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Silly Picture Thread.


Phil Perry

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England was/is going to revert to imperial. Some manufacturers do their. own  just to make things more difficult. Most stuff is made so it can't be repaired, which is another story. To say going metric is Un American is drawing a long bow. If you were half intelligent the overriding consideration would be marketing and cost issues.  Once you've converted to Metric it's a  bit weird to go back to the Imperial system. In machinery restoration I always stick to whatever it had when made.  Thread fit is often poor creating a low strength set up from the start and too coarse is hard to stop coming loose. The OLD whitworth is a coarse thread in some sizes more coarse than  the SAE/AF  UNC which is close in most sizes.. There is UNF and even UNFF.   The American system is quite good and I like the AN system in aircraft. Nev

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The idea was floated by BoJo as a gesture of "taking back control" and "Britain being soveriegn again", around the time he was copping a caning in the press for screwing up the Northern Island Brexit protocol as well as other spectacular own goals. Of course, the conservative press being the Daily Mail and the ilk, were lapping it up. I don't think it is even mentioned now - hasn't been raised as far as I can tell from the arduous leadership campaign for a new leader while the country is effectively rudderless.

 

In any casee, it is more about selling things - an EU directive came out, not making it illegal to sell things in imperial measurements, but making it a legal requirement to sell things is metric untis of measure. Many retailers sold things in both - allowing the consumer to determine which one they wanted to use, But people got used to metric (it is easier) and only really those of my age or older would probably really hark back to imperial units of measure. When I arrived here in late '96, I went into a butcher and asked for 2 x 150g Scotch Fillet steak. First question shot back to me was, "What's wrong with English Fillet?" "OK.. I have just come off the boat from Australia - we call that cut Scotch Fillet.. I am very happy with English Fillet"

 

The next question was, "what 's 150g in ounces?" "Gee, I don't know.. Ounces were chucked out of Australia before I was born". That stumped him...

 

I don't think manufacturers care either way. I can't see them making imperial boolts for example, except for legacy applications - they wouldn't sell here or overseas. If they did, they may was well revive the Leyland P76 (Yes, I know it was manufactured in Aus.. just an illiterative jibe at industry here should they do it).

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Plenty of retailers, including consumer retailers such as Bunnings, still sell bolts in imperial (inch) sizes. I just picked up some 3/8" x 1-1/2" Whitworth bolts from Bunnings for a 1952 machine I'm repairing.

But they're only available in zinc-plated mild steel - if you want galvanised bolts, they come in metric only. You can get plenty of high tensile bolts in metric, UNF and UNC. 

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