters have been using them for centuries.
 
When actually doing machining. I was mentored, but no formal piece of paper. It's easier milling stuff with an English cutter and English dimensions in thousanths. The mill I used had a metric/English glass scale that compensated for backlash, but the lathes didn't. Just knobs graduated in 0.001'. The drill chart was constantly referenced.

I can't cut threads on a lathe and I can't weld UNLESS someone sets up the machine. Then I can do fine. MIG, TIG and STICK. That's how it was for machining. Shop guy set me up then later, I set myself up with a verification and then on my own. I got in very short-lived hot water when I setup a Mechanical Engineering student to drill about 100 1/4' holes in sheet Molybdenum. No one but me had used the automatic feed before. The shop manager at the time was just a babysitter. He exercised control and he was quickly put in his place and not by me. I know the babysitter would not have used a ball end mill to drill the holes, nor used the auto-feed.
 
Here in the UK we have a real mix of standards in older electronics and machinery.

Prior to thing going metric, we had BA (British Association) numbered thread sizes for small screws up to 1/4".
They also have their own series of spanner (wrench) sizes.

UNC and UNF were standard for larger fixings using "AF" (across flats) spanners - conventional inch sized like 7/16" or 3/4" etc.

And, Whitworth. That's an ancient standard that has a thread mostly similar to UNC and often interchangeable - but again with its own range of tool sizes, slightly larger than the the standards for the equivalent UNC thread bolt, pretty much always between AF sizes at least with common smaller stuff. Some manufacturers used it up through the 90s and occasional rare places still apparently specify it.

Some 1970s - 1980s machine tools I work on have a mixture of all three plus metric, depending who made various parts who assembled them.


Then hydraulic fitting threads.. A machine I was on for the last few weeks, officially writing control software for, had a hydraulic problem.
Between the hydraulics and the hand pump (portapower style) bought to pre-pressurise the balance system (which uses an accumulator), it had BSPP, BSPT, Metric, NPT and another thread we never managed to identify [the fittings looked identical to metric style but it was very slightly finer thread].


As I'm mainly (supposed) to be doing electronic and software I don't carry much in the way of mechanical tools in my toolkit, a couple of multi-size metric ratchet rings and a good adjustable.

I keep a set of "metrinch" combi spanners in the car (plus a small socket set), which can get me out of a lot of problems when spanners are needed, they fit anything regardless of it's formal type.

They are a similar set to these; a bit like Snap On "flank drive" style but exaggerated shape and in small size increments. They can be a sloppy fit and still apply full torque, or even more than a conventional parallel side spanner, as with flank drive.
**broken link removed**
 
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carbonzit said:
They're particularly unsuitable for some building trades, notably carpentry
Click to expand...

In some ways, measurements are plain unsuitable, when trying to buy finish-size timber!
(I don't know if it's an English oddity or world wide).

Ask for eg. 4 x 2" planed and you get timber that was 4x2 and has then been planed and is now something like 1/8" undersize, but not an exact amount or consistent.

Trying to get exact sizes to assemble to match an existing finished measurement is next to impossible.

Some places do now sell small section timber & strip by finished size, but it's an average rather than exact and can still vary quite a bit.

(I like working with wood, I repair guitars as a hobby and have done all my own home renovations for decades - but that timber size thing is a perpetual annoyance, even with hand and power planes).
 
You guys have covered most of my pet peeves and given reasons that make them more acceptable.
United States tried going metric but it wasn't accepted. It just cost a lot of money to change signs, etc. and then change them back.
Why are speed limit signs in the U.K. in Miles Per Hour?
Speed limits in the UK: know the laws | RAC Drive
I'm sure people selling liquids charged more per volume when the changed packaging to liters. In the end, nuts & bolts are inch and metric in the same piece of hardware, cars especially. But few store have a good supply of metric fasteners and I had to buy metric drill bits online.

A vessel traveling at 1 knot along a meridian travels approximately one nautical mile or one minute of geographic latitude in one hour. I haven't seen anyone converting days, hours & minutes to the metric system.

atferrari said:
If asked, I would say that I am 1,59 m tall
Click to expand...
This one has bothered me lately. Why would you use a comma in stead of a decimal point? How would you interpret $2,345,543,95 ?
Do you still call it a decimal point? Or a decimal comma?
 
ClydeCrashKop said:
Why are speed limit signs in the U.K. in Miles Per Hour?
Click to expand...
Because:
The Great British Public don't want any of that French rubbish.
It would cost a fortune to change all the signs.
The road safety zealots would be horrified that the 30MPH speed limit would be rounded up to 50KPH. This would represent a whole 1.25MPH increase in the speed at which these infernal machines were allowed to travel in built-up areas. The world would come to an end.

JimB
 
KeepItSimpleStupid said:
I'm likely to come in and ask for a "metric adjustable wrench" just to be funny. There might actually be metric flat blade screwdrivers.
Click to expand...

Hello there,

On the face of it you would think that an adjustable wrench can be opened to any size so specifying SAE or metric would seem unnecessary, but they can not be opened to any size for one open setting can only be opened to one size only. Amazingly there are such things as metric adjustable wrenches and i guess SAE adjustable wrenches we might call them.

The difference i think lies in the most open size, the max open size. Is it a metric measure or inches measure.

But it goes one step farther than that too sometimes. I have an adjustable with a measurement scale on the head of the wrench that is in inches. So i can open it to 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch, etc., but there is no millimeter scale. I would expect a metric version to have a millimeter scale.
 

It is "la coma decimal". If I understand you example, I would write it as 2.345.543,95. I also understand your worries but around here, educated people do not suffer even if calculators bring keys with "." for decimals.
 
The old Cresent wrenches are labeled 4", 10" and 12", not opening size, but length. A newer Craftsman model has 10" on one side and 250mm on the other.

I'm just a good customer at the local "tru value" and generally they leave me alone. They re-organized the store, so slowly I've been able to find stuff. You used to be able to buy lamp tubing, one of any size, now you have to buy a pre-packaged assortment. The MFR that made the onesies, got bought out.

Now if I went to Home Depot, I'd get,"If we don't have it over there, we don't have it".
 
Countries using Arabic numerals with decimal comma

Countries where a comma "," is used as decimal separator include
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Argentina
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Cameroon
Canada (when using French)
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
East Timor
Ecuador
Estonia
Faroes
Finland
France
Germany
Georgia
Greece
Greenland
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Italy
Kazakhstan
Kosovo
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lebanon
Lithuania
Luxembourg (uses both marks officially)
Macau (in Portuguese text)
Macedonia
Moldova
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia (uses both marks)[31]
The Netherlands
Norway
Paraguay
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa (uses both marks)[29][32][33][34]
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland (for federal publications[35] and some cantons)
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
 
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ok, My bad somewhat, These, https://www.antiquelampsupply.com/lamp-parts/pipe-nipples-rod whatever they are. Threaded rod, lamp pipe, lamp nipples, These guys https://www.grandbrass.com/category/tubing/ say tubing is hollow, but when threaded it's called pipe. These guys https://www.colorcord.com/products/1-8-ips-lamp-pipe-tubing somewhat call it both,

Anyway, it's the threaded hollow nipples that's used to make lamps that come in various lengths.

I have to by "assorted nipples" e.g. **broken link removed**
 
BrownOut said:
An american cup of coffee has a volume of 8 ounces. Or 1/2 pint.
Click to expand...

Canada needed the metric system, when I came here in the 70's when purchasing a gallon of something I had to check whether it was a US gallon or an official (Imperial) gallon that I was getting, the bars and restaurants still break the law here by selling a variation of a pint, you are lucky if you even get a US one!
Growing up in the UK , I was raised on the Imperial system, but I much prefer the Metric now.
Max.
 

I have one like that. Stanley brand. It has inch markings on one side and mm markings on the other.

One problem with adjustable wrenches is that they frequently drift, so you have to keep re-adjusting them. I use the markings on this wrench to tell me what size the fastener is, then get the right wrench from my tool box.
 
Our store still has lamp pipe (both 1/8" and 1/4") by the piece, not in packages. But then we're pretty old-school. We have a lot of little odds and ends that other places (notably Home Despot!) don't have. Our customers really like that.
 
The store near me has an incredible hardware selection. even 0-80 screws. Under gun screws weirder yet.
I can always find something they don't have: There's the woodruff key. They won't have their two sisters. The hi-pro key, and the non-rok key (spelling). But then like the star type screwdrivers. they are Phillips to nearly everyone.

The snowthrower needed the Hi-pro key.

They don't have any screws designed for plastics or titanium hardware.
 

Hello there,

What they can do and how they are sold are often two different things. That is, what they can do and what the advertising writeup or even what the cardboard backing says can be different.

Here's a pic of one of those wrenches. You can see the scale on the front.
Now when you go look at it in the store, you see "6 inches" on the cardboard, but you see an inch scale on the tool itself.
However, even that is a bit misleading. My tool is similar to the one in the pic, and the scale goes from 0 to 1 inch. However, it does not open to exactly one inch but approximately 1/32 less than 1 inch, however the writeups say 1 inch.
Interestingly, it has a metric scale on the back! It does not open to any whole number metric millimeter though.
So i guess we could say this is metric and inch too.

But one thing is clear. If we want a metric scale on the wrench then we have to make sure we buy one with a metric scale on the wrench. If it only has an inch scale then we wont like it.

Some rulers are one or the other or both too. Some have inch, some have metric,and some have both scales. I have one that has inch only and one that has both.
 

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