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On the choice/habit of units. I recently came to a related realization about the units I use - growing up in the UK in the 1970's and 80's means I've always been fluent in metric and imperial, so I'm lucky that I can think and convert with no friction. I compounded this by studying astronomy which has a whole set of wacky units to deal with distances between planets and stars, as well as subatomic units and relativistic units. Oh and a lot of old astronomy books used a different kind of Metric units for good measure. So, when working on a problem I'll work in whatever units get me the answer fastest. And now I'm a pilot I get feet, miles, nautical miles, celsius and pressure in inches of mercury when I listen to the weather, because this was something standardized by many nations in the past.

As a kid I used inches. When I started working in labs everything was metric. I adapted and can't imagine ever going back

At my old job, I was the only one who used metric. The software we used had metric dialog boxes but has the option to display inches on the status bar. People resized things using the mouse, and were virtually never able to get 1.000 inches. One day, a manager came to ask me why I used metric, because apparently that was causing problems whenever anyone came to assist me. (I wrote measurements on the order forms in centimeters, sometimes millimeters.) The look on her face when I typed 25.4 in the Resize dialog box and got 1.000 inches was priceless. 😂

In the UK we use a curious mix of Metric and Imperial and we tend to use Imperial for body weight (stone and lbs). I finally made the switch to metric for my bodyweight when I had to regularly have my bodyweight taken for chemo-radiotherapy. It has stuck and is a pleasant reminder of beating cancer.

I’m old (70), and grew up with inches. Working construction in the 70s and 80s, I used imperial. Traveling the rest of the world in the 80s, I learned metric easily and adopted it pretty thoroughly. I shifted careers to textiles in the 90s, and I dye in a combination of metric and grains, but I weave in inches and yards. I guess I pretty much just picked up whatever was handy and learned my crafts in whatever system they were being taught in. I’m fast with math though, and numbers never have confused me.

It's also a generational thing. My parents used imperial measures but we learned metric in school, so I tend to flip between both depending on what I'm measuring.

I found myself finally switching to mm over inches when i wanted to make small PC enclosures, which are usually also compared to each other in Liters volume, and it is incredibly easy to figure out the volume in liters of a box by taking the 3 sides in mm and just multiplying them together, but trying to find cubic inches and converting was much more difficult. Now i just do everything in mm instead of inches.

When I started my apprenticeship we used imperial one year later we switched to metric, it didn’t take long to get used to it and it was actually easier and quicker to get accurate measurements.

One thing that's stuck with me ever since hearing it is something Shane from Stuff Made Here once said. Roughly paraphrased, it was: "A basic band saw, drill press, and belt sander are really all you need. With just those three tools, you can make almost anything."

My country (Australia) gave up feet and inches when I was about 8 years old. I threw away my 12” ruler and bought a 30cm ruler. I remember my school teacher telling inches were gone. At 16 I went to work in a engineering factory where they had converted some of the designs into metric. Most of the machines were still graduated in inches. Many designs were written in metric but had just been converted (butchered) into metric so the inch sizes were still there in brackets. Thus fulfilling some government requirement. So I got to learn to work in some kind of inches/metric hell many years after we were supposed to have changed over. 25.4 was my friend. I’m now 60 years old and my milling machine is metric and my lathe is imperial. I often find my home projects still incorporate both systems due to the materials I have available or simply the things I’m trying to fix and where or when they were made. I’m sure similar problems exist in USA, Liberia, and Myanmar. The last three countries in the works still officially using feet and inches. You still have changing to look forward to.

I grew up with metric, but building and repairing guitars means that I've had to learn a great deal of imperial, as that's the industry standard measurement for designs and a lot of the luthiery tools one uses. It's helped by the fact that I inherited my grandfather's workshop and he always worked in imperial, having started his joinery apprenticeship in 1954 before metric was standardised in Australia.

I grew up in the US using imperial but did learn metric a little in school. I also grew up on the Canadian border so that helped with metric. Joining the Army moved me a little more into the metric camp. There is a mix in the Army of both. I then went to Germany with the Army and that moved me even further to the side of metric. I then left the Army and stayed in Germany. I've been in Germany half my life as of now(25 years, I'm 50) and I tend to have more problems speaking with family and friends and trying to use imperial again. Sorry but metric just makes more sense and is much simpler in my opinion. I do not think switching is hard at all. When you commit to it, it will take about a year to feel really comfortable with it.

I'm an American carpenter who now permanently lives in Australia. In AU they have a unique "system" like the UK. I would describe the construction industry in 1/3rds. The first 1/3rd is true metric dimensions, the 2nd third are true inch dimensions(bright bolts are all inch in a hardware store, galv bolts are metric), the final third are what I call fake metric. These are products that were manufactured in inches, but labeled in mm for the Aussie market. One of the things that confuses people is centimeter. We don't use them. Only the medical system uses centimeter for height. We use mm for fine and m for gross. The best part is communication. You could be on a roof and yell down to the cut man. Cut me a stick 2754( twenty-seven fifty-four). Try that in feet/inch.

I teach engineering courses in a USA high school. I teach both metric and imperial. But I do emphasize metric. One, it is easier to convert from one unit to another. Two, I find that our kids don't even know the imperial system well. So, this becomes a opportunity to teach/learn the metric system (which I believe should have been the standard long ago) and relate that to the imperial system that many of our kids continue to struggle with.

On the topic of working in both imperial and metric, you should check out the world of PCB design. Component footprints are usually specified in millimeters, unless it's a passive component (like a resistor or capacitor) in which case it'll be something like "0603" which means 0.06 inches by 0.03 inches, but be careful because there's also a 0603 metric that's equal to 0201 imperial. Trace widths and spacing are usually specified in "mils" (an industry term meaning 1/1000th of an inch), while board and layer thickness are in millimeters. Best of all, copper thickness is measured in ounces (yeah, go figure - "ounces of copper spread over a 1 foot square area" is implied). Overall board layout and dimensions are designer's choice between millimeters, mils, or inches, and a single board will often mix units for this. It's madness!

I have always used metric and am entirely comfortable with it ... but I taught myself all the most common imperial fractional sizes in metric so when I'm measuring a part I can quickly realise if that part is imperial or not. E.g. if something measures very close to 22.225mm it is actually 7/8" inch ... and when you realise that you start to see patterns. Like if you multiply 22.225(0.875") X 2 you get 44.45 or 1 3/4" (1.750”)inch

I learned metric at school, but went on to use imperial AND metric as an apprentice welder/fitter. So handy to know that 19mm is 3/4", 1/2" is close to 13mm and so on. 😁

When I built model car kits, most of which are in 1:25 scale, I used mm as inches when scratchbuilding parts and it worked like a charm.

I was lucky enough to be taught on Imperial and Metric at school in the 70's due to the change over here in the UK.

Imperial vs Metric is an interesting question. I am 95% on the opposite side of creating; I either am checking things per tolerance to a production drawing- of which I have no choice of unit of measurement- or, I am working on an (typically ancient) automobile, usually for recreation and sometimes for needed repair. When I do have to create something, a bracket or ball end, or something, I use the convention the rest of the system is in. I definitely _think_ in Imperial, but with a huge caveat professionally- not in fractional expression, instead in the decimal equivalent. When I measure I am usually looking for +/- ,005". so in thousandths anyway...not much mental gymnastics vs metric there in terms of use (not distance). So I will first grab a half-nine wrench (1/2" on one side, 9/16" on the other, it's a common "US old car" tool) *BUT* I will many times grab a 13mm and 14mm wrench instead, depending if my experience with say, _this_ half inch bolt is in a spot that's a pain to get a 1/2 on so I use the 13mm, or _that_ 9/16 looks like it may strip, I'll hedge my bet with a 14mm, 99 times out of 100, that 14mm works like a charm on 9/16 for old US cars with less chance of rounding a hex corner. So while it depends on what I'm doing (and who made it) I'll use metric tools on cars that have no metric hardware! When you need it, it doesn't matter the measuring convention when it works.

8:00 minutes in for inches vs cm part

Nice discussion about the drill press and mill. As for imperial vs metric; grew up with imperial (USA), but work in healthcare, so also know a lot of metric since that's the standard. And as an added bonus use 24 hour clock - so much better (to me) once I got used to it!

I was in school when we went metric, so learned both, then I worked for several years transposing old records that were imperial, into metric as we redrew the utility maps, after that a lot of the simple translations are still in my head, but I work with whatever is most conveniant, for smaller measurements its mm, when I get larger I move to inches, and then its back to metres, so its what you learned and what you became accustomed to.

I am almost 50, here in the UK. I use both constantly, I will mix them up to what is easier at that time. I will often give measurements in both. As an example a little while ago I asked someone to cut both a 424 length of wood, and one at 8 inches. I can visualise something at 10 meters and also 5feet ( I know they are not the same length). I do tend to favour metric when it's small enough to start using fractions. But Miles, stone, yards, ounces, is my preference

Interestingly enough the whole learning in imperial and changing to metric was something that happened to my parents generation in Australia, and by way of that to a lesser extent my generation as I was taught metric in school but needed to be able to speak imperial to my parents as an interpreter of sorts.

I learned in metric (cm, mm etc) and always struggled as a kid with the imperial measurements, but because the sewing machine I inherited from my grandma and now as an adult use regularly is in inches, I have a much better eye for imperial measurements and always have to convert to inches if a pattern is in metric!

Can’t say this enough, and sorry for not being so articulate I want to (and not being english speaker..). But the moment when Adam pauses himself and explaining the words he just used (like in this example «awesome») is such a good manner and thing I like about him 🙂

For interior design, a module of 80” is pretty close to 2 meters, a good approximation of overhead reach (if you’re 5’4” tall, lol) and it’s also 5*16” so you can build to this measurement pretty easily with studs on standard 16” centers and 4’x8’ panels

Doesn’t get anymore Savage than this 🤘

This was informative and helpful. Thanks you.

I am 46 and British so whilst I was taught metric almost exclusively in school, my parents grew up almost entirely on Imperial so it was pretty natural that I would get familiar with both. Even now the UK still uses both, miles for travelling distances, litres for fuel, a lot of us still use feet and inches for people's height and stones and pounds for people's weight, even though we use metric for almost all other weights and measures. Beer is still sold in pints as is milk (albeit converted to ml). Personally, I tend towards whatever makes the most sense or is easier to work with at any one times. For example if I am measuring something around the house and it happens to fall exactly on 2 and a half inches, I will go with that, if it fell on the marks for 35mm then fine, that's what I will use. I work as an engineer specialising in lightning protection so I work with a lot of structural drawings and those are almost always in metric no so that is what I work in professionally.

When I was a teenager, I was an absolutely unrepentant nerd, to the point that I wore a novelty binary-display watch. I only had that watch for about a year (it was cheap and wore out fairly quickly), but it only took me a few months to actually start thinking of time in binary. My first class wasn't at 8:30 AM, it was at 01000:011110 AM. And I wasn't even _trying_ to do that, I only bought the watch for the geek cred. It just sort of... happened. It just goes to show that, if you actually use something new on a regular basis, you can learn it pretty quickly.

Well, in Europe, almost nobody would ever even think about this question...

Great video, great advice. Loved the metric and imperial. Habits are hard to break.

I use both. In the UK old equipment is usually fastened with imperial fittings, newer stuff in metric. I'm happy with either, and I have tools and tooling for both.

I struggle to visualise and work with imperial. I was taught both at school here in the UK but gravitated towards metric. I find metric easier to work with, much easier to do small measurements with and as the scientific and electronics worlds uses metric then I stick with that. Base 10 counting is more natural to me than fractional.

In almost all cases, if you're going to do things in metric you should use millimeters for small/medium scale stuff and meters for room scale or larger. Forget centimeters, they'll just serve to confuse you can cause you to have to carry decimals all over the place when millimeters provide sufficient precision at the integer level for most daily measurements.

I was about 10 years old in the 70s when they started showing us metric in school. I was so excited as it seemed like such a great system. Through a lifetime as a carpenter I completely rejected metric in my work. If the US had continued on with the change as well, I'd be totally onboard, but all it has ended up doing is leading to 2 sets of numbers for everything. Even the lowly measuring tape is only useful on one side unless you go out of your way to find imperial only. They advertise food by the pound, but it's in kilos when you pay for it. Mt Robson is both 3954m and 12,972ft. Hard to remember both, and easy to mix up numbers. After 50 years, not sure what the solution is, but going halfway really just made a mess.

0:39 Adam as a professional model(er) yes please! Thanks for all of your continued advice and entertainment!

Love the drill press and mill discussion. Your point of "if your wondering get the drill press" is great. If you think you should get something to future proof then you wont likely use it. The metric vs imperial is great. I see imperial only good for approximation with metric for precision. Multiples of 10 are hard to beat.

I lived through Canada's transition and remember both metric and imperial on speed limit signs. Albiet I was young at the time. But my parents used imperial and I learned metric in school and so when cooking with mom, cups were used as that is all the cookbooks used. When working with dad in the shop he would measure in inches and thinking in fractions like 7/16ths to my brain seemed just wrong when you could use decimals... Now I find things are strange I move between the two. For my own clear thinking and measuring it is metric, especially with 3d printers and modelling. Makes the home depot trips interesting as all lumber is Imperial... However room temperature is 72 F for me. My height, weight are 5'10" and 185 lb. It is not natural to use metric for those for me. One area that is changing is with fuel efficiency in cars. I like MPG but I am trying to make the switch to Litres per 100 KM...

Yes, Klausing made a drill press, I used to have one. It was old in the '70s when I got it in a trade for a Tektronix Oscilloscope. I had to leave it behind when I moved after being divorced. It was a monster, I had to take it apart to move it into pieces, even when I was young and strong.

I highly recommend the old walker turner 20 inch drill presses (or the old rockwell delta as well)...I got one off of craigslist and cleaned it all up and not only learned all the parts so I understand more how it works, but got a great all metal should work for decades more drill press out of it. I saw two recently on craigslist for really cheap, and those would be great drill presses for someone starting out and needing something solid and dependable (and cheaper than the new ones of the same size which would have way more plastic in them, and likely smaller tables too). Also, drill presses are not designed to do sideways loads, so milling with them, even with an old one is a bad idea. The old walker turners and some of the rockwell delta also come with the big square production drill press tables vs the small round ones. That avoids needing to make a fancy bolt on square drill press table out of wood.

The key to success when trying to change over from one form of measurement to another is to have an easy form of reference. Once you can eyeball a centimeter or millimeter, for instance when trying to switch to metric, you will find the process gets much easier. Due to 3D printing, I've got millimeters down. This means that I can get to just about every other scale of metric measurement fairly easy. And other than for temperature, I find its use to be far superior for my needs.

20 years in Structural building engineering, always in metric, imperial is a real pain in the a$$.

At my old job at [unnamed paint company], we also did an odd imperial-to-metric scaling. If we wanted to make a lab batch of paint, we'd have the software print out a recipe for a "4X" batch, which makes 400 gallons. If it said to add 23 pounds of an ingredient, we'd use 23 grams. With about 453.6 grams to a pound, this would fit comfortably in a 1-gallon can.

I keep a chuck in my mill most of the time, and sometimes use it even with end mills for situations where I don't really need accuracy. If I had to give up one of them, I'd get rid of the drill press without a blink. My mill is smallish, a 1970s Jet mill/drill machine, which is floor standing. A desktop mill/drill is pretty good as well, for smaller stuff. When I get more room (bigger shop coming up next year) I am going to look around for a Bridgeport. In Southeast Michigan there are Bridgeports practically sitting on the side of the road, you can get them for scrap price.

As an aircraft mechanic, it was always necessary for me to be able to cope with both imperial and metric hardware. As I discovered working on vintage aircraft, the French complicated things further during the sixties. Metric sizes, but with their own unique thread-pitch.

Both systems have their industries and best applications, at least in US/Canada. I could never build a house using the metric system but it certainly makes sense in science.

When building custom kitchen cabinets I wind up using story poles, inches, and millimeters. Inches for sinks, stoves, and dishwashers: millimeters for everything setup on the 32mm system: and the story pole as my checksum for alignment with center of windows.

I use an imperial mechanical dial caliper (I think it is the 4 inch model you recommended once) because I can't find an equally short and convenient to use metric model, but my calculator app is always handy to multiply by 25.4 :-).

I use mm when 3d printing for whatever reason

Maybe I'm just weird, but I switch between both freedom units and metric. Both have their uses. It can get kinda confusing but depending on the project, I will decide which one. Sometimes I even use both in the same project. Lol. Like I said, It can get confusing but it works . 😊

I am glad I found another one of your Q&A videos. I have been a fan of yours since the plot episode on MB. You and Jamie was my Google before i know what Google was. My question is how do you get started streaming your videos, is there much editing needed?

Growing up in Canada we had to learn and use both metric and imperial. Learning engineering was aldo the same, plus additional conversations. Working with colleagues & clients in the UK, Canada, and US has meant using both systems of measurement-also have to be aware of the difference in the English language for the three countries.

Metric is so logical I’m trying go completely metric

The metric system ruined my life.

I grew up with inch/pound/cup measurements, and learned metric in my science classes. I can convert a few learned measurements in my head easily, but I still have to think about the conversion of unlearned amounts…or I use the unit conversions app on my tablet. 😁 I’m glad some of my kitchen measuring tools have both metric and imperial on them.

Recently picked up a Powermatic 1200 myself, it's a beast. It's also very unusual to find a Powermatic in Australia. It's not my first drill press though (umm....6th) so I knew I needed a bigger one.

I heard the guys with small ones tend to use centimetres 😃

I spent my early making years in the UK in the 60s and 70s where imperial measurements were the norm. When I was in my mid 30s I was working on a commission when an architect friend saw me struggling with calculation in feet, inches and fractions of an inch (oh hell, those fractions!). He suggested that I move to metric, one unit (the millimetre NOT the centimetre) and I've never looked back. The difficulty in making the transition is being familiar with, for example, how big an inch is or 6 inches or a foot but not being familiar with what 100mm etc. looks like. I would recommend anyone wanting to make the change to do two things: First learn that 1 inch is 25mm, 4inches is 100mm and a foot is 300mm. Commit these to memory and the rest is easy. Then throw away any tapes that you have with feet/inches on and buy a tape with METRIC ONLY measurements on it. I swear that your life will be easier without all those difficult fractions.

I use mostly imperial, but with my machinist background i will do most of my math in decimal and when I am saw things to width on my table saw, then I'll use my dial caliper along with a 1 inch travel dial indicator on a magnetic base. Then I can measure my wood parts and adjust the saw fence accurately with the indicator showing me what the fence is doing. Speaking of drill presses, I find that I need to support the table on almost all my drilling projects. I use a couple of different things. Machinists jacks work great, also I have a planer gage that I picked up along the way. Not many planers that need setting but the tapered slide works good for fine adjustments. The reason I support the table is as the drilling pressure increases, there will be deflection in the drill press and the drill will start cutting at a slight angle. Not a big problem on wood, but try drilling through some steel and you can literally see the drill press push itself apart. Mostly it is the table not being made strong enough, even my new Nikon drill press was doing it. That's why some people need to have a bridgeport. They are a lot more ridged in every aspect. These little combination lathe / mill things look like real pieces of crap. Most any small lathe is a piece of crap too.

Hey Adam - Regarding "in vs mm I (as i suspect you were) in the generation in school where we had to learn both. So much so, that I literally had a teacher that struck my hand with a yard stick if I used my left hand to write, or gave my answers in the wrong measurment type. I actually appreciate the dual knoweldge as my understanding and my conversions are always spot on. I think schools should teach both so that kids can mature into them like learning a second language :) P.s. America has a reputation of being non-metric, but I saw I video by a popular KZfaqr that showed the U.S. is metric, they just don't promote it as such :) You probaqbly have similar occurances to these examples in your cave. What is the displacement of your car engine? How thick is your "polly" . . .

As for drill presses & mills - I have a milling machine and four drill presses. One of the drill presses is permanently set up for one thing. I use the mill and the drill presses often. If I set up the mill or a drill press for a specific project, then I have another drill press available if I need it without changing the setup on the others.

I have a champion model F001 drill press that i bought from an older carpenter who was retiring, bought it to replace the smaller one that got stolen during a move, anyway I absolutely love it! I believe it’s 70s and it’s an absolute beast! By far the best 75$ I’ve spent on a tool

I use both, but it depends on context. In the PCB industry, like many others, the standard is mils, so imperial reigns when conversing with fab vendors... But we design everything in millimeter. At home, it's mostly metric because that's default in stuff like Fusion 360 and other CAD software.

Adam Nice advice on the difference between a drill press and milling machine.

Meeting this man is a dream

Just going to say I was really geeked when 1/25 scale was mentioned because that has become my default because I 3d print in millimeters and do my wood construction in inches. (My 3d printer is also rather small so I am limited on how big my models can be)

Most of my making over the years have been with 3D printing and lasers and those generally work in metric and I’m happy to say that’s my focus.

Units: I usually work with imperial but I really prefer thinking in terms of mm when we're under 1/4". If materials were strictly regularized to imperial or metric I'd pick one of those, but there are still problems. For example sawing wood will remove kerf from total length so each quarter of a 1' piece won't end up being exactly 3". I work with 1:60 scale so I usually think in terms of 1" units, so working in imperial just makes a lot of sense. Weirdly, the "1:72 scale" / "25mm scale" typically used in D&D figures assumes 1" = 6' human height, but for terrain and structures 1" = 5' linear distance. So really I work in 1:60 but the figurines are often just too big for it. I suspect there was some miscommunication early on and 25mm scale was really supposed to refer to 25mm height for a typical antique European who would have been closer to 5' than 6'. And of course we're not even talking about the height of the base, which is a few mm.

I grew up with the imperial units, for the most part, I still think in imperial units. I was introduced to the metric system in school, and as an engineer, became very comfortable with the metric system. Granted, I deal with millimeters a lot at work ... even though centimeters might make more sense ... but I do have a good feel for them, and if needed, I am fairly good with converting between mm and inches in my head. But longer distances and units of volume or weight, not so much, as my head is still stuck in Imperial. Habit, as I just have no reason to use metric units there (except when traveling through Canada). I put myself through college by working in construction, building and remodeling homes ... and with all the existing infrastructure in place, switching to the metric system in that area would be a massive pain. Could _new_ things be built using the metric system? If the materials were there, most certainly!! But existing houses are built with 4 x 8 foot sheet material and studs in wall are typically on 16 inch centers ... just to start with. Also, woodworking is one of my hobbies. There, I tend to use the imperial system over metric ... though I would be comfortable with either. There is something to be said for a system that is very easily dividable by 2, 3, 4 and 6. The metric system is easily dividable only by 2, 5 and I guess 10. Finally, I also like to build 1/25 scale models ... so yes, I've taken advantage of the fact that 1 mm is roughly 1 inch in 1/25 scale.

Hi Adam, as a special effects guy here in the uk (make up fx, props, and animatronics) i have been looking for a pocket ref after seeing you with it and explain , we dont find it in hardware shops here but yaaay finaly got my paws on one , found online used but excellent condition for 5 quid !! i have dyscalcula and have problems with conversions , hoping this will de mystify for me . thank you for the channel .

Living in Québec, I learned and used metric for most of my youth. Went to technical school in aerospace. Metric system out the window, here comes the imperial system. Went to college in engineering. Goodbye imperial and welcome back metric system. Start my first job for an aircraft manufacturer in North America. Imperial again, who cares about the metric system. New job for a European company. Metric again... I have been switching between both systems basically my whole life. I can now navigate between both quite easily, it all depends on what I am measuring. It really is an habit.

I like the 3 times a year metric (pun not intended but glad it happened) for borrow/rent vs buying. I’ve used something similar, though the exact numbers vary with the type of tool, fir my own decisions. My only problem with a metric like this is, being a real tool junky, I often have no problem talking myself into buying a tool (the conversation with myself usually takes less than 30 seconds 😁) even if I just need it once - some tools I’ve talked myself into buying even though at the time I had no use for them at all (once having a tool, I’ve generally found a use for it within a year, but I’m sure there are a few around that I haven’t ever used). As to imperils vs metric, I’m a retired engineer (electrical and software, not mechanical) and have to say I’m pretty comfortable with either, though having metric and imperial threads in the same item still drives me a bit nuts! You pretty have have to use imperial for construction projects (I’m not sure where you’d buy a metric stud in the US) and metric is the obvious choice for 3D printing, since all the printer parameters are I’m mm. I generally use metric for circuit boards, imperial for documents in stuff like Word or Visio, and other small projects can end up being either, depending on whether most of the parts are likely to be metric or imperial sizes. I’m getting ready to buy a mill and lathe for my garage shop, and I’m going imperils there with ones from Precision Mathew’s, but putting on DROs on both so the native system of the tools really doesn’t much matter - I expect about half the things I make on them will be in each system. In the end, they are all just numbers, so really not a big deal except when you want to do the math in your head, and even then I don’t know if one or the other is easier, depending on the sizes of the things your working with.

Love your channel you're the man

I love adams channel, its like watching a mad scientist, you never know whats next

I’m 22 and live in Italy so I used to use mm in the past years I get more familiar with imperial for work/youtube video and I like it. I think it’s useless changing completely from one to one other but the best way is to choose the one of your area but stay current with the other one

On mill Vs. Drill press, it depends what you are doing with it. A mill vice can be very useful for precision work. Back in the 80's used one all the time to drill holes and mill out copper on copper clad board for circuit boards. It was time consuming, but made nice looking boards for prototyping. One turn for 1/10 inch made things really easy for DIP packages and other through-hole parts. On Inches Vs. Centimeters, Inches I find Inches to be an easier to use system for building things. Fractions make it really easy to half a measurement, and for precision work we switch to mil, thousandths of an inch. Over all I find that people that understand US Customary units have no trouble at all using Metric and can switch between and convert between them with little trouble, where as metric folk can't ever seem to be able to get their head around fractional units.

Although a lot of thing in the UK were metric from either the late nineteenth century or early twentieth century (like BA treads based on 0BA that is 6mm x 1mm), the real change came with the Weights and Measures Act 1963. Around 1965, implementation got really serious and schools and industrial training boards were heavily involved in changing the habits of the entire nation. Certainly in Scottish education in the mid 60s, when I was at primary school, everything became orientated toward SI Units. At 11 years old I could probably have told you the definitions of most of the SI Base Units (Nerd!). So everyone here who is 65 to 70 years old now almost certainly began their formal education with imperial and lots of fraction and the switched to SI and lots of decimals. So we are a classic example of what you mention in the video. Most of us can probably still switch back and fore easily to this day. In my nerdy engineer case, I can take that to extremes but let's not get too boring. My father, educated in the 1920s and 30s, completely in imperial, loved metric, based largely on his experiences in WW2. So when metrication came along in the 1960s he was right into it and was on the local metrication committee of the Construction Industry Training Board. Many of his generation who were not regularly involved with industrial measurement really struggled though. The continued use of imperial units in the UK is quite superficial and anything of consequence is underpinned by metric measure. MPH speed limits and 2.27 litre (4pt) bottles of milk bizarrely live on. I would go so far as to say that generally, very few people in the UK truly understand imperial measurement now. I have a tendency not to trust anything that is measured in pints or feet since I expect it has been done by a person with a poor understanding of measurement.

Having both old American cars & newer German cars, I've learned to use both. I had a Principles of Technology teacher in high school that explained the importance to learn the system that is used in the situation.

I grew up in the UK at a point at which I was taught both metric and imperial measurements, so for me, I switch and swap readily between the two, with my preference for which I use coming down to which unit is closest to a full number for that particular measurement.

I learned using metric system and one of the advantages, I think, is that you only need to divide or multiply by 10. In imperial system you have 1 mile = 1760 yards, 1 yard = 3 feet 1 foot=12 inches. To translate a mile into inches in your head you need to 1760*3*12. Probably just a question of remembering, rather then calculating though. Now traditionally some things are measured in imperial units. The threads for pipes are often in inches (G1/2, G3/4 etc.) and I have no problem connecting them with millimeters. But if you start talking mass in ounces, or density in slug/ft3, I would need to check how much it is by checking conversion factors and doing calculations.

Goodness, that's exactly how I decide on whether to buy tools. With expensive tools at least. I'll take it one step further as I have several times bought cheap, and then buying another better tool because the first was not up to the job. That includes a drill press, and I now have Full Boar drill with 16mm keyless chuck, infinitely variable speed so you don't need to change belts, and a digital speed read out. I LOVE that drill press. I am about to upgrade my belt sander for the same reason, and have done the same thing with routers.

I can switch from one to another. It took a while to get used to it but I think I like it that way for what each system has to offer.

Back in the late 1980s my middle school had an excellent wood shop. It was previously a high school and I believe it inherited all the vintage machines. From my memory I think it had a vintage green Powermatic.

Agreed! Metric or Imperial usage is habitual. I grew up with Imperial being the “standard”, but prefer metric since the conversion math is much easier & measurements seem to be more accurate.

Choice, as a Canadian go between the two! I don’t really understand fractions of an inch so if its under quarter of an inch I flip to metric be it CM or MM, some times I convert it back to imperial if I need to shop for something like a project box, that way I can search both imperial and metric shops so I can find that odd size that I need

Another Australian here, who grew up with inches and went metric when we switched in 1975 (I was 17). Later I started working in graphic design, which, here, mixed metric with picas and points. While I'm pretty fluent in any of them, I mostly work (and think) in millimetres. Centimetres are - officially - a clothing measurement here. Makers and builders work exclusively in millimetres. The numbers get biggish when you're talking about a house, but you don't have to think about decimal points or fractions until you get to precise machining or fine woodworking. A key benefit with metric is the relationships between units. All the volume measurements are related to the metre: a litre is a 100mm cube. They, in turn, relate to weight: a litre of water weighs a kilogram. So a cubic metre of water weighs a tonne (=2,200lbs, so almost the same as a British 'long' ton). This makes it trivially easy to work out the volume of a vessel, or its weight filled with water, or an amount of concrete etc.

When I started school every thing was imperial and by the time I left school everything had been changed to metric. So I learned both systems. When I did my apprenticeship in the airline industry everything was imperial. Move forward to today being retired and having a hobby machine shop both my lathe and mill have metric and imperial dials and my measuring equipment are a mixture of both. So depending what I'm doing at the time and which measuring tool I'm using I'll work in either system without thinking. If I'm doing building work I'll work exclusively in metric. Works for me.

Woodworker here... Moving from imperial to metric is far easier if instead of using meters, centimeters, and millimeters we use only millimeters. Using mm is Sketchup has saved me tons of time with initial design and probably even more by reducing the errors that result in compounding errors of doing math with fractional measurements i.e. making 5 drawers each are 10 11/64" wide. That converts to 258.36mm. For this application I can just use 258.5mm, far easier to multiply and check my math before I build 5 drawers. For woodworking, I only needed a $12 metric tape measure and a digital caliper that can be switched between imperial and metric.

I use them interchangably. I do convert metric to SAE due to the handwheels on my machines being in SAE as well as my measuring tools. Biggest issue I run into is with the SAE lead screw metric threads take extra care to get right.

I use both not only depending on context but also often depending on convenience. I've even used them in combination (an inch plus a couple of mm). I can almost envision a unit which is actually variable depending on what you're doing (we tend to kind-of do that naturally anyway).

Matt, one point to consider is what power do you have available. In my experience most ( not all ) drill presses in the U.S. are 110/120 volt, whereas the milling machines that I have seen were either 240 volt or 3 phase ( 207 or 277 volts ).

Old drill presses are the way to go!! Atlas, Powermatic, Walker Turner and Delta/Rockwell made some incredibly well made machines. Sometimes they need a little TLC, but it’s a great restoration project, and it’s a tool you’ll have for a lifetime.

I use mm for anything I design that I plan on 3D printing. If I’m replicating something, I tend to use whatever is close to the stock piece. I also use inches for carpentry, because that is what is standard around here. It’s hard for me to think in metric for anything over 2 meters.

Mythbusters is the very reason I (an 25 year old man from Denmark, who grew up watching mythbusters with subtitles). Learned a lot of english, but also learned about feet, inches, miles and so on. So to that, thank you Adam

The Powermatic thing is like a stick welder, your best bet is buying a used Lincoln Tombstone. Minor note: a lot of the good used tool deals seem to have migrated away from Craigslist to Facebook Marketplace. I don't have an account, so I had to get my brother (who does) to tell me about a Lincoln welder popping up for sale.

Sure would be nice if you guys could use the "chapters" feature by listing the timestamps of the individual questions Adam answers in the video description.