Imperialism is Dead. Long live Metricism!
I used to be someone who used imperialist machinery parts. I gave those up when I started designing the Cupcake CNC and I’ve never looked back. For working on projects, metric is so much easier. Ever try and figure out imperial bolt types? It’s not easy. With metric bolts, an M8 x30 means that the bolt threads are 8mm in diameter and the threads are 30mm long from the base of the head to the end of the bolt. Easy peasy. Another thing that basically makes the whole metric thing a shoe in? Black. The hardware comes in black.
Did I mention that they come in black? Besides the color black, it’s much easier to design in QCAD and Blender using metric measurements.
So, when you are embarking on making building your Cupcake CNC, we encourage you to make the shift to metric. Do yourself a favor and invest in a good metal ruler with millimeters on it and a pair of digital calipers that can switch to metric units.
Now, I will concede there is one good thing that imperialism is good for and that’s measuring the distance of objects from yourself by eye that are less than 100 feet away. When I was in the film industry, all the focus pullers, even the ones from metric countries, agreed that feet are a better unit for estimating short distances. So, unless you’re looking for a career where you’ll be judging how far away Keanu Reeves is from the lens of a high end camera, do yourself a favor and switch to metric. Your future projects thank you in advance.
Base 10 For The Win!!!!!
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15 Comments so far
Jan
Yes, much nicer. did you see the relation to other physic units? like temperature and volume, weight and so on? it all makes sense and is closely related. it’s all based on water, like ourselves are based on water. so much easier to calculate.
Batist
@Jan: Indeed, some quick links:
1 square dcm of water = 1 kg, if you sling 1 kg on a string of 1 m, it takes 1 sec to make one oscillation.
Though I am against using deg C, instead we should use Kelvin.
Or, if that isn’t practical enough, we should use the melting point of ABS as a zero, wait until it’s hard. And this temperature difference is one degree CupCake.
vipp
First time I check out the imperial system.
foot: 12 inches
yard: 3 feet
furlong: 220 yards
mile: 8 furlongs
hahahaha
lasern.
yesterday I found a ruler in my workshop that shows fractions of 10th (!) of an inch. even more bizarre.
philip
Is this because we laughed at your 25C3 talk in Berlin when you had to switch units in Inkscape on stage?
Pete
For the company I’m working on setting up, our machinist has insisted that we go with left-handed BA Standard screws, nuts, and bolts.
We’re not listening to our machinist much these days.
Gav
Wikipedia for the win:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metric_system_adoption_map.svg
Come on America, Antarctica has kicked your ass!
Owen
I will try with my makerbot, but with all the wood construction I do, Feet and inches is just so natural. It is just a natural extension of how I think.
But one must always be open to change or else be left behind…
laz
Thousandths of an inch are in common use in machine shops in the USA. It’s ridiculous.
Allan C. Ecker
I encountered “mils” on a regular basis when talking with IC packaging people.
It always drove me crazy.
robert
@ comment #2:
Observation 1: The period of an idealized string pendulum is independent of the mass !
T=2Pi*Sqrt(l/g)
Observation 2: For l=1m –> T ~ 2s
Besides that: “METRIC FTW!”
kosmar
i heard most of americans have 10 fingers usually, too. (also a great advantage of metrics)
Dan
I figure “attoparsec” is quite a convenient unit of length
BlogFour » Metric FTW
[...] by Eric Skiff 2 Comments Eric Skiff says:This is a metric ton of reclipping action!Clipped from blog.makerbot.comI used to be someone who used imperialist machinery parts. I gave those up when I started designing [...]
MatthiasM
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
Using the metric system was a major help in deciding to purchase the CupCake kit. While it is quite possible to get metric nuts and bolts in the US, it is close to impossible to get anything based on fratcion of an inch oer here in Europe (unless pipes or screws to hold a harddrive
Patiently waiting for the arrival of my kit…