Metrication of models

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Unfortunately, " the " metric system, to me, means either:

– cgs system

– mks system

– rationalised mks system

– SI system

– (and another. I think, which escapes me at the moment).

Each of which were drilled into me at one time or another.

At least the imperial system was relatively stable. Give me a slug any day of the week.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I fear that die hard Imperialists will never change their opinion, it's a bit of a religion, but if you're making a 5"g model of a standard gauge loco, using 2.25 mm to 1 inch (27 mm to the foot) is pretty good (actually 2.24779), and a lot easier than 1.0625" to the foot

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by DMB on 06/10/2019 11:49:09:

Anthony,

This is the stupidity, 8ft long board easily visualised but if "they" go and "metricate" that to 2,400mm or even worse, 2,440 or 2,450, that would be awful. Just like the 19ft new car quoted as being 57,912mm long! I would like to see my restricted to less than 1m, then go on to use say 1.4m or 2.9m or whatever, applicable to all industries, "no ifs, no buts."

What utter drivel! No one's eyes and brain are naturally calibrated in inches/feet/whatever, they're just trained to do so. 2400mm is as visualisable as 8 feet, it just takes the same amount of practice. And bumping it up to the next used measurement(there's a good reason to go straight to metres from mm) doesn't need any calculation either.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Nicholas Wheeler 1 on 07/10/2019 11:47:31:

Posted by DMB on 06/10/2019 11:49:09:

Anthony,

This is the stupidity […]

What utter drivel! […]

.

The real problem is that 8 feet = 2438.4mm

… but the people that sell boards don’t appear to know that.

“measure twice, cut once” is a good mantra if you are doing anything fussy.

MichaelG.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

What utter drivel! No one's eyes and brain are naturally calibrated in inches/feet/whatever, they're just trained to do so. 2400mm is as visualisable as 8 feet, it just takes the same amount of practice. And bumping it up to the next used measurement(there's a good reason to go straight to metres from mm) doesn't need any calculation either.

No but your thumbs and feet are.

regards Martin

Personally I just use whatever it's designed in.

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

"Utter drivel" What a damn insult. When car sizes are quoted in umpteen thousands of mm, that is the rubbish /abuse of metric. How the hell can that be visualised? Only fit for comparing relative sizes of diff. makes and models, nothing else, like will it fit my garage?

Maybe more sensible to quote boards as 2.4m or go up to 2.5m, but not pig- headedly use 2400mm. Since when were they quoted as 96"?

At school we were subjected to that awful chant system of learning that 10mm = 1cm, 10cm =1 decimetre and so on but it was all a waste of time. We might as well have just been told about all the other divisions and their names and leave it at that. They don't seem to be in every day use.

To get back to strictly on topic, it would seem best to leave all the published designs alone, complete with their myriad errors and start afresh with new designs only in pure metric, not a bastardised metric conversion of Imperial measurements.

I have seen, e.g., somewhere on the Internet, a list of errors with Sweat Pea design and I understand other designs have received similar treatment. Just imagine re-hashing the design into metric and rounding the results to look nicer. Think of all the new errors that could arise.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by DMB on 07/10/2019 14:29:06:

"Utter drivel" What a damn insult. When car sizes are quoted in umpteen thousands of mm, that is the rubbish /abuse of metric. How the hell can that be visualised?

It is really just a case of what you are used to, I have clients who can't visualise feet and inches and have to stand there looking at a tape measure if I talk to them in imperial as they are of an age that has been brought up in metric.

Not a problem for me I just get to know what they are happy with and talk to them in whatever suits be it feet and inches for older clients and a couple I have from the USA, mm and meters for others depending on the job in hand and my regular French lady client and several interior designers who like centimeters.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I'd rather judge the size of my bottle of beer by eye than worry about how many millilitres it contains, or convert that to pints…

Neil

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

15 years ago, a workmate was building a custom car, road legal, based on a Ford Pop which had a tuned small block Chevy engine with nitrous injection (9.75 quarter mile, that thing went well) and several of the special goodies bought from the USA had metric threads and fasteners.

Edited By old mart on 07/10/2019 21:45:26

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I wouldn't be without my Shetack Monument thread reckoner. It has metric coarse, BA, UNF, UNC, BSF and Whitworth threads side by side. This makes it easy to compare sizes quickly.

**LINK**

[Author]

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