But you have to admit that for all everyday calculations in medicine, industry, the arts and elsewhere the metric system now holds sway across Europe, even in Britain.
I, too, was blinkered until I went to live and work in Germany. Then I discovered the metric system and the crass idiocy of our imperial system of measurement hit me like a train. 3 and five sixty-fourths! I mean, really! Ludicrously archaic, not to say primitive.
MM
In my hobby restoring old machinery, I have to use whatever system is used on that machinery. Since it's mostly around 100 years old, it's usually Whitworth. Sometimes it's more modern and it's Unified or metric, or BA. So we have to have a supply of bolts and nuts for all sizes and lengths of BSW, BSF, UNC, UNF and metric and BA, from very small up to one and a quarter inch diameter. And also a supply of taps and dies for many of those, and probably three of each for tapping blind holes. Then there are plain steel bolts, plated bolts, stainless and brass bolts and nuts. And Coach bolts and all the other kinds of bolt head. And some poor sod (me) ends up sorting them all out!
In your specific application there is no choice but to use imperial, just as if I restored a classic, pre-war British car I'd be digging out my set of Whitworth spanners. In fact, as a former motor fitter (apprenticeship completed 1968), it was a long while until I encountered a metric bolt or nut. I think it was on a 1960s Ford Taunus that we towed off the M20.
MM
No - you said that you were totally metric
I was pointing out that you weren't
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember MM saying something like:
O'Toole would disagree.
Perhaps I should have fired up Excel after all ...!
Funny how your spell checker never spots these mistakes ...
There are two ways you can get this wrong. First, if the drill has not been ground to the correct angle, it can drill a lager hole than its shank diam. (I am sure you know this.)
Secondly, there are several sizes that will be mixed up.
3/32 = 2.4 and 2.5 mm 1/8 = 3.2 and 3.3 mm 5/32 = 4.0 and 4.1 mmAnd multiples of these sizes. Moving on to the the bigger drills, there will be many fraction sizes that match a metric size. Take one standard of drill, metric, or imperial, your choice and grind the end of the shank to a flat, or a small angle on it that way you can see straight away if a drill is in the wrong block.
Good luck and please continue to post your exploits.
Dave
But as I said originally, I have put yellow paint on all the metric drills, inside the flute near the top of the drills, all the way around. So people won't attempt to put them in the wrong drill block.
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