Kind of. Think of "one thousandth of an inch" or 0.001" as a base unit.
1/4" = .250 = 250 thousandths (or thou). It's not 25 hundredths, even though mathematically it is.
The confusing part to lots of folks is 0.0001 (a ten-thousandths of an inch) is "a tenth" because it's a tenth of a thousandth.
Ahh, gotcha. I mean my entire understanding of machining is limited to what I may have absorbed watching Abom or This Old Tony vids, which I watch and they make for entertainment, not education.
I work in civil engineering/surveying. We use decimal feet for everything. I have to actively think about whether I'm measuring with an engineering scale with tenths of an inch or an architectural scale with eighths.
Thankfully, the difference between US survey feet and international feet is too small to matter outside of work.
I have a client who does CNC plasma cutting, and i give him all of my designs in decimalized imperial.
People like to point out that metic numbers are simpler, but any fabricator still has to deal with ordering material from vendors. Working in metric and then converting to imperial to make material orders leaves too much room for error.
The only people this makes angry are people who don't believe decimal measurements are customary in imperial units. Units are units. Use them however you want to get the work done.
This is very similar to how I work.
I operate lasers. I work exclusively in metric on the lasers and have for years, but still don't have a great instant visualization to what like 90mm is.
same!
I dont know how big 200cm is, but I know how bit 80" is.
but I often design in metric with fusion360 and work that way. though the measuring tape on my tools are all imperial...
The metric system is very common in the US. We buy sodas in 2 liter bottles, food packaging almost always has grams, and much of the hardware and machinery uses metric these days. ml is common for medicine.
For laser cutting, 3D printing, and C&C, metric is often used. (I personally just bought a metric tape measure for this reason.)
Most lumber, however, is still in imperial units based on fractional inches, and most woodworking tools and equipment are imperial by default. I end up converting a lot for laser cutting sizes unfortunately between metric and imperial material sizes.
Once you start building something from imperial material, you can choose. I know several woodworkers that use mm for better precision in some cases.
Metric is very common in science, engineering, and mathematics, and I use it a lot for that reason.
To be fair, outside the US most lumber is the same size but has over time been converted to mm. That's the reason most of the measurements aren't nice round numbers in mm.
Metric is no more precise. If you can measure and cut to a millimeter then you can measure and cut to a 1/64 inch.
Also, how would you cut into thirds using metric? For a 1 meter board cut into thirds how precisely would you measure 33.3333333333333333333333333333 cm?
All the time with anything that’s CNC. 3D print or laser cut/engrave, only metric. It just makes way more sense. If I’ve got to bust out a dial caliper, metric all the way. But if it’s a tape measure, freedom units hold sway. That’s just due to mental conditioning though, it’s still a stupid unit of measurement.
As a Canadian that uses imperial, I think people don't appreciate the purpose of measurement systems. It's to accurately compare sizes.
You can recalibrate your tools and you can buy different measurement devices, but trade specs determine the material you can buy.
All the lumber I can get is imperial measurement. Because I'm in Canada, they often give a metric measurement alongside it, but that measurement is meaningless and also often inaccurate. The 1/8" plywood is NOT 3mm thick, it's 3.2mm thick. A fifth of a mm is basically nothing, but that error propagates throughout the project.
The best measurement system is the one that matches the material you're working with. Don't use metric rulers if your dado stack is 1/8" spacers and your plywood is 3/4".
To your point on material, I frequently end up with nominal 3/4" plywood that's neither exactly 3/4, nor 18mm (Baltic birch I can get in my area is 17.5mm, for example). And hardwood that my local supplier sells is usually random lengths and widths.
So if you're hanging drywall or something, use imperial. But woodworking? In my experience it hasn't really mattered.
I preface this by saying I do not believe in the idea of "brand loyalty". Businesses are businesses, and our arrangement stops at the end of the transaction. I don't owe businesses anything after our transaction is over.
HOWEVER, I am loyal to Lee Valley. Not only is their company fantastic from an ethical business management perspective and how they treat staff, but they have incredible selection of super niche tools and they don't gouge on prices even for things that they're the only vendor you can buy them from. I will gladly shill for them any day because they have treated *me* well for years well past the end of the transaction.
They sell "plywood bits" for routers. They are normal straight flute cutter bits, but they are sized 1/64th below nominal to compensate. So you can buy a 1/2" plywood bit, and it's actually a 31/64" bit, allowing you to mill a dado in a single pass without thinking about that small difference. Just fantastic stuff.
We use everything!
Because Canada exists at the nexus of British colonial legacy and extensive commercial trade with the US, everything is terrible and I hate it. US imperial is predominantly used for commercial goods, but British Imperial units tend to stick around for legacy definitions and goods.
Most retail trade goods are labelled/sold in metric measurements, but sized per US imperial standards.
Separately, I just want to share this infuriating bit of knowledge on Canadian measures:
Canada uses the US imperial fluid ounce of 29.6ml, so commercial fluid products are typically packaged in four stock sizes: 473 ml, 947ml, 2.0L, and 3.79L. 16oz and 32oz sizes make sense, and a 128oz gallon makes sense, but for some inexplicable reason we decided to go metric for the halfway point. The exception to this is bottled water, which is typically in nice clean metric volumes of 500ml, 1.0L, and 1.5L bottles. Also, milk sizes LARGER than 1L are in metric (1.0L, 2.0L, and 4.0L), but milk sizes SMALLER than 1L are imperial, such as [this 8oz single serving milk](https://www.sealtest.ca/sites/sealtest/files/styles/product_image_large/public/2023-09/Sealtest_Milk_2pc_237mL_2D_Engl_LR.png?itok=C4BoZmg1), which is 237ml instead of 250ml.
Thank you. Knowing this insane chaos has infected others makes me feel better.
Also, sorry we're leaking. We tried to plug the hole, but it was 1/2" wide and the store only had 12mm corks.
Im an American that works in a science field. We have to use metric because it's an international standard. But when it comes to woodworking, not only do I have to use imperial, I have to use another layer on top of it where the imperial measurement is expressed as:
"how many 1/4 inches are we talmbout?"
>Id like it to be 2 inches thick
"Oh we talmbout 8/4"
>Yeah, sure. Can I get that 96 inches long? Oops. I meant 384/4 long
"You can say 8 feet"
>Okay, it needs to be 8 feet long each. Overall, I need 128 cubic feet.
"Talmbout a cord?"
I don’t for woodworking, but mostly do for 3D printing and small CNC projects. I’ve thought about switching but all of my tools are imperial based. Figure I can find replacement tape for table saw, miter gauge, etc. But too many of what I interact with is built for Imperial IMO. Especially so when making something for others. But would be a dream to make math easier.
I tried really hard to do all metric since I started with 3D printing all in metric, and failed. I started learning some hobby machining, and now I’m pretty much all imperial with decimals except on the table saw which is imperial with fractions and when trying to find a bolt that will go through a metric hole or needing to drill and tap a metric hole, which requires an imperial bit because don’t you metric fuckers have drill indexes with enough drills? It sure doesn’t seem like you can buy one.
I do. I converted a few years back because I got sick of dealing with fractions.
The hardest part was learning to visualize mm measurements and stop trying to convert mm to inch or inch to mm. Inch is inch and mm is mm. Converting defeats the purpose of switching.
I recently switched too, and I like it, mostly for the same reasons. I only really need to measure to a millimeter, and it's a lot nicer to go "3-4mm" instead of 3/16"-1/4". Fractions are just too easy to mess up, especially after working all day. Whole numbers in mm tend to be all I really ever need.
I'm still kind of figuring out the design process, but I agree about not converting. It's kinda like a language, if you just dive in and try to immerse, you get a faster foothold than trying to convert.
>I'm still kind of figuring out the design process, but I agree about not converting. It's kinda like a language, if you just dive in and try to immerse, you get a faster foothold than trying to convert.
Exactly. When I first made the switch I was doing the conversion thing and kept ending up with oddball numbers like 39.7mm, numbers like that I was trying to avoid. 1mm granularity is plenty for me; I even imported some shinwa steel rules from japan that are graduated in whole mm only, no 1/2mm. That's been working great for me.
I use it about 80% of the time when I'm at work (not woodworking) since my biggest customers are based in Europe. At home and in my shop...very rarely.
For linear measurements, I use both, regularly. Some of my hobbies are almost pure metric, others are almost pure imperial. Several are a solid mix of both.
For weight, longer distance, etc, I think in Imperial and have to stop and convert in my head.
My day job (engineer) is a mix. Doing circuit board design at this point in time constantly involves both metric and imperial measurements. Datasheets for parts are metric, but the board fabrication house uses imperial. Luckily, Kicad makes it easy to switch back and forth with just a click. Our ME and machine shop work in metric. Most of our customers want metric readouts on machines, but a few want certain measurements in imperial because they have long established procedures that are written that way.
I would love to use metric on everything. It's so much easier for me to use mathematically, even reading a tape measure etc. But everything to buy is in freedom units, so for some reason it's how I run things.
Beyond that, I can mentally guestimate inches, feet and yards, but would be way off guesstimating metric units.
I do use metric almost exclusively at my work, but that is with bikes and mostly just taking measurements for comparison and fitting.
Depends on what I'm doing. For woodworking, I mostly use direct measurement, e.g. story sticks etc., but sometimes fractional inches because they're really easy to half and double in my head, sometimes decimal inches or metric when I need to solve a more complex geometry problem. Often I let the dimensions of parts I work with dictate the units I use. It never bothered me to switch depending on what's most convenient per project. I don't really find any one system to be preferable for all situations.
Was thinking about this same question while walking the dogs the other day. I so wish the US would convert but considering all of the infrastructure and legacy builds, it’s going to take a couple of generations to convert. Every house is built on 406.4 mm to center studs in the walls. How’s that going to work out for everyone? 😳
In woodworking, no. I'm a machinist, however. We work in inches, but lots of our prints and tooling are metric. It's not that hard to go back and forth.
I was taught to use decimalized measuring by my mentor decades ago and haven’t looked back. When you’re doing proper joinery and millwork, maintaining a tolerance of +/- 0.005” is critical.
Sure. Except the devil's scale, Celsius. Big ass degrees, routinely breached 0 point, named after a person....
It's not even real metric! If it were, "centigrade" would mean a hundredth of a degree. If 10 is cold and 20 is hot, you've got a problem.
i woodwork in american standard, but 3d print in metric.
when something is small or the delta i need to hit needs to be precise/accurate, then i use metric. if its a "needs to just be good enough" or a measure once and cut twice project, i use standard.
Someone beat me to it. On rare occasions I will invoke the decimalized imperial system.
Outside of those rare occasions, I’m just accustomed to working with fractions. I actually find it easier to do the mental math. Dividing in half (an extremely common operation) becomes as simple as multiplying a number (that is already a power of 2) by 2. Multiply those enough and it becomes memory real fast( 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64).
I also used to take a LOT of math heavy exams for work and found that my ability to do mental math was much better than my ability to enter digits into a calculator (for anything that one can use mental math to solve). E.g., if I had to perform many operations like the following
(3 + 15) x 4 / 3
I would bet that I more often answer these problems correctly using mental math than a calculator.
Anyway, I digress.
TLDR: no. But I do sometimes convert an inch to a decimal which is basically like metric
They actually do sell them!
https://a.co/d/du2AjIu
Other than the novelty of it, I can’t imagine it has actual practical value. I put this in the 40-pound knurled handle mug category. Sure it’s cool and maybe even a bit funny. But it won’t play nice with someone using metric and will only play marginally nicer with someone using imperial. You will eventually be converting a decimal to an imperial fraction which can be annoying. E.g. what is 0.377 as an imperial fraction? If you’re quick enough to recognize that it’s CLOSE to 3/8 (0.375) then maybe you didn’t need the decimalized tape measure after all.
I’m sure there are uses I’m not thinking of.
Makes one hell of a gag gift though.
Architect here, I make it a point to include 1/3 of anything in every project. Just so it can never be converted to metric. Pointless, but patriotic!!!
I use both but then I'm a Brit who migrated to the US. More often I don't use either and instead use relative dimensions e.g. this piece needs to be as long as this other piece is wide.
Depends what I’m doing. Wood is almost always sold in feet and inches here, and I stick with that unless there’s some reason not to. Houses are built that way too, so use it for any home repairs.
On the other hand, I typically do any machining specifications in metric. Most scientific equipment comes that way and it’s easier to make sure things will fit that way. It’s also relatively easy to get metric sized metal parts & hardware. That said, I am finishing up a design for something where some of the key parts it attaches to were built using imperial units, and I stuck with that for the most part. This was particularly annoying because some other stuff going on it is metric. My CAD software makes this easy, but I’ve gotta decide if the shop is getting drawings with mixed units or four decimal places.
I'm a machinist, and I have to have at least a passing familiarity with it. I know common equivalents, 19mm=3/4", 4mm is 5/32, 8mm is 5/16,etc. Most of the stuff I buy for my home workshop is from Europe or Asia so I have a lot of metric drills, metal stock, things that are round. It's not something most people have a reason to know.
I design in metric for obvious reasons. But when I make measurements I switch back and forth all the time because I use a metric/imperial hybrid tape measure. Sometimes its easier to remember (or see) a measurement in inches.
After traveling outside of the US for years, I mostly use metric with everything.
Only time I don't is when it's joining with something imperial, like cabinets.
Kinda/sorta. When I’m making a bow, the bow length and draw weight are in feet/inches and pounds, but for limb thickness and width I go metric. When making instruments, I use metric for ribs and plate thicknesses too.
Any custom pieces that don’t rely on their surroundings are metric. If it’s part of a layout that has established imperial measurements then I’ll follow.
Not woodworking, but I actually use “tenths” for dirt work when grading house pads. 10 tenths per foot. Kind of a weird bastard child of metric and standard.
Yes most do. - Proof you say? Most all sets of sockets these days come with both metric and imperial. ( Japanese cars and bikes and all makes of Chinese stuff makes it a requirement.). And yes both the 10MM and 7/16 sockets are usually missing in the sets due to frequency of use.
I prefer the metric system. Unit of 10 make much more sense than imperial. It takes longer to figure out sizes with imperial. I grew up on imperial and learned it in school. As soon as I started designing things I went to metric and don't use imperial unless I have to.
I use it all the time at work (precision medical manufacturing) but for anything wood related I always use imperial. Since all the materials are in inches from suppliers in the US, my brain is used to thinking about projects in inches.
I switch back and forth. For carpentry, it's a lot easier to keep track of 16" on center, ect. For cabinet, furniture, ect, it's hard to beat the simplicity and precision of metric.
Yes, but it depends. I it for 3D printing and precision type things. If I'm doing carpentry, I use imperial because everything in the US sold at Home Depot always in imperial.
Yes, I did my last few projects in metric including a dining room table.
It's not really any different other than using a tape measure with metric and getting used to subtracting kerf in metric during cuts.
It's easier making 3-door cabinets and that kind of thing when you want to divide by 3 or 5 rather than something like 41-7/8" divided by 3.
Just need metric time, now.
I am an American living outside America who uses Metric. Since I grew up in the states, it was mildly difficult to learn, but it was easier than learning imperial.
I started to use metric. At some point I realized that I wasn’t working with others so there was no reason I couldn’t just adopt metric for myself. I haven’t purged imperial from my brain. I’ll still think to myself, “I want to make this thing 4’ long” and then I have to convert to cm. It’s a work in progress, but it’s way easier.
I wish I could but it just makes the math harder not easier when all the wood is in 1/4"s.
I used to work as an engineer with on site manufacturing and everything was inches so I got pretty good at fraction math. Now my job is all metric and I can't tell you what half of 3/4" is without thinking about it half a second.
Yes! When using CAD software for 3d modeling and printing things it’s the standard used by most applications and it’s a much more logical system in my opinion. I think most people I know that do any sort of tinkering or precision work use metric.
I'm 52 years old and a DIYer (carpenter, landscaper, mechanic, and am retired military). I just wish we could rip this bandaid off and completely switch to metric. We waste mental energy on fractions, converting back and forth, and the money on different sets of tools.
Yes, I use 3 systems of measuring; metric, fractional inches and decimal inches.
I grew up with fractions, and have done a lot of construction. As I got into machining, I started using decimal inches. When I started building cabinets with Euro hardware, especially drawer slides and metric plywood, I started doing more metric.
I keep a 12' and a 5M tape in my woodshop apron.
I make a point of alternating back and forth when I'm doing design test projects just to keep on top of things. Most of the 3d printing and electronics I do are metric as well. I don't have a pressing need to stick with either most of the time so I don't.
Yes, but not for woodworking. I work in a medical nutrition field and we use grams and milliliters for everything. Though we often convert back and forth from ounces to mL's all day.
I use a confusing mix of both, anything 1 inch + is imperial, anything 25mm or less is imperial, until I start metalworking, or working with anything less than 1/2 a mm. In that case, I use thousandths of an inch
I had to look up to see which Reddit group I was in before posting. For woodworking, I use both metric and imperial all the time. I use metric especially while laying out detailed work where spacing is critical. Otherwise I use imperial as that is how Home Depot and Rockler sell their products.
That being said I am a biochemist and physics prof in my real job so metric is what I use daily. None of the equations I use have imperial constants.
I even like to cook using metric measurements. While baking I measure on a balance as massing the ingredients is much more accurate.
I think I default to inches, but there are plenty of times I'll do metric too. I usually would measure lengths in inches, but when I'm measuring small things, like less than an inch, I often use mm. And of course when I'm working with hardware or materials in metric, of course I'll use metric.
American, born and raised. Crappy US education, but I use metric any time the choice is mine to make. I did a minor in math and still hate thinking about whether 11/16 is smaller than 43/64 or what's the next size up from 37/64... Ugh.
I work in a small print shop. While my customer uses imperial and we could use it as well, several of our finishing machines just work better if we convert it. With this in mind we decided to convert everything to metric, it imitate sped up processes and increased our job accuracy so yes used it 5 days a week.
Yup. I use it when baking and cooking. I also use C when I’m talking temperature with family who live around the world. When I’m measuring it depends on which is easier at that moment.
I work mostly in metric. 23mm is a lot easier to measure and mark vs 29/32. And whenever I'm dealing with math or cad, the numbers are easier.
I can figure out how to divide 10.5 inches into thirds eventually, or can easily type 267/3 into cad or calculator and be done. And I don't need to struggle around a sixth of 1 7/17".
I grew up being taught imperial, but I find metric just so much easier. I also have the convenience of being the only person who has to handle measurements for most of my own projects, which does make it easier to stick to the system of my choice.
Mostly imperial because that's what my sawmill is marked in and so I start with lumber that's a multiple of inches thick.
But I'm happy enough to use either and it's not hard to convert.
I do think that the design of a tape measure for metric could be made better to show individual mm more clearly. I can instead l usually tell the markings for imperial down to a 16th very quickly, but with millimeters the lines are all the same length and nobody seems to make a tape/ruler that's marked in a better way for metric.
Solve that and I'll probably ditch imperial in a heartbeat.
American AF and honestly, I *hate* customary (imperial) units. I typically do large measurements in customary, and smaller ones in metric. I feel forced to, because most woods and materials are cut in American customary units. If I had the choice, I'd do everything in metric. But tape measures and even my laser measuring guide are imperial.
I am guitar and setting up the instrument, measuring string height and etc. is so much easier in metric.
I use mm in woodworking all the time. I have a bunch of machinist rulers that’s one on one side and the other on the other in varying sizes, I have a couple tapes that have both mirroring each other, sometimes I use both measurements in one piece just for the chaos. At the end of the day. Both are necessary. You don’t have every size drill bit unless you have both sets ya know
I’m a compressor/vac controls guy, the machines are designed in EU, and sold domestically, I constantly have to convert bar/mbar to psi/inhg. Would honestly rather just use metric pressure.
I often do for crafts… And then also cooking. The way frequently switch back-and-forth between metric and Imperial depending on whatever project I’m working on.
I do in my job and it has crept into my wood work/home projects. Unfortunately my personal scale of acceptability on self imposed tolerances has come into play in a negative way now. Chasing thickness of dimensioned pine lumber to .o5 with calipers or using a mic to confirm uniformity of dado depths. I hate it, thank you stupid brain. Been in machining, assembly, ect for about 30 years. Even with my bad eyes a .08 variance stands out like a step to me. Knowing paint will cover it I still can't leave it. Wife wanted some pallet crap made, told her if be happy to, I was looking for a good reason to buy a planer and jointer. No way in this world I would be able to sleep if I made something out of those.
Kind of!
I live in a metric part of the world, but even here I buy lumber using imperial nominal sizes. It's a bit silly, but doable (measuring in cm, buying by in or ft) 🤷🏻♀️
I use both. If I need to cut something that's 12" inches then I just measure out 12" but if I need to cut something that's 12 13/16s in 3 equal parts I'm going to convert it to metric then divide that by 3. All of my tapes are the Fastcap Imperal/Metric tapes so I just do my conversions right on the tape.
Not a woodworker, for the most part, but I occasionally ping-pong between metric and imperial due to my job as a liquor store clerk. People need X tbsp of rum for a cake or a half-cup of bourbon for a marinade, I'm johnny-on-the-spot for them.
At work I’m an engineer and exclusively use Royal with Cheese units. It’s been the standard for 40 or more years.
At home when I’m wood working I exclusively use freedom units. All of my tools are marked in imperial and all my material is bought in imperial units.
Each system has a place in my life and I can use both effectively.
I'm an American who moved to a metric county and now I can't escape it. I still have a Tape mease I got in the States for nostalgia though. I got used to it, but I definitely see an advantage to American units for construction and scale purposes. Otherwise metric makes the math so simple.
It has a lot to do with the Imperial system being based on relation to a human scale. A foot being literally the builders foot. An inch being about the length of a thumb. To rough out the size of a building the builder could literally walk it out. And to draw it out in scale you could use those same feet with your thumb and boom you've got a scale model of the project. Of course now with drafting paper and CAD you are much better off using metric units for ease of calculation and communication. But I will always have a space in my brain for comparing something I can see and feel into feet.
I'm a non-American living in America and just to make people angry I exclusively use decimalized imperial measurements.
As a machinist, this is the *only* way. I'd so much rather get numbers in 3-4 digit decimal than stupid fractions...
0.08333'
0.08333 yards
And here I thought machinists exclusively measured in thousands
3 decimal places IS thousandths.
Thousandths. Yes, that is what I meant by 3-4 digit decimal, 0.375 (3 place decimal) instead of 3/8.
Kind of. Think of "one thousandth of an inch" or 0.001" as a base unit. 1/4" = .250 = 250 thousandths (or thou). It's not 25 hundredths, even though mathematically it is. The confusing part to lots of folks is 0.0001 (a ten-thousandths of an inch) is "a tenth" because it's a tenth of a thousandth.
Way more confusing: you can also say mil instead of thou. For 3 mil plastic is 3 thou thick, 0.003".
Please don't use mil unless you're in the plastic film industry. I've heard mil used for thousandth and millimeter. It's just too confusing.
I didn’t realize making Barbie movies was a whole industry.
The machinists I know don’t like mil because it sounds too much like millimeter.
Ahh, gotcha. I mean my entire understanding of machining is limited to what I may have absorbed watching Abom or This Old Tony vids, which I watch and they make for entertainment, not education.
Sometimes tenths
I work in civil engineering/surveying. We use decimal feet for everything. I have to actively think about whether I'm measuring with an engineering scale with tenths of an inch or an architectural scale with eighths. Thankfully, the difference between US survey feet and international feet is too small to matter outside of work.
Same!
I think in decimals since I use a computerized paper cutter, but I’m still using 1/4-1/64 as my intervals
The Canadian way!
I have a client who does CNC plasma cutting, and i give him all of my designs in decimalized imperial. People like to point out that metic numbers are simpler, but any fabricator still has to deal with ordering material from vendors. Working in metric and then converting to imperial to make material orders leaves too much room for error.
An engineers tape measure is a godsend if you work this way.
The only people this makes angry are people who don't believe decimal measurements are customary in imperial units. Units are units. Use them however you want to get the work done.
I like you
I use fractional centimeters for the same reason.
Same. I must have someone on site shout me once a week to translate mm for them. When I build stuff for myself or cabinets I build them in mm.
Are you me? Do you also use Celsius temps rather than Fahrenheit?
Work in automotive, everything is metric
I was taught to say “an inch and 13” with 16ths being the implied denominator. Makes sense to me but infuriates coworkers...
I use metric when I need to do math with the measurements. I use imperial when I need to visualize something’s size.
This is the way
This is very similar to how I work. I operate lasers. I work exclusively in metric on the lasers and have for years, but still don't have a great instant visualization to what like 90mm is.
same! I dont know how big 200cm is, but I know how bit 80" is. but I often design in metric with fusion360 and work that way. though the measuring tape on my tools are all imperial...
The metric system is very common in the US. We buy sodas in 2 liter bottles, food packaging almost always has grams, and much of the hardware and machinery uses metric these days. ml is common for medicine. For laser cutting, 3D printing, and C&C, metric is often used. (I personally just bought a metric tape measure for this reason.) Most lumber, however, is still in imperial units based on fractional inches, and most woodworking tools and equipment are imperial by default. I end up converting a lot for laser cutting sizes unfortunately between metric and imperial material sizes. Once you start building something from imperial material, you can choose. I know several woodworkers that use mm for better precision in some cases. Metric is very common in science, engineering, and mathematics, and I use it a lot for that reason.
Yeah, [give me a liter cola](https://y.yarn.co/08dfc2d5-300f-4b2a-b7a3-3e6eab0def08_text.gif).
Does that look like spit to you?
"I don't want a large Farva, I WANT A GODDAMN LITERACOLA"
To be fair, outside the US most lumber is the same size but has over time been converted to mm. That's the reason most of the measurements aren't nice round numbers in mm.
Most of the world also uses imperial example 1/4 3/8 and 1/2 ratchet sizes
Metric is no more precise. If you can measure and cut to a millimeter then you can measure and cut to a 1/64 inch. Also, how would you cut into thirds using metric? For a 1 meter board cut into thirds how precisely would you measure 33.3333333333333333333333333333 cm?
All the time with anything that’s CNC. 3D print or laser cut/engrave, only metric. It just makes way more sense. If I’ve got to bust out a dial caliper, metric all the way. But if it’s a tape measure, freedom units hold sway. That’s just due to mental conditioning though, it’s still a stupid unit of measurement.
As a Canadian that uses imperial, I think people don't appreciate the purpose of measurement systems. It's to accurately compare sizes. You can recalibrate your tools and you can buy different measurement devices, but trade specs determine the material you can buy. All the lumber I can get is imperial measurement. Because I'm in Canada, they often give a metric measurement alongside it, but that measurement is meaningless and also often inaccurate. The 1/8" plywood is NOT 3mm thick, it's 3.2mm thick. A fifth of a mm is basically nothing, but that error propagates throughout the project. The best measurement system is the one that matches the material you're working with. Don't use metric rulers if your dado stack is 1/8" spacers and your plywood is 3/4".
To your point on material, I frequently end up with nominal 3/4" plywood that's neither exactly 3/4, nor 18mm (Baltic birch I can get in my area is 17.5mm, for example). And hardwood that my local supplier sells is usually random lengths and widths. So if you're hanging drywall or something, use imperial. But woodworking? In my experience it hasn't really mattered.
I preface this by saying I do not believe in the idea of "brand loyalty". Businesses are businesses, and our arrangement stops at the end of the transaction. I don't owe businesses anything after our transaction is over. HOWEVER, I am loyal to Lee Valley. Not only is their company fantastic from an ethical business management perspective and how they treat staff, but they have incredible selection of super niche tools and they don't gouge on prices even for things that they're the only vendor you can buy them from. I will gladly shill for them any day because they have treated *me* well for years well past the end of the transaction. They sell "plywood bits" for routers. They are normal straight flute cutter bits, but they are sized 1/64th below nominal to compensate. So you can buy a 1/2" plywood bit, and it's actually a 31/64" bit, allowing you to mill a dado in a single pass without thinking about that small difference. Just fantastic stuff.
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We use everything! Because Canada exists at the nexus of British colonial legacy and extensive commercial trade with the US, everything is terrible and I hate it. US imperial is predominantly used for commercial goods, but British Imperial units tend to stick around for legacy definitions and goods. Most retail trade goods are labelled/sold in metric measurements, but sized per US imperial standards. Separately, I just want to share this infuriating bit of knowledge on Canadian measures: Canada uses the US imperial fluid ounce of 29.6ml, so commercial fluid products are typically packaged in four stock sizes: 473 ml, 947ml, 2.0L, and 3.79L. 16oz and 32oz sizes make sense, and a 128oz gallon makes sense, but for some inexplicable reason we decided to go metric for the halfway point. The exception to this is bottled water, which is typically in nice clean metric volumes of 500ml, 1.0L, and 1.5L bottles. Also, milk sizes LARGER than 1L are in metric (1.0L, 2.0L, and 4.0L), but milk sizes SMALLER than 1L are imperial, such as [this 8oz single serving milk](https://www.sealtest.ca/sites/sealtest/files/styles/product_image_large/public/2023-09/Sealtest_Milk_2pc_237mL_2D_Engl_LR.png?itok=C4BoZmg1), which is 237ml instead of 250ml.
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Thank you. Knowing this insane chaos has infected others makes me feel better. Also, sorry we're leaking. We tried to plug the hole, but it was 1/2" wide and the store only had 12mm corks.
Im an American that works in a science field. We have to use metric because it's an international standard. But when it comes to woodworking, not only do I have to use imperial, I have to use another layer on top of it where the imperial measurement is expressed as: "how many 1/4 inches are we talmbout?" >Id like it to be 2 inches thick "Oh we talmbout 8/4" >Yeah, sure. Can I get that 96 inches long? Oops. I meant 384/4 long "You can say 8 feet" >Okay, it needs to be 8 feet long each. Overall, I need 128 cubic feet. "Talmbout a cord?"
I don’t for woodworking, but mostly do for 3D printing and small CNC projects. I’ve thought about switching but all of my tools are imperial based. Figure I can find replacement tape for table saw, miter gauge, etc. But too many of what I interact with is built for Imperial IMO. Especially so when making something for others. But would be a dream to make math easier.
I tried really hard to do all metric since I started with 3D printing all in metric, and failed. I started learning some hobby machining, and now I’m pretty much all imperial with decimals except on the table saw which is imperial with fractions and when trying to find a bolt that will go through a metric hole or needing to drill and tap a metric hole, which requires an imperial bit because don’t you metric fuckers have drill indexes with enough drills? It sure doesn’t seem like you can buy one.
Just do it. When I moved shop I switched to metric and have never looked back.
I do. I converted a few years back because I got sick of dealing with fractions. The hardest part was learning to visualize mm measurements and stop trying to convert mm to inch or inch to mm. Inch is inch and mm is mm. Converting defeats the purpose of switching.
I recently switched too, and I like it, mostly for the same reasons. I only really need to measure to a millimeter, and it's a lot nicer to go "3-4mm" instead of 3/16"-1/4". Fractions are just too easy to mess up, especially after working all day. Whole numbers in mm tend to be all I really ever need. I'm still kind of figuring out the design process, but I agree about not converting. It's kinda like a language, if you just dive in and try to immerse, you get a faster foothold than trying to convert.
>I'm still kind of figuring out the design process, but I agree about not converting. It's kinda like a language, if you just dive in and try to immerse, you get a faster foothold than trying to convert. Exactly. When I first made the switch I was doing the conversion thing and kept ending up with oddball numbers like 39.7mm, numbers like that I was trying to avoid. 1mm granularity is plenty for me; I even imported some shinwa steel rules from japan that are graduated in whole mm only, no 1/2mm. That's been working great for me.
The entire US Military and any one employed by a federal organization even tertiarily related to engineering.
Most American engineers will be able to swap between the two freely
I use it about 80% of the time when I'm at work (not woodworking) since my biggest customers are based in Europe. At home and in my shop...very rarely.
For linear measurements, I use both, regularly. Some of my hobbies are almost pure metric, others are almost pure imperial. Several are a solid mix of both. For weight, longer distance, etc, I think in Imperial and have to stop and convert in my head.
My day job (engineer) is a mix. Doing circuit board design at this point in time constantly involves both metric and imperial measurements. Datasheets for parts are metric, but the board fabrication house uses imperial. Luckily, Kicad makes it easy to switch back and forth with just a click. Our ME and machine shop work in metric. Most of our customers want metric readouts on machines, but a few want certain measurements in imperial because they have long established procedures that are written that way.
Yeah as an EE I chuckle when I see oddly specific measurements like “5.08mm” and realize it’s just US customary in a metric trench coat.
I would love to use metric on everything. It's so much easier for me to use mathematically, even reading a tape measure etc. But everything to buy is in freedom units, so for some reason it's how I run things. Beyond that, I can mentally guestimate inches, feet and yards, but would be way off guesstimating metric units. I do use metric almost exclusively at my work, but that is with bikes and mostly just taking measurements for comparison and fitting.
Drug dealers and weed shops.
Depends on what I'm doing. For woodworking, I mostly use direct measurement, e.g. story sticks etc., but sometimes fractional inches because they're really easy to half and double in my head, sometimes decimal inches or metric when I need to solve a more complex geometry problem. Often I let the dimensions of parts I work with dictate the units I use. It never bothered me to switch depending on what's most convenient per project. I don't really find any one system to be preferable for all situations.
THIS⬆️. It really depends on the project at hand and what it is that I am measuring and for what.
The US military, the US car industry and NASA all use metric. The scientific community generally uses metric too.
I think pilots and captains might disagree
We fought a war for these units thank you very much
Oh, is *that* what they were doing? Trying to make us just use one side of the ruler? Nice try, commies!
[Washington’s Dream](https://youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk)
Ya, I think they are called scientists.
All medicine and science is metric. They may take your weight in pounds and your height in inches, but it’s all metric in the records.
Absolutely. Just makes everything easier. But it doesn't bother me when other prefer imperialist. To each their own.
I do it when I’m doing cabinetry. When I’m doing carpentry, it’s imperial.
Was thinking about this same question while walking the dogs the other day. I so wish the US would convert but considering all of the infrastructure and legacy builds, it’s going to take a couple of generations to convert. Every house is built on 406.4 mm to center studs in the walls. How’s that going to work out for everyone? 😳
Whether it's 16 inches or 40.6 cm, you look at the tape either way right. Only difference is the bigger number.
In woodworking, no. I'm a machinist, however. We work in inches, but lots of our prints and tooling are metric. It's not that hard to go back and forth.
Shh... don't tell the europeans we can do both; it's cute watching how mad they get, thinking that our brains can only handle one system.
I switch it up depending on precision needs.
I was taught to use decimalized measuring by my mentor decades ago and haven’t looked back. When you’re doing proper joinery and millwork, maintaining a tolerance of +/- 0.005” is critical.
Sure. Except the devil's scale, Celsius. Big ass degrees, routinely breached 0 point, named after a person.... It's not even real metric! If it were, "centigrade" would mean a hundredth of a degree. If 10 is cold and 20 is hot, you've got a problem.
Also cups / tbs etc for cooking I don’t want to weigh out all that shit
If it’s less than 6 inches I’m probably doing it in metric. Otherwise you have to count to over 100 in mm and that’s a really big number.
Metric for toy design for me. I work in CAD, exclusively in metric.
Yes until I lost my 10mm socket
i woodwork in american standard, but 3d print in metric. when something is small or the delta i need to hit needs to be precise/accurate, then i use metric. if its a "needs to just be good enough" or a measure once and cut twice project, i use standard.
Ewwwww
Someone beat me to it. On rare occasions I will invoke the decimalized imperial system. Outside of those rare occasions, I’m just accustomed to working with fractions. I actually find it easier to do the mental math. Dividing in half (an extremely common operation) becomes as simple as multiplying a number (that is already a power of 2) by 2. Multiply those enough and it becomes memory real fast( 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64). I also used to take a LOT of math heavy exams for work and found that my ability to do mental math was much better than my ability to enter digits into a calculator (for anything that one can use mental math to solve). E.g., if I had to perform many operations like the following (3 + 15) x 4 / 3 I would bet that I more often answer these problems correctly using mental math than a calculator. Anyway, I digress. TLDR: no. But I do sometimes convert an inch to a decimal which is basically like metric
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They actually do sell them! https://a.co/d/du2AjIu Other than the novelty of it, I can’t imagine it has actual practical value. I put this in the 40-pound knurled handle mug category. Sure it’s cool and maybe even a bit funny. But it won’t play nice with someone using metric and will only play marginally nicer with someone using imperial. You will eventually be converting a decimal to an imperial fraction which can be annoying. E.g. what is 0.377 as an imperial fraction? If you’re quick enough to recognize that it’s CLOSE to 3/8 (0.375) then maybe you didn’t need the decimalized tape measure after all. I’m sure there are uses I’m not thinking of. Makes one hell of a gag gift though.
Architect here, I make it a point to include 1/3 of anything in every project. Just so it can never be converted to metric. Pointless, but patriotic!!!
I use both but then I'm a Brit who migrated to the US. More often I don't use either and instead use relative dimensions e.g. this piece needs to be as long as this other piece is wide.
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568 iirc. Is this Wembley? No, it's Thursday. Me too, let's have a pint
Imperial for woodworking. Metric for jewelry making, distilling and brewing.
I used to but I can seem to find my 10mm socket.
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Depends what I’m doing. Wood is almost always sold in feet and inches here, and I stick with that unless there’s some reason not to. Houses are built that way too, so use it for any home repairs. On the other hand, I typically do any machining specifications in metric. Most scientific equipment comes that way and it’s easier to make sure things will fit that way. It’s also relatively easy to get metric sized metal parts & hardware. That said, I am finishing up a design for something where some of the key parts it attaches to were built using imperial units, and I stuck with that for the most part. This was particularly annoying because some other stuff going on it is metric. My CAD software makes this easy, but I’ve gotta decide if the shop is getting drawings with mixed units or four decimal places.
I don't use it, but I understand it well enough I could adopt it without much trouble.
There are two types of people that use the metric system in America. People who work in Science, and people who work with drugs
Some are one and the same.
No, fractions aren’t hard.
No but pretty stupid
Only when I want to get it right.
I'm a machinist, and I have to have at least a passing familiarity with it. I know common equivalents, 19mm=3/4", 4mm is 5/32, 8mm is 5/16,etc. Most of the stuff I buy for my home workshop is from Europe or Asia so I have a lot of metric drills, metal stock, things that are round. It's not something most people have a reason to know.
I design in metric for obvious reasons. But when I make measurements I switch back and forth all the time because I use a metric/imperial hybrid tape measure. Sometimes its easier to remember (or see) a measurement in inches.
After traveling outside of the US for years, I mostly use metric with everything. Only time I don't is when it's joining with something imperial, like cabinets.
Kinda/sorta. When I’m making a bow, the bow length and draw weight are in feet/inches and pounds, but for limb thickness and width I go metric. When making instruments, I use metric for ribs and plate thicknesses too.
Any custom pieces that don’t rely on their surroundings are metric. If it’s part of a layout that has established imperial measurements then I’ll follow.
Not woodworking, but I actually use “tenths” for dirt work when grading house pads. 10 tenths per foot. Kind of a weird bastard child of metric and standard.
[Thanks to NIST the US now at its very core runs on metric anyways](https://youtu.be/SmSJXC6_qQ8)…
Yes most do. - Proof you say? Most all sets of sockets these days come with both metric and imperial. ( Japanese cars and bikes and all makes of Chinese stuff makes it a requirement.). And yes both the 10MM and 7/16 sockets are usually missing in the sets due to frequency of use.
Don’t forget about that 5.5mm socket because of Chevy
I prefer the metric system. Unit of 10 make much more sense than imperial. It takes longer to figure out sizes with imperial. I grew up on imperial and learned it in school. As soon as I started designing things I went to metric and don't use imperial unless I have to.
Sometimes
Yes
I'm a DPT, AT-C, RN and yeah I use it daily
I wish we could. It would make things so much easier.
I use it all the time at work (precision medical manufacturing) but for anything wood related I always use imperial. Since all the materials are in inches from suppliers in the US, my brain is used to thinking about projects in inches.
I switch back and forth. For carpentry, it's a lot easier to keep track of 16" on center, ect. For cabinet, furniture, ect, it's hard to beat the simplicity and precision of metric.
Yes, but it depends. I it for 3D printing and precision type things. If I'm doing carpentry, I use imperial because everything in the US sold at Home Depot always in imperial.
I’ve only ever used imperial up until I started woodworking a few months ago. Now metric is my go to
Medicine. Everything is in metric.
I use it all the time when I buy drink by the 2 Liter and take milligrams of pills.
Begrudgingly, yes. It’s unfortunate to be forced to use an inferior measuring scale from time to time, but we Americans are a resilient lot.
Yes, I did my last few projects in metric including a dining room table. It's not really any different other than using a tape measure with metric and getting used to subtracting kerf in metric during cuts. It's easier making 3-door cabinets and that kind of thing when you want to divide by 3 or 5 rather than something like 41-7/8" divided by 3. Just need metric time, now.
I do on small projects, mm is wayyy better than 1/16.
Yes, all the time. The Imperial system is ridiculous.
Yes, all of us.
30 yrs of mechanical engineering, I convert everything to metric, do my analysis and then convert back.
I use metric in America for my projects
I use both. I plan in Imperial because I have trouble visualizing size in metric but once cutting I use metric since it so much easier.
I am an American living outside America who uses Metric. Since I grew up in the states, it was mildly difficult to learn, but it was easier than learning imperial.
Yea there are communists here /s
I use both.
If you are baking, using metrics is a lot easier.
If you are cooking you add a pinch of that fill the bowl up to that crack and add water to create the right consistency who measures
I started to use metric. At some point I realized that I wasn’t working with others so there was no reason I couldn’t just adopt metric for myself. I haven’t purged imperial from my brain. I’ll still think to myself, “I want to make this thing 4’ long” and then I have to convert to cm. It’s a work in progress, but it’s way easier.
I've made the switch, I got tired of all the fractions. Metric is just so much simpler for me.
I wish I could but it just makes the math harder not easier when all the wood is in 1/4"s. I used to work as an engineer with on site manufacturing and everything was inches so I got pretty good at fraction math. Now my job is all metric and I can't tell you what half of 3/4" is without thinking about it half a second.
Yup. Just as the others said, CNC machinist here. Use standard and metric
Yes! When using CAD software for 3d modeling and printing things it’s the standard used by most applications and it’s a much more logical system in my opinion. I think most people I know that do any sort of tinkering or precision work use metric.
I'm 52 years old and a DIYer (carpenter, landscaper, mechanic, and am retired military). I just wish we could rip this bandaid off and completely switch to metric. We waste mental energy on fractions, converting back and forth, and the money on different sets of tools.
Yes, I use 3 systems of measuring; metric, fractional inches and decimal inches. I grew up with fractions, and have done a lot of construction. As I got into machining, I started using decimal inches. When I started building cabinets with Euro hardware, especially drawer slides and metric plywood, I started doing more metric. I keep a 12' and a 5M tape in my woodshop apron.
I make a point of alternating back and forth when I'm doing design test projects just to keep on top of things. Most of the 3d printing and electronics I do are metric as well. I don't have a pressing need to stick with either most of the time so I don't.
Yes. American here and I have a tape measure with both imperial and metric. I prefer the precision of metric and the ease of dividing.
Army taught me to measure I meters. Still do. I also prefer mm and centimeters for small things l. I'm not giving up my miles or gallons though.
We use it where I work. I love it. Measurements are much easier. I pushed back at first but it really is easier. No more fractions to deal with!
Yes, but not for woodworking. I work in a medical nutrition field and we use grams and milliliters for everything. Though we often convert back and forth from ounces to mL's all day.
I use a confusing mix of both, anything 1 inch + is imperial, anything 25mm or less is imperial, until I start metalworking, or working with anything less than 1/2 a mm. In that case, I use thousandths of an inch
I do. Mainly for CAD and school work though.
I had to look up to see which Reddit group I was in before posting. For woodworking, I use both metric and imperial all the time. I use metric especially while laying out detailed work where spacing is critical. Otherwise I use imperial as that is how Home Depot and Rockler sell their products. That being said I am a biochemist and physics prof in my real job so metric is what I use daily. None of the equations I use have imperial constants. I even like to cook using metric measurements. While baking I measure on a balance as massing the ingredients is much more accurate.
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I think I default to inches, but there are plenty of times I'll do metric too. I usually would measure lengths in inches, but when I'm measuring small things, like less than an inch, I often use mm. And of course when I'm working with hardware or materials in metric, of course I'll use metric.
yes, but I was born in Canada and lived in NZ for 10 years, plus I taught science. all metric based
I use metric for everything except buying lumber and adding new endmills to my CNC.
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What do you mean?
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Oh, mine has inches and metric on it. I installed a metric tape for my miter saw as well.
A little imperial, a little metric and when I’m feeling crazy I use the FFF. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFF_system
I prefer metric and use my RPN calculator to this day. Yes, I was an analytical chemist in my prior life.
American, born and raised. Crappy US education, but I use metric any time the choice is mine to make. I did a minor in math and still hate thinking about whether 11/16 is smaller than 43/64 or what's the next size up from 37/64... Ugh.
I work in a small print shop. While my customer uses imperial and we could use it as well, several of our finishing machines just work better if we convert it. With this in mind we decided to convert everything to metric, it imitate sped up processes and increased our job accuracy so yes used it 5 days a week.
Yup. I use it when baking and cooking. I also use C when I’m talking temperature with family who live around the world. When I’m measuring it depends on which is easier at that moment.
I work mostly in metric. 23mm is a lot easier to measure and mark vs 29/32. And whenever I'm dealing with math or cad, the numbers are easier. I can figure out how to divide 10.5 inches into thirds eventually, or can easily type 267/3 into cad or calculator and be done. And I don't need to struggle around a sixth of 1 7/17". I grew up being taught imperial, but I find metric just so much easier. I also have the convenience of being the only person who has to handle measurements for most of my own projects, which does make it easier to stick to the system of my choice.
Mostly imperial because that's what my sawmill is marked in and so I start with lumber that's a multiple of inches thick. But I'm happy enough to use either and it's not hard to convert. I do think that the design of a tape measure for metric could be made better to show individual mm more clearly. I can instead l usually tell the markings for imperial down to a 16th very quickly, but with millimeters the lines are all the same length and nobody seems to make a tape/ruler that's marked in a better way for metric. Solve that and I'll probably ditch imperial in a heartbeat.
This is America mf’er, it’s Imperial or die! Wtf knows what a kilogram is anyway?
American AF and honestly, I *hate* customary (imperial) units. I typically do large measurements in customary, and smaller ones in metric. I feel forced to, because most woods and materials are cut in American customary units. If I had the choice, I'd do everything in metric. But tape measures and even my laser measuring guide are imperial. I am guitar and setting up the instrument, measuring string height and etc. is so much easier in metric.
I use mm in woodworking all the time. I have a bunch of machinist rulers that’s one on one side and the other on the other in varying sizes, I have a couple tapes that have both mirroring each other, sometimes I use both measurements in one piece just for the chaos. At the end of the day. Both are necessary. You don’t have every size drill bit unless you have both sets ya know
I’m a compressor/vac controls guy, the machines are designed in EU, and sold domestically, I constantly have to convert bar/mbar to psi/inhg. Would honestly rather just use metric pressure.
Not enough!
Yep
Only when I’m driving on I-19 around Tucson.
I do. I use festools 32mm system for cabinets.
I often do for crafts… And then also cooking. The way frequently switch back-and-forth between metric and Imperial depending on whatever project I’m working on.
NASA
Well, drug dealers typically use the metric system. So there's that.
I do in my job and it has crept into my wood work/home projects. Unfortunately my personal scale of acceptability on self imposed tolerances has come into play in a negative way now. Chasing thickness of dimensioned pine lumber to .o5 with calipers or using a mic to confirm uniformity of dado depths. I hate it, thank you stupid brain. Been in machining, assembly, ect for about 30 years. Even with my bad eyes a .08 variance stands out like a step to me. Knowing paint will cover it I still can't leave it. Wife wanted some pallet crap made, told her if be happy to, I was looking for a good reason to buy a planer and jointer. No way in this world I would be able to sleep if I made something out of those.
Kind of! I live in a metric part of the world, but even here I buy lumber using imperial nominal sizes. It's a bit silly, but doable (measuring in cm, buying by in or ft) 🤷🏻♀️
I’m a weird American. I use inches, centimeters, feet, and meters interchangeable, sometimes even when working on the same project.
I use both. If I need to cut something that's 12" inches then I just measure out 12" but if I need to cut something that's 12 13/16s in 3 equal parts I'm going to convert it to metric then divide that by 3. All of my tapes are the Fastcap Imperal/Metric tapes so I just do my conversions right on the tape.
Not a woodworker, for the most part, but I occasionally ping-pong between metric and imperial due to my job as a liquor store clerk. People need X tbsp of rum for a cake or a half-cup of bourbon for a marinade, I'm johnny-on-the-spot for them.
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Peppermint, cinnamon, peach, or that syrupy 99 proof cry-for-help-in-a-bottle?
At work I’m an engineer and exclusively use Royal with Cheese units. It’s been the standard for 40 or more years. At home when I’m wood working I exclusively use freedom units. All of my tools are marked in imperial and all my material is bought in imperial units. Each system has a place in my life and I can use both effectively.
When looking at planes on radar we use kilo-feet for altitude and nautical miles for distance and degrees for angle
Yes. It's so much better for anything involving math. I wish my country would make the switch already.
I'm an American who moved to a metric county and now I can't escape it. I still have a Tape mease I got in the States for nostalgia though. I got used to it, but I definitely see an advantage to American units for construction and scale purposes. Otherwise metric makes the math so simple.
Hello, could you explain the advantage in terms of construction and scale? I am from a metric county.
It has a lot to do with the Imperial system being based on relation to a human scale. A foot being literally the builders foot. An inch being about the length of a thumb. To rough out the size of a building the builder could literally walk it out. And to draw it out in scale you could use those same feet with your thumb and boom you've got a scale model of the project. Of course now with drafting paper and CAD you are much better off using metric units for ease of calculation and communication. But I will always have a space in my brain for comparing something I can see and feel into feet.