Standard v metric
Ever wonder why we have metric sockets and standard sockets. But the socket drives are all standard, 1/4' drive, 3/8" drive, 1/2 " drive, etc. :P
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No but I sure am glad they are, I would hate to have to buy metric drivers for metric sockets. 0 -
I use my 9.525mm drive ratchet when I can?t find my 3/8? drive ratchet. 0 -
I have a set of BSW Whitworth wrenches and sockets. The sockets fit 3/8" drive standard.
I had to have them when I was wrenching on old British bikes and cars I liked to ride/ work on.
Working on British stuff you will quickly realize why they drink warm beer and going for a road trip was a major undertaking even if you were only driving a few miles
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Most countries use the Metric System, which uses the measuring units such as meters and grams and adds prefixes like kilo, milli and centi to count orders of magnitude. Which all makes perfect sense and is easy to work with.
In the United States, we use the older Imperial system, where things are measured in feet, inches and pounds. Which makes no sense at all.
Know what the most useless thing is in a metric country, A tape measure with ONLY feet an inches.0 -
I'm old enuff to remember when a 2x4 measured 2" by 4".
And a 4x8 sheet of plywood was NOT "sized for spacing" {means its smaller!}
:shock:0 -
Metric is a waste of time. Metric threads are a nightmare. There are so many pitches in metric it is the stuff nightmares are made of.
I refuse to use them.0 -
Cornflk1 wrote:Ever wonder why we have metric sockets and standard sockets. But the socket drives are all standard, 1/4' drive, 3/8" drive, 1/2 " drive, etc. :P
I'm guessing it is for the same reason that the ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) set three sizes of fuel filler openings for passenger cars: Small (unleaded) medium (old leaded fuel) and large (diesel). I've been to a lot of foreign countries and the fuel nozzles are always those sizes. You can fuel your car anywhere and use your ratcheting socket wrench anywhere.0 -
Square drive ratchets, breaker bars, extensions, ect ect, are US inventions long before we went to metric.
A socket was part of the handle till we invented removable/interchangeable handles.
The rest of the world used our sizes on removable socket handles before we went to their nut/bolt sizes.
What it was a long time ago..0 -
Cornflk1 wrote:Ever wonder why we have metric sockets and standard sockets. But the socket drives are all standard, 1/4' drive, 3/8" drive, 1/2 " drive, etc. :P
I would have to say that is one question I have "Never" gave any thought to nor have even thought about it. But if I had to wonder a guess it would be so that you could actually use it without making your own adapter after you spent the cash on the socket set and found out that now you have to spend more money on the ratchet, breaker bar. Orrr take a large screwdriver with square metal stock and hammer into socket, then crescent wrench to grab square metal stock and continue to cuss all the while why I did not buy a complete set.
I never in all my years after working on motorcycles in metric even new that there was a metric style ratchet. Is there? The only foreign cars that I can remember back when was the neighbors Austin Healeys and Jaguars.0 -
Sam06, working on Brit bikes I often found Whitworth, metric and standard bolts, etc that a succession of prior owners had added. If that wasn't enough to make ya want to jump off the roof, add in the "ever reliable" Lucas positive ground electrics and ya had a real party going on! 0 -
This is so true. Why they use so many different sizes of screws with so many different threads is NUTS!Alpine wrote:Metric is a waste of time. Metric threads are a nightmare. There are so many pitches in metric it is the stuff nightmares are made of.
I refuse to use them.0 -
I have 2 tool boxes.1 is labeled American size,the other is labeled communist size. 0 -
babun, you must be older than dirt. I remember as far back as around 1950 and 2x4's were 1 3/4 x 3 3/4. Maybe you were working on very old construction though.0 -
droptop wrote:Most countries use the Metric System, which uses the measuring units such as meters and grams and adds prefixes like kilo, milli and centi to count orders of magnitude. Which all makes perfect sense and is easy to work with.
In the United States, we use the older Imperial system, where things are measured in feet, inches and pounds. Which makes no sense at all.
Know what the most useless thing is in a metric country, A tape measure with ONLY feet an inches.
It's even easier than that. The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 meters/second instead of our 32 ft/sec squared. Round it off to 10 & the math is super easy to do in your head. When you take a class in chemistry of physics you quickly see how stupid our system is.0 -
Im sure others here has JIS screw drivers for Japanese motorcycles.
Japanese Industrial Standard
https://www.rjrcooltools.com/screwdrivers/jis/0 -
It's pretty obvious that the man up above wanted us to use standard and not metric, because if he wanted to go metric there would be 12 apostles and not 10... 0 -
I have been looking for a new metric crescent wrench 0 -
toad67 wrote:there would be 12 apostles and not 10...
I think you have a slight error! Don0 -
Yeah, but they were all in one Accord. Get it? Accord? Honda? Metric?toad67 wrote:It's pretty obvious that the man up above wanted us to use standard and not metric, because if he wanted to go metric there would be 12 apostles and not 10...0 -
cbxjeff wrote:babun, you must be older than dirt. I remember as far back as around 1950 and 2x4's were 1 3/4 x 3 3/4. Maybe you were working on very old construction though.
When I helped on the Ark, the boards were full size.
Yeap, I have worked on a lot of real old houses with full size lumber.
My mom's old house, built about 1895, was two stories, 10 foot ceilings.
The house was balloon framed using 22 foot long 2x4's from basement sill up to attic.
Couldn't find that lumber today for a million bucks. :shock:0 -
The International (Metric) System of Units has been adopted as the official system of weights and measures by all nations in the world except for Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States. So we're in great company!! There was a plan, supported by Congress, in the mid 70's to convert to the metric system. Road signs, sepeedometers, many systems of measurement were expressed in both metric and the old standard system. Had this continued, we would by now be using the metric system exclusively. We would be used to it, our children and grandchildren would have grown up with it and would use it effortlessly, never having known anything else. I never knew why the converting process was abandoned but it was a mistake. None of my children or grandchildren - all fairly intelligent - know how feet or yards are in a mile. All, however can mulyiply or divide by 10, 100 or 1000. I sure do wish that conversion started almost 45 years ago would have continued. 0 -
What happened with that? I remember being in high school when road signs for speed limits and distance began to show standard and metric for the first time. It was also the start of speedometers reading in both mph and KPH. It actually looked as though the switch was going to happen, and soon. Then everything stopped, almost like someone flipped a switch and ended it. I wonder how long it will take before we get that close again? Probably not in my lifetime.firstharmonic wrote:I sure do wish that conversion started almost 45 years ago would have continued.0 -
That it ever started in the first place was the mistake. All it did was screw stuff up in this country.firstharmonic wrote:I never knew why the converting process was abandoned but it was a mistake.0
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