What is happening with metrication?

Does anybody know if Machinery's Handbook is in process of being translated for metrics?

I hope not, but just curious to know what is happening at the shop level regarding the elitist's quest for world dominion through centimeters and ergs.

Reply to
Wayne Lundberg
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We are taking the lead in metrics here...starting with metric time.

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Reply to
Tom Gardner

I thought you were joking... Interesting site, but still don't know if you are pulling our hair or are serious about this?

The obvious question would be why? Why would anybody want to shift into a metric time warp?

Reply to
Wayne Lundberg

Beats me. I could be wrong, but I suspect there is too much WW-II surplus tooling in use for it to change any time soon.

I will admit that for thermal units, metric is wonderful (slugs per cubic inch per fort night squared is a little much), but for pretty much everything else mechanical, pounds and inches are hard to beat IMHO.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Schwab

You should not have asked that question. It will only trigger the counter-question "So why should we switch to metric system?"

OTOH, "metric time" only shows that "they" didn't understand it at all. It should be called "decimal time". I remember listening to AFN (when I was about 14) when the US tried to explain and promote the metric system. It didn't help.

Nick

Reply to
Nick Müller

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Have I ever been serious? I measure my fuel economy in furlongs per hogshead...sound great!

Reply to
Tom Gardner

that metric time link is funny, what a thing to get used to THAT would be. thing that surprised me was working on a '05 Ford Ranger seemed some of it was metric (which surprised me greatly) and some is standard. jeez! i was fumbling with sockets and wrenches trying to figure out which was which. seems easier if they'd make it ALL standard or ALL metric.

b.w.

Reply to
William Wixon

How many hogsheads are there in a butt, and how many firkins in a hogshead? Fun stuff you can look up in a CRC.

Pete Keillor

Reply to
Pete Keillor

How many inches in an Archane? Seriously, I can't seem to find out, it's pretty obsolete but I'm trying to duplicaste some Archane threads.

Reply to
Nick Hull

So, according to that site, an informal small unit of distance would be a quint hair?

Reply to
Fred R

It is a joke, whether the guy who is advocating it knows it or not. The SI system is based on the second, and a WHOLE lot of physical constants derive from that. The speed of light, for instance! And, that bears on a whole lot of other units. So, if you change the unit of time, practically all other units need to be rewritten. Anything dealing with acceleration, electrical units, heat flow would be affected.

J>

Reply to
Jon Elson

The basic measure of time on the VMS operating system was based on microfortnights, according to some of their documentation. If you calculate it, that really isn't too far off a second.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

My experience in being in a number of machine shops at national labs (which would seem to be a place metrication would start from) is that few have left the imperial inch behind. The ONLY shop I have ever been in, in the US, that used the metric system to a large extent is the NIST shops. They DO have some WW-II vintage machines left, and other machines that are natively imperial, but with the CNC option to program in mm, or a DRO on a manual machine, they do it in metric just fine.

A number of other shops take all drawings in mm, and convert every dimension by hand to inch measure, and machine from that. Ugh - lots of room for error in that approach.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

Cars have been largely metric for over 20 years, now! The only imperial bolt-head I know of on my 1998 Dodge Ram van is the oil drain plug. Oh, yeah, the lug nuts are the other imperial fastener on there. Everything major in the inside is either 8 or 10 mm or a Torx fastener.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

One hogshead is two buts. A hogshead is 1-1/3 firkin

Just how many is: "A shitload" (answer: more than 21)

Reply to
Tom Gardner

I amend my answers depending on if you have wine or beer.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Thank you one and all. I think one of our advantages (of the few that we have left in this country) is our steadfast abhorrence of the metric system since virtually everything we do in the shop from design to final product has evolved via the inch/pound/hp system. For us to change to adhere to the so called world standard would be to lose our advantage. I can do so much more with decimal inches and fractions, hp and Watts, than I can do with metrics and I was brought up in a metric world. Had to learn the crazy Imperial system, but once working in it have seen unlimited horizons not possible with metrics... or not easy due to the confusion of zero placements which invariably lead to errors. As in the Mars landing.

Reply to
Wayne Lundberg

Can you give us an example of one of your "unlimited horizons not possible with metrics"?

Also, I'd love to hear how the Imperial system prevents "the confusion of zero placements", whatever that is.

Marv

Reply to
Marvin W. Klotz

Reply to
David Billington

Sure. Something over 60% of our GDP is intellectual property in this country. Since Benjamin and other founding fathers determined that innovation would be our salvation, creativity has taken a leading edge in what we are. When I learned that one HP was equivalent to lifting 550 pounds one foot in one second I could visualize that effort. I could see myself pulling on a rope with a dozen pulleys and living those ten anvils off the ground and realized just how much power there is in 750 Watts. Because of this link between human bite sizes of energy, physics and measurements I have had the pleasure of inventing and putting to work over 300 tools or gadgets that have made work much easier for factory workers in my zone of influence. It is because I can apply horespower and intelligence to processes that my customers are now enjoying billion dollar a year pforits which would not have been possible if I could not invent and apply technology. I tried this with metrics because that is what I had learned in school in Mexico. But I lost it, I could not think in terms of one cc equals one gram and that a zillion grams make up an erg... I simple could not visualize it. Metrication is great in the lab, but now when putting up a 4 by 8 piece of plywood with 2 by 4s and spaced at logical stud distances.

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Reply to
Wayne Lundberg

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