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All my tape measures and squares are inch, and so is my brain, so none of these metric things interest me. When I buy something, I make sure it is inches or I don't buy it.
They can switch to metric after I die.

“True 32” was a book written by Bob Buckley at least 20 years ago. Bob had a website, which was true32.com where Bob preached the gospel of the 32mm system. FastCap produced that tape for Bob and continue to produce it, though give me a FastCap Standard/Metric tape any day. Here’s Bob’s book: https://amzn.to/3IZ1iFW

The problem with the switch to metric was trying to teach everyone to figure out now many metric units were in imperial. A Gallon is an arbitrary term so rather than try to convert it to liters just stop selling gallons and start selling liters. One one buys a half gallon any more (except maybe milk) everyone just grabs a two liter which is close enough. A foot is an arbitrary term also so instead of trying to convert foot to metric just measure everything in centimeters or meters if something was a foot start making it 30 or 31 centimeters who really cares about .40 centimeters. Now if you are replacing something that fit in a foot space you have two choices convert foot to centimeters or make the space bigger to fit a 31 centimeter piece.

My poor old Mom bless her heart would make her self crazy trying to convert. But when soft drinks started coming in two liter bottles she never once called them .52 gallons. I think she was secretly happy think she was getting more.

I got a motorcycle years ago which was metric instead of trying to convert I got metric tools and never looked back. 8 mm bolt took 8 mm wrench. 12mm took 12 wrench. I never cared how that converted to imperial.

The problem comes when you mix the two. Someone with a backbone should say no more mixing everything is in metric live with it. End of problem.

Ed in Tampa wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 11:06 am I got a motorcycle years ago which was metric instead of trying to convert I got metric tools and never looked back. 8 mm bolt took 8 mm wrench. 12mm took 12 wrench. I never cared how that converted to imperial.

Got a Honda 350 back in '76 and began to buy metric tools to go along with my 'normal' ones. And as long as it's all metric or all imperial it's not a problem. I do need two wrench drawers in the tool chest but that's the only drawback I can think of. I can work within either system without a problem. I can't remember how long a kilometer is in feet but I prefer to work with lumber much shorter than that. Just don't mix the systems and then I don't have to convert anyway. Or just pull the band-aid off and finally get rid of imperial.

edma194 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 11:34 am Got a Honda 350 back in '76 and began to buy metric tools to go along with my 'normal' ones. And as long as it's all metric or all imperial it's not a problem. I do need two wrench drawers in the tool chest but that's the only drawback I can think of. I can work within either system without a problem. I can't remember how long a kilometer is in feet but I prefer to work with lumber much shorter than that. Just don't mix the systems and then I don't have to convert anyway. Or just pull the band-aid off and finally get rid of imperial.

1976 Honda 350, nice. Made one year after USG passed the Metric Conversion Act.

- David

Ed in Tampa wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 11:06 am The problem with the switch to metric was trying to teach everyone to figure out now many metric units were in imperial.

When you consider that 3/4 plywood is usually 23/32 or less and 19mm plywood is 18.1mm or less, it doesn't really matter what arbitrary values you assign to the measurement units as long as you are consistent. In my shop I have a single FastCap True32 tape and all my machine scales are calibrated to that one tape measure.

I'll admit, that I did conversions for a couple of years after switching. I still visualized a 24" wide cabinet and then built a cabinet 608mm wide. Now I build cabinets in 50mm (really close to 2") increments and visualize them that way and only do the conversion to get back to imperial if someone else needs it. The only time it is an issue is If I need to be sure of clearances. A 900mm sink base is about half an inch narrower than a 36" sink base and some under mount sinks use the the full 36" (this was a real life example and I had to remake a couple of cabinets to it to work out correctly.)

I prefer the metric system because I don't need to deal with fractions as one mm is accurate enough. If you work to the nearest 16th, 1mm about is 1/25th of an inch so you will be a little more precise, if you work to the nearest 32nd, you will be a little less precise. The fence on my table saw will go to the nearest 0.1mm (1/254th") but I've never had a reason to be that precise.

JMO , The imperial system was more accurate and bolts and studs didn't break as much , this was done they said to save natural resources , a 2x4 is supposed to have x# strength in crush pressure , that changed when the switch happened , when you build a house you still build it by the sq ft not the sq meter , there IS a difference in the number of 2x4 in a wall to match the old imperial system , 16 on center on a metric cut 2x4 will not give the same crushing strength as a imperial cut board unless it is cut larger or the same size than a 2x4 , it may not be off by much but it is off , I recall a lot of broken bolts when the system came out , we built foundry patterns and casting on the imperial system and the metric bolts didnt hold up to the needed torque required . when you use shrink rules long enough you can see the difference in the casting strength , but thats when they cast engine heads from cast iron not aluminum .