Paul W. Abrahams wrote:
On Sunday 30 April 2006 3:46 pm, Carlos E. R. wrote: Actually, nuts and bolts in general are the most obvious manifestation of
On Monday, May 01, 2006 @ 5:50 PM, Lew Wolfgang wrote: the
problem. You can get around some incompatibilities by having two sets of
wrenches, but that doesn't help if you need to attach a metric nut to an English bolt.
Actually, the problem is all-pervasive. For example, I'm working on a bedroom/bathroom renovation that required my visiting the local hardware store (Home Depot) for some parts. I purchased some ABS plastic pipe fittings (3 and 1.5 inches), some plywood (5/8-inches thick) and some sheetrock (wallboard) (4 x 8 feet x 1/2-inch). All of these various parts had to match existing structure, including the sheetrock which goes on studs spaced every 16-inches.
Considering that every house, every building and every shed in the US is built out of components sized on the English system, how in the world can you convert to metric? Dual inventory in stores until every building is replaced? Never happen.
Regards, Lew Wolfgang
The sizes wouldn't change, they'd just be expressed in metric units. In some cases, the equivalent English size would be displayed also, for some period of time. Greg Wallace