Imperial Or Metric?

stokes771

What do all you guys use... I'm from Alberta, Canada and we use imperial for everything. They teach us in school to use metric, but I have never met a person who uses it.

nadonailer

Imperial, why anything else?

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simplejack

We Call it "Standard" for a reason!

Winchester

YOU call it standard

What about the rest of the world?

All of our Building Code is metric, most architect drawings we get are imperial

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Ryan

wallmaxx

(whispering in the subdued tones of the ghost of Bruce Lee)

First, you must become like Gumby.

As in all things in life...you must be flexible. Metric, standard (US), Imperial (CDN and UK back in the day), cubits (way back in the BC day)...it is just a matter of using what is given in an efficient and competent manner.

(oh and just between you and me...metric is easy for simple minds...it'll make your brain sleepy.)

Remember...its all about how many equal "pieces" can be cut from a thing...those "pieces" are different in size and name only. They all equal the sum of the thing.

Winchester

If I didn't have a tape around with both metric and imperial, I'd be screwed

I'd have to keep googling conversions and use all the data on my data plan

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Ryan

simplejack

"The rest of the world?" --who cares! I'm an American damit!

...the only good thing to come from up north is my Dogs and Santa Clause!

Winchester

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Chris Johnson

Hey, I still calc out my concrete in meters, I call it in in meters and now the ready mix companies know how to convert it...I helps when Cal-Trans is all metric in concrete.

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Chris

DetailHandyman

That's right! We Americans should have our own measuring system!

We'll call it...oh, nevermind, we do have our own system...

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dubz

I remember in grammar school the teacher telling us we had to learn the metric system because the whole world was changing to it. I was like WTF?! I'm just getting the hang of fractions. I remember struggling, trying to wrap my head around the "new system" and think the metric lessons lasted about a week, then never heard too much about it since.

Did the whole country collectively say faaaaak you, metric system?

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Terrorron

I'm also from Alberta, Canada and I (generally) use imperial for "rough" work; framing/sheeting, boarding, etc...anything where accuracy to an eighth is good enough. I use metric for finish work: tilesetting, cabinet making, railings, doors/windows/trim. I find the ability to easily calculate in my head is the big advantage...if that means I've got a "simple mind" (Wallmaxx ), so be it...

If it saves me having to deal with the additional mental "work" of base sixteen fraction conversions, it's all good...

Frameless cabinet construction is too demanding (IMO) for the good old "make it a blonde one" system of measurement...accuracy to half a millimeter is still easily calculated in your head...try that with 32's of an inch and see how it goes...all the "euro" hardware is spec'ed in metric as well...why fight it?

"Tilesetters" that are "fighting the system" by using imperial (when 95% of the materials and quality tools are spec'ed in millimeters) are a particularily curious breed...("hey, these aren't 12" tiles..."); I guess that's what grout lines are for...

When stain/color matching, I always work in milliliters, (using pipets and graduated cylinders) then "blow the formula up" to the volume needed for the job at hand; this gives absolute control over accuracy when you need to make more of the same wiper/glaze/toner/spray stain...the data gets logged on the back of the "breakout board" and this is added to the ever expanding stable of "finish samples".

I await the backlash...

(and Winchester...I second that "eyerolling" smiley )

Cheers, Ron

SLSTech

Dubz - pretty much

Here's just one quick article http://ask.yahoo.com/20060425.html

Not to get this banished to the P&R thread but... You wont find regular Mile Markers from Tucson down to the Mexican border there all KM including the distances to the next exit, I will give you three guesses why & the first 2 don't count.

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Fence & Deck

I have in my hands detailed drawings of 2 different townhouse developments, from the same builder. They are each more than 50 drawings. One architect did it in mtric, the other in Imperial.
Problem is, you cannot go into a lumber supplier and by a peice of wood 2 metrs long. ALL wood is still sold in Imperial. Not some, ALL. Plywood, lumber, everything. Anything in sq ft is still sq ft, not sq metres.
Even our building code is mostly imperial.

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BKLOOGER

[quote=simplejack;607369]"The rest of the world?" --who cares! I'm an American

way to go with the attitude hmmmmmmmmmmmm

olyteddy

I measure in American but prefer to drive in metric. According to the speedometer in my truck, on a 50 MPH road I can go over 80 KMH! That always gets me there a lot quicker.

reveivl

I read the code in metric (no choice), and work in imperial (no choice).

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Winchester

I wish ours was. It's all metric now...

Either have the industry go all metric or all imperial. Always converting is annoying.

I actually love using metric but my problem is I can't "visualize" anything in my head unless it's in imperial.

If we switched to all metric I'm sure that would eventually change though...

Like you said though, all the materials are imperial, and all our code is metric. Every once in a while I go to a different supplier for something and they use METRIC! Totally throws me off because I have all the materials calculated in imperial

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Ryan

wallmaxx

Old Mr Nalley, Rest his soul, was the best cabinet maker and finish trim man in all of Houston back in the 90s. He told me once that he would accept a perfect cut...or one that was within 1/128" when he was doing fine trim work. He wasn't joking. He had Starett tools that were that accurate.

What-a-guy. They don't make 'em like that anymore...tough as nails, southern professional.

English Roofer

Im of an age where i was taught both but they were leaning towards the metric side!
When i left school with the knowledge of metric in my head and started work all the old timers teaching us roofing would use imperial.
Now i still and can use both, i dont think we will every become fully metric though, we still drive are cars in miles and fill them up with petrol by the litre! we buy are food in grams and weigh are selfs in pounds!
When i worked in Greece all the tape messures only had metric on so i had no choice, in the U.K they have both metric and Imperial on the tape, mainland Europe is all metric.
Cheers
Dave

P.S European law tryed to force the U.K to stop selling food in imperial measures but this was over turned last year!!!!

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