I hate the combined metric/inch rules. Amazon has 50 variations in mitutoyo rules alone, and I didn't see one that didn't have inches. It's annoying when the units you want are on the wrong side of the rule. I'd far rather spend twice as much and get two rules that aren't a compromise out of the box. Lots of companies are going full metric, it would be nice to have proper measuring devices.
The option I gave is for us of the $ ( shallow pockets/small dolla ), with no compromise in function as best as I can cipher.
I love premium tools too, and have some. But not always.
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I hate combos when the preferred scale is the "left handed" one. That's why i dig the Japanese combos I have. Inches is on the bitch side (as opposed to the 'Merican combos with Inches on the dominant side). It makes a diff. If i ever buy any more rules, I'll get double metric--whoohoo (from Japan).
I just noticed that Lee Valley just started carrying Starrett's all-metric rule. Yeah, they are expensive, but Keller's law of tool pricing states authoritatively that you are still living with the quality of the tool long after you (or potentially more importantly, your spouse) forget(s) how much it cost.
This is the exact reason I got the starrett 1000mm. 4 sides of goodness, I use it everyday and love it. I couldn't find a full metric mit rule from my local industrial tool supply shop, and even in their catalog the 1000mm (and i think 800mm if i recall?) all metric mits were listed as "special order." As much as I have used it over the years, I would imagine "cost per use" is in the $0.05 or less range. pretty cheap when you think about it.
dan polito
I got the cabinetmakers rule linked above (from Lee Valley). Really love the half mm markings.
ryan | islandix instruments | blog
I like quality tools as much as the next guy, but as I see it, my rule is still only as accurate as my ability to mark a line on a tube next to the mark on rule which I am holding against the tube with my steady hand. That of course followed by my surgical hack saw blade and laser precision bastard file. I got my 610mm stainless steel cork backed rule from McMaster Carr for about $10. The markings are nice and clean as compared to some of the fat markings you might find on a cheaper rule at the local office supply store. It is by far not the most expensive rule out there, but not the cheapest either and it serves me well.
I'm not knocking anyone who spends their hard earned coin on an expensive tool. I have plenty of expensive tools that I typically justify by not having someone to do the job for me... like the $300 chain saw I bought and used one summer to cut down a handful of junk trees. To hire someone would have cost more, but now I have a chainsaw! I also could have purchased a cheaper chain saw, but following "Bob's Law" (my dad), "it might come in handy some day", I bought a really nice chain saw.
Let's face it, much (not all... ie. affordable transportation bikes) of the bicycle industry we deal with is built around want not need. If we knock desire, we knock ourselves... How many speeds do we really need?
eleven two.jpgeleven.jpg
It isn't about how many we need, it is about how many we want... and there is nothing wrong with that.
the rules with inches on one surface and metric on the other are a big improvement over the ones with both units on the same side. Putting both units on the same side belies a lack of understanding on how rules are actually made and used, and are an abomination that belong at the recycling center. How long until this plague passes? The lee Valley rules are cheap enough that I could buy two different versions without pain, but for some reason mixed units is now the only choice
I dunno, seems to me that all the cool kids are using laser interferometers
This would be a whole lot easier if you guys just admitted you got it wrong with the Imperial system, ate a bit of humble pie, and adopted the metric system like every other country ;-)
Tristan Thomas
Wheelworks Handcrafted Wheels
DT
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/
Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...
"the fun outweighs the suck, and the suck hasn't killed me yet." -- chasea
"Sometimes, as good as it feels to speak out, silence is the only way to rise above the morass. The high road is generally a quiet route." -- echelon_john
they tried to go with teaching conversions in schools. I have always thought that unit conversions are a fairly advanced topic, and totally uneccesary. What would work is to go out one day, change all the road signs and the next day everyone is metric. Happened with soda, they brought out a half gallon plastic bottle for a very short while and then went to a 2 liter bottle. Nobody batted an eye.
Engineering education in the U.S. is all SI units. May the deity save us from when there is nobody left that knows how to make the 30 year old all imperial unit nuclear plants work.
Well, actually, you did: it's 1609.344 metres in a standard imperial mile since the definition of the inch was changed to make it metric in 1959.
One inch is defined as exactly 25.4 mm, x 12 inches in a foot x 3 feet in a yard x 22 yards in a chain x 10 chains in a furlong x 8 furlongs in a mile comes to 1609344.
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