Measurements

[Subdeacon Joe]

""I don’t know who needs to see this, but 8 inches and 5 little lines is not an actual measurement."

 

 

[Alpo]

Five "little" lines. That would be 9/16, right?

 

Little, big, little, bigger, little, big, little, really big, little, big, little, bigger, little, big, little, gigantic.

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

38" 24" 36" were my favorite measurements.

 

 

And her other leg was exactly the same!

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

I was a tool maker, my Father in law was a carpenter. We were working on my house one time and I called out a measurement of something like 5/16. Jack yelled back that tape don't have 16ths on it, I said yes it does, he said quit reading them.

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428]

We had a QC manager who actually said that once, “3 little lines” in a group of people including other managers, his QC inspectors and guys from the floor. That was actually the last straw, he hadn’t earned much respect from anybody at that point, but that pretty much finished him off. 

[watab kid]

back in 1971i was told by a professor in the architectural department of a major university that within three years the US would be totally converted to metric - that was the logic he used to force us to buy the metric scales and draft in the metric on one of our projects , we already had architectural and engineering scales and were working with both , but hey - he was a forward thinker and to pass the class it was needed , 

i still have them somewhere here - never used them again , those "little lines" never again lined up with what i was working on , 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

8 hours ago, Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 said:

38" 24" 36" were my favorite measurements.

 

 

And her other leg was exactly the same!

Saw one of those at Safeway yesterday.  Best lookin 40 year old woman I've seen in years.

 

The guy she was with was one of the ugliest, poorly groomed, nasty looking pukes I've seen in just as many years.

 

No accounting for people's taste.

 

Hell, my wife chose me (and I could never figure out why), but at least I tried to keep myself presentable.

[Tom Bullweed]

7 hours ago, watab kid said:

back in 1971i was told by a professor in the architectural department of a major university that within three years the US would be totally converted to metric - that was the logic he used to force us to buy the metric scales and draft in the metric on one of our projects , we already had architectural and engineering scales and were working with both , but hey - he was a forward thinker and to pass the class it was needed , 

i still have them somewhere here - never used them again , those "little lines" never again lined up with what i was working on , 

I have hired more than a dozen engineers fresh out of college.  Every one of them soon said "we need to convert to metric."  I listened to their well-thought reasons and asked them to hold their hand about 200 mm apart.  None were close to 8".  They all seem to understand how to hold their hands 8" apart.  They all got why we are not using metrics.

[Pat Riot]

I took over a track crew in North Carolina. All of our measuring equipment and standards were in fractions of an inch. I took over this crew after they had been conducting monthly track and switch measurements for nearly 2 years. Not one of these 5 grown men, who all had track work experience could read fractions. I literally had to buy elementary school math books and teach these guys fractions. 
I discovered that they had pencil whipped all the inspections from the get-go using the numbers from the very first extensive inspection fine by a professional track engineer. 
When I brought it up to upper management I was told “”Don’t worry about it. You caught it in time. It’ll be all right.” 
I asked for that in writing. I never got it. I kept my records until I quit then gave them to the Safety & Security Dept. Nothing happened. 

[Rip Snorter]

There is a deli clerk at the little Supermarket I patronize who had no idea what three quarters of a pound of turkey should be.  The department manager told him "It is the same as .75 pounds."  Now I simply say .75 and everyone is happy.  Don't get me started on the decline of American education!

[watab kid]

since 1971 i cant even give a guess on how many building projects i was involved with , only one - a foundry project involved metric , we had to convert for a machine that was coming from germany , this particular supplier would not even consider doing the conversions - but they sent a rep to work with us - for a month in the design process then another during construction , didnt need them but i felt like they should be somewhat responsible since they were so inflexible  

[Dustin Checotah]

When I worked in maintenance for the Postal Service, I came into the office one day and saw on one of the parts clerks desk a requisition for some bar stock that was 12" long and 23/32 in diameter. It was to go to a local machine shop for purchase. I told them that for that machine they might want to have whoever requested that to re-measure. The machine was a low-cost bundle and parcel sorting machine and was built with off the shelf supplies. All of the shafting on that part of the machine was 3/4 steel. The guy ordering it had no maintenance experience before getting into the shop and didn't know how to read the calipers that he had.

[Subdeacon Joe]

On 9/25/2022 at 6:43 AM, Rip Snorter said:

There is a deli clerk at the little Supermarket I patronize who had no idea what three quarters of a pound of turkey should be.  The department manager told him "It is the same as .75 pounds."  Now I simply say .75 and everyone is happy.  Don't get me started on the decline of American education!

 

 

I'll go to a butcher's counter and ask for two thirds of a dozen strips of bacon.  Never have to explain it, but I can see the gears grinding as I get The Look.

[Sedalia Dave]

 

On 9/24/2022 at 9:19 PM, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

I was a tool maker, my Father in law was a carpenter. We were working on my house one time and I called out a measurement of something like 5/16. Jack yelled back that tape don't have 16ths on it, I said yes it does, he said quit reading them.

 

Should have said it was 2 1/2 eights. 
 

 

[Eyesa Horg]

1 hour ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

 

Should have said it was 4 1/2 eights. 

Jeez, 5/16ths would be 2 1/2 eighths! 

[Sedalia Dave]

43 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Jeez, 5/16ths would be 2 1/2 eighths! 

OOPS 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

1 hour ago, Sedalia Dave said:

 

 

Should have said it was 4 1/2 eights. 

 

40 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Jeez, 5/16ths would be 2 1/2 eighths! 

 

 ......... ya knoe, metrics ain't really all that hard ......... I mean, you knoe, we learned to count with ten fingers, ....... 

 .... well, I did any way ..... 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

 

otto appears to have taken up double-tapping also, ..... too, ........................ and as well.   

[Sedalia Dave]

Well today it appears I failed converting fractions. 
 

 Don’t tell my boss. 

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

I haven't had to convert measurement fractions since we went metric ..........

 

 

   .....OMG ... I've lost a skill through non-use ..........  

[Eyesa Horg]

29 minutes ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

 

 

 ......... ya knoe, metrics ain't really all that hard ......... I mean, you knoe, we learned to count with ten fingers, ....... 

 .... well, I did any way ..... 

True, but those lines are way to small on a ruler for my eyes.

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

4 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

True, but those lines are way to small on a ruler for my eyes.

 

 ............. ya knoe, them millllllimetrics are not as smalll as a 1/32th of an inch, ......... they's only a 1/24.5th of an inch .....   so, they's a bit bigger  

 

 

 ..... a little bit   

[The Shoer 27979]

On 9/24/2022 at 7:19 PM, Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485 said:

I was a tool maker, my Father in law was a carpenter. We were working on my house one time and I called out a measurement of something like 5/16. Jack yelled back that tape don't have 16ths on it, I said yes it does, he said quit reading them.

I work with a carpenter one time who would call out all is fractions in 16s

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

2 minutes ago, The Shoer 27979 said:

I work with a carpenter one time who would call out all is fractions in 16s

 

 ...... to me that just multiplys the arithmetic needed in getting to the actual measurement needed ......... and metric only has ten segments per section (centimetre)

[Subdeacon Joe]

18 minutes ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

 

 ...... to me that just multiplys the arithmetic needed in getting to the actual measurement needed ......... and metric only has ten segments per section (centimetre)

 

Using only compass and straightedge divide something into tenths.

 

 

Using only compass and straightedge divide something into 64ths.

[Eyesa Horg]

5/16 and a hair! Color dependent on size of the hair.

[Dusty Devil Dale]

If you ask ten experienced shop people to use a micrometer or caliper to measure something, it is rare for all of them to come up with exactly the same number.

 

I recall in a high school shop class, the teacher had us all measure 5 ball bearings.  Most of us tried to get it as close as possible, and we got the same number for all 5.  We actually had good agreement  on the measurement across the whole class. 

The teacher then began dropping them through a hole in a steel block.  One of them failed to fit.   

His message:  "Thousandths are enough to  stop your machine."  He advocated  development and use of go-no-go gauges or other positive proofs to check finished product size.   Don't rely entirely on the setting of a machine or the reading of a scale."

 

Sage Advice !

 

[Dantankerous]

I am terrible with math. And yet I have to use math at my job. I will be glad when I'm dead and I can stop thinking about math.

[Dantankerous]

On 9/24/2022 at 11:07 PM, watab kid said:

back in 1971i was told by a professor in the architectural department of a major university that within three years the US would be totally converted to metric - ...

 And some of those same "smart" people in the 1970s said that the next ice age was going to end the world within 10 years. Oops..

[Cactus Jack Calder]

4 hours ago, Eyesa Horg said:

5/16 and a hair! Color dependent on size of the hair.

Scosh it’s 5/16 and a Scosh.

That’s how I learned it from my Union Carpenter Grandfather. 

 

CJ

 

[Pat Riot]

My Dad, a general contractor that considered himself a very good carpenter would say things like “Cut me a 2x4 to 58 and a fat three quarters.” Then would have a fit if the guy working for him cut it wrong. 
One day I picked up his favorite tape measure that NO ONE was allowed to touch and I realized his tape measure was only incremented down to eighths of an inch. So, when he would tell a new guy to cut him a board with the instruction of “fat” or “skinny” 3/8ths, for instance, I would walk over and whisper “Fat is add a sixteenth. Skinny is reduce a sixteenth.”

My Dad was convinced that his “code” for measurements must be “catching on” because everyone seemed to know what he meant. 
I never told him that I figured it out and would tell all the new guys working for him. I also figured out that his eyesight was a lot worse than he let on and I really didn’t think He could see the little 1/16” hash marks. 

[Texas Joker]

Sometimes it depends on which side of the measure the saw kerf is

[John Kloehr]

15 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Using only compass and straightedge divide something into tenths.

 

 

Using only compass and straightedge divide something into 64ths.

Easy. Any arbitrary number of equal increments. As long as what I am dividing is a straight line, not something difficult like trisecting an angle.

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

“Cut me a 2x4 to 58 and a fat three quarters.”

I wonder if it's a regional thing. Around here I  would hear,“Cut me a 2x4 to 58 and  three quarters.” then either "cut the line" or "leave the line".

[Crooked River Pete, SASS 43485]

16 hours ago, Eyesa Horg said:

5/16 and a hair! Color dependent on size of the hair.

Ah, yes the infamous little red cu...cu...curly hair.