Just my opinion! I am very well familiar with both measuring systems. I prefer Metric for anything I do for modelling.
I use both but metric is easier to work with.
all the world is metric except for the U.S.A. Kits from Europe and China are in metric.
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Definitely Metric. Easier and intuitive. Even if I am working form Imperial plans I convert. The USA made a half-hearted attempt to "go metric" in the 1970's, but as a friend of mine who was a senate intern at the time said, a bunch of letters along the lines of "Senator, are you aware the metric system is the system of measurement used in Communist Russia?" stopped that dead in it's tracks.
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I am from America but I prefer metric much more precise just easier to deal with when working on Model ships or any models
Metric is by far the most accurate, and the best way to go. However keep your conversion tables handy as being a good close neighbour to the US I find I am always converting from one to another. Also the system has forced me to have two sets of tools on hand for working on anything manufactured in the US.
I also have a Sherline Lathe and Mill and both are Metric. The reason is that most stuff (like kits) use the metric system. LIke for instance, the Mast on plans call for a 6mm or 8mm diameter and so forth.
I was not too familiar with the Metric, but I soon figured out that with Metric you are dealing with whole numbers (2mm 125mm, etc)
The nice thing about Sherline is that you can order an inch conversion kit - which all that amounts to is a LEAD Screw and X-Y knobs for the lathe. Same with the Mill.
If you do not have one, I highly suggest Sherlines DRO to go with it. I also suggest buying the "package" as you will need that stuff anyways.
I was not too familiar with the Metric, but I soon figured out that with Metric you are dealing with whole numbers (2mm 125mm, etc)
The nice thing about Sherline is that you can order an inch conversion kit - which all that amounts to is a LEAD Screw and X-Y knobs for the lathe. Same with the Mill.
If you do not have one, I highly suggest Sherlines DRO to go with it. I also suggest buying the "package" as you will need that stuff anyways.
Thank you all for your valuable info , I've decided to go with metric, I will probably buy things as I need them, I will definitely be getting the vice and collet set to start with, and mills , thanks again
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In teaching metric, the US education system unwisely decided to teach conversion formulas to students to introduce metrics. Instead, they should have based the lessons on a visual, not mathematical, emphasis. "This is how long a centimeter is, this is a decameter, this is a liter...remember it." As it is now, no one remembers the formulas to convert from inches to meters, something they could have looked up online or in a book anyway. Plus, they made no real attempt to get industries to follow suit and use the metric system as a priority. Seems we're always late to the party in practicality.
I use both as needed but at the risk of being argumentative, why is metric more accurate?
I myself find metric a lot easier to work with, but l do use both imperial and metric In scratch building. Finding a center point in metric is half of your o.a.l measurement. Now fractions I’m not bad with…… BUT
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One is no more accurate than the other. However, the metric system is easier to use with everything divisible by ten. Whereas the imperial system is a hodgepodge of bases. Inches are divided into halves, quarters, eights, sixteenths, etc. and a foot is divided by twelves, with yards divided by threes, etc. The metric system is just so much simpler. The same goes for weights and volumes in the metric system based on water.
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It all depends on what you were brought up with, I was raised and worked in England as an engineer when the imperial system was the norm. I think in inches and it all comes easily to me. I also work in metric when it is appropriate. I know where I am with thousandths of an inch but stall a bit with micro millimeters.
Doug Hey New Zealand
Doug Hey New Zealand
I bet my micrometer is as accurate as your measuring tool. Metric is no more accurate than imperial.
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Both systems are equally accurate, they just work in different increments. Metric is slowly erasing the Imperial system as most countries have adopted it and younger people have lost touch with the old system. Here in NZ it is increasingly difficult to find a simple tape rule marked with both systems. Thank God the USA still runs the imperial system or it would have died out by now.
Doug Hey NZ
Doug Hey NZ
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I remember way back when the U.S. was discussing the prospect of slowly converting over to the metric system. I think in the 80's That I believe will never happen!! can you imagine what that would take to do!!!
I think the US will very slowly change over to metric, since so many imported products are metric based here these days, notably Japanese automobiles. Imperial has a foothold in that so much of our machining tooling is old and still in use. What I struggle with is hundred weight and stone.
As an Australian in his seventies I grew up with and was schooled in imperial and of course had no problems with it. Then in my twenties Australia switched and I have now become very comfortable with metric. As I worked in fabrication and engineering length based measurements where learnt rapidly the rest very slowly, I still automatically convert millimeters to inches and vice versa .
I am very happy with metric.
I am very happy with metric.