I’m on the record as genuinely preferring fractional inches to decimal units in the wood shop because it’s inherently a fractional task. 12 inches in a foot; keep dividing that by two and you get 6", 3", 1 1/2", 3/4", 3/8" and so on. 3/4" is the basic unit of woodworking. I have to divide by two and three quite a lot in the wood shop, so dividing 3/4" by three is 1/4" Easy.
Did this today: I had a 1 1/2" thick board, and had to cut a 1/2" groove down the center of that board. 1 1/2 divided by three is 1/2" so I chucked a 1/2" spiral bit in my router, set the fence 1/2" from the bit and the grooves are perfectly centered. Easy.
I’m not against the metric system, I learned chemistry and physics in metric, I own a set of metric wrenches. My measuring cups are graduated in fractional cups and milliliters, my kitchen scale measures in ounces, pounds and grams. But I build furniture in fractional inches and I learned to fly a plane in feet, pounds, gallons and nautical miles, and I’m damn good at both.
I’m on the record as genuinely preferring fractional inches to decimal units in the wood shop because it’s inherently a fractional task. 12 inches in a foot; keep dividing that by two and you get 6", 3", 1 1/2", 3/4", 3/8" and so on. 3/4" is the basic unit of woodworking. I have to divide by two and three quite a lot in the wood shop, so dividing 3/4" by three is 1/4" Easy.
Did this today: I had a 1 1/2" thick board, and had to cut a 1/2" groove down the center of that board. 1 1/2 divided by three is 1/2" so I chucked a 1/2" spiral bit in my router, set the fence 1/2" from the bit and the grooves are perfectly centered. Easy.
I’m not against the metric system, I learned chemistry and physics in metric, I own a set of metric wrenches. My measuring cups are graduated in fractional cups and milliliters, my kitchen scale measures in ounces, pounds and grams. But I build furniture in fractional inches and I learned to fly a plane in feet, pounds, gallons and nautical miles, and I’m damn good at both.