Socket wrench sets: SAE or Metric?

[Stormin Mormon]

Who can argue success? My quarter drive set(s) have seen a lot of use.

[Stormin Mormon]

OK, lets see pictures.

[trader_4]

I told you in my post, one of the first responses, that some sizes are close enough and cited 1 1/4" being almost identical to 32mm. How close they have to be depends on what you're doing, how desperate you are and how lucky you feel today. I believe someone else posted a link to a chart, no?

[Stormin Mormon]

Yes, the chart looks totally useful.

Now, wonder if a metric set will serve as both, or are there some inch sizes that are needed in addition?

[rbowman]

The metric system, unfortunately, lasted a lot longer than the First French Republic.

[trader_4]

The short, simple answer is that you need both.

[gfretwell]

Two caps full

[clare]

Not worth carrying in the car - gives false sense of security. Something goes wrong - no problem - I have tools - tool breaks and now you have bloody knuckles as well as a broken car.

As long as when it fails it does not fail dangerously that is a risk with no serious downside. You are not depending on it in an emergency.

[clare]

You don't have a mirror??? ;}

[clare]

You NEED both if you work on both metric and imperial.

[gfretwell]

I agree. Even dumber is when I hear people say they carry a cheap set of tools on the boat. You may only have one chance to get things going and if you round off a bolt with that cheap Harbor Fright wrench, you are in worse trouble than you were in before.

[Mark Storkamp]

You could always try one of these:

[gfretwell]

It helps a lot when you remember 100km/hr is about 60mph (a mile a minute)

[Don Y]

But that's the point -- familiarity teaches you how to make these approximations and which approximations are "robust" (for a given type of calculation).

For highway driving, I tend to average 60mph. I'm in no rush and not keen on "pushing" the car any harder than necessary -- depart

10 minutes earlier instead of driving 10mph faster!

It's second nature for me to glance at the clock, convert miles to minutes and arrive at an ETA (in my head). Thereafter, use the clock as an indication of how much "longer" (in time and miles) I have to drive. If I'm within 10%, I'm delighted -- no need to drag out a calculator or rely on a navigation system to provide me with updates, etc.

If I'm about to paint the roof and need to make a decision as to whether or not I should lug the 5G container of paint up the ladder with me -- or split it into smaller "loads", it's relatively easy to figure 1G = 4qt = 8pt ~= 8lbs. So, 5G paint is AT LEAST 50 pounds (ignoring the weight of the solids dissolved therein and the bucket itself). The fact that it's not sold in liters -- which can "easily" be converted into grams (Q: how many kg can you carry? do you know this off-hand? Or, did you have to start with english units and convert to metric in your head??) -- doesn't interfere with my ability to estimate the weight.

When I was younger, I used to design speaker enclosures. Part of that task is designing the crossover network (to route specific frequency ranges to each of the different sized "drivers" in the enclosure). There, "2 * pi * R" is a common factor in many calculations. Solve this *once* and you'll never use a calculator again to solve it!

Just like 1G = 8lbs.

How many atoms in 12g of C-12? (Why 12g and not *10*?? :> ) Unless you're using this number often, you won't have it (or even an approximation of it) "handy". OTOH, if you *do* use it often, that familiarity makes it seem far less of an "unusual" quantity!

[gfretwell]

In Florida you will have little old ladies in buicks giving you the finger if you are only doing 60.

80 is pretty much the standard speed on I-75 and 65 on a rural 2 lane blacktop. Guys going 60 might be suspected of being drug couriers or illegal immigrants. You could be talking to the cops.

[Don Y]

It's hard to find roads with speed limits above 60MPH in town. I'd have to drive a long way to get onto an "interstate". Driving

10MPH over the speed limit here *will* get you a ticket -- to the tune of several hundred dollars.

Given that most roads in town are 45-55MPH, 60 is probably pushing the limit.

[gfretwell]

Far different here. The speed limit on rural 2 lane blacktops is 60 and I-75 is 70.

[clare]

Up here school zones are 35 or 45, normal city streets are 50, urban corridors are 60, the "ring rode" is 90, most rural rodes are 80, and main highways are 100. But thats all Kph, not Mph.

The story is told of an american driver being pulled over back in the pre-metric days on Hwy 85, on the way to the 401, doing 85MPH. He told the cop he was sure he say a sign saying 85. Cop said it was sure a good thing they stopped him before he reached the 401.

[Don Y]

The difference being *rural* vs. *city*! :> I found 45 to be considerably higher than the norm I experienced for "in city" driving in Chicago, Boston, Denver, etc.

[Don Y]

School zones here are 15. And, they have this insane habit of carrying "school zone" signs INTO the roadway -- placing them between each pair of lanes in each direction -- at times when students get in/out of school. So, you're sure to be wary of taking the paint off the side of your vehicle if you proceed through in too much haste!

(Of course, the volunteer crossing guard will no doubt make every effort to record your plate number if you do so. Senior Citizens with enough time on their hands to sit and watch cars creep by twice a day tend to be obsessive!)