Do you work in Imperial or Metric?

As a millwright, it was much easier to use the system the machine was built in. The numbers come out even. At home,now, I use mostly imperial.
 
All my measuring tools are US inches. But 25.4 is so easy to remember, i really dont have any problems. With the dang smartphones now, i rarely break out my old texas instruments calculator. I did buy some metric rulers. 150,300,and 1 meter. And i have a tape measure with metric on one side and inch on the other. I only purchased these so I could measure things that i knew were metric, It was less confusing. I still do most of my machining in inches because thats what my mics are.
 
I repair old mechanical clocks and am always in a "mixed mode" mode. Bushings are all metric, however springs etc are referred to in imperial. My machines are all imperial. Lot's of measuring instruments, so can switch between metric and imperial, however I prefer dedicated conventional analogue mics. I have one for metric and one for imperial.

David
 
I grew up with U.S. Std., and think that way.
Working as a motorcycle mechanic in the '70s, I became proficient with Metric.

Now, as a hobbyist, I prefer and choose to use U.S. Std. because it takes me back to the 'good 'ol days'.
But, working in Metric is not a problem, just requires a momentary schizophrenic mind flip.

Have also worked in B.S. Whitworth.
Takes a little longer, requires me to bang my head against the wall 'till I'm cross-eyed, then it works out fine.
I still have 3 barleycorns as a standard.

But furlongs take a fortnight.

Out here in ranch country, we buy 'bob-waar' in 80 rod rolls, and deal with bushels, cubic-yards, sections, shovelfulls, hands (horse height), and penny-nails.

My Japanese friends once asked me how large my home was, in 'mats'.
Huh??? Whut's a 'mat'.

Being dain-brammaged helps...
 
As a 78 year old hobbyist I build model stationary engines. Available drawings can be either metric or imperial so I work in both systems. Most digital measuring tools I have switch to either system which avoids the need to convert drawings. Drawing conversion is a pain and one usually makes an error somewhere along the line.
The one analogue measuring device I do have is a set of metric micrometers, so the trusty calculator lives nearby! (Factor 25.4 is imbedded into my old brain!)
 
randyjaco said:
I use both, but being in the US, I am pretty much forced to use Imperial. I wish we would wise up and go all Metric. {But it will never happen 8^( }

Randy
Click to expand...

10-18-14 REF. Metric to Imperial or USA threads. Note: .03937 is 1 thousands of a meter

To convert metric to imperial threads ( USA threads) or vise-versa tank examples: Suppose you have a metric thread of 16 mm to convert it
to Imperial. MULTIPLY it by .03937 which gives .62992. The converse of this is - say a shaft is 7/16" or .4375 OD. DIVIDE this
by .03937 which is 11.1125 mm. Many years ago when I started a job at a corrugate box plant some of the processing machines
the company had were both metric & imperial units. I worked as a machine repairer/rebuilder. This math was used on a
Texas Instrument Scientific calculator model TI-30XA. Any calculator will work as long as it has at least 4 decimal places. This made it very easy to calculate both dimension catagories. This particular unit was quite low in cost. I had used it many times & now being retired I still use it in my machine shop. Around the world both threads are used. We all have to get used to it - if I can do it - anybody can do it !!!

Respectfully submitted,

jbollman
 
I use imperial, thats what most of my tools read and its just easier because Im used to it.

About 20 years ago though I worked at a mill and ran a drill machine that was made in Germany and was set up metric. What was funny about it was the spindles on the aggregates were metric but on 32 millimeter centers. Never could figure that one out. I always thought that was the magic of metric to be divisible by ten haha.
 
Though I was brought up on Imperial, I think Metric is the better system. I can judge most Metric distance, volume & weight units fairly accurately, However, when it comes to Celsius temperature, I am clueless. Imperial length when used in decimal inches, is pretty much as easy as Metric.
 
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