American Carpenters Will Never Switch To Metric

My contribution to the metric-vs-imperial measuring discussion.

[amandamiller]

My dad was in the building trade & he would take me 2 work with him often & I learned a lot from that helped the biggest thing that comes 2 my mind is math & fractions I was in high school my math teacher was major dick yes u read that right he insisted we call him that with out laughing if u did u were in trouble but anyhow 1 days sitting in his class I had a eureka moment the fractions were like that on a tape measure so I just added the ft. & Inch marks 2 the problems after I turned in my 🏠 work major dick pulled me aside 2 ask me how I did it so fast & just about got them all right & I showed him what I came up with with & needless 2 say he was taken a back & amazed he said no 1 had ever come up with that b4

[perryfire]

That cabinet system you referenced was a 32mm system, not 33. I've built many a cabinet using those components. It wasn't the metric component that made it efficient per se but the fact that everything was 32 mm, from the shelf pin spacing to the cup hole for the European hinges. 

Having grown up using imperial, the hardest issue for me is visualizing what these numbers represent in distance and weight using metric. I can do the math just fine, but I don't have a reference. If someone calls out 300mm, yeah I can measure it out just fine but I won't necessarily know which scrap pieces would easily work that are lying around until I measure it out first.

[marcellemay]

I know both systems but I think in the imperial system. I visualize in the imperial system. I can look at a cut 2x4 and tell you within an inch, how long it is, in inches. I have no clue what it is in mm. My brain wasn't trained that way. I graduated high school in 1981. I'm a carpenter by trade but I also do auto mechanic work and I have metal working machines that are also in 1000ths of an inch. I can easily convert one to the other. I find it very interesting that the Canadians are still on the imperial system in the building trades since they officially converted to metric in the seventies. I actually lived in Canada as a kid when the official conversion happened. I learned the metric system in a Canadian school. I think that the condescending comments come from people that never really learned the Imperial system. At the end of the day, these systems are just arbitrary measuring systems assigned by men so that we can communicate units of measurement to each other. It's a language. The critics might say something like, "Why do you speak, Swahili, when everybody knows that English is the superior language?" It's a dumb premise. You speak what you know. I speak 3 languages BTW. They all have their strengths and pitfalls.

[nanderse]

When you have grown up with a system its difficult to switch. Here in Scandinavia we use metric. But in the maritime sector everything remained imperial until recently. Having grown up in a maritime family I have always measured boats in feet. If you say a boat is 8, 16, 36 or 72 feet, I know exactly the size of it, but if you give the measurements in meter, I have no idea of the size it is.

[Tensquaremetreworkshop]

It is not Metric that is the issue- it is using fractions rather than decimal. As you go down in size you eventually have to shift to decimal- thous and tenths. Two systems to do the same things?
Of course, most factory furniture is made in Metric- the standard module size is 32mm. Shelf pegs are 5mm. Hinges fit into 35mm.
Yes, American carpenters will move to Metric at some time - the same as they will move to speaking Spanish.
I made the transition from Imperial to Metric, but not until I had suffered studying Thermodynamics in Imperial. It was tough, largely due to the whole raft of conversion factors needed. Almost all disappear with SI units.
You do not need to be 'intelligent' to use Imperial, it is just slower (conversions...). Less efficient. And it is not a system, like SI is. Of course, all Imperial units are now defined in terms of Metric standards.

[stephanieanddanielbolda]

I'm an electrical engineer and I have been using metric on the job for 30 years. When I go home at night and build stuff, I use Imperial. Why do people need to pick one or the other? Why not both? (I always take both cake and pie when offered dessert at Holiday parties.)
Herrick, I love your format and unusually creative topics related to gardening, tool organization, etc. You are a unicorn, Herrick.
All the best,
Analog Dan
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

[HobbyOrganist]

Our wood shop went metric over 20 years ago when we purchased a German made Altendorf sliding tabe saw and the fence scales were all metric, since then all drawings have been done only in metric and all shop drawings as well. It's very easy when you never have to deal with fractions, its all a tens system 10, 100, milimeter, centimeter, meter.
While I still cant visualise the size of "125cm" or " 187.1 cm" in my head, I can visualise 8 feet or 96 inches, but it's super accurate when your tape measure is in milimeters- one inch is 25.4mm, so the measurement intervals on the tape is finer than the 16th inch marks. 100 cm is close to 3 feet and 100 is a nice round number unlike 36 inches

I DONT use metric weights, speed or distance- only lineal measurements in the wood shop, kilometers, grams etc I dont bother with, tho I can see grams and kilograms= kilo= 1, 000 so 1, 000 grams simply is a kilogram, in the American system we have 16 oz in a pound, 8 oz in a cup.

[chriscohlmeyer]

In Canada we are sort of mixed but building trades is still in feet and inches. Son went to work in New Zealand and went to a building supply store with inches and feet in mind - most staff had no clue but one older employee said hang on as he rummaged around to find an old tape measure in inches and feet from which he could work out the approximate metric dimensions that my son was looking for. Personally I flip back and forth between systems depending on what I'm doing or measuring and what tolerances I have.

Back when the US was set to switch to metric my father was teaching architecture students to conceptualize dimensioning in metric - a metre is about a yard and a fist, step one think in yards not feet, then yards and a bit, then in metres... It was still the cold war days and supposedly some Senators decided that "it's a Communist plot"!!! Canada was essentially set but there was that pesky problem with no conversion for board feet which is a convinient scaling estimation standard for estimating the amount of lumber that can be obtained from a log... Many years later I was calculating tables to convert metric tree log measurements to board feet.

[beerdrinker]

If it works for you, it works for you. Looking at your house it seems to work very well. When I was in the second grade, in 1973, the teacher told my class we had to learn metric because we would be teaching our parents. I knew immediately she was full of sloppy thinking because even at age 7 I knew my father was NEVER going to listen to me. I live in Japan and do pretty well thinking in metric, but an accurate measurement is an accurate measurement. Nice video.

[robowilly]

One thing I don't hear in Arguments for the Imperial system. You can divide 12 by 2, 3, 4 and 6. In the measurements used in Woodworking and carpentry this is advantageous. Dividing a meter by 2, 5, 10, 20, & 50 is simply more cumbersome and complicated. That's just the reality.

[nonpopishchristians]

For what it's worth,  by any 'measure' you're very effective speaker & educator. 😊

.. I only wish I was as intelligent & obviously gifted as you are.

[chrismcquillen]

All that you said to support the imperial system applies to Australia. However we metricated in the 1970s and 80 s over ten years. We adopted the SI system. We only use millimetres and meters for linear measurement. I thought like you before we changed but now i cannot imagine going back to adding subtracting vulgar fractions What could be simpler that adding or subtracting in ones Tens and hundreds. We changed everything weights volumes. Even aged men and women managed it just fine. There are three reasons we resist change Habit Prejudice and the fear of ridicule. We were mired in British than you ever were and we made a change for the better. BTW You manage decimal currency quite well.

[jimshields]

Neither system is inherently more accurate…. But as you say imperial is harder work e.g. finding the mid point of a length of board means working in fractions with Imperial and hence probably slightly more error prone. But whatever one grew up with is likely to be preferable for them. Living in the UK I am part of the last generation that “thinks” in Imperial…. When I work with my son I have to translate for him as he only understands metric. Setting up my shop I decided that all my rulers, measures, gauges etc would be metric. If I am using an actual measurement I find this easiest to work with and transfer from plan to wood to saw etc. But when I look at a chunk of timber I still estimate to size in Imperial. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[marclefebvre]

I am in Canada making cabinet in my woodshop for forty years, used the metric system for european hardware, metric and imperial on the same measuring tape .but the cabinet or any other piece of furniture is built in imperial.I agree it wont change in a near future.board are sold in feet, plywood and melamine sheets are 4x8 feets and etc .production machinery produce in imperial, way more complicate because you dont buy a 2meter x4 meter sheet.Imperial measurements are not so complicate if you know fractions or look carefully your tape .one feet 3 inches a five little bars is sister in law giving you a mesure🤣🤣

[carlmclelland]

Interesting conversation. Working with wood, I'm measuring Imperial, inches and fractions. Turn to metal, I'm measuring Imperial, but in tenths, hundredths, and thousandths of an inch. In my earlier days as a surveyor, Imperial, tenths and hundredths of a foot. Build a racing engine, I'm measuring displacement in cubic centimeters instead of cubic inches. I'll drink an ounce of whiskey, or working outside in the heat, I'll drink a liter bottle of water. Thank God I'm

[emceeboogieboots]

Aside from those in western and central Europe and South America, most of the rest of the world were using Imperial when those architects were active. Certainly we in Australia were as were the Brits. We all built great architectural buildings and monuments.
But then we all changed and continued to build things. I definitely find it easier to deal with one system of measurements, working in the mining and processing field. I would hate to have to try and compare and convert flows between cubic feet, cubic inchs and gallons per minute

[WorkshopGreg]

Curiously, I have been moving between both systems frequently. Many materials now are coming from foreign countries that are manufactured to metric measurements. Increasingly, the US based architects I’ve worked with in the last decade are now working with both systems on projects as well. It’s necessitating that build teams working on big projects get good at designing, building, and sourcing materials using both systems.

[snowgorilla]

Canada went metric long ago, except in shipbuilding, mainly because of pipe and pipe fittings. To me they are apples and oranges, do not even attempt to convert one into the other, use a metric tape or use an imperial (sae) tape. I still prefer imperial but use the other system only when required. Agree completely that you have to be smarter to use imperial (at least know you times tables) the youngins are now lost at imperial but then again many of them can not read a clock.

[jimkemerly]

I have been building plastic injection molds since 1980. Was a bit worried, they said we would be changing to metric, I had just bought several hundred dollars worth of inch measuring instruments. We still work probably 80% in inches, actually more than that, because occasionally a print will call out millimeters, .03937, I just convert it to inches! And build it! Well, if it calls for a metric thread, say m4x .7, well, that's what I will tap the hole, but I won't put it 10mm from the edge, .3935!

[jeremyFaden]

I agree, you might point out that no one complains or even suggests that we use metric time ("I'll meet you at 10.4 decidays"). Imperial units work well because they use numbers with lots of factors (12 has 2, 3, 4 whereas 10 has just 2, 5). What we really need is a base 12 counting system, then everyone will be happy!