Easy Metric Tutorial?

[Acrobat]

In NZ and Australia we still talk and people understand acres, but the day to day talk is a mix of metric and old school so I guess we've blended the both, you'll end up doing the same eventually.
[big grin]

 

[Aquila]

Decameter, hectometer, and kilometer are mostly used to express road distances and property dimensions.

I'm curious especially for folks in Australia, Canada and the UK, do you typically talk acres or hectares when describing land?

For those born after about 1970, hectares would be the norm. For those born before, acres. I got to use metric measurement on a boat building project about 35 years ago and haven't even thought about using imperial since.

 

[Kev]

One can get rather technical, but to help the original poster.....
I try to visualise lengths and sizes in everyday terms, so understanding that you know feet and inches already......in simple terms...and everyday usage...

1 foot or 12 inches = 300 millimetres approx (mm's), give or take a few mm's. 300 millimetres is also 30cm's "centremetres".
10mm = 1cm.
100mm =10cm.
1000mm is 1 Metre.
Metres are used in metric when sizes are getting large, say to describe a deck area e.g. 6 x 3 metres. You'd be used to saying it in feet and inches.
1 inch approx 25mm (25.4 to be precise).
4 inches = 100mm approx
6 inches = 125mm approx
A 2x4 piece of lumber is 50 x 100mm
A 2x 6 is 50 x 125mm

A sheet of ply 4' x 8' = 1200 x 2400mm

I have just given approx final measurements so not down to the last mm, but rather to enable one to grasp a size mentally and understand the dimensions someone is talking about.
Just those above will quite likely get you through most everyday tasks until you get a feel for it. The hardest part is the going back and forth, easier to work only in 1 system.

I forgot some common fractions in imperial use:
1/4" = 6.35mm or 6.4mm
1/8" = 3mm
1/2" = 12.4mm is usually the standard router bit size chose there.

That should do it
Hope this helps and doesn't add to your stress of learning it.

Careful not to go with 6" as 125mm ... 150mm is the correct approximation!

The decimals in the above are off a bit in some of the examples too, so try to refer to a official conversions standard if accuracy is important.

 

[SittingElf]

This whole thread is causing me to get close to experiencing "Exploding Head Syndrome"  [scared]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is a form of hypnagogic auditory hallucination and is a rare and relatively undocumented parasomnia event in which the subject experiences a loud bang in their head similar to a bomb exploding, a gun going off, a clash of cymbals, ringing, an earthquake, or any other form of loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside the head.

I have to stop thinking about imperial vs. metric. I'm afraid of what may happen if I continue to ponder the mysteries.... [huh] Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit shooting up Prozac! [big grin]



[scratch chin]

Cheers,

Frank... (head still intact, thank you very much [big grin])

 

[darita]

[scratch chin]

Cheers,

Frank... (head still intact, thank you very much [big grin])

[/quote]
Hey...one of my favorite movies from the past!

 

[grbmds]

For most of us, we just need to convert as we go and hope that our learning capabilities are substantial. When you have spent your whole life thinking in terms of inches and feet (especially your woodworking life and, for me that's 35+ years of woodworking), you can't just start thinking in metric. Right now, I constantly have to convert the scale on the TS55 into inches just to make sure I don't cut through the table when setting the depth of cut. I'm learning but I don't do this everyday like those who do it for a living so it takes longer (plus age doesn't help either). I've thought about getting a Fastcap tape which has both. That might help the learning process. I also have an app on my ipond which does the conversion although that is a little inconvenient since I have to make sure I have it with me in the shop and that requires flawless memory.

 

[Kev]

For measurements under an inch, try something like this ...

http://www.boltandnutsupply.com/pdf/CONVERSION.pdf

For raw conversion, try this ...

http://ihvac.in/pdf/MetricImperialUnitConversionTable.pdf

For a relative visual up 6 inches,try this ...

http://www.austain.com.au/useruploads/files/austain_technical_information_sheet_metric_to_imperial_conversion_table.pdf

For some detailed reading about readiness in the trades, maybe this ...

http://www.georgianc.on.ca/coned09/wp-content/uploads/01-CTS-M08-ImperialMetric-Conversion.pdf

If you like working in fractions ...

http://www.wood-database.com/wp-content/uploads/metric-conversion-chart.pdf

A reckoner style table for inches with fractions ...

http://www.powerserveuk.com/Technical/INCHES%20TO%20METRIC%20CONVERSION%20CHART.pdf

Feet and inches, all the way up to 100 feet ...

http://www.nalco.co.nz/userDocuments/NALCO%20catalogue%20TECHNICAL%202009%20P45-46%20Linear%20Conversion%20tables%20imperial%20-%20metric.pdf

 

[fdengel]

We could always consider switching to the ancient Hebrew measurements... hand-breadths, spans, and cubits...

 

[Acrobat]

Ooops
Kev's correct....

"Careful not to go with 6" as 125mm ... 150mm is the correct approximation!" Thanks Kev. 150 it is.

That just illustrates the problem going from one system to another So easy to make a mistake.

Keep it simple and go with one with just metric on it (keep another with imperial only if needed to check for peace of mind). 

I feel for those going through the change-over, been there done that , we did it down here some time ago and I remember putting stickers on some old imported cars speedometers so we could understand and compare at a glance what speeds we were doing in miles vs kilometres. Then slowly all makes and models came out with both, now I think theres only markers in Km's on the speedos.

 

[fsloyan]

I have anumber of clients that I install for that are metric only. It really is not that big of a deal to convert.
1. Learn all of your inperial fractions in their decimal equivalent. I was forced to do this a long time ago and every shop I have ever worked for required this.
2. Multiply or divide the imperial in decimal by 25.4 (1") for the mm.
3. Have fun

I toggle back and forth all the time from shop drawings in MM to architectural drawings in imperial to site staff who have no idea what metric is. After doing this for a long time I have come to one conclusion,
There is no difference between metric and imperial for professional woodworkers, you either cut it on the line or not. I dont really care if you use your own arbitrary measuring system based on your girlfriends proportions or whatever, either the part fits or it dont....

Cheers.
FS