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Thread: plans

  1. #1
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    Default plans

    Can anyone tell me where I could purchase metric plans to make a small trinket or jewellery box?

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  3. #2
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    Default metric plans

    Australian Woodsmith Magazine usually have a project each issue described in metric measurements, however, I'm sure these measurements are conversions from imperial. You might like to search their index of (jewellery box) projects:

    http://www.australianwoodsmith.com.au/pastprojects.html

    Someone would be able to help you find past issues or some are still available for purchase.


    For me, building a box is achieved cutting the parts to fit rather than to a certain size in mm or inches. The "fit" would be determined by the thickness of the wood, the joints employed and the size of the box. The overall size and shape can be copied from an existing (pleasing) example or estimated from a photograph.

    When you are new to box making this can seem a bit daunting (and possibly the reason you are after plans) but making a box is pretty straight forward. You've certainly found the best online site for woodworking help.


    Paul

  4. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by gallagher View Post
    Can anyone tell me where I could purchase metric plans to make a small trinket or jewellery box?
    Greetings and welcome to the forum.

    In writing this post, I've made the assumption that you're one of the growing number of woodworkers in Australia who missed out on being taught feet and inches (imperial measurements) at school because you went to school after 1970 when the Aust Govt approved the Australian "Metric Conversion Act". If that's not the case - then this post might not be much use to you ......

    If you are simply after metric plans, then the suggestion by homesy135 above is a good one.

    However, just because a plan (especially woodworking magazine articles, books, or videos that include plans, photographs, and how-to info) doesn't use metric measurements, does not mean that they can't be very useful to you by giving you design ideas, or by explaining to you how to do a tricky bit of joinery or inlay, or by showing you how to apply a different sort of finish that you haven't tried before.

    Most people, myself included, use published plans and magazine articles/plans, as input into our work. I'm not sure about other woodworkers, but I've never slavishly built something exactly as it appears in someone else's plan. I always make the projects my own by drawing ideas from other people via plans photographs, and magazine articles, and then amalgamating those ideas with my own ideas, into my final product.

    As for whether a plan uses metric measurements, or imperial measurements; it doesn't really matter. You can build your project so that it incorporates the aspects that you like from the feet and inches plan. but make the project the metric size that suits you, and that suits the dimensions of the wood that you have available.

    It's a fact that people educated in Australia since the early to mid 1970s were only taught the metric system. The same thing applies to plenty of people who were educated in other countries that only use the metric system. So there's a growing number of woodworkers in Australia who were never taught about the imperial (feet and inches) measurement system when they were at school.

    Woodworkers in Australia are in a position were they can build stuff using only metric measurements and metric tool/tooling. It happens every day in industrial and commercial woodworking. But for us hobbyist woodworkers, who often learn woodwork from books etc, and who do stuff by hand, or who work with hand held and small shop tools and tooling, working only in metric can sometimes be a challenge.

    As an example, all hand-held Routers sold in Australia have either 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch collets, and as such use router bits with either 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch shanks. When it comes to buying router bits in Australia, you won't readily find a 3 mm round-over bit - instead what you will readily find will be a 1/8 inch round-over bit. I don't know the reason for this situation; it just is!

    You can import metric router bits from Europe, but then the router bits will also have metric shanks, so you'll have to also import a Router with a metric collet. Most people don't bother trying to import the metric items - they just buy whatever is available locally. There are other examples depending on what sort of woodworking you do, and on what sort of tools or machines you use.

    The second major area that pushes Australian Woodworkers into using both metric and imperial, is that the large bulk of available instructional Woodworking Books, Magazines, Videos, and Plans come out of either the USA or the UK - where imperial measurements are predominately used. (Although recently some UK publications (due I think to EU requirements) have started to use some metric, some of the time.)

    It's not hard to learn to use imperial measurements (e.g. inches and fractions of an inch), and some knowledge and familiarity will help you to interpret plans and other documents or videos that use imperial measurements. That basic familiarity will help you to quickly absorb information from documents. When I read an article that states that a board is 6 inches wide, I automatically translate that in my head to mean that the board is roughly 150 mm wide - which helps me visualise how wide the board is. But, the 6 inch wide board is actually 152.4 mm wide; so the rough conversion is only for visualisation purposes.

    As mentioned above, and in the post by Homesy135, you don't actually need to accurately convert the inches to millimetres - just choose the size you want in millimetres and build the box to your own dimensions.

    Seeing you seem to be getting into box building, check out the latest series of Youtube videos "Woodworking Master Class" by Steve Hay. Steve is Australian, so the few times that he does use measurements in his work, he uses metric. Steve is currently publishing a 6 part series called Building a Hexagonal Box. I think that the series might give you some useful ideas. The main thing that I think you'll see is that Steve often doesn't measure things with a ruler. Instead, he sizes one component by marking the size of it's mating component on the component he is about to cut. Watch the videos - you'll see what I mean.

    Regards,

    Roy
    Manufacturer of the Finest Quality Off-Cuts.

  5. #4
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    You're so right RoyG. Isn't it a great luxury to be able to work in both the 'old and new money'? I sometimes use both in the one project and it still works out OK - it's a miracle!
    Recently got a good set of drill bits at a good price for my son-in-law. Unfortunately they were imperial. To help him out I told him to start at 1.6mm for the 1/16" bit and each increment thereafter is approx. .4mm. When you get to 1/2" you're only .1mm out! He's getting there, but it probably comes under the heading of cruel and unusual punishment in his eyes.
    Hang in there gallagher, and don't make it any harder than it needs to be.
    Cheers,
    David

  6. #5
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    We have gone throug the same thing here in Canada, however we never quite made it to complete conversion. I was one of those that got caught initially learning imperial, then getting taught, conversion to metric in school.
    I don't think there was ever a standard system even in the schools. We learned the metric system along side the imperial. In science we used metric but in all the industrial classes, metal shop, autoshop and woodshop; we used imperial. To this day everything in the construction and wood industry isdealt with using imperial measurements. The problem comes in with materials, especially since many of our materials like plywood get imported. I have noticed that in the last few years you have to measure your plywood when you buy it. Quite often its says 1/2", but is actually 12mm. A piece of 3/8" is actually 10mm. It can make it very difficult to match your purchased materials to your plans. There was even a thread on anoter forum I frequent, that identified locations across Canada that provided true imperial measurement plywood.

    My problem is that I know that metric is easier, and personally more acurate, but I continually find myself falling back to imperial. In my new chosen proffesion of pen maker, I design and make each part myself. I am specifically forcing myself to do all the plans and work in metric. Drilling however, is the rubbing point. You can readily get letter, number and fractional drills everywhere. I have a toolbox drawer full of different sets, you can never have enough drills, but it is very difficult to get full metric sets. So I am continually jumping from my plan, to a drill chart, to a vernier calliper and back again. I have one component that requires 5 different drills, all of which vary just slightly in size.
    I have finally found a small machinists chart that shows the metric equivilent for all the drills. However, my vernier caliper is always close at hand. Its digital and converts metric and imperial at the push of a button.

    Rarely have I found a plan available online that was conceived, drawn, implamented and distributed in metric. Because of the fact that many readily available plans start out in countries, including Canada, that work in imperial, conversion is the only way to make use of them in metric.The bottom line is, for me, that someone elses plan is just a start point that must be adjusted to my my needs.

    I know thats not a lot of help, but this is one of those topics that just catches me the right way and I need to get it out.

  7. #6
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    Think metric, it's a dozen times easier.
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  8. #7
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    by 1966 times over
    regards,

    Dengy

  9. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlexS View Post
    Think metric, it's a dozen times easier.
    Exactly what I was thinking Alex. I'm from the school that was taught imperial but then had metric forced on me through work. I often use both systems in a single sentence, which causes confusion for everyone (including me).
    Dave
    All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
    Edmund Burke 1729 - 1797

  10. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrFez View Post
    Exactly what I was thinking Alex. I'm from the school that was taught imperial but then had metric forced on me through work. I often use both systems in a single sentence, which causes confusion for everyone (including me).
    You still have to deal with both at times. I find the dado blades and spacers from the US with imperial measurements a bit of a pain. However I still tend to think of accuracy in terms of thou (of an inch)
    regards,

    Dengy

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