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  1. #46
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
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    93
    Posts
    76

    Default Now one for you

    Greg


    I have long been intrigued by your nation's refusal to join the rest of the planet and use the metric system. Back in my youth I admired the American way because, as a Pom, we used quaint units like Pounds Shillings and Pence (currency) and Hundredweights, Stones Pounds and Ounces while 'over there' you had decimal currency and weighed everything in Pounds.

    The rest of us have come a long way since then, not only have we joined the rest of the world in adopting a universal system but we describe the size of things by their dimensions ie 75mm nail is a 75mm nail not a 'd' size and a 6mm or quarter inch drill is just that not some obscure number.
    The same goes for wire guages and so on.

    Is there any movement afoot (a300mm) for change? A year or two back I read somewhere that all US Government contracts were going to adopt the metric system.

    How big is a 3d nail anyway?
    What is 4/4 timber? Lumber sorry.
    What are board feet? Tired of walking perhaps?

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  3. #47
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Garvoc VIC AUSTRALIA
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    11,464

    Default

    I subscribe to the Elmer Fudd theory,

    Therfore you are all wrong,

    The cowwect term is

    CWAMP

    and whoo cares a duck's a__se coz we all know what both terms mean
    Regards, Bob Thomas

    www.wombatsawmill.com

  4. #48
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Perth WA
    Posts
    1,764

    Default

    Bob

    Your dissssspikkabubble.... Now I'm going to have to re-write my dictionary, or Dwikshanwerwwy

    Squizzy's Dictionary: Spanish Cramp/Clamp/Cwamp: an iodiom or proxy for an unresolvable disolution in the English/Septic/Oz Language. Likely to result in robust debate over genetic orgins, questions of parentage, political persuassions or anything else worth chucking in; found in use amongst woodies.
    Useage 1: "as useful as a Spanish Cramp" implying that the new tool you just bought is about as handy as a hip pocket in a singlet.
    The term may also be used to imply endearment towards personages of Spanish, North American, Italian and Chinese decent at which you have had some mirth at their expense. The poms of course now how endeared they! already are.
    Squizzy

    "It is better to be ignorant and ask a stupid question than to be plain Stupid and not ask at all" {screamed by maths teacher in Year 8}

  5. #49
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    Feb 2003
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    Garvoc VIC AUSTRALIA
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    11,464

    Default

    oooo .... you wascally wabbitt
    Regards, Bob Thomas

    www.wombatsawmill.com

  6. #50
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Michigan, USA
    Age
    75
    Posts
    7

    Default Not in my lifetime

    Quote Originally Posted by Oldblock
    Greg


    I have long been intrigued by your nation's refusal to join the rest of the planet and use the metric system. Back in my youth I admired the American way because, as a Pom, we used quaint units like Pounds Shillings and Pence (currency) and Hundredweights, Stones Pounds and Ounces while 'over there' you had decimal currency and weighed everything in Pounds.

    The rest of us have come a long way since then, not only have we joined the rest of the world in adopting a universal system but we describe the size of things by their dimensions ie 75mm nail is a 75mm nail not a 'd' size and a 6mm or quarter inch drill is just that not some obscure number.
    The same goes for wire guages and so on.

    Is there any movement afoot (a300mm) for change? A year or two back I read somewhere that all US Government contracts were going to adopt the metric system.

    How big is a 3d nail anyway?
    What is 4/4 timber? Lumber sorry.
    What are board feet? Tired of walking perhaps?
    Oldblock,

    Funny you should ask. We Seppo woodworkers just beat that subject to death on another forum. The reality is we use both systems which is, I guess, no system at all. I manage a company that machines parts for the auto and heavy truck industries and we use metric about fifty percent of the time. Some of it is legacy stuff but I think the problem is really cultural. We are used to walking our own road, much like you folks, and there is a lot of resistance to adopting what is perceived to be a 'european' system. In fact, many folks think of it a French and, rightly or wrongly, that makes it less popular than ever.
    It is not uncommon to machine a part that is dimensioned in metric but is in reality an inch standard part. For example the bearing sizes will not be 70, 80, or 100mm, say, but metric equivalents for 3 inch or 4. Then the mounting holes for a cover will be 5/16-18 or such. Conversely, we will see a true metric part with Imperial fasteners because they are more readily available at lower cost.
    I learned metric in elementary school because it was going to be our system 'in about five years'. I am fifty-six and still waiting for full implementation. World peace will come sooner.
    Come to think of it, that would be a cheap price for world peace.
    Ironically, I believe the digital revolution has breathed new life into the Imperial standard, at least as far as manufacturing is concerned. Think about it. We can convert back and forth with the push of a key. I have the inch/mm conversion programmed into my handheld calculator and yet for woodworking tolerances, probably because I have been doing the conversions my entire metalworking career, I can do them in my head.
    Of course that's personal stuff and has no bearing on what the government does. We are a mess politically and no one has the political will to push something that is perceived as unpopular. What's the British naval term? NIH, not invented here.

    Greg

  7. #51
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
    Age
    93
    Posts
    76

    Default

    Okay Greg,
    I will dwell on that for a while, now what about the last three questions?

  8. #52
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Hodgsonvale QLD
    Age
    62
    Posts
    251

    Default

    I began my schooling learning the Imperial system then part way through primary school we switched to metric. It was so easy to learn compared to the "old fashioned method". However I still talk in feet and inches and work out my fuel consuption in MPG.

    Most of my woodworking gear is in metric including the Triton but yesterday I was in the garage and picked up a tape measure with both feet and inches on it and without even thinking used the inches instead of the mm's.

    Why?? I'll tell you, because I cant see the bloody mm's and there are too @%^#$& many of them.

    I am begining to believe that while hundreds of mm's are fine for engineering applications a few 8ths or 16ths are more than adequate for woodwork and a damn site (sight) easier to see.

    I wonder if US sold Tritons are in inches and can I get the scales here?

  9. #53
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
    Age
    93
    Posts
    76

    Default Little millimetres

    David

    Wouldn't it be cheaper to get some spectacles?

    Ray

  10. #54
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    Jul 2003
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    Hodgsonvale QLD
    Age
    62
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    Default

    Now that you mention it I am going to the optometrist today, but I still think there are too many mm's and dont get me started about cm's.

  11. #55
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    3

    Default

    Just throwing my two cents worth in - I have always understood the difference, as follows... You use a clamp to cramp objects together.

    Having said that, my father who was a cabinet maker his entire life, used the names "sash cramps" and "g clamps". Go figure.

  12. #56
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    ...
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    7,955

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Bobbyboy View Post
    Just throwing my two cents worth in
    You're a bit late mate. A thirteen year old thread dug up out of the archives between a few antagonists that have long left the forums.

    Peter.

  13. #57
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    Jan 2008
    Location
    Central Coast NSW Australia
    Posts
    1,136

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Bobbyboy View Post
    Just throwing my two cents worth in -
    It was probably worth 10c back then.

    TT
    Learning to make big bits of wood smaller......

  14. #58
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Wantirna Victoria
    Posts
    60

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Twisted Tenon View Post
    It was probably worth 10c back then.

    TT
    Naah, about a zac!
    Redbog

  15. #59
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Woodstock (Cowra)
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    74
    Posts
    3,372

    Default

    not even that much, probably just a tray bit
    The person who never made a mistake never made anything

    Cheers
    Ray

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