Measurements in advertizing

[RodKirby]

I am constantly irritated by by how sellers choose to describe measurements. Although it is "illegal" in Oz to use non-metric measurements - the practise is rife. For example: TV monitors are randomly given as inches or centimeters - no pattern. Bolts are ALWAYS shown in inches but screws are in inches or mm's.

Now, I've just received a Woodcraft e-mail for oval knobs which shows:
"31mm Diameter, 9/16" Base Diameter, 1-1/4" Projection", and a reference to:

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<LI class=RelatedFamilies>Classic Knob, 1-3/8" Diameter
<LI class=RelatedFamilies>Classic Knob, 1-1/8" Diameter
<LI class=RelatedFamilies>Classic Knob, 1-1/4" Diameter

You guys sure have my sympathy

[cgallery]

I will add that it is irritating seeing weird English measurements when it is obvious that the part is from a metric world and someone plugged them into a metric-English calculator, and even worse when they got the measurements just plain wrong.

[gerti]

Having moved from a metric to an imperial environment 13 years ago I am still struggling... Though I have to admit back then when German computer magazines started (due to law) to list metric sizes for things that have always been imperial (floppy/hd sizes screen diagonals etc) I was slightly irritated. Now I'd take it in a heart beat if everything here (good ole USA) were metric...

[Salty]

Metric system in the US...now there is an idea that has been hashed, bashed tried and died so many times and ways it isn't funny any more.
In the end I think it was decided, but not out loud or in any formal way, that it would be easier to teach us how to convert the numbers than to convert the system.
So much data and text is everywhere that converting it would take decades and many person hours to complete. And such a task would have no monetary value to anyone so nobody was willing to spend the money to get there.
Also, think about all of the adults who grew up with and live with the English measurement system that would have a difficult time dealing with a younger generation who worked only in the metric system. How would that play out at a visit to HD or the blue box? Scary! The challenges already there are tough enough.
Yea, I know the old saw that such a larger percentage of the world uses the metric system so we should just convert. Well, a large part of that percentage is where they are now because the 'good old USA' got them there. Besides, a large portion of the world people don't have toilets either. But that's no reason for us to return to the woods.

That's my commentary....good night.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I hate tools/parts/etc that use both metric and imperial/English/SAE or whatever its called. Nothing like being halfway through assembling a bandsaw and having to drag out another set of wrenches. Couldn't you engineer something to use 1 or 2 wrenchs/hex?

[Ed62]

IMHO we would have been well off to have converted years ago, when the thought first came up. If we had changed, we wouldn't need 2 sets of wrenches to work on many things, i.e. cars.

When you get into the health care profession, you'll find a lot of metric measurements being used all around the U.S.

Our students would likely find metric much easier to learn. I don't know a lot about the metric system, but going by tens seems pretty easy to me. Now pass me a 3/8" or a 10mm open end wrench please.

Ed

[Ed62]

Nothing like being halfway through assembling a bandsaw and having to drag out another set of wrenches.

I didn't see your post before I started mine. I guess great minds think alike.

Ed

[LCHIEN]

I think the tool companies love it (dual systems)...
I have twice as many mechanics tools as I would otherwise.

Comb. Wrenches, stubby wrenches, ratchet (gear) wrenches, sockets, deep sockets, impact sockets, allen wrenches, all point allen wrenches, 1/4 and 3/8 drve allen wrenches, t-handle wrenches,

All double inventoried because of SAE and metric bolts and fastener sizes.

Heck I even have separate 250mm and 10" adjustable wrenches.

[KenBurris]

Comb ?

Loring, read your post too fast... wondered why you needed a metric comb.

Unfortunately, I don't need metric Or SAE

[LCHIEN]

yeah, I have metric hair.

Say, in European/metricized countries do mechanics have
6mm, 9mm and 12mm drive ratchets and socket sets (or other metric-based square drives)? Or do they
simply use 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2" square drives ?

[stormdog74]

Here is a map of when countries converted to the metric system. Countries in black have not converted - it is just Myanmar, Liberia, and us...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:S...tion-world.png

[scorrpio]

I highly doubt that building industy will ever convert. We got entire nation built up using 2x lumber spaced 16", sheathed in 4x8' sheet goods, with ceilings in 8, 9, or 10', plumbed with 1/2", 3/4" and 1" copper/Pex, 1/2", 2" and 3" DWV pipes tied into 4" stacks, our HVAC systems with 6 and 8" ducts, 2x3" electrical boxes connected via 12 or 14AWG wire to 1" circuit breakers. And our roads? They are graduated in miles with exits often corresponding to mile numbers.

Having been metric first 18 years of life, I feel myself completely adjusted to English units, and actually prefer working with them than with metrics. Being a programmer, I am quite used to binary/hexadecimal, so inch fractions are natural to me.

But I do hate it when they mix metric and English in one item.

[jking]

Another vote for not mixing metric & imperial fasteners on products. Imperial measurements will probably be with us for a long, long time at least in some form. For example, consider that even in many metric based countries 4'x8' plywood sheets are fairly common.

On the topic of the knobs, I must be a bit dense this morning. I don't see what the issue is with referencing the other knobs. It appears they are trying to give some alternatives & those happen to be in imperial dimensions. I work with both metric & imperial, though so, the dimensional conversions don't bother me.

[docrowan]

Three cheers for not mixing metric and imperial. I don't have a problem with either one, further I don't even have a problem having two sets of tools (any excuse to buy more tools!). But having to have 4 or 5 wrenches, three screwdrivers, and two sets of allen wrenches to work on a bike is pretty silly.

Speaking of not mixing metric and imperial - since it's a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, why shouldn't it be a full 3/4" thick, instead of 22/32". I've long suspected they converted the thickness to a metric measurement, although I've never bothered to put a caliper on it.

[scorrpio]

Same reason why 1.5x3.5 is still being called a "2x4"