Imperial or Metric? Why I Chose Metric.

let's talk about metric versus imperial you've probably watched a lot of videos on it well you know what they're out there but i'm gonna tell you it's easy okay you think this piece of maple here cares if i work it measure it in metric or imperial it doesn't matter so over the years i want to give you a few tips that i have learned okay on my conversion because i was working an imperial in my shop in fort lauderdale but i had to and i didn't realize i was actually working in metrics i did nothing but frameless kitchens all right in office spaces so i was building i was building on a 32 millimeter system now as we go through this i want to tell you the epiphany moment when some when somebody asked me how i was doing or how i was converting and i said i'm having a tough time learning metric and he said to me well subtract 70 cents from a dollar and what do you got i go 30 cents and i go he goes what's a quarter plus a quarter and i went 50 cents he looked at me and said you're really good at metric and i went what he goes it's based on tenths and okay so when i was a kid check this out i'm gonna i'm gonna write some stuff down on this piece of maple okay so when i was a kid i was taught this 25 millimeters is roughly roughly one inch so i this is how i started and this is another another tip for you what's what do we work in of course in inches one inch two inch but there's basic increments that always stuck in my head like an inch six inch right okay 12 inches but if you start if you start multiplying okay so think about this 25 millimeters is roughly one inch this is the rotex r0150 if we look at this everybody because this is a worldwide standard and a sander right what size pad is this i know what you're saying it's a six inch pad right okay but guess what 25 into a hundred and fifty is six inches you getting it now i'm hoping okay so if that's just some basic simple math if you start using metric you'll be measuring quicker and that's another thing i have found okay because i can divide by two quicker than anything not too long ago i had to start using imperial okay and man i had been using metric for about 12 years at that point and i started using imperial again and i had to figure out all the fractions so i'm going to tell you one of the best tips ever on learn on converting if you're using imperial to convert to metric is buy a metric imperial tape okay i'm going to lay this one out this is my favorite a couple of you have asked me on instagram about it okay but so it kind of hit me that first year when i was converting i went somebody says oh do you do you know metric and i went yeah i'm getting used to it he said what's 25 and 7 8 and i went like this i went to my tape and i went look and this is what this will help you look 25 and 7 8 is 600 let me let me figure this out 25 and 7 8 i said is 600 and what look at this 630 follow me millimeters okay so not too far back somebody asked me hey you you everything in metric i go yeah i do and i go well how do you measure a space like this like the garage and i go i measure it with my stabila led laser okay like watch watch see i'll take i'll take that dot and i'll aim it over there okay you know in fact look i'll do it like this and the dots on the ceiling okay and i hit it okay now i looked at this at that time and i'm going to tell you i have this in meters okay but if you look at the dot to the ceiling okay is 2.344 meters you know what that would mess me up if i looked at that but i know how to convert i move the decimal point so it's 2344 millimeters now i could take my tape and put it here and measure the ceiling and that's what it comes up now if you have a laser measurer i know you probably haven't done this i had to go through this i opened up the owner's manual because i had this and if there's a little bar right here look i can bring it down to from the top of my mft to the ceiling is 7 foot 8 inches and 5 16. now what if i had to divide that in half oh my god i'd have to go get my construction master 4 with fractions to do it or use my iphone i'm sure there's apps on there for it right but man i'll tell you right now it's easier i'm going to bring this back to metric everybody look i'll bring it in look okay one more all right 2 34 millimeters divide by two that's easier to divide follow me and if we look at the increments of measurement of a millimeter it is so precise now somebody asked me not too long ago said okay this is what confuses me 10 20 30. that's 10 right millimeters 20 millimeters okay some tapes read um they're weird let me see if i have something here that shows that yeah look right here on this it's one two three those are centimeters okay on this folding rule and i prefer using a folding rule the majority of the time okay in fact that's the company if you don't know stabila they actually invented the folding rule uh way back when so look this this folding rule i think most of my folding rules are metric imperial okay i got this one from lee valley this is my preferred this is the one i keep in my pant leg okay but you see it's one two three but that's actually 10 millimeters 20 millimeters 30 millimeters now the other thing i i'll point out that's really cool about this tape is remember i told you earlier in the video that i build frameless cabinets they're based and i do balance panels which are what based off of a 32 millimeter increment in height okay that's a standard world wide for frameless cabinets so if i look and i'm and i'm designing something that there's dots on here see that on this tape those are 32 millimeter increments it's just like i'm gonna pull out this is this is an old old old tape measure but if we look at it look those little dots are like 16 on center and you know what those are for that's your stud spacing but do you have marks on your tape for stuff like that you're 16 on centers 16 32 48 so that's where you place it that's what those dots are for frameless cabinetry 32 millimeters systems so we're doing pretty good um and by the way you're using metric you do plywood you use uh do you do apply which is funny do you uh use plywood okay uh guess what this is you all know this this is 18 millimeter but you buy those router bits that are undersized right what is it for this plywood 18 millimeter what is it it's 23 30 seconds guess what 23 30 seconds is it's basically 18.2 uh millimeter so that's an 18 millimeter bit is what you have there that 23 30 seconds all right another thing that has aided me in here is i have a conversion here um on my construction master so if this is simple i mean you probably have the app on your iphone but i do simple things like this i'm just going to put it on so you can see this all right four feet three inch and seven eights okay i can hit the conversion here and there's a little one and that's what it is in millimeters okay so you can always have something like this yes you can get they have an app on your uh phone okay so the other thing i'm going to point out is i always get this with routers okay how do you know setting that depth on a router well it can be really easy all right um but when i set depth on a router i see and you'll you'll see this like this is a metric scale here right okay i'm just gonna take this i'm gonna loosen this if i start with my bit here on the tabletop and i need to go in five millimeters of depth i'll just grab a gauge block look i'll uh i'll grab these right here these are great gauge blocks where are they right there okay if i need to go in five millimeters i don't use the scale i use what a gauge block just like that okay i lock it in and now with that depth rod when i push in and i'm making that dado or groove or mortise this is the top of my board i'm going to continue to push it down and that'll be five millimeters of depth so when somebody asks hey metric versus imperial i'm automatically going to metric the millimeter to me has been one of the finest woodworking increments of measurement it's i don't i don't hate saying perfect but for me it is you are using metric uh in your daily lives we're doing a slow conversion one more thing on depth when someone says i can't read the scale okay on on my track saw it's some this is an older track so i see how my scale is in metric i never use it okay i always will take this is this is where i push my depth down okay this part right here hits this right here so when i take this and i bring it down look i just move this let's see if the camera can get in there up to that see that's my depth and then i'll add a millimeter or two and i'm good to go all right listen listen see listen to this each one of those clicks is a millimeter on here okay it's a very fine depth setting and it's that simple by the way did i read the scale no i just used the tools did i read the scale here no i just use gauge blocks i just zeroed out the saw i just zeroed this out so it's just something i like to teach people um and you'll see that in upcoming build videos when we're setting depths on things um so i think that's all i have for you i hope i truly hope that this made it a little bit easier to understand metric versus imperial okay and don't forget be positive and stay sharp

Channel: sedgetool

Views: 155,144

Keywords: metric system conversion, metric system for kids, woodworking projects, woodworking for beginners, woodworking tools, woodworking for mere mortals, woodworking ideas, woodworking tips, woodworking videos, metric vs imperial, imperial system, metric system, woodworking projects for beginners

Id: QCoIls0n0FU

Length: 12min 8sec (728 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/klystron]

This guy's presentation wanders all over the place, but it's nice to see an American tradesman enthusiastic about the metric system and using it for his projects.

He has a lot of support in the comments, with a notable exception: an engineer who wrote in reply to people who said that the metric system is easier:

"It's easier." Do you realize what you just said? "I'm either to stupid to use imperial or I'm just intellectually lazy." By the way, as an engineer... imperial is always more accurate and it actually is easy to use in the real world while using real materials. Now, if you want to figure out theoretical physics, sure go ahead and knock yourself out with the metric system.

He gets shredded by people replying to him.