Old money,New money

[Drains]

Ah, boarding sizes...

Plasterboard comes in metric, plywood in imperial. Being asked to sheet a stud wall with plasterboard on one side and ply on the other... Grrr

 

[rtbcomp]

Just spent today wandering round here:

http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/ and inparticular Blists Hill Victorian Town,

They will exchange your new money for old money in the bank, my brother got 4/6d for £20.00 !

 

[Angusdog]

The imperial system (of measurement, not the one whereby you land, plant a flag then start building post offices...) is decimal anyway. At least it is when you get to small measurements, as in 10 thou is 10/1000 of an inch and thus decimal as in based on 10. But being 43, I like using both for certain tasks, for example I'm 5'11" tall, 100mph is fast and 1 litre of water weighs 1 kilogram. They're just units, when all said and done. What cheeses me off is having US and UK variations, like gallons, billions and so on.

 

[superls]

im 22, and i use both, mainly mm, but if im measuring something either with a tape or rule, ill flick over to see which is the nicest number, oh this is half way between 82 and 83, flip it over no its not its bang on 3 1/4 inches, etc etc, wheel rims/tyres confuse people, (as said before) 175/60/13, a combination, bmw in the late 80's i believe fitted some metric wheels to ome of there cars 390mm diameter i believe, they were soon dropped as i think there were only 2 tyre manufactureres that made r390 tyres,

wood screws, i know almosy 95 times out of 100 what size and gauge it is, oh thats an inch 8, but when i see metric sizes screws it takes a few seconds to think about what size it is, inch 8 seems to roll of the tongue better than its a 25mm x 4.5mm screw,

wood, planks 1x1, 2x2 4x2, shets 4x4, 8x4, all works better than 2440x1220.

 

[rtbcomp]

im 22, and i use both, mainly mm, but if im measuring something either with a tape or rule, ill flick over to see which is the nicest number,.........

I do that, even if means measuring in cms down one side of a sheet and inches down the other!

 

[superls]

yes, i was marking a plate for drilling holes in a line, the measurements wer a right mix, it was something like 2 inches in from the end, then 30mm gap then 1.5 inches, a real jumble, but heck i know what im doing, so what if it confuses other people, ive got a couple of mates and it REALLY winds them up when i mix imperial and metric up, there mm only, so i just do it all the more when im with them.

what makes it worse/better (?) for me is my lathe is in imperal, so whats the point in measuring in metric when your machining in imperial???

 

[Robotstar5]

Just spent today wandering round here:

http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/ and inparticular Blists Hill Victorian Town

I love the place, tend to go every 5 years or so to see what's changed / been added.

Another good one is Beamish got a collection of huge drag line excavators.

 

[series2]

I'm 37, and like most of my age I was taught metric at school. My first job, as an apprentice diesel fitter, everything was imperial. As a result I can happily work in either, but will stick to one set of measurements on a given job.

My pet hate is feeler gauges, I know what 10 thou is! I can't visualise 0.040mm, and end up having to convert in my head, before reaching for the imperial gauges! (I do have metric ones)

I'm a big Landy nut, and later models (1980ish on), are built with a mix of metric and imperial, often on the same component. For example the axle casings have 5/16 UNF studs for the diff, but use M10 bolts for the swivel housing flanges.

Like most DIY engineers, most of my machinery is imperial, so when I make things, they are usually imperial.

Tape measures/rules are a pain in the a**e being metric one side and imperial on the other!