ADMIN: Split off from a previous topic about how not going metric was bad for the US.

Regean killed the switch to the metric system for the US. That single act makes him hard to support on any practical level, specially for engineers and science types, not to mention the massive cost to us that resulted from it. Thankfully, his "evil empire" rhetoric was insufficient to derail the USSR breakup.

In my opinion what killed the transition to metric was the decision to dual dimension. Remember the combined MPH/KPH highway signs, automotive odometers? (Carter administration) If the decision had been made to switch in a radical way we would have had a sense of metric speed, temperature..... almost overnight. At least we know how much 2 Liters is.
No different than the discussions going on here about SWx vs Inventor. You will tend to stick with what you know unless forced to convert. It doesn't work to say, "we'll use a little bit of both till you get used to the new system."

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Nope, Regan did it with the stroke of a pen. We were well on the way. Even my mom had converted to metric in her sewing. I expect most on this forum are too young to remember. He killed the $2B budget on the "force" you are referring to. It was to save money. Shortly thereafter, the US did a fighter jet deal with Israel. The contract specified all metric. Guess what, the rework cost was well in excess of the $2B saved.

Now, if you want to involve CAD in the discussion, SW and Iv are the wrong ones to talk about. Ask Siemens about the mess that supporting two units of measure is in their CAD (NOT!). NX is a unitless system and you have to jump though hoops to use both American and Metric systems in the same assembly. That has to continue to cost the NX users a lot.

How about the 125mil lost on the Mars probe due to units not being converted?

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Jason
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I was working at the time as a machinist out on the shop floor making precision parts for a British company (tobacco industry) in the US. The Brits had changed to metric - all of our work was done to metric dimensions on inch grad. machine tools. It should have already been accomplished by decree by the time Reagan was in office.

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In the past we have had machine shops that ask us to re dimension prints in English units before they can quote them. We tell them they are no longer included in the RFQ process.

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Nice...I frequently get asked..."Whats the conversion of inches to millimeters again?!" and vice-versa

I used to only use mm up north...do you know how long a w 6 block wire drawing machine is in millimeteres? ALOT. But I liked it...mm are very convenient...rarely did I have to go smaller than .5 mm to accomplish anything...

and now I work in the architectural world...I hate the combined feet an inches thing...sure AutoCAD allows you to input in feet and inches...but that is not as easy as just tyinig in @1456.3125<45

and while we are on it...why am I the only person in our department that has 16ths of an inch memorized to their decimal place...

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I have had a dealer of ours YELL at me before because I sent him drawings in metric. He was a US Dealer obviously, and very old school to the bone. He wanted to know how he was supposed to measure the dimension, and I told him well just divide the dimension by 25.4, and he then said well how do I measure a imperial decimal on a tape measure. I didn't know what to say, so I said go out and buy a metric tape measure.

I would have asked if the dealer wanted dual dimensions then ask if he wanted a quote for modifying the drawings. As to how to measure an "Imperial" decimal dimensions, I would suggest the same way he always did. Decimal Inch drawings have been around for a LONG time, what was he doing before? If there is precision, I might tell him to use a set of digital calipers. Of course he could buy an digital tape measure.

We just got thru deciding on fractional inches vs. decimal inches here. I dared not raise the suggestion of going metric for fear of a serious flogging. Talk about old school. I love millimeters - much easier on the old eyes than 32nds of an inch. Millimeters is the perfect UOM for fabricating. Once you get a fab guy used to laying stuff out in millimeters it becomes second nature.

And for memorizing 1/16ths, I have a lot of 1/32nds memorized along with knowing a quarter inch is 6.35mm, and 3/8 = 9.525 by heart. It's all what you're used to.

IMHO, The biggest obstacle to metric designs is the price of metric steel. When they start selling 10mm x 25mm HRS as cheap as 3/8 x 1, that will be a good day indeed!

I think he was just having a bad day, but he wanted it in fractional form. I don't know why he couldn't figure out the fractional equivalent.

He was really just mad because we weren't using the imperial system which he thought was superior.

I used to work for Duracell some years back and remember coming across someone converting in to mm using a factor of 24.5, gave much better numbers than 25.4!

In the UK we are fully metric:-

We buy building materials in sheets of 2440 x 1220mm, much better than 8x4

Our speed limits and driving distances are in miles and long may it remain so

Although having grown up with metric I still gauge distance in feet, easier to visulise tham meters (probably because there is a handy reminder at the end of the leg).

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Nick

So long and thanks for all the fish

we're an odd bunch...

go shopping and weight is now g (but most still think in lbs/oz) - and weigh ourselves in stones.

drive in miles, measure in cm/mm and again refer to our own height in feet and inches

we're complain about the cost of petrol in litres but think of our car's mpg (even tho helpfully our gallon is different so at least our mpg is more)

and I bet if you ask Joe Bloggs on the street how to convert mm to inches they'll look confused and tell you to do one...

I was always brought up with dual dimensioning. Taught mm at school, but at home mum did all her baking and cooking in lbs/oz, Dad was a former marine engineer (old school, apprentice from Hebburn naval yard) working for CEGB commisioning Drax power station in the early 70's which was a mixture of UNF, metric and Whitworth due to an assortment of different suppliers from around the world. So from the age of 8 I new the difference between all the different threads and conversion factors by heart.

Having dabbled in the construction environment over the past few years, as Nick says, it's all metricated imperial sizes, and for structural steelwork an 838 UB (40") portal frame rafter, with 254x102 (10"x4") UB for a mezzanine floor support...

Just done a real pain of a job for Prince Charles (his big garden party) as everything is in 1m grids inside the marquees with a 3m ceiling height (blame the French for that). Lined with 1/2" boards that come in 10'x4', an awful lot of extra cutting and waste for a sustainability event? Hmmm...

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We build 99% of our machines in what we call "soft" metric. All holes, threads and dims are metric. However materials are Imperial (1/4" plate, 3/8" plate etc..) As Celtic pointed out metric sized material are too expensive.

But places like Misumi are helping to fix that. Their metric plate is actually fairly cost effective.

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