shagga

Why do plane kits from the US still use Inches?

This makes them non-standard from the rest of the world. I have a Funtana40 and the screws are non-standard. I will have great difficulty obtaining things like 6 32 screws etc. What is even more annoying is trying to find an imperial (non metric) sized hex wrench!!!

I know that US RC Heli manufacturers have started to standardise on metric thread sizes. So there is no need to keep with inches and feet.

Anyway just wanted to sound off a bit. This post will probably change nothing.

GotCoffee66

When I was in high school, early - mid 80's, we were told that the US is changing to metric. Still waiting...

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

The real question is, "Why don't YOU?"

Sure, go ahead, take the easy way out and side with all of the third world nations instead of staying on the side of your allies. Go ahead, go right on over to the Dark Side of the Force.

Why, without inches, we wouldn't have Inch Worms, and without feet, how could we walk?

Are you aware that COMMUNIST NATIONS use the METRIC SYSTEM???!!!

I say it's time to TAKE BACK AMERICA!

Let's face it, the only people here who use the metric system are drug users!

Maybe THAT's why all of those third world nations switched over... They're all stoned, and not thinking clearly!

REPENT! IT'S NOT TOO LATE!

Tell your nation's governments to switch back to the system that the world leaders use, lest you get left behind in this great global rat race!

Next thing you know, they'll sucker you into using Euros!

DISCLAIMER: This was only a joke, don't send me hate mail.

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

Actually, as recently as a year ago, I saw posts and letters to the magazine editors decrying the metric hardware that arrived in the US from afar, with ARFs. The standard being nonmetric here means that the hobby shops carry mainly nonmetric hardware. I never had a problem getting standard US hardware to work.

Since that's what's available, that's what we'll use. Was your hardware useable? I've heard no complaints about the Funtana hardware being inadequate here. Is your story different?

Best wishes,
Dave Olson

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Buy American and you will get 'inches'....personally I prefer metric because it is so much more simplier!

Jerry

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

Really? I fail to find a distinction between them. For design purposes, there is no difference. Threading hardware, for manufacture, is available for both in the US, and both are available, although some localities offer less of one or the other.

What's simpler about metric?

And did you read the thread a few months ago from the guy who had an Italian item with a metric thread he could not obtain (I forget if it was a 7mm item, or an M 0.7 thread, but he could not obtain it, and I couldn't find it on the Web.)

Anyway, good luck,
Dave Olson

GotCoffee66

MinnFlyer
You forgot about without yard sticks, we wouldn't have yards to bash our nitro cars in or stock yard to receive all our cool building stuff.

SST

My Feedback: (2)

If you like American-made stuff, learn to deal with it. If not, buy the Vietnamese stuff with the metric hardware that is, by the way, junk, just like any other maufacturer-supplied hardware. Shoot, the first thing I do is pitch the hardware.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

The metric system was designed so that even idiots can understand it.

That's all we need, more idiots becoming engineers!

I say keep it HARD to understand, and leave the idiots stocking grocery shelves.

DISCLAIMER: I am still only kidding, if you're employed as a grocery shelf stocker and you're not an idiot, get a better job already!

GotCoffee66

But I like stocking shelves, no responsibility, nobody calling you saying I can't make it to work today and trying to find someone to fill the spot...

bigchap

slightly off topic i know but i used to be a motorcycle mechanic and spent a lot of money on a very comprehensive snap-on toolkit,what used to happen when a harley came in to the shop?lots of head scratching converting imperial to metric and trying to find sockets and spanners to fit,that's what!i for one would love it if our government had given europe the bird and stuck to a system we devised but they are not as strong and patriotic as your guys,that's my rant for today!back to the vodka now,happy new year.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Give them an inch and they take a meter !!!

Because we are a backward nation with more money than brains !!!

We should have an exchange program where we can swap all of the kit hardware we don't use for all the kit hardware that you don't use. And since there are 2.54 cm per inch, I propose that the exchange rate be based on that.

Happy New Year !!!

SST

My Feedback: (2)

Don't get me started on motorcycle tools! What about those wonderful Wentworth tools that were required to work on our English cars and bikes before the switch to SAE (not imperial) sizes...Followed a few years later by your conversion to metrics. I work for GM and I remember their 'conversion' in the mid seventies when, for example, we 'switched' from 1/2" sockets for body bolt wrenches to 12.7mm wrenches

ballgunner

My Feedback: (1)

If you plan to work on your car here in the States you need two sets of sockets and wrenchs, one SAE and one metric. That applies to cars of foreign or domestic manufacture. I only wish they'd settle on one or the other.

Daryl_y

Shagga

You've got it backwards if you were living in the colonies the Imperial system is standard and the other one is just well Metric. I wouldn't complain to hard wasn't you guys that thought of that "non standard system" in the first place.

People here in the US use the Metric system quite a bit I program CNC machines for a small defense contractor and on many of the product that is shipped overseas the prints use the Metric system although we usually convert the dimensions and tolerances over to inches before we manufacture it . The Imperial system would be just as good as the Metric system if they would scrap the fractional sizes and just go too decimal inches why we have not done that I have no idea.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

The reason for that is simple Daryl (I used to be a CNC Programmer too). Decimals are numeric representations of fractions, In the metric system, the smallest unit before going to decimal is 1mm which is very small, so when fractioning it, you rarely need to split it into more than 8ths (.125mm)

But our smallest dimension is an inch, so we have to split it into many more pieces. Now, you can say "Just split it into 10ths and 100ths, The problem with that is that 10ths and 100ths are not fractions of an inch. So 1/8 inch will still be .125. Half of that will still be .0625 half of that will still be .03125, and so on