leer
Member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2013
- Messages
- 262
I've been pretty conversant with the metric system since the high school days, when schools started to push learning to use metric due to the pending move to the metric system in the USA. (Remember that? [smile]) And being an engineer, you just have to know metric to make it thru college. But I have tended to use Imperial for woodworking, since that is just the way I learned.
I've played with my TS 55 REQ a bit since I got it recently, but mostly to just try some cuts. I looked at the stick-on Imperial scale, and decided it was painfully difficult to read. Not enough markings, and I figured I'd be counting 1/32" inches one by one to set it. And how long would it be before it peels off? Metric was the way to go. I feel pretty comfortable knowing most of the metric measurements for small units, like a few inches, or fractions thereof. For example, I can look at a piece of 1/2" plywood and know it is about 12mm. What I don't feel comfortable with is looking at something and saying "That shelf for the closet should be about 400mm deep". It is much more normal to decide that the shelf should be about 16" deep.
My latest project is what drove me to metric. I started off in Imperial:
I am building a dog bowl platform for one of my daughters. I bought an 8"x16" piece of ceramic tile for the top, which will support two small bowls. She wants it to be about a foot tall. So far, so good. My construction method is to build a 1/2" plywood box, roughly 8"x16"x12" tall. The plywood box will be covered with very thin cherry-veneered MDF, with cherry outside corner trim at the four vertical corners, and cherry decorative cap trim surrounding the top of the box, and framing the tile. This is where I started pulling my hair out using Imperial. I wanted the tile to set in with no grouting, so dimensions were crucial. I took the dimensions of the tile (which were slightly less than 8"x16", and started computing how big the box needed to be. But I had to account for the offsets for the MDF and trim pieces to get the final box size. I was adding and subtracting 1/8's, 1/16's, 1/32's of an inch here and there, and I finally decided "Enough!".
Measuring everything in millimeters was so much easier. No fractions. It all was so easy to compute. I've only built the box so far, and I'll start in on the MDF veneer and trim tomorrow.
I am pretty excited about the use of the track saw for cutting down the plywood for the box. It is the most square, accurate box I've ever built. The long sides are exactly 406mm, the short sides are 205mm, exactly as I calculated after offsets. I used the Seneca Parallel Guides I also got, and they worked great. I did buy a Woodpeckers 36" ruler with stop for setting the cut lengths, and so I used my tape measure to convert millimeters to inches to set the stops. Looks like I may end up buying a metric version of the Woodpecker ruler at some point.
I've barely used my track saw, and I'm ready to order a Domino ... I just cannot iamgine how that may change my project builds, but based on my first use of the track saw, I think I'll be pleased. [wink]
I've played with my TS 55 REQ a bit since I got it recently, but mostly to just try some cuts. I looked at the stick-on Imperial scale, and decided it was painfully difficult to read. Not enough markings, and I figured I'd be counting 1/32" inches one by one to set it. And how long would it be before it peels off? Metric was the way to go. I feel pretty comfortable knowing most of the metric measurements for small units, like a few inches, or fractions thereof. For example, I can look at a piece of 1/2" plywood and know it is about 12mm. What I don't feel comfortable with is looking at something and saying "That shelf for the closet should be about 400mm deep". It is much more normal to decide that the shelf should be about 16" deep.
My latest project is what drove me to metric. I started off in Imperial:
I am building a dog bowl platform for one of my daughters. I bought an 8"x16" piece of ceramic tile for the top, which will support two small bowls. She wants it to be about a foot tall. So far, so good. My construction method is to build a 1/2" plywood box, roughly 8"x16"x12" tall. The plywood box will be covered with very thin cherry-veneered MDF, with cherry outside corner trim at the four vertical corners, and cherry decorative cap trim surrounding the top of the box, and framing the tile. This is where I started pulling my hair out using Imperial. I wanted the tile to set in with no grouting, so dimensions were crucial. I took the dimensions of the tile (which were slightly less than 8"x16", and started computing how big the box needed to be. But I had to account for the offsets for the MDF and trim pieces to get the final box size. I was adding and subtracting 1/8's, 1/16's, 1/32's of an inch here and there, and I finally decided "Enough!".
Measuring everything in millimeters was so much easier. No fractions. It all was so easy to compute. I've only built the box so far, and I'll start in on the MDF veneer and trim tomorrow.
I am pretty excited about the use of the track saw for cutting down the plywood for the box. It is the most square, accurate box I've ever built. The long sides are exactly 406mm, the short sides are 205mm, exactly as I calculated after offsets. I used the Seneca Parallel Guides I also got, and they worked great. I did buy a Woodpeckers 36" ruler with stop for setting the cut lengths, and so I used my tape measure to convert millimeters to inches to set the stops. Looks like I may end up buying a metric version of the Woodpecker ruler at some point.
I've barely used my track saw, and I'm ready to order a Domino ... I just cannot iamgine how that may change my project builds, but based on my first use of the track saw, I think I'll be pleased. [wink]
