Post something Weird or Random

[Nitro]

^ I use metric on things such as my lathe, micrometers etc.
It's the equipment I have so I happily use it, outdated.

I'm also happy to use imperial measurements when doing tasks,woodwork, fitting doors, the usual home tasks.

Here in the States, we are still stuck with the dregs of our dinosaur "English" measure.
Our automotive industry stepped up to the plate and succeeded, but the better part of our manufacturing didn't.
As machinists and mech engineers, we generally ignore the fractional parts of measuring and call them out in decimal form based on 1/1000 of an inch.
If we want to express a half inch, we just call it out as 500 with the thou part being understood without saying it.

Our manual lathes can be tricky depending on whether the crossfeed dial is based on a diameter or radius, with the greater portion of them called out on radii.

We use 0.0393701 inches as our equivalent of a 1mm measurement in our system.
Most of the time .03937 gets rounded to .0394 just to simplify it.
Beyond that takes you into a realm that is beyond the capability of our standard shop equipment.
The latest greatest digital calipers have an english/metric button on them so they can provide the needed info on the fly.

Most of the older dials are based on inch measurement and up until recently, the thread gearing provisions for the lead screw are based on the inch standard with the pitches called out in threads per inch instead of a standardized pitch measurement as is used in metric threading.

I can cut interpolated metric threads on my machines by re-gearing the leadscrew drive with the appropriated gearing.
I have quickie interpolating gears that are suitable for standard fit threads for short distances, with the restraint being the English measure leadscrew.

Most of the machining world has advanced to CNC equipment where leadscrews and gear changes are now performed digitally in machine code.
You ain't lived until the first time you pressed the green button on a CNC machining center to tap a hole with the z axis code doing the feed work.
Yep, it sure does know exactly how fast to feed it.
Not like those crappy old tap drivers that were glorified clutches and made you start the spindle traverse by hand.
Most of our internal threading done on a CNC machining center are now milled instead of tapped, so that will soon be relegated to history as well.

The only time we call out something in a fraction is say to call out .0015 inches, which we shorten to a thou and a half.

Yes, I fully understand how much simpler the metric system is, but the majority of our fasteners and machinery leaves us stuck in the dark ages.

I can fully read a metric measuring tool and relate to it, but using them would serve me no purpose when it came to make a part.

 

[Outdated]

Yes, I fully understand how much simpler the metric system is, but the majority of our fasteners and machinery leaves us stuck in the dark ages.

Our engineers and tool makers also have the same problem because of the amount of imported machinery we use. And even in my world as a printer, the Heidelberg machines were all metric but the Fuji is US/Imperial.

 

[Nitro]

Our engineers and tool makers also have the same problem because of the amount of imported machinery we use. And even in my world as a printer, the Heidelberg machines were all metric but the Fuji is US/Imperial.

Our automotive industry was kind of screwy for a while where fractional threaded engines some of which were designed in the early 1950s were installed in metric chassis even up until recent years.

Euro and N. American market metric hardware generally have a 1mm larger hex drives on the same sized threads as opposed to their Asian counterparts that run smaller ones.
I think the Asian stuff serves two purposes.
It saves weight and requires less force to strike their heads.
The Asians are also fond of torque to yield bolts where they use a better tensile strength that uses less material as the junk.

 

[Forest Cat]

 

[maycontainthunder]

Re lathes. Mine is an imperial machine but has a party trick; dual dials. I can switch between metric and imperial in 2 seconds. Virtually everything I do is metric. There is one thing most metric machines cannot do and that is cut 26tpi threads without massive head scratching to source the right changewheels. I have quite a collection of unlisted changewheels not on the feed box data panel.

 

[Metal316]

I like Imperial but as I mentioned, happy to use my metric measuring tools in my metalwork escapades.
Hey, you in 'Merica ! You put man on the Moon with the auld system

I used to help my dad in his lorry, delivering in the 70s.
Cans of beans etc were always in a box of a dozen.
Our money was based on twelve, 240 pennies (to a £) /sixpence/shilling (12), 3 pence was a " thruppence"

In centuries gone by the 12 system made sharing out easy.
Four people get 3 apples, three people get 4 apples, two people share 6 apples. That's what I read some time ago.

Obviously items from a market bought box , not under an apple tree
For years here nowadays the boxes hold ten items, I'm not saying go back - but my weight is in stones

 

[Metal316]

Something random, I found a photo of my .22 semi. Used in competitions but sold about 11 years ago. I shoot mostly air power rifles nowadays.

I found an old penny and a half penny ( ha'penny) also a three pence ( thruppence)
There's a Roman coin I found one day, on the left.
I just found my Gulf war medal, embossed 1990 - 1991.My name is around the "edge".

 

[Metal316]

Just took another photo of medal.

 

[Outdated]

In centuries gone by the 12 system made sharing out easy.
Four people get 3 apples, three people get 4 apples, two people share 6 apples. That's what I read some time ago.

12 inches to a Foot, but 3 feet to a Yard and 22 yards to a Chain.
16 Ounces to a Pound but 14 pounds to a Stone. 112 pounds to a Hundredweight.

Old time shipping companies had to have been run by serious mathematicians.

That's the true beauty of the metric system, the way weights, sizes and volumes all tie in to each other. Water has a weight of 1. 1000 cubic centimetres = 1 Litre and with water that 1 litre weighs 1 Kilogram. Steel has a weight of 7.93 so 1 litre (1000 cubic centimetres) of steel weighs 7.93 Kilos. Makes working out shipping a lot easier.

 

[Metal316]

It does, I like metric for my small precision stuff but that stuff above, hey it's good for a young students brain !
Edit: anyway, why did god give us twelve fingers ?
Edit Edit: it should be 24 to a chain, that's annoying me now.

 

[Outdated]

And my grandmother had a cat named Tuppence because it was so fat. The old two penny coin was huge.

My grandfather always kept two pennies in his pocket, when I was little he told me that that was so that no one could accuse him of not having two pennies to rub together. He showed them to me, one side of each coin was polished completely smooth. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I realised - they were his Two Up coins.

 

[Outdated]

IEdit Edit: it should be 24 to a chain, that's annoying me now.

1 Chain = 66 Feet - the length of a cricket pitch.

 

[Metal316]

^yes, I realised the significance. I'm trying to learn to paste a url for music , not working too well for me.
There was/is furlongs for horse racing but it's a bit hazy in my brain

 

[Outdated]

Yes, they still talk in furlongs. And why they use different measurements for height and depth was something I always struggled to Fathom.

 

[Metal316]

Fathom, six feet.

 

[Forest Cat]

My grandfather always kept two pennies in his pocket, when I was little he told me that that was so that no one could accuse him of not having two pennies to rub together. He showed them to me, one side of each coin was polished completely smooth. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I realised - they were his Two Up coins.

By quincidence I saw something called Two Up on tv yesterday. Two guys in Australia drive around looking for old cars they can buy and fix and sell. They stopped at a place in the middle of nowhere it looked like and there was some sort of building there people used to play Two Up. They said it was the local casino. I haven't seen Two Up before, that was new.

But one thing that I really noticed about that car show, in every episode the weather is sunny with clear blue skies. I have watched maybe 15 episodes now and still have not seen anything but sun, heat and clear blue sky. Australia looks very nice. My kind of place.

 

[Metal316]

I had to look up outdated's two penny coin. We only had a "two pence" coin in decimal, ie., after 1971.
Maybe we had them before I was born.

 

[Outdated]

Two guys in Australia drive around looking for old cars they can buy and fix and sell.

Try this series, really interesting and funny.

 

[Nitro]

View attachment 89214

The original standard for the inch was alleged to have been three of the King's finest barley corns laid end to end.

"The dimension of the print calls out 47/64ths of three barley corns laid end to end plus or minus a half a barley corn"

Basically by using the decimal system for our machinework mensuration, we have eliminated the crude use of fractions in favor of a base ten system.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-21/sa-woman-trapped-in-well-rescuing-cat/101677758

I love Australians’ attitude. Mum’s not worried about her daughter; she just in the bottom of an 8 meter deep well.

Back to units of measure; in the US we sell eggs and donuts by the dozen. When I asked for a dozen donut holes in Canada the bemused clerk told me they were only sold 10 to a box.

There is also a “baker’s dozen” which is 13.

We also sell hot dogs in packets of 10, but hot dog buns are sold in packets of 8.