FWW going downhill

Seriously

HC Sakman

>Adrian,

This was my way of converting myself from cm~to~inches. Especially if you want to built something out of a plan that is drawn in imperial scale, your best bet would be the purchase of an imperial tape measure. Drill and router bit sizes and others will follow. You don't have to re-tool your shop, just the fundemental stuff that makes your life easy.

Good luck.

Constant conversion may lead you to insanity. ;-)

Chico...

PS: As I finished writing, this worked for me but I just remembered that I'm surrounded my imperial tooling, it's vice-versa for you. Perhaps converting everything in an imperial drawing and rounding all numbers to the nearest millimeter you'd be better off as far as staying sane! ;-)

BINGO!

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>

Re: A newbie's challenge (very long pseudo-rant)

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>Adrian you made yourself perfectly clear. I envy you for beer you are enjoying! Please post often as the woodworking information from other nations is quite refreshing.JR

Absolutely right, Joe

Wiley Horne--Glendora CA

>I very much appreciate Adrian's contribution, including his initial comments on the metric and Imperial measuring systems. This is very refreshing! And while Ulmia had to reorganize, other German handtool companies are doing well and are extremely highly regarded. I am thinking of ECE, Two Cherries, Bessey, and Klingspor to name just four. And of course, German machines and tooling are legendary.

Wiley

Story sticks and not measuring

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I've touched the edge of a principle that I regularly hear (well, read) from the masters: why measure?

In the U.S., apparently, a lot of kitchen contractors and others use a "story stick," an ancient concept of holding all the critical measurements on a stick, and never actually measuring. No "71-13/16 inches," or 1 meter, 97 mm" - just check against the marks.

Perhaps converting some of the designs in American magazines could be done more easily by creating a story stick for the piece in question - do all the conversions at once in the piece and quiet of your living room, then transfer to a story stick.

Conversion

Bob Hackett

>I worked with a Danish yacht designer for awhile.His ego would not allow him to convert his drawings from metric to imperial.He suggested many ways to bring us around to his way of thinking,a metric tape measure was one of them.

My answer was to buy a calculator.Most midrange scientific calculators have a conversion key,or a key that can be programmed to do the conversion.

What finally brought Ulf around was when he saw how much it was going to cost to import metric steel,pipe,cable,etc.The local suppliers didn`t carry anything other than metric fasteners.

When in Rome...

Mainely,Bob

Re: Story sticks and not measuring

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>I rarely use anything but, and for all size and manner of projects. I might start with an initial constraint in inches or cm (I flow between both rather freely but don't mix the two on the same project), but everything afterwards gets 'the stick', which I learned years before taking up woodworking when I was a hand bookbinder/restorer. I also have lots of dividers that get set and labeled as I go along. Rarely do I look to see what linear units I'm working with unless someone asks.

Re: Absolutely right, Joe

Adrian, Bavaria, Germany

>Dear Wiley,

thank you for beeing so friendly. My English is not as good as I would wish, so I have to struggle a little bit with what I want to say.

I think ECE and the others you mentioned are still alive because of their success in Amerika. If it was for the market in Europe they would be closed long ago. On the other hand, it is interesting that KUNZ is on a new beginning in the former DDR. That is daring. They are going for the low to middle price market, and I wonder if they can get a food on the ground there.

German machines are great. Full stop. My saw is an ULMIA 1610. This machine is almost 50 years old (1958) and still in perfect condition and accurate. But on the hand tool side, I think, there is more new and better stuff on the other side of the atlantic.

Years ago I was in Ulm to visit the ULMIA factory. They didnt let me in, so I sneaked around the whole block to see as much of it as possible. The building was huge and grey, steam comming out of a dozen holes. It was an old building, obviosly the american bombers hadnt got it, though I learned they took good care on the rest of this city too.

Then, 3 years later, I was invited the visit the new ULMIA. I was badly disappointed. Standart industrial building out of the city. Until I came inside: there were all old machinists machines. And there was a man who tested the "Gehrungss�gen" (mitre saws). He had to open the already packed saw. Put it together. Tested if everything went smoothly. Then he took a piece of wood and made three cuts 45�, 90� and the other 45�. He did that and nothing else. Another man tested every single square. Small wonder they went bankrupt.

I am sorry for writing so long. Dont know if it is of anybodys interest. It�s past midnight over here and I should be in a kind of working condition tomorrow.

Adrian (off for a last beer now)