Carrying metric and inch wrenches

I often have wondered how it is in other parts of the world, do you cuss when you run on to US built machines and have to break out those crazy inch wrenches and sockets? As an old man I have grudgingly bought my metric wrenches and sockets and taps and dies, and I can measure in metric, I just am curious how others feel about our system of measurement. Is it a hassle to buy inch size bolts and nuts?
How do you Brits do, do you also carry Whitworth tools, or is that really a non issue? Carrying three sets of tools would be expensive!
Lets hear what you have to say from around the globe!

I absolutely despise metric! They have too many different threads.

It doesn't bother me that much. In school they swore we'd be on the metric system in the US by the time I graduated HS (1996). Well we aren't lol. I've always been good at math and numbers so converting is easy. Knowing what metric wrench will work on US and vice versa is easy out of knowledge and habit.

I've just recently gotten better at identifying metric hardware like I can US. We can all pick up a 3/8" coarse bolt and know it by sight. 9/16" wrench etc. Metric pitch being different in how it's measured makes it a little challenging to measure if you don't have a thread pitch gauge but once you understand how it's not bad.

I've even played with Whitworth stuff on Jags and some other British iron.

I actually still use mostly standard, most of my equipment is older and is SAE. The motor stuff is mostly metric on the newer stuff I have, but I use probably 80% standard, 20% metric. I only have big wrenches in standard, not metric, and just pick the size closest, or break out the big crescent wrench.

The US was supposed to be metric back in 1867 but it still hasn’t happened yet, I wonder if we ever really will.

The auto and truck world will eventually be metric. The hold back is the old block castings that were SAE. As for industrial equipment. I was in a brick plant a few years ago. Their machinery was built in the 1930's and still in use. The unused line shafts were still in the ceiling.

Well I've got a set of Whitworth sockets that I've never used, and neither did the man who gave them to me. I'm in my mid-50's and when I started out, Ford tractors were all AF, International were a mixture of AF and metric, apart from the crawlers which were all AF, Perkins were a mixture until very recently, so having grown up with both systems it's never been an issue. I have a couple of BSP spammers for some oddball hydraulic fittings I run across on occasion, but from 1" upwards I just carry metric, we can get them in 1mm increments and on mostbigger sizes they fit AF as well as the proper AF sizes. Failing that there's my big pipe wrench.

Someone hit it on the head about how many metric threads there are, but when you look at BSPP, BSPT, NPFT, etc, it was never simple even before metric came along.

Junkyard said:

It doesn't bother me that much. In school they swore we'd be on the metric system in the US by the time I graduated HS (1996). Well we aren't lol.

Click to expand...

Well when I was a Senior in High School in 1968 all the science formulas we worked with only used metrics. We were told that was what we would be using soon.

repowerguy said:

The US was supposed to be metric back in 1867 but it still hasn’t happened yet, I wonder if we ever really will.

Click to expand...

And Ben Franklin had suggested using a measurement system based on the decimal system like he had set up or money. While not exactly metric but still using the same idea of each unit of measurement being a factor of ten when related to the next one.

And here in New York State they at one point started marking some of the distance and speed limit signs on Interstate Highways in Metric for a couple years.

I'm just waiting for the Religious Right to start demanding we go back to measure things in Cubits! If it was good enough for Noah it should be good enough for us!

That might be fun as there are at least half a dozen different versions of a cubit. Best source I could find shows these as the various conversions to inches:

Hebrew (short) 17.5 inches
Hebrew (long) 20.4 inches
Egyptian 17.6 inches
Egyptian (long) 20.6 inches
Common (short) 18 inches
Babylonian (long) 19.8 inches

Just be sure to check which version you are using if building a bridge!

Back when I was in college, back in the mid 80's, every AG course had that silly damn requirement to convert ml's to ounces, or vice versa. after the 3rd class of the week, of doing the same math, for all 3 classes, a 4th TA asked me to convert a pint to ml's. Right offa the bat, I I said 473 mls, not doing any math, at all. TA asked me to get up in fronta the lab, and explain how I came to this figure. I walked up to the front of the room, pulled an empty Bud tall boy outta my backpack, and said" It says so, right here!"

They stopped askin me questions, after that...

We have a mixture of gear from all over the globe and find that carrying extra tools isn’t much of an issue.
Our biggest problem is the range of threads, both metric and imperial.
As we are 70 miles from the nearest town, we try to keep a bit of a stock of bolts and things, but Murphy’s law clearly states that the more desperate you are for a particular bolt, the less likely you are to have it.
Consequently, we order a lot of stuff over the phone so a thread pitch gauge is essential.

i would rather say 1 foot than 304 mm f the metric system

The tool side wasn't too bad once we got up to speed on the Japanese equipment. What got pretty rough was all the different hydraulic hose connections and new sealing types. JIC to ORFC to JIS to BSPP to NSP to BSP to type 61 flange to type 62 flange single wire, two wire standard, super two wire, four wire, six wire, plastic pilot tubing and on and on and on. Finally just said to heck with trying to carry stock. If you break down I'll just have to go get the right item and you will have to wait until I get back.

I do carry a metric tape measure but have only used it for measuring undercarriage.

I dont think its as big of a deal in other countrys as it is hear because they dont inport so much stuff like we have.I bought a set of mm wrenches and 3/8 drive sockets when i started out in the 80s and thought that will be all that stuff i will ever need.

Canada has been metric since the 70's
I work in both metric and SAE
Somethings are funny how we do it.
Temperature, for the outside temp, metric. Zero is cold, 20 is nice, 30 is hot, 40 is F'ing hot!
Engine thermostats are in F, fluid temp gauges can be both but F seems to be the most popular.
I still work in 0.001" for close measurement and fine tolerances, I don't even have any fine measuring tools in metric other than a Vernier or 2.
Measuring out a piece of steel or wood will be in Feet and inches
Road distances are Metric Kilometers, but I still find that I will do the conversion in my head to miles
Weight, work in both, but once it gets too heavy I tend to want pounds and not Kg because I have to convert it in my head once it is over a few thousand kg.
At the store, I convert the weight from Metric to standard, real rough measurement. A 1/2 Kg of ground beef is roughly a pound.
The deli at the store is the killer, prices are in $/100 gm. So you look at the price and say I'll take 100 gm and you get 3 pieces.
Fluid is mostly metric since most of the container sizes we buy are all metric. As a bonus, only paying $1.25 for a liter of gas sounds way better then $5 a gallon

At work I have a complete set of SAE and a set or Metric wrenches and sockets, also own a complete 3/4" drive in metric and I have a few special sockets in 1" drive impact. Have taps and dies in both. Several sets of thread pitch gauges and such for trying to figure out what is what

The metric 3/4 drive hardly ever gets used.

Big wrenches are all SAE, plus some big adjustable's and pipe wrenches.

But I will tell you what I really hate. Manufacture's that use both. The engine is Metric, the frame is SAE, the inside of the cab is what ever was cheapest so could be just about anything. That is one thing that I like about Japanese or European machinery, every thing is the same, all metric.

I'm 60, grew up in standard and had to learn metric as it came into play. Hence wanting to still convert.

Work in metric every day, have for years, no big deal.

Working on my equipment, mix & match, tyipcal pita.

Until it gets to my New Holland 2120 tractor, built in Japan. EVERYTHING is metric, even the hose clamps. It's so nice to grab 1 set of wrenches and work........

Ed

Try owning Volkswagens. The use Phillips, triple square, hex and you name it. Nothing is consistent. Terrible vehicles to work on and I own two. Also do all my own work. German engineering, yea right!

I grew up with tractors built by shipping engines and transmissions to Germany and shipping complete tractors back. I got used to having a metric wrench in one hand and SAE in the other a long time ago.

Triple squares will getcha every time.. Cant work on a Deutz w/o a set..

I had to google triple square. is it different than a 12pt? looks similar.

Don't forget about measuring in chains and rods. few old timers around here still talk using those.

Like other have said alot of small stuff and stuff in cabs can be anything so do the spline drive 1/4 drive sockets work good ? Orielys had them on sell and i just about got a set because some stuff smaller than 3/8 or 10mm notheing fitts real good.