4 ms·
I have tools which are almost all customary units. Sockets, Allen wrenches, calipers, wrenches, drill bits, taps/dies. All customary. Its just what's availab
by Evidlo 6y ago
I have tools which are almost all customary units.
Sockets, Allen wrenches, calipers, wrenches, drill bits, taps/dies. All customary. Its just what's available used here.
- chrisseaton 6y agoCan't you convert the measurement from customary to metric, or from metric to customary? Why does it matter what system the tool was designed for? Obviously anything that can be measured in customary can also be measured in metric.
- SiempreViernes 6y agoThe exact sizes are all arbitrary, in practice the are all in even fractions of some base unit: imperial an metric tools simply fit together poorly because they’ve been made in slightly different sizes
- s_tec 6y agoThe US uses different bolt threads than the rest of the world. Just today I had to buy an 1/4 inch long 8-32 threaded screw to fix our stroller. The 8 refers to a standard diameter in the US system, and the 32 means "32 threads per inch".
- chrisseaton 6y agoHow does this work now that almost all products are global and most are manufactured outside the US? Does a Ford engine get designed in both customary for in the US and in metric for the rest of the world?
- toast0 6y agoAt this point, new cars are 100% metric, with the exception of tire sizes, which are still inches (usually integer inches, sometimes half inches too), and have been for a pretty long time (switching seems to have started in the late 80s / early 90s where cars would have both types of fasteners, and by the end of the 90s, it was just metric). This probably has something to do with the increasingly global supply chains, and increasingly global parts suppliers. Oh, and the speedometer and the odometer. The digital ones are probably counting meters and converting though.
- chrisseaton 6y agoIt’s funny that the super-American icon of the car has switched but that this hasn’t caused everyone else to switch. My image of America is a parent and child working on their car together in their garage. Would have thought that would have gotten everyone into metric over the last few decades.
- ghaff 6y agoAs other comments have said, Why bother? Whether I use miles or km on the road is pretty much irrelevant. Everyone’s kitchens are filled with mostly US measurement stuff. And truth be told if I’m weighing things I switch effortlessly between grams and ounces on my digital scale. Some people may but I’ve no particular ideological position on it.
- toast0 6y agoI mean, over the last few decades, working on cars is harder. Maybe in part because the fastener sizes are tricky, but mostly because things are much more complex. Anyway, the US already has the metric system for things that matter; science and most manufacturing. For things with wide reach, like distance signs, and speed limits, and quantities at the grocery store, those tend to be in customary units, because the switching cost is too high for the benefit.
- Blackthorn 6y agoCar stuff is usually metric, in my experience. Plenty of things end up as imperial elsewhere in the world, though. My lathe and milling machine dials are graduated in thous (thousandths of an inch). I've seen those on YouTube channels in other countries.
- jabl 6y agoIf you start from scratch, sure. But if you're e.g. repairing existing equipment, then the customary and SI units are incompatible. Say, a 1/4 inch bolt head is too large for a 6 mm wrench, but too small for a 8 mm (which is typically the next step up from 6mm). For this reason I had to buy some wrenches in customary units to fix a lawnmower engine.
- wolfgke 6y ago> But if you're e.g. repairing existing equipment, then the customary and SI units are incompatible. Say, a 1/4 inch bolt head is too large for a 6 mm wrench, but too small for a 8 mm (which is typically the next step up from 6mm). Where is the problem? Buy a 6.35mm wrench for your 6.35mm bolt head.
- StavrosK 6y agoThen you're left with these wonky sizes that are only there because they were designed to be a round number in another unit.
- corty 6y agoIn any larger workshop over here there is one toolchest usually marked in some bright and ugly color, all the tools marked in the same color, containing "Zollwerkzeug". That is, tools in inch sizes. You rarely need them, but on occasion you come across something from the other side of the pond where your 8mm wrench would just damage the head of your bolt. But often you can also get the job done with a monkey wrench. However, this means that really changing over to metric, meaning also using international standards for tools, screws, bolts, wires, etc., needs buying new tools and material. I'm not sure how many metric tools there are in a typical US workshop, but I can imagine that they are not too common at the moment.
- cpwright 6y agoThe majority of US consumer grade ratchet/wrench sets have both US and metric sizes. There are enough metric nuts and bolts in random things that you really do need both.
- edoceo 6y agoNeed both, in USA - the at home toolbox in SI countries don't have this problem as they rarely bump into the odd-duck US measurements. The US system require to buy more tools - so I can work on most stuff (SI) and the some stuff (USA). Buying two things to do one job - as is tradition.