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In this video I explain how measurements used in American woodworking and construction work.
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Understanding the odd U.S. measurement system: A guide for the metric world.
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Get a tape measure with both imperial and metric, and if the plan is in imperial, use the imperial side, if it’s metric use the metric side. You don’t ever need to convert one to the other.
This is absolutely the best approach.
Hey, Google. Convert 10 centimeters to inches.
@Steve Ramsey – Woodworking for Mere Mortals I switched back to just Imperial. It is difficult to use the combination ones for squaring up a structure accurately. In Canada we still use Imperial for construction.
They’re harder to find than you’d expect though. I have two currently, one was the only dual system I could find at a big box hardware store among a shelf that for some reason had 6 or 7 different inch-only variants with different fractions or multiples specially highlighted, and the other is a cheat import I got at a furniture store that I only assume was designed that way not to provide additional value for the user but purely so they could get away with selling the same design in other countries without having to deal with printing two different tapes.
At the same time I’ve seen people advise against this because you risk using the wrong side of the tape measure and end up making a wrong cut.
I’m Canadian and I recently bought a good metric tape line and have used it on the last couple projects. I believe if a person works by themselves, and is willing to learn, metric is easier than the fractions involved in imperial. But it’s just not something most Americans are interested in trying or changing, and that’s fine.
Is it really easier though? If it is I would definitely be willing to learn as I generally work by myself.
@Skylab23 I found it was but you find not. I made 2 fire pits out of a sheet of steel that was just UNDER 4 feet by just UNDER 8 feet. I was trying to make them as large as possible without running out of material. I got so tired of figuring and re figuring With fractions, I tried metric and found using mm was easer. It could have been a sheet of plywood instead of steel.
In my case it was 117 cm and 3 mm (1,173mm) wide and i wanted 3 pieces with as few cuts as possible. So, 1,173mm/3=391mm. So I knew I could get 3 pieces 391mm wide, and I measured in 391mm from each edge, two cuts and 3 equal pieces.
Some people won’t find this easer, but for me in my head and my fraction and math skills, it’s easer.
@Skylab23 so much easier. Everything you add, subtract, or multiply is broken into 10’s, no matter how small you go, there’s no funny mnemonics to be remembered in order to figure out what the next smallest or biggest measurement is, and every measure relates to the next. Its also capable of being far more accurate.
10.1mm for example doesn’t have an exact fractional imperial measure. Closest you’ll get is 2/5″ (.69% off).
So 10.1mm plus 15.7mm is 25.8mm
Imperial gets 2/5″ + 5/8″ is 1 1/40. Which is 26.035mm. Bummer.
Granted, making your own stuff you just stick to the 4 or so fractions Steve mentions…..but it still does limit you , especially when precision is involved.
@Lyall Peder @Ben Yarlett I can’t imagine it will take that long to learn so I might as well give it a try. Even if I don’t end up using it a lot at least I’ll understand someone who does use it. Thanks for explaining that for me and using examples so it made sense.
@Stu Bonner I think he’s talking about purchasing building material like lumber. You can find lumber in metric units, but the majority is sold in imperial like 2x4s or 1/2″ plywood at big box stores. I’m Canadian and for woodworking, I use imperial (unfortunately) as it’s easier to work with, than having to convert everything to metric.
“the most important thing to know is that a 2×4 is actually an inch and a half by- aw, shi-”
This. This is exactly my struggle. I get both metric and imperial and they each have a place, but that’s the kind of thing that is so difficult and confusing to me… But I’m learning, thanks to your videos!
@DehnusNorder Except then the “football field” would actually be 95 yards instead of 100 yards.
@Jean-François Kamath When you’re measuring in football fields? I don’t think accuracy is your main goal ;).
Also 5/8 + 5/8 is called 5/4, not 1-1/4 🙂
And he forgot the best part: board feet!
It used to be the rough lumber size before planing. So if you bought a rough 2×4 you’d get a 2×4, but if you want it smooth you still have to pay for the wood that is lost. It might be that in America they measure the green wood before drying. That would explain why it takes half an inch to go from that to a dry and planed 2×4. Either that or the sawmills just see what they can get away with.
In Europe we usually measure after drying, if the wood is dried, and planing usually takes 5mm off. Except for pine, where we use the American sizes. Maybe the US will go to metric once the lumber industry changes that internationally.
@Stephen Cavilia That’s a totally different world. I once worked in lumber wholesale and I know the struggle. LoL
It’s also useful to remember that to cut a fraction in half keep the top the same and double the bottom. Half of 5/8 is 5/16 half of 11/16 is 11/32.
Oh my god how did I not know this before now
Honestly I would switch over to Metric in a heart beat if the tools were available here. Its hard to fine anything in the states that has Metric, and what you do find is imported and marked up crazy high. Imperial is so dumb.
Plans (say for a house) here are typically in millimeters – only, as that’s generally precise enough for a building.
No decimals, no risk of smudging adding or removing what is/gets interpreted as a decimal point/comma, or should have been….
Of course a 2×4 or 2×6 is still in casual talk, while they’re actually 45×95 and 45×145 mm respectively… (25 mm per inch, minus 5 mm for planing)
That’s funny. Here in Metric-land (Norway) a 2×4″ is actually 48×98 mm, 2×6″ is 48×148 mm etc. Maybe even more interesting: we also call it a two-by-four (we say two-four, two-two, etc) even though we’re through-and-through metric…
The power of fractions is (paradoxically) that an uneducated laborer could do calculations in their head more accurately. The “splitting in halves” makes it easier to visualize.
I switched to completely metric at home a few years ago and it drastically cut down on mistakes and increased precision. I also noticed that many machine shops are using metric now, and datasheets are metric with optional imperial instead of the other way around. The time is coming…
One of my very favorite tools is a little ruler that is marked in decimal inch (1.1, 1.2 etc.) marks at .050 increments. I also have a fraction/decimal chart at my desk that I refer to about eight times a day.
This was a fantastic video! Thank you for closing the gap for woodworkers all over the world!
Steve, great video! Thanks! I started my work career as a machinist. Unknown to me, this would pay dividends later in life. Memorizing key fraction to decimal equivalents was SO helpful in converting to metric:
* 1/16” = .062” = 1.6mm
* 1/2” =.500” = 12.7mm
* .039” = 1mm
* 1” = 25.4mm
I did the opposite. Many years ago I made a math error adding fractions in my head (always a bad idea due to limited brain capacity) and cut to 15 & 9/32 instead of 16 & 13/32 on a critical piece. That was it! My next trip to China I purchased a whole set of metric educated sticks, tapes and never looked back. Joy has has ensued. Just a few weeks ago I needed to measure a distance that exceeded the metric educated measuring devices. I was shocked. ALL my American educated devices had disappeared from assigned spaces, including the many from my father. Panic! Over many years I had moved the American stuff further and further into the dark recesses of the shop and forgotten. 20 minutes later I found the newer 100 foot tape measure, forlorn and dusty in a box with the other unused rulers, measures and stuff. Not sure where my father’s 150 footer is. That is disturbing. I keep watching over my shoulder for it dangling from the rafters, ready to throttle me.
Thanks Steve! I have used google a lot through the last years but in this subject. I have never managed to understand the system. This video really helped me sort things out. Here in Sweden I have not learned about feet and inch in school (maybe I have but since we dont use it I have forgot it) Its really confusing sometimes when I see ” and/or ‘ on an drawing. Maybe I now remember which is feet and which is inches…
Though I appreciate the very few videos that sometimes use metric when explaining, most everything I’ve learned about woodworking I’ve learned from Channels like yours so it’s not a problem. Great video btw 👌
Ease of use is relative from person to another. What I might consider easier might be considered difficult for another. Myself I can’t imagine lengths of things in inches. Its just how we grew up.
Nah, it’s possible to find out what’s objectively easier. Doesn’t matter what some people might find easier in their life, the same way it’s easy to see that solving a triple integral is harder than 2+2, you can determine what’s the easiest measuring system.
Thanks, Steve, for always be engaging, inspiring and clear.
Funnily enough, I was born, raised and educated in a metric system country and yet, since I moved to Canada (supposedly using metric system) and started wood working, I use mostly (99% of the time) the imperial system. The reason being that most of the plans and videos are in imperial… but also because I find it quite simpler when it comes to divided by 2… 3/8 divided by 2 is 3/8×2… 3/16!
Anyways, I believe that you just choose the system you are the most comfortable with…
I’ve been in USA my whole life, and I’m the first to admit woodworking in metric is so much easier. I’ll find myself often using metric when doing fine measurements, as it just makes sense. For tools like wrenches, it’s so much easier having wrench sizes like 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, than 5/16, 11/32, 3/8, 13/32, 7/16. If you gave me all the Imperial fractions between 0 and 1 to a 16th of an inch, it’d probably take me a minute to even put them in order. Metric, it’s as easy as counting to 10… Imperial is just one of those things I live with,
Where it gets really confusing for me is calculating volume… how much volume would there be for example in a 4’3″ x 14 7/8″ x 1’1″1/4 tank?
I will say this for imperial measurements: it’s pretty nice always being able to always halve a measurement, what with the fraction bases being base 2. Can’t always do that when you use base 10! (Metric’s still probably better). Also, is that a 2×4 or a 4×2? lol
I work with both imperial and metric, depending on the project. The thing I find most useful about imperial is the ease of dividing a foot in to quarters or thirds without dropping in to decimals.
I love that you explain this, including what is taught in the US! Coming to the US 4 years ago and needed to find out a lot by myself and woodworking was really confusing because in my personal life everything stayed in centimeters 😅