so how do you feel about the metric system
oh i like it i i i have a foreign actually i have more than one foreign automobile and i i i find the uh i find the the nondecimal system with all the halves and quarters i was trying to build a shed
and they give you these measurements like forty two and three eighths inches
and we had to go a little less and trying to figure what's less than three eighths uh
yeah and it's i forget how many millimeters so you used the metric
well no what we did was wind up using and you just go you just go down and and you get out the the so many inches and and we just marked a little bit less than that
uh which is somewhat awkward but had it been millimeters you could have done i think what's interesting the way engineering people do is they they in essence have gotten around it by by listing uh decimal inches
uh yeah yeah
do you are you involved in any engineering drawing stuff that
uh yeah yeah uh i work in metal fab
and tenths of inches are are normal and
you know metric you know it is broken up in you know the inch is broken up and has been for quite some time for in tenths hundredths thousandths ten thousandths of an inch
well have have you do you are you involved in any other uh metric type things like
yes i am i i have a Suzuki motorcycle
and
and i've had motorcycles Japanese motorcycles for years and years and the metric system comes easy to me
i think it's interesting you went you know when you you go out there and you're looking for a wrench and you want the next size larger i've got i inherited some some stuff like fifteen thirty seconds
but my
right
well now that one's fairly easy because that's probably slightly under half an inch but some of them like like twenty seven and and there are some thirty seconds and some of the things that that uh don't translate
yeah yeah transfer yeah to go from from eighths to sixteenths to uh thirty seconds and remember where it falls it
yeah and and you've got to go over there and try it and i suppose you know i need a larger one i need a smaller one i mean obviously you can look at it and say well
anyway i think the other thing that's interesting is that a lot of our stuff is already changed that we haven't i don't know do you do you drink adult beverages
yeah i drink beer
well that have you noticed that um that a lot of the um a lot of
yeah whiskey is in liters
yes
and and the next yeah point seven five liters and then liters and then one point seven five liters yeah
it's like a fifth like fifths of whiskey i thought was always kind of strange
yeah
what's a fifth of whiskey
yeah i i always wondered about that myself
it was a marketing ploy
and and they had quarts at the same time though
yeah but the idea was is that by with five fifths um they could uh they could uh they could sell five and and
um it was simply a ploy to to get people you know
yeah
to buy to buy more for it's uh i find that interesting but it's like you know the the the the soda and this kind of things coming in
it's
liters
one one liter bottles and um i i think it's kind of generational although i must admit that that i am not
i can i'm not conversant in saying you know that's three centimeters away i mean or or or
yeah it it's
like i say i work in a machine shop and uh
everything's still inches
yeah and
everything's still fractions of inches or parts or tenths or thousandths or or
yeah it's it's hard to think though
yes it is a mental thing it is a conversion thing
it's like a mill you know we we do uh um well we use a one mill bond wire or one point five mill conductive bond wire on on semiconductor devices
right
and well what's a mill and
yeah yeah
but what really annoys me is the way we in the United States have been converting to metric
we have a eighty nine Chevy Blazer and before that we had a Horizon uh you know Plymouth Horizon
yeah
and
both of
them were a mismatch of both
American and metric
don't you find that interesting uh that they that that they're doing that uh in any field for how why why why pieces could you could you get any connection on which was metric and which wasn't
uh okay the engine itself was mostly metric
because it came from Canada
oh okay
and the starter was
Bosch American so
the bolts were were English were were English then
yeah yeah
it was it was annoying one one half of the starter was you know three bolts on the starter and two of them were
American and one of them was metric
now that's strange
and uh
you go from the uh water pump up to the
radiator and on the
water pump
it was all metric and
and on
you know the factory fittings you know the factory uh
yeah uh-huh
screw lock uh
yeah
uh radiator hose clamps
essentially they do that though because if if you look at General Motors the size and and and of course Ford and Chrysler if they all went if they all went metric but in a sense um
you know it's like when you a measurement though when when you put uh you know one point four three two inches when when you're milling something
yeah
uh you simply set your uh equipment or or you measure or you got your calipers there and and you measure you know you it to see if it's accurate and
right it's it's not a problem either way like i said my only complaint is where they mixed them on the same car
and
no
yeah
and you go to look at it and you don't know which set to reach in American or metric
yeah
and
and you're never quite sure well is that a metric bolt
you get you a pair of metric pliers right and you beat on it and a metric hammer
right right
it it can be annoying and my other concern concern is
is the American government going to force us to go
oh i think i don't think so i i think that that uh i think they've now just taken the attitude that well if it happens if it because it there a lot of things that that uh um like sports you know it's a hundred meter
oh absolutely
and uh uh but automobile races if it i don't think they'd ever it's still going to be the Indianapolis Five Hundred they're not going to
yeah yeah they're not going to change that to meters it will always be
yeah and and it i i don't think it i don't you know i don't think i don't think it's particularly bothersome because in reality uh you it's like troy ounces in ounces of gold how many ounces of gold
you know i was trying i was trying to figure up gold content on something it had has uh gold plated uh header
twelve
and and they're trying to think of what's a Troy ounce
yeah there's twelve troy ounces to the pound
yeah now that makes you know
yeah and
and is that going to change too
well i mean and and then there's a metric ton and then there's a ton but what's a metric ton
uh see i don't remember i i read it
i don't know
and are we still going to maintain drams for perfume
yeah and and then but then the medicine and and some of these other things and and the chemistry in those kinds of areas milliliter
it's all metric all ready
yeah and and so um but but when you go to order a drink um you know well you say they they i don't know it's uh
and what will a shot be will a shot be an ounce
i don't know and and but you know when you go to the store and and you're trying to figure you know well this box is is uh is is twelve ounces and and this one's uh uh three pounds um and you
and the other one's
yeah
two point one keys and and you're you're lost
that's right
and and
i don't know i i think that i i think i think the Federal government is going to more or less leave it alone i think they've got i think there are more pressing problems
oh yeah the economy uh what i was thinking about is an economical issue concerning it uh
yes
a machinist has a huge number of dollars invested in tooling
personal tools to be able to do his job
yeah but but are are the tools that uh if you're cutting are you talking about cutting equipment or tools for that for set up
uh tools for set up and for measurement
uh you got to have
a one
tenth indicator it's a hundred dollars
uh five tenths indicator uh usually two one tenth indicators at a hundred dollars each uh five tenths indicator
huh
at about a hundred dollars you got to have uh six inch
set of calipers at anywhere from sixty to a hundred twenty dollars you got to have a zero to one for sixty dollars uh
one to two inch micrometer for sixty dollars a two to three for eighty dollars a three to four for eighty dollars
so you've got thousands of dollars or so i mean you get a thousand dollars worth of tools
real fast
yes
real real fast edge finders and
but i was thinking about though that that when you actually get to the milling equipment though when it starts turning
well i know because okay
your end mills will be measured in inches or fractions of inches
yeah
you know
but when you when you when you simply drilling a hole i mean a real simple thing like gee i need a hole there
what size hole
yeah
yeah
as in metric size hole or a or an American sized hole
yeah and and what but the thing is then you've got to with screws and that's the other issue uh the pitch and
yeah yeah well and thread
