Metric Wrenches

[rumrocks]

The longer this circus goes on in Ottawa the more I realize how incompetent the PMO has become, however there probably is some Liberal back benchers just as disgusted by it all but must sit quietly by clinching their teeth racking up huge dental bills.

This Liberal party reminds me of a mismatched set of metric wrenches in a tool box at a classic car restoration shop. This set is made up of proto, grey, challenger, stanley, craftsman, and husky . . . . most are sprung and some worn out, only a couple could be used on SAE, the rest are just taking up space. My point is if your not capable of doing a job and don't fit, your just in the way, it's time to become more efficient and clean the tool box. There' a reason I didn't mention Snap-on.

[seldomseen]

Metric just another stupid move brought to you by a Trudeau in an attempt to move us away from the United States.

Now before i get jumped on by Grass and friends i will just say. How much do you weigh? How tall are you? How big is your farm? What did your canola yield last fall? How big is your sprayer tank? How wide is your drill? How big of tank is your seed drill? How fast do you seed? How fast do you spray? How wide is the door on your shed? How big are the grain bins you just put up? I could go on and on.

Canada was measured in imperial and it made no scene to change to metric and over 40 years later we still mostly imperial. At the time Trudeau wanted to make us more like European and less like American but ask yourself when is the last time you bought something made in Europe?

[Guest]

This is the only tool you can rely on

[blackpowder]

That's a ironic but sad coincidence.
Daddy brought in an answer to a question nobody asked. Metric.
Remember the US was 'considering' it for like 2 seconds at the time. Like the dollar coin the public had a say. No.
Now Sonny boy and his bum buddy butts bring in the same crap only times a million. Carbon everything.
US public said NO.
Butts said,
"No more oil industry by 2050"
Total idiots. TOTAL!

[farmaholic]

In this day and age you better have a set of both. For equipment and vehicles.

But I get the gist of your thread....we are being governed by a bunch of useless TOOLS.

Using the right "quality and qualified" tool for the job hopefully does a better job of getting the job done "right"!

[grassfarmer]

Seldomseen, not only a Canadian thing - the same thing happened in the UK - introduced metric in 1965 but today it's a mix up. Everyone still measures in feet and inches although you'd be hard pressed to buy something in pounds in a store there now. All commodities are sold in tonnes though and livestock weighed in kilos. Dumbest thing is I was schooled only in metric but needed to work in imperial yet my parents were taught both systems pre-metric introduction.

[seldomseen]

I get the point of the thread also with our mess in Ottawa and I agree.

Sorry for going off track but when I see Metric I think how it was something that some Quebec politicians wanted and it was forced on all of us out here where nobody wanted any part of it!

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I give directions in km's on pavement, then switch to miles on gravel. I apply chemicals at litres per acre, but water in gallons per acre. Give medicine to cows in ml per pound, I order metric bolts, as a 10mm by 2" long, since I have no concept of how long that is in metric. Pipefitters make an 8" pipe 800 mm long. With Vernier calipers, I prefer metric, but switch back and forth depending on the accuracy I need. With tools, from too many years of experience, I memorized metric and imperial shuffled together, and use whichever system is closest to the size I need, I no longer consider them two different systems, just sometimes you need a tighter socket, or looser for a damaged head.

My Father In Law finds our tools very frustrating, never encountered inches and fractions thereof before. Tries to Use metric for everything.

I just find imperial to be so much more user friendly, it is just so intuitive to know that there are 5280 feet per mile, or 16 oz per pound, but 32 oz per quart, and 12 inches per foot, then figure out if it is US or imperial, so much easier to remember, and do the math in your head than even round multiples of 10 in metric...

[farmaholic]

But the Metric system is a more sensible form of measurements....multiples of ten up and down.

The Imperial system is just awkward. And the Americans needed their own liquid measures yet. Their US quart is closer to the size of a liter than an Imperial quart.

There I go again, not staying on track.

Edit in, Sorry AF5, I was typing as you posted. Sounds like I plagiarized afew of your words.

[rumrocks]

I find Allen wrenches frustrating, one over tight set screw filled with grease and dirt in a hard to get at place tackled with the wrong ( metric or SAE ) wrench can lead to praising Pierre Eliot Trudeau's existence.

[seldomseen]

I can look at a standard bolt and know what wrench to get 1/2 or 9/16 or 5/8 but crawl under a new vehicle and look at the oil bung and not know if it 13mm or 14mm or 15mm so I better take all three.
Incubating leafcutter bees always in Fahrenheit, Celsius is not sensitive enough.
Carpentry work with a tape measure always feet and inches.

[WiltonRanch]

I find Allen wrenches frustrating, one over tight set screw filled with grease and dirt in a hard to get at place tackled with the wrong ( metric or SAE ) wrench can lead to praising Pierre Eliot Trudeau's existence.

Allen wrenches just suck. No matter metric or standard they just suck. Bloody Swedes that invented those things mustn’t have had their morning snus the day they come up with that brainwave.

[farmaholic]

I can look at a standard bolt and know what wrench to get 1/2 or 9/16 or 5/8 but crawl under a new vehicle and look at the oil bung and not know if it 13mm or 14mm or 15mm so I better take all three.
Incubating leafcutter bees always in Fahrenheit, Celsius is not sensitive enough.
Carpentry work with a tape measure always feet and inches.

I think we're used to SAE because it's what we grew up using most. I think we would learn to recognize the most commonly used metric bolts and nuts too. How often do you use 13/16? Even 5/8 and 11/16 are not super common.

But you do make a good point....there are 16 1/16 increments in an inch and 25 mm in an inch so if the smallest size wrenches in both systems start at approximately the same size, effectively there are about 1.5 times more metric size wrench sizes to visually memorize.

The cabinet maker who did our cupboards was a metric measurer.

Giving travelling directions should have become easier using kms because vehicles use them(not U.S.A.)

Could you imagine if there was a metric conversion for the time of day, months, etc.

I find hectares terribly awkward but application rates of Kg/ha compared to lbs per acre not intimidating at all because it is almost a one to one ratio, 1 lb/1 ac, 2.2 lb/2.47 ac ÷ 2.2 = 1:1.12 the hectare portion of the ratio is 12% bigger than the lb portion.....close enough for comparison/reference sake but maybe not for the precision ag people, LOL.

What have I seen malleefàrmer quote crop yeilds in? Kgs/ha?....yikes!

Long tonnes short tons, anything in Canada sell by the short ton anymore, hay?

Rating fuel mileage is hard to get used to in liters/100 kms versus miles per gallon(Imp or US, crazy)

So ya, I operate on a bit of both, not a hybrid of course, but individual of each other. I guess we really didn't need the Metric system but its here now and I use it too.

No politics in this post, sorry.

[farmaholic]

Allen wrenches just suck. No matter metric or standard they just suck. Bloody Swedes that invented those things mustn’t have had their morning snus the day they come up with that brainwave.

Old bearing locking collar allen screws are the worst, best tool for that job is the flaming hot wrench.

If the Allen head bolts are hard enough its not too bad sometimes, make sure the hole is clean so the wrench fits as deep as possible in the head.


Torx can be just as evil.

[grassfarmer]

Agree both the Allen key and the Torx are awful inventions - I'm sure the Torx was created just so you have to buy a whole other set of tools. I'm not around tools and machinery enough to judge bolt size by eye so I'm more a "grab a handful" of wrenches kind of guy. Quite often the metric size fits the imperial better than the imperial does and visa versa.
The craziest stand out for me in Canada is using kms instead of miles - when your country is laid out in miles and your neighbours use miles why would you introduce kms?
edit: After googling it I'm shocked to see we are not alone in following the km craze. Only the UK, US, Burma and Liberia listed as using the mile.