Metric

[Raywood]

I, and virtually everyone I know didn't.

Do you not respect and accept Coachmans right and indeed their obligation, to use in their brochure the national standard of the country they wish to market into?
The reality is whether it is liked by certain individuals or not that the UK officially adopted the SI system now over 16 years ago, so it is quite unrealistic now to expect companies to not be using it.

From my point of view Coachman should be serving their customers. many are of an age where they think in feet and inches and want the conversion. The customer is always right and if they want feet and inches you give them those as well or potentially lose the odd sale. The cost of doing that is minimal so there is no good reason not to9 do it.

 

[BedfordRL]

Spot on.
Add to that, as an individual, I dont give a damn about international commerce or the scientific community.
I just want to buy stuff in measurements I understand.

 

[Parksy]

The last time I bought a length of timber from a Black Country D-I-Y shop they let me into their cutting shed at the back of the shop.
The chap who was going to cut the wood asked ''Ow long dun yer want it mate?'
I couldn't resist, so I replied 'I want it fer ever!' :lol:

I'll get my coat inch:

 

[Dustydog]

The last two weeks away every restaurant come pub wants me to order a 8oz ,10oz or 16oz steak.
Mmmmmm I wonder why ?

 

[BedfordRL]

I went to a local scaffolding company today, I've an idea that I want to do in the garden and wanted some prices to cost the project.
After I explained what I wanted and what I wanted to do I asked what lengths the poles and planks come in.
The reply started with the magic words " all lengths are in imperial, the poles are 21',16',13',10',8',6' and 5 feet.
The planks are 13',10' and 6 feet in length.
Music to my ears.
I wasn't going to explain how they are dinosaurs and are letting the international business community and scientific community down!.

 

[Gabsgrandad]

Perhaps because you/we wouldn't know what a 226gm, a 283gm , 453gm steak looked like? -- (Might even think we're getting genetically modified!)

 

[Gagakev]

I went to a local scaffolding company today, I've an idea that I want to do in the garden and wanted some prices to cost the project.
After I explained what I wanted and what I wanted to do I asked what lengths the poles and planks come in.
The reply started with the magic words " all lengths are in imperial, the poles are 21',16',13',10',8',6' and 5 feet.
The planks are 13',10' and 6 feet in length.
Music to my ears.
I wasn't going to explain how they are dinosaurs and are letting the international business community and scientific community down!.

I'm in the game and yes all our poles are imperial BUT our boards (planks) are 4.0m, 3.0m, 2.4m, and wait for it.................... 6ft, 5ft, 4ft, and 3ft!!!!!
I send quotes out to clients in meters and give the lads the measurements in feet and inches!! Weird world

 

[Pursuitpaul]

When I retired from teaching a few years ago the following was still stated in the a maths national curriculum ' Have an understanding of common imperial units'

Also whenever a child was asked how heavy they were the reply would almost always be given in stones!

 

[jignc]

I find the strangest one is a Calor cylinder.

Amount of gas is in Kg but the weight of the bottle is in Lbs and oz !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jiginc

 

[Hutch]

Always found drills were better when they were letter or number drills, much more acurate, and engineers always reffered to their Zues book for bend allowances for metal.

 

[saint-spoon]

There is some truth in that Hutch. During my fitting and turning apprenticeship we did the majority of our test pieces in metric with a couple done in British imperial measurements and without a doubt the imperial ones were a lot harder to do because of the measurements and working in thou. I am probably a child of the transition having been born at the end of the sixties and growing up in an imperial world being dragged kicking and screaming in to the metric. When I went to sea on the older steam powers ships that were around in the RN most things were imperial, PSI, degrees F, feet, inches and the jointing was all in fractions of an inch and the as were the majority of the spanners 7/8 AF and so on unless they were Whitworth. Although the standard has become very much biased towards the Metric SI system there is a bit of nostalgia that harks us back to imperial especially and I think a certain amount of romantic marketing. A 10oz steak sounds better than the metric, six foot is easier to imagine in my opinion that 182cm and as an estimation is good enough. Measurements such as the gill of which a sixth was a standard measure of spirits in t England I seem to remember are no long gone but no one actually asked for a sixth of a gill, they asked for a scotch or a large scotch (other spirits available). Social usage has a lot to do with keeping things alive. Technically a kilogramme is a measurement of mass and not weight, in order to get weight the mass should be multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity and would be given in Newtons and KiloNewtons by grammes and kilogrammes are used to denote weight and a nice round number in Oz sound much better than a messy metric equivalent.

 

[Hutch]

Saint-Spoon, you probably had to do the same test peices during your Apprenticeship as I did, mine at RAE Bedford, a 4 inch square steel plate 1/2 inch thick with a 1 inch hole in it that you filed from rough steel , then made a cube of steel that had to fit every way into the hole with just 0.002 " tolerence.
Apprentice Master, had to have His coffe made with Fussels milk. And I would get a clip round the ear if i got it wrong.
Collecting mushrooms by helicopter in the early morning flight for breakfast.
Folk have it easy nowadays. £3, 7 and 6 pence a week.

 

[mcmanus22]

Hi all, I'm a joiner in the construction industry with nearly 40 years experience, when I was at college at 18 it was said that everything would be metric within the next five years, and now all those years on I'm 58 next and still some things come in imperial sizes!!, plasterboard, and ply wood for example..I think it's all down to the Americans,they still insist on imperial. Lol.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

and still some things come in imperial sizes!!, plasterboard, and ply wood for example..I think it's all down to the Americans,they still insist on imperial. Lol.

See my earlier posting - the majority of houses in this country have 16" centered roof, ceiling and floor joists. It's only relatively recent that it has gone to 400 mm, so nothing to do with the Americans (for a change).

 

[Dustydog]

I went to a local scaffolding company today, I've an idea that I want to do in the garden and wanted some prices to cost the project.
After I explained what I wanted and what I wanted to do I asked what lengths the poles and planks come in.
The reply started with the magic words " all lengths are in imperial, the poles are 21',16',13',10',8',6' and 5 feet.
The planks are 13',10' and 6 feet in length.
Music to my ears.
I wasn't going to explain how they are dinosaurs and are letting the international business community and scientific community down!.

I'm in the game and yes all our poles are imperial BUT our boards (planks) are 4.0m, 3.0m, 2.4m, and wait for it.................... 6ft, 5ft, 4ft, and 3ft!!!!!
I send quotes out to clients in meters and give the lads the measurements in feet and inches!! Weird world

No wonder your staff wear those baggy trousers

 

[Hutch]

No to keep the Wall Nuts cool.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

and still some things come in imperial sizes!!, plasterboard, and ply wood for example..I think it's all down to the Americans,they still insist on imperial. Lol.

See my earlier posting - the majority of houses in this country have 16" centered roof, ceiling and floor joists. It's only relatively recent that it has gone to 400 mm, so nothing to do with the Americans (for a change).

that is probably true WC, if you think about it there was probably more imperial houses built pre 1980, than after [although looking at the sprawl of new houses] may not now be true. still of no use though yes you can buy a length of timber in imperial but metric in other aspects so it doesn't fit, there is no 1/2in boards only 12mm no 6x2in joists and a 1220mm window doesn't fit a 4ft hole, not to mention the waste trying to wallpaper a room with a 10ft ceiling.

 

[angellina]

Spam Post removed, user banned.

 

[Thingy]

Whilst at school i was taught in metric with some imperial to make sure we understood it. I wondered why. However on starting work as an apprentice fitter i was plunged straight back into imperial. Remember Whitworth threads, BSF and BSP threads. All calcs were done with a slide rule and the ubiquitous Zeus Charts. Do they still have those. Micrometers and verniers were still imperial.

 

[saint-spoon]

I still have a copy of zues tables, very handy for all things engineering. the modern ones aren't as good as the older ones as the copy I got didn't have as many imperial variations.

 

[Sproket]

Whilst at school i was taught in metric with some imperial to make sure we understood it. I wondered why. However on starting work as an apprentice fitter i was plunged straight back into imperial. Remember Whitworth threads, BSF and BSP threads. All calcs were done with a slide rule and the ubiquitous Zeus Charts. Do they still have those. Micrometers and verniers were still imperial.

We still use imperial internal / external micrometers / verniers as the parts we manufacturer are all made to imperial measurements .... on the odd occasion a metric drawing appears it is also with the converted drawing showing it back to imperial ..

 

[Hutch]

Just checked my two Zeus books, revision 65 and the metric revision 80 priced £1.60. They were next to my tube of engineers blue, half used.

 

[Eatcustard]

Metric is easy its all 10s and 100s, Imperial is backward in this day and age.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Metric is easy its all 10s and 100s,

No it isn't It's 1,000s, as in kilo, milli, etc :lol:

 

[Thingy]

Ah that takes me back. Engineers Blue. We used to put it on the mouthpiece and earpiece of the old public phones and laugh ourselves daft watching people walk away with blue lips and one blue ear.

Those were the days of being sent for a long weight. A box of sky hooks and a glass hammer. Box of rivet holes etc etc.

As i joined the forces i remember being sent for a heavy punch. Didnt fall for it but neither did i fancy telling the sarnt to ☆)*/ *☆¥