need lathe help in Phoenix ?

I'm in the Phoenix, AZ area. What does he need done?

I have a 13 x 20 Metric lathe.

That's a very small lathe...

;-)

Regards,

Robin

Only if he's using mm. If cm, it is a nice small lathe, about the size of my Compact-5/CNC. If meters, it is a serious sized lathe. :-)

I haven't encountered anyone using decimeters in a *long* time.

Enjoy, DoN.

The only place I've seen it is in school science books, usually in explaining liters, as an illustration of the neatness of the metric system. If water or beer or gasoline came in big metric cubes like the drawings in those science books, how would you cordon off a cubic decimeter of it, anyhow?

Give me a bung and a pint-sized mug...

Ed Huntress

Joking aside, linear measurement in a shop environment is _always_ expressed in mm (when using metric). If a machine is 50m long, they will write 50 000. My sister and a good friend of mine are in archetecture at university. They seem hell-bent on using cm. Sometimes when I'm cutting parts out for my friend's models I stop reading in cm and revert to mm. "I can't cut that piece of wood off at 1mm...."

Regards,

Robin

And I've been suitably chewed out in a machine shop for saying "tenth" and meaning tenth of an inch.

I tend to hear thou or tenths (I've heard people using tenths meaning 1/10. They get *told*). I hate it when people use the term, "mils" for ANYTHING. The shop I'm in works about half and half metric and inch.

Using "hundredths" takes some getting used to... Sucks if you're in metric mode and someone asks you a question about a part in inches. Slows the whole process down.

My girlfriend is in chemistry. So tried to convince me it would be ok to use scientific notation on prints to express tolerances. "Uh, ok dear..."

Regards,

Robin

It depends on your field. Mils are commonly used for specifying pin spacings and other small dimensions in electronics work (at least, in the USA). And yes -- it *does* mean 1/1000th of an inch there. I just checked, and the "units" conversion program in unix understands it, as observe:

====================================================================== izalco:dnichols 22:25 > units you have: inch you want: mils * 1.000000e+03 / 1.000000e-03 you have: ^D ======================================================================

I would have no problem, as I've used them for a long time, but most shop people probably would.

Enjoy, DoN.

I'm with Robin on the mils thing. I cringe when someone uses that word. And usually ask the person exactly what measurment is desired in thousandths of an inch. If any doubt remains, we add written communication. I would rather appear to be maybe stupid than to make something wrong and remove any doubt.

mj

[ ... ]

So -- what would you do when faced with the data sheet for an integrated circuit, or a connector, which states clearly that the pins are on "50 mil centers" or on "100 mil centers"? That is the way that they are spec'd by the manufacturers -- not just what some guy used as slang. If you're going to work in that field, you have to get used to the units used in the field.

Enjoy, DoN.

Engineering notation would be better (3 decimal place jumps, ie milli, micro, nano, etc).

Gary

Simple, since I don't work in that field......

If I were to do so, and develope the need, I could probably ask you. No? ;~)

At any rate, be certain to be certain before going forth.

michael

I cannot think of another imperial unit that uses greek prefixes (this is where someone points one out).

Just because an industry has decided to use "mil" as their standard doesn't mean it is right. Especially when it can easily cause _so much_ confusion. What about drawings for some kind of circuit board production machine designed by people familiar with circuit boards and not internationally recognised measurement standards?

Do ISO or DIN recognise these units?

Regards,

Robin

I doubt it, as they are European. As well as being standard in the electronics industry, it's the way that plastic film is specified. You want to order some heavy polyethylene bags? 0.004" or 0.006" ? Better ask for 4 mil or 6 mil, because they won't understand you otherwise. And the copper on PCBs (in North America) is not specified in microns, but in ounces (per square foot is understood), and PCB area (even in Asia) is specified in square inches.

I think you just have to get used to it- it's a different problem domain and you need a slightly different language- like you don't talk to a child or to your GF exactly the same way you talk to the guys here, eh? ;-)

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Ah, humbug.

Regards,

Robin

Forgot the "B"

Regards,

Robin

"mil" is a commonly used term for measuring the thickness of plastics and other material.

Mike Eberle> "D>

And the cross-sectional area of wires (for current capacity calculations) is often (in the non-metric part of the world) given in "circular mils".

Enjoy, DoN.

Circular mils? I've never heard that one before. I think I'll stick to the automotive industry for now...

Regards,

Robin